Florida

Editor’s note: The following story contains crime scene photos some may consider graphic. Viewer discretion is advised. 

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla.—A Eustis man will spend the rest of his life behind bars after being convicted earlier this month in the brutal cold case murder of a gas station manager in 1996.

Terence “Terry” Paquette was 31 years old when he was stabbed 73 times and found dead in the bathroom of Lil’ Champ, 4510 Clarcona Ocoee Road, Orlando in northwest Orange County on Feb. 3, 1996. The store is now a Kwik Stop.

“It was a horrific crime scene with blood everywhere,” according to the Orange County Sheriff’s Office.

Paquette was found by OCSO deputies after receiving a call that the store was dark, and the doors were locked. Another employee stopped by the store when he saw deputies and let them inside with his key. Upon searching the store, Paquette was found dead, and his autopsy revealed he died from multiple penetrating wounds to his heart, lungs, head, chest and abdomen. He suffered a total of 73 stab wounds, an arrest affidavit states.

In November 2021, a quarter century after the murder, Eustis resident Kenneth Stough, now 56, was linked to the crime through genetic genealogy.

“This is the first time a homicide case has been solved using genetic genealogy at the Orange County Sheriff’s Office,” OCSO said.

Crime scene investigators located blood in several parts of the store other than the bathroom, and the pattern indicated the suspect injured himself during the attack and walked around the store. Paquette’s keys were not located in the store and still have never been found; money was also missing from the safe. Several blood samples were sent to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) for analysis, and it was determined that blood from a beverage freezer handle, a freezer flap, lottery machine, the key cylinder from the exterior door and a push bar from a door all came from the same individual and it was not Paquette.

On Sept. 29. 1997, the case was closed “pending further investigative leads.” In 2003, the case was reopened, and no suspects were identified. In 2019, OCSO Detective Brian Savelli began reviewing the case. In March 2021, FDLE contracted with an outside lab to obtain a sample for forensic genetic genealogy and the data was uploaded to genealogy databases. It was determined the sample belonged to one of three brothers.

Savelli determined Stough had previously worked at the store, lived just two blocks from Paquette at the time of the murder and they were only three years apart in age. Stough was 28 at the time of the murder.

On Aug. 25, 2021, Lake County Circuit Judge Heidi Davis signed a GPS order for Stough’s 2007 black Chevrolet Equinox. On Sept. 14, 2021, OCSO began following Stough and followed him to a convenience store in Eustis. After making two trips into the store, Stough backed the Equinox next to a public dumpster and placed a grey plastic bag in the dumpster that appeared to be filled with beer cans.

The detective secured the dumpster and removed the grey plastic bag that had seven 16-ounce Budweiser beer cans. The cans were submitted to FDLE, and a sample was obtained from one of the cans. The sample matched the DNA from the beverage freezer handle from the 1996 murder.

“The DNA on the item that he had matched the DNA to the crime scene,” Savelli said.

Stough was arrested Nov. 1, 2021, for first-degree murder and armed robbery and held in the Orange Jail on bond. He stood trial earlier this month and was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

Previous story: Beer Can Helps Nab Eustis Man For ’96 Cold Case Murder – Inside Lake