Man who killed college student and raped sister in forest shares pizza and M&Ms with son before execution

The state of Florida has executed a man who murdered a college freshman and raped his older sister in 1994.

Loran Cole, 57, was given a lethal injection Thursday at 6 p.m. for the 30-year-old offense. Beforehand, he was joined by his son Ryan and a pen pal for a final meal of pizza, ice cream and M&Ms. For drinks, he opted for soda, officials overseeing the event said.

Cole was convicted in 1995 of murdering John Edwards, 18, and Pam Edwards, 21, in the Ocala National Forest in February 1994. The pair were camping at the time when Cole and an accomplice beat John and slit his throat.

As he lay dying, Cole raped his sister, before raping her again the next morning. After being tied up, she managed to free herself and flag down a driver.

Afterward, Cole, then 27, and his friend, 20-year-old William Paul, were both convicted of first-degree murder. Cole was sentenced to death and two life terms. Paul, 50, was sentenced to life and remains in Cross City Correctional.

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Cole, who claimed being put to death would cause “unnecessary pain and suffering” because he already suffered from Parkinson’s disease, was pronounced dead at 6:15 p.m., officials said.

He died in Florida State Prison after the Supreme Court denied a last-minute request to halt the proceedings after three appeals and toss out additional motions.

His lawyers argued that his symptoms would make it “impossible” to carry out his execution humanely. Legal experts wrote that “his involuntary body movements would interfere with the placement of the intravenous lines needed to perform” the procedure.

Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody responded by saying Cole waited too long to raise the issue, noting that the concerns only came to light in recent weeks.

She also noted that Florida uses restraints during lethal injection to impede an inmate’s freedom of movement. She called claims that his symptoms would make it difficult for executioners to inject the drugs “both speculative and legally flawed.”

The attorney general also rejected requests for clemency related to his time at the Dozier School for Boys, a boarding school where the defendant suffered “torture” as a teenager.

Lawyers previously argued that his sentence should be reduced because such abuses contributed to his depraved behavior.

As a precedent, they pointed to a Florida law that was passed to compensate victims of the school, saying it was evidence that the state had already taken some responsibility.

The conclusion was that the jurors might have judged differently if they had been aware of his experiences at the school in 2011, after 111 years of service.

Over the years, researchers have found the remains of dozens of former students here, confirming rumors of abuse, mistreatment, rape, torture and even murder by staff that have been going on for decades.

Despite several investigations, the allegations of cruelty and abuse were not confirmed until now, nearly twenty years after the crime in question and even longer since Cole attended the school.

The murder took place in the Ocala National Forest north of Orlando, where Cole and Paul befriended the two college students while sitting around a campfire.

After talking for a while, the men offered to take the siblings to a pond, police said.

After leading the victims away from the campsite, Cole and Paul jumped them and robbed them, detectives learned.

The brother, who was a student at Florida State University, was beaten, his throat was cut and he was left in the woods to bleed to death.

According to records, the sister, then a 21-year-old student at Eckerd College, was returned to the location where she was tied up and raped by Cole.

The woman was tied to a tree all night and raped again by Cole the next day. She eventually managed to free herself and was rescued by a passing motorist,

Police would then find her brother’s mutilated body, face down on the ground.

Paul and Cole were both arrested and convicted of first-degree murder in the days that followed.

Appeals in 1996, 2000 and 2003 delayed the execution of his murder sentence, which came on top of two life sentences for rape. Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Cole’s death warrant last month.

As the proceedings began, the convicted murderer is said to have looked at the witnesses in the front row, who had gathered to watch justice being carried out.

After three minutes he began to take deep breaths and for a brief moment his body trembled. Five minutes later the guard shook him and called his name. At that point he seemed unresponsive – he was not breathing. He was then pronounced dead.

The victims’ parents were not there, and neither was Pam, who has since become a wife, teacher and professor.

“Although invisible to others, our daughter carries internal scars that will never go away. She has battled fear, pain and grief for years,” the family said in a statement. “She is our hero.”

It added: “We no longer have feelings or empathy for Mr. Cole. He has placed himself in this arena. He deserves no mercy.”