Florida killer executed after apologizing to victim’s family

A murderer executed Thursday for killing a teenage girl almost 30 years ago apologized to her family before he died.

“I would like to say to Mr. and Mrs. Elliott that I am truly sorry for my part in the death of your daughter,” David Alan Gore said before receiving a lethal injection, according to an email from Florida Department of Corrections spokeswoman Jo Ellyn Rackleff.

“I wish above all else my death could bring her back … I am not the same man today that I was 28 years ago.”

Gore, 58, admitted he killed two women and four girls in the 1980s in the eastern Florida town of Vero Beach. He received the death sentence for killing 17-year-old Lynn Elliott and was serving five life sentences for the other slayings, the Florida Department of Corrections said on its website. He received the lethal injections at 6 p.m. Eastern time, and his time of death was listed as 6:19 p.m.

Elliot’s family was present at Gore’s execution, according to a witness list released by the Department of Corrections.

On July 26, 1983, Gore and his cousin, Fred Waterfield, picked up Elliott and her 14-year-old friend, who were hitchhiking. The men took them at gunpoint to Gore’s parents’ house. Waterfield left and Gore raped the girls, who were bound in separate rooms. Waterfield is serving two life terms.

Elliott managed to free her legs and ran naked from the house, hands still tied behind her back. Gore, also naked, chased her, dragged her back toward the house as she kicked and screamed, then shot her twice in the head.

A boy witnessed the killing and called police, who arrested Gore and rescued the other girl.

Gore’s last meal was fried chicken, French fries, a soda and butter pecan ice cream.

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