Florida Woman’s Final Words Helped Investigators Identify Her Killer

Joyce Burrow, 55, was found bleeding outside her home in the early morning of July 24, 2013. The Florida woman’s final words helped investigators identify the attacker and determine whether he had any other victims.

After she was discovered battered and bleeding in the road outside her home, the grandmother told first responders and her nephew what had happened. In her final moments, she managed to reveal that a man had broken into her home. She also said the attacker sexually abused her before fleeing the scene.

Burrow was rushed to the hospital, but she died shortly afterward from her injuries. When investigators went inside her home, they found signs of a violent struggle throughout the residence. The back door had been forced open, indicating the attacker entered through it.

The bedroom was filled with scattered clothes, and the bed had only a mattress that appeared to have been partially cleaned. In addition, investigators found cigarette butts, indicating Burrow’s killer may have waited inside the home before she arrived.

After an extensive investigation of the scene, authorities developed a theory of what might have happened. Investigators believed the attacker assaulted Burrow and then tried to clean the scene. However, because the woman managed to escape, he quickly chased her. The attacker then struck her with a car and left her on the roadside.

The breakthrough came after a DNA match pointed to Michael Darnell Porter, who already had a criminal record before the attack. It later emerged that he had been convicted of violently attacking a woman at a Florida motel in 1987. The victim survived and provided details of the attacker, which led investigators to arrest Porter. Although he served several years in prison, he was ultimately acquitted at a retrial.

In the following years, Porter faced multiple arrests for robbery, battery and domestic violence. His criminal record helped investigators confirm him as Burrow’s killer. In 2018, he was convicted and received a life sentence.

However, investigators continued to examine his past to determine whether he had any other victims. There were similar incidents involving home invasions and violent attacks on women, which led authorities to investigate whether Porter was linked to any of them.

According to PEOPLE, one of his cellmates testified that Porter claimed he had “gotten away with it once and would get away with it again.”