Duane Owen | |
---|---|
![]() Owen in a 1984 police mugshot | |
Born | Duane Eugene Owen February 13, 1961 [1] |
Died | June 15, 2023 62) | (aged
Cause of death | Execution by lethal injection |
Criminal status | Executed |
Conviction(s) | |
Criminal penalty | Murders Death (x2) Other charges Life imprisonment (x3) |
Details | |
Victims | 2 |
Date | March 24, 1984 May 29, 1984 |
Country | United States |
State(s) | Florida |
Location(s) | Boca Raton, Florida Delray Beach, Florida |
Date apprehended | May 30, 1984 |
Duane Eugene Owen (February 13, 1961 – June 15, 2023) was an American convicted murderer who raped and killed Karen Slattery and Georgianna Worden in Delray Beach and Boca Raton, Florida, in 1984. Owen was sentenced to death for the murders and was executed in 2023. [2]
On March 24, 1984, Owen stabbed to death and raped 14-year-old Karen Slattery in Delray Beach. [3] Two months later, on May 29, he raped and beat to death 38-year-old Georgianna Worden in Boca Raton. [3] Owen was arrested the day after Worden's murder on a burglary charge. [4] He confessed to the murders of Slattery and Worden after his arrest. [3]
Owen was sentenced to death for the murders twice in two separate trials. [5] Additionally, he received three life sentences for other violent crimes. [6] Owen was executed by lethal injection for the murder of Worden on June 15, 2023. [7] [8]
Boca Raton is a city in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. The population was 97,422 in the 2020 census and it ranked as the 23rd-largest city in Florida in 2022. However, many people with a Boca Raton postal address live outside of municipal boundaries, such as in West Boca Raton. As a business center, the city also experiences significant daytime population increases. Boca Raton is 45 miles (72 km) north of Miami and is a principal city of the Miami metropolitan area, which had a population of 6,138,333 at the 2020 United States census.
Palm Beach County is a county in the southeastern part of Florida, located in the Miami metropolitan area. It is Florida's third-most populous county after Miami-Dade County and Broward County and the 26th-most populous in the United States, with 1,492,191 residents as of the 2020 census. Its county seat and largest city is West Palm Beach, which had a population of 117,415 as of 2020. Named after one of its oldest settlements, Palm Beach, the county was established in 1909, after being split from Miami-Dade County. The county's modern-day boundaries were established in 1963.
Boynton Beach is a city in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. It is situated about 57 miles (92 km) north of Miami. The 2020 census recorded a population of 80,380. Boynton Beach is located in the Miami metropolitan area, which was home to 6,138,333 people at the 2020 census. The city is named after Nathan Boynton, a Civil War major and Michigan politician who became one of the first settlers in the area in 1895. Boynton Beach is located north of Delray Beach, south of Hypoluxo and Lantana, and east of Golf, while the municipalities of Briny Breezes, Gulf Stream, Manalapan, and Ocean Ridge are situated to the east across the Intracoastal Waterway.
The Miami metropolitan area is a coastal metropolitan area in southeastern Florida. It is the ninth-largest metropolitan statistical area (MSA) in the United States, the fifth-largest metropolitan area in the Southern United States, and the largest metropolitan area in Florida. It is also known as South Florida, SoFlo, SoFla, the Gold Coast, Southeast Florida, the Tri-County Area, or Greater Miami, and officially as the Miami–Fort Lauderdale–West Palm Beach Metropolitan Statistical Area. With a population of 6.18 million, its population exceeds 31 of the nation's 50 states as of 2023. It comprises the three most populated counties in the state, Miami-Dade County, Broward County, and Palm Beach County, which rank as the first, second, and third-most populous counties in the state, respectively. Miami-Dade County, with 2,701,767 people in 2020, is the seventh-most populous county in the United States.
Florida State Prison (FSP), otherwise known as Raiford Prison, is a correctional institution located in unincorporated Bradford County, Florida, with a Raiford postal address. It was formerly known as the "Florida State Prison-East Unit" as it was originally part of Florida State Prison near Raiford. The facility, a part of the Florida Department of Corrections, is located on State Road 16 right across the border from Union County. The institution opened in 1961, even though construction was not completed until 1968. With a maximum population of over 1,400 inmates, FSP is one of the largest prisons in the state. FSP houses Florida's one of two male death row cell blocks and the State of Florida execution chamber. Union Correctional Institution also houses male death row inmates while Lowell Annex houses female death row inmates.
The Great Miami Hurricane of 1926 was a large and intense tropical cyclone that devastated the Greater Miami area of Florida and caused catastrophic damage in the Bahamas and the U.S. Gulf Coast in September 1926, accruing a US$100 million damage toll. The devastation wrought by the hurricane resulted in the end of Florida's land boom, and represented an early start to the Great Depression in the state. It has been estimated that a similar hurricane would cause about $235 billion in damage if it were to hit Miami in 2018.
Sukeji "George" Morikami was a Japanese immigrant to the United States who farmed in Palm Beach County, Florida, for more than 65 years. He donated his 200 acres of farm land to Palm Beach County in 1973.
Spanish River Community High School is a public high school in Boca Raton, Florida, USA. It is part of the School District of Palm Beach County and serves the cities of Boca Raton and Delray Beach.
WXEL-TV is a PBS member television station licensed to Boynton Beach, Florida, United States, serving the West Palm Beach area. Owned by South Florida PBS, it is a sister station to Miami-based flagship and fellow PBS member WPBT and low-power station WURH-LD. The three stations share transmitter facilities on Northwest 199th Street in Andover; WXEL's studios are located on South Congress Avenue in Boynton Beach. WXEL, WPBT, and WURH-LD are also broadcast by a translator in Fort Pierce.
Florida's 22nd congressional district is a U.S. congressional district in Southeast Florida. In the 2020 redistricting cycle, it was drawn as a successor to the previous 21st district and includes Palm Beach, West Palm Beach, Boynton Beach and Delray Beach, as well as unincorporated Palm Beach County. The previous iteration of the 22nd district, which extended from Fort Lauderdale to Boca Raton, was instead renamed the 23rd district.
Palm Tran is the public transit bus system run by the Palm Beach County Government, serving Palm Beach County, Florida. In 2023, the system had a ridership of 8,612,200, or about 29,700 per weekday as of the third quarter of 2024. Palm Tran also serves a portion of Broward County, Florida where it overlaps with Broward County Transit. Palm Tran has four main facilities with its main headquarters in West Palm Beach on Electronics Way. The current executive director is Clinton B. Forbes.
The Boca Raton News, owned by the South Florida Media Company, was the local community newspaper of Boca Raton, Florida. The paper began publication December 2, 1955, with a startup circulation of 1200, published by Robert and Lora Britt, and edited by Margert Olsson. Initially a weekly publication, it later began daily operation.
The Virginia Slims of Florida is a defunct WTA Tour affiliated tennis tournament played from 1984 to 1995 in various locations in Florida in the United States. It was held at the Frenchman's Creek Beach & Country Club in Palm Beach Gardens in 1984, at Crandon Park in Key Biscayne from 1985 to 1986, at the Polo Club in Boca Raton from 1987 to 1992, and at the Delray Beach Tennis Center in Delray Beach from 1993 to 1995. The tournament was played on outdoor clay courts in 1984 and on outdoor hard courts from 1985 to 1995.
Delray Beach is a city in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. The population of Delray Beach as of April 1, 2020, was 66,846 according to the 2020 United States Census. Located in the Miami metropolitan area, Delray Beach is 52 miles north of Miami.
Subtropical Storm Four brushed Florida and The Bahamas in October 1974. The eighteenth cyclone and fourth subtropical storm of the 1974 Atlantic hurricane season, the storm developed near eastern Cuba on October 4 from an area of disturbed weather. Shortly before striking Andros Island on October 6, the system strengthened into a subtropical storm. The storm made its closest approach to Florida early on October 7. Peaking with sustained winds of 50 mph (85 km/h), the system veered northward and then northeastward, but nonetheless caused heavy rainfall and coastal flooding on land in Florida. While paralleling offshore North Carolina and South Carolina, the storm began to slowly weaken. By late on October 8, the subtropical cyclone merged with a cold front while well east of Cape Hatteras.
The Boca Raton Bowl is an annual National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) sanctioned post-season Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) college football bowl game played in Boca Raton, Florida, since December 2014 on the campus of Florida Atlantic University (FAU) at FAU Stadium. Winners of the game received the Howard Schnellenberger championship trophy, named for the football head coach at FAU from 2001 to 2011.
The Village Beat is the second African-American newspaper in Palm Beach County, Florida, but the first African-American newspaper to cover news county-wide.
Palm Beach County is a county in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Florida. Its history dates back to about 12,000 years ago, shortly after when Native Americans migrated into Florida. Juan Ponce de León became the first European in the area, landing at the Jupiter Inlet in 1513. Diseases from Europe, enslavement, and warfare significantly diminished the indigenous population of Florida over the next few centuries. During the Second Seminole War, the Battles of the Loxahatchee occurred west of modern-day Jupiter in 1838. The Jupiter Lighthouse, the county's oldest surviving structure, was completed in 1860. The first homestead claims were filed around Lake Worth in 1873. The county's first hotel, schoolhouse, and railway, the Celestial Railroad, began operating in the 1880s, while the first settlers of modern-day Lake Worth Beach arrived in 1885. During the 1890s, Henry Flagler and his workers constructed the Royal Poinciana Hotel and The Breakers in Palm Beach and extended the Florida East Coast Railway southward to the area. They also developed a separate city for hotel workers, which in 1894 became West Palm Beach, the county's oldest incorporated municipality. Major Nathan Boynton, Congressman William S. Linton, and railroad surveyor Thomas Rickards also arrived in the 1890s and developed communities that became Boynton Beach, Delray Beach, and Boca Raton, respectively.
Delivery Dudes was a Florida-based on-demand delivery service founded in 2009. The company delivered restaurant food, groceries, and prescriptions. It was acquired by Louisiana food delivery company Waitr in 2021. In its consolidation, the company changed its name to ASAP.