Broward woman’s killer will soon be executed. Will he reveal where her body is?
It has been 44 years since 18-year-old Patricia “Patty” Gifford was raped and murdered after a New Year’s celebration in Broward County.
Her killer was convicted, and on Tuesday, the state will carry out his death sentence. But Gifford’s family still doesn’t know where Dennis Sochor, now 74, placed Gifford’s body when he tried to conceal the evidence of the depraved crime.
That has stayed with lead prosecutor Kelly Hancock decades later.
“I do not remember all the facts. But I do remember the victims, and the victims’ families,” Hancock told the Miami Herald. “... He just dumped her out there like trash. That makes it worse.”
In 1987, jurors convicted Sochor of the kidnapping, rape and first-degree murder of Gifford, who had moved to Fort Lauderdale from Massachusetts months before she was killed. In a 10-2 vote, the jury recommended that Sochor be executed.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Sochor’s death warrant on June 10.
On New Year's Day 1982, Sochor, a swimming-pool cleaner, befriended Gifford at the then-Banana Boat lounge, located at 2650 State Road 84 near Hollywood. He helped Gifford move her ill friend into her car to rest, and Gifford ultimately got in Sochor’s car, according to the Miami Herald’s archives.
Gifford, an aerobics instructor, went to the bar with a coworker for a girls’ night out, according to the South Florida Sun Sentinel. Her high-school sweetheart, a chef with whom Gifford had relocated to Fort Lauderdale, was working a holiday dinner shift that day.
She was never seen again because, prosecutors say, Sochor raped and killed Gifford at the side of a deserted road.
Hancock, who left the Broward State Attorney’s Office in 1989, said he’s attending Sochor’s execution at the Florida State Prison in Raiford because he wanted Gifford’s family to know that he still cares — and that he hasn’t forgotten about her.
Sochor, Hancock said, destroyed Gifford’s family and robbed Gifford of the opportunity to live a life. He pointed out how Gifford would have been 62 this year and would’ve likely been bracing herself for retirement and grandchildren.
“Life is so precious ...,” Hancock said. “And if someone takes that precious gift from someone in such a violent and vicious matter, they forfeit [it]. We will never know what [Gifford] would have accomplished, achieved in her life because of what he chose to do.”
When he was a prosecutor, Hancock said he handled approximately 70 first-degree murder cases; at least 12 of those ended with defendants on Death Row. While not a steadfast proponent of the death penalty, Hancock said he believes Sochor earned his sentence.
“I’m sure when I walk away and leave from there, I’ll have no regret and no sympathy [for him],” Hancock predicted. “Dennis decided what he was going to do.”
‘No question as to his guilt’
During Sochor’s trial, prosecutors presented evidence tying Sochor to Gifford’s disappearance and murder:
They showed jurors a photo of Gifford celebrating New Year’s Eve at the then-Banana Boat lounge, according to the archives. Gifford was holding a glass of iced tea, with Sochor looking over her shoulder.
The jury also heard Sochor, in a taped confession, admit that he pursued Gifford, lured her into his truck and drove her to a remote construction site, where he sexually assaulted Gifford, beat her and strangled her.
Sochor’s brother, Gary Sochor, testified that he was with Sochor when he invited Gifford to hop into his truck, pulled over and dragged Gifford to the ground, according to the archives. Gary Sochor said he didn’t help Gifford because he was drunk and scared of Sochor. Gary Sochor was never charged with a crime.
“His pupils would roll back in his head and all I’d see was white,” Gary Sochor testified, according to the Herald’s archives. “He spoke in a deep voice that wasn’t his. He looked to be possessed. I always thought it was the devil.”
Gary Sochor, who lived in Michigan, said he never saw what happened to Gifford’s body and couldn’t show detectives where the murder took place because he was unfamiliar with the area.
“There’s no question as to his guilt,” Hancock said. “Dennis Sochor did it.”
Sochor fled Florida after the murder and remained on the run until a traffic stop in Georgia four-and-a-half years later.
At the time of Gifford’s murder, Sochor had been convicted twice for sexual assaults. However, he had changed his name, which allowed him to remain free on probation. Hancock said he believes Sochor killed Gifford to eliminate her as a witness — because he knew he would go to prison for life if he got caught.
“He had no pity on Patty, and we have no pity on him,” Gifford’s mother, Barbara Ryan, told the Herald after Sochor’s trial in 1987.
Hancock echoed those sentiments — and said he hopes Gifford’s murder haunts Sochor during his final moments:
“I hope when he takes his last breath, he thinks of her taking her last breath.”
This story was supplemented with information from the Miami Herald’s archives.
