Georgia man once viewed as a "grieving husband" is charged in wife's killing 19 years after fleeing U.S. with couple's nanny
Investigators first believed Doris Worrell was killed in a botched robbery after her husband found her fatally shot at the South Georgia business they ran in 2006. When suspicion later turned toward Worrell's husband, he fled the U.S. to live in Costa Rica with the couple's live-in nanny.
Nearly 19 years later, Jon Worrell was jailed on murder charges Thursday in rural Coffee County, where the sheriff said authorities never gave up on the cold case. They got a big break in April, when investigators traveled to Costa Rica and found the nanny willing to talk after her relationship with Worrell had ended.
"This case was never forgotten," Sheriff Fred Cole told reporters at a news conference Friday. "And while the road has been long and often frustrating, we never gave up. Justice delayed is still justice."
Doris Worrell had worked as a teacher and an interior designer before deciding to stay at home to raise three children. She and her husband operated a recreation business, Jon's Sports Park, in the small community of Douglas, about 130 miles southwest of Savannah.
Worrell called police from the business on Sept. 20, 2006, saying he had returned from running errands to find his wife's body.
"Many believed he was a grieving husband and his wife was the victim of a robbery gone wrong," Jason Seacrist, an agent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, said in a statement.
Theories about Doris Worrell's killing evolved as investigators gathered more evidence. In 2008, two employees of the sports park were charged with being conspirators to her murder, but the case was dropped for lack of evidence.
Meanwhile, Seacrist said, investigators learned that Worrell had been having an affair with the nanny at the time of his wife's death.
"Jon was concerned that if he divorced Doris, he would lose his children," Seacrist said. "And it's those thoughts that led him to begin recruiting someone to murder his wife."
He said Worrell fled to Costa Rica, where he and the nanny spent years living together while raising Worrell's children.
Then, investigators learned that the relationship had ended and Worrell had returned to the U.S.
Georgia agents and sheriff's investigators traveled to Costa Rica in April and met with the nanny, the sheriff said. He said the information she provided corroborated other evidence that authorities had collected for years.
Worrell was arrested Tuesday at his home in Mayfield, Missouri, north of Kansas City. He waived extradition to Georgia and arrived at the Coffee County jail late Thursday.
Doris Worrell's sister, LeAnn Tuggle, thanked investigators for their persistence. She recalled her sister as a gifted artist and loving mother who had agreed to let the nanny live at her home because the young woman had nowhere else to stay.
"Sometimes she was too kind for her own good," Tuggle said. "Her being kind is ultimately what caused her death."
Doris Worrell's former classmate, Lisa Hays, told WALB-TV that the arrest marks just the beginning of justice.
"The closure will come when the verdict is read," Hays told the station. "The agents always said they wouldn't make an arrest unless they had enough evidence for a conviction. The conviction we want to see is that Jon Worrell is guilty of murdering his wife."
Worrell was denied bond during his first court appearance Friday. The sheriff said Worrell had no attorney at the hearing, but told a judge he planned to hire one.
Authorities are still trying to determine who shot Doris Worrell. One of the men charged 17 years ago in the killing and later released has died, Seacrist said, while the other recently got out of prison in an unrelated case.
The nanny has not been charged.
"In our mind, she is not a suspect," Seacrist said.
He added that the case should give hope to the families of victims in other cold cases -- and instill fear in suspects who are on the run.
"It should produce fear and sleepless nights for the offenders in other cold cases because law enforcement will not stop looking for you," Seacrist said.
