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Family, Police Hope To Heat Up Tampa Cold-Case Homicide

Tribune photo by MIKE WELLS

Debra Allen, 51, looks over fliers she is distributing about the brutal stabbing death of her brother, Stephen Edenfield, 41, who was killed in their Tampa condo complex on Feb. 1, 1997.

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By MIKE WELLS | The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 30, 2008

TAMPA - Whoever killed Stephen Edenfield in his bedroom more than a decade ago left behind a single fingerprint.

It's the only definitive clue to the killer's identity, but it hasn't yielded a name, and all other leads have grown cold, Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office Detective Chris Fox said.

Edenfield's death on Feb. 1, 1997, haunts his family.

"That was the moment our lives changed," his sister, Debra Allen, said on Tuesday.

Allen, 51, and her other brother, Jim Edenfield, 55, plan to distribute fliers on the case, hoping someone will come forward with new information.

Crime Stoppers of Tampa Bay will issue an alert on Thursday to remind the public of the case, said sheriff's Detective Lisa Haber, who coordinates the program.

"A lot of times, we do this when we have an anniversary of a homicide," Haber said. "It's important to know that this case is still unsolved and there is a family waiting for information."

"You think about it all the time," Jim Edenfield said. "The longer it goes by, the less you feel it will get solved.

The sheriff's office is holding back key details – facts only the killer would know – in the hope that one day an arrest can be made, Fox said.

A Private Man

Stephen Edenfield was gay and his family knew it.

He came out 20 years before his death. Allen found out when she went with friends to watch a drag performance at the old El Goya nightclub on Seventh Avenue and saw her brother at the bar watching the show, she said.

They shared a laugh, and it was never a problem between them, she said. He came out to the rest of the family a couple years later.

However, as honest as he was about his orientation, Edenfield never introduced his family to close friends or to men he dated, they said.

His need for privacy hindered the investigation into his death, the sheriff's office said. First names and generic descriptions were the only things family could tell detectives about his friends.

Edenfield worked for 18 years for GTE in customer service and cared for his elderly mother during his off time. Allen said he was a caring person who helped her conquer substance abuse and was a leader in the family, Allen said.

On the night before his death, Edenfield ate dinner with his family to celebrate the release of their mother from the hospital, where she was treated for a stroke. He left Allen's apartment at 9:30 p.m.

The next morning, while the city was celebrating the Gasparilla parade, Edenfield had not shown up at his mother's apartment as expected. The entire family lived in different apartments in the Racquet Club condo complex, 5820 N. Church Ave.

His phone line kept buzzing as a busy signal, Allen said.

Jim Edenfield went to see whether their brother had overslept. He knocked loudly before trying the doorknob, he said. The door wasn't locked, and the television was blaring. He saw a statue on the floor but thought nothing of it at the time.

Getting no answer, he walked to the bedroom.

"I thought he was sleeping," Jim Edenfield said. "I pulled the blanket back, and he just looked like a ball of red. Then I looked down and saw that I was standing in a pool of blood that had rolled off the bed onto the floor."

After the sheriff's office processed the crime scene, the family cleaned the apartment.

"I think I itched for three weeks from all that fingerprint dust," Jim Edenfield said.

An autopsy showed no alcohol or drugs were in his brother's system at the time of his death, he said.

Mystery Car

Detectives said Stephen Edenfield last was seen about midnight, driving through the gate of the complex, where he'd lived for five years. A guard at the gate saw him being followed by a man driving a dark car but did not write down a plate number.

Edenfield was more than 6 feet tall and weighed about 250 pounds. His family said his injuries showed he put up a fight.

The attacker him on the head with a small statue and then repeatedly stabbed him with a large butcher knife from the kitchen.

Neighbors heard a struggle coming from Edenfield's apartment about 1 a.m. A half hour later, another witness saw someone get in the car that followed Edenfield into the parking lot.

Detectives found the knife in the apartment and collected it along with the statue. No evidence was found to indicate sexual contact had occurred, Fox said.

The number of stab wounds indicates the killer was furious, he said.

A small amount of dried blood was found in the stairwell outside Edenfield's condo, Fox said. It wasn't his, but investigators don't know whether it belongs to the killer.

Fox is the sheriff's lone cold case unit detective and is charged with reviewing the evidence of more than 165 unsolved homicides. A year ago, he began receiving part-time help from an agent from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

Last year, Fox presented the Edenfield case to a gathering of the region's homicide investigators to compare cases from their jurisdictions and share ideas.

One idea he walked away with is soliciting help from local gay publications and groups to spread information about the case, he said.

Today, Fox said he never made those contacts.

Allen has pledged to make the calls herself.

Anyone with information is asked to call Fox at (813) 247-0553 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-873-TIPS (1-800-873-8477).

Reporter Mike Wells can be reached at (813) 259-7839 or mwells@tampatrib.com.

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