Loran Cole, a convicted murderer and death row inmate, is set for execution this Thursday, and his 'heartbroken' family is speaking out ahead of his scheduled date.
Ex-wife Colleen Kucler told the Tallahassee Democrat that her heart sank when she received a call from Cole's pen pal because she knew it meant his time was up.
"We all knew at some point this could happen; I think we kind of hoped it wouldn't," Kucler said.
"I'm heartbroken," she admitted.
Cole, 57, was given 30 days to live with an August 29 execution date in place.
The headlines were everywhere, announcing Ron DeSantis had signed the death warrant for Cole.
Cole was convicted of the brutal 1994 murder of a Florida State University student and has been on death row for almost 30 years.
Kulcer said that while Cole was not an upstanding citizen, she never knew him to be violent or even engage in confrontation.
But she did admit that her ex-husband is a con artist and would lie about the simplest things.
"I will never fully know," Kulcer told the publication.
Despite removing himself from Kulcer and their son's lives, she always believed he would find his way back to them.
"I was hoping at some point he would reemerge," she said. "But not like that."
Their son, Ryan Cole, revealed that for a while he was angry and resented his father.
"I kind of felt like I needed him, and he kind of let me down," he expressed.
Cole did however make a friend while behind bars. Beth Evans, his pen pal for the last four years, stated that his immediate family never wanted anything to do with him after the murder and his imprisonment.
"Loran and I became best friends," Evans said.
Cole and his friend and accomplice, William Paul, were convicted of first-degree murder, kidnapping, and robbery with a deadly weapon in 1995.
While Cole was sentenced to death, Paul received life in prison.
Cole, then 27, and Paul, then 20, reportedly befriended the Edwards siblings in February 1994.
John Edwards, 18, an FSU student was setting up camp with his 21-year-old sister when they met Cole.
As the group set out to a nearby pond in hope of capturing photos of alligators, Cole and Paul attacked the brother and sister.
Edwards died that night. His throat was slashed, and his skull was fractured by three blows to the head.
Cole and Paul took the sister back to the campsite and threatened to kill her if she did not have intercourse with Cole, who continued to rape her into the next day before tying her to a tree and taking off with Paul.
He's maintained the same story all these years-he admits to being at the scene of the crime as well as being on drugs, but is adamant that he did not kill John, Paul did.
Kulcer used to agree with the "eye for an eye" argument regarding executions, but seeing herself in her position now, she thinks the death penalty is far more complicated than that.
At the end of the day, "he's a person too," Kucler said.
Cole is set to be executed this Thursday.
