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Man Who Killed Teen Released From Prison, Only To Allegedly Murder Woman With Screwdriver
Eric Pierson was released last year after serving time for killing Kristina Whitaker in 1995, and now he stands accused of murdering Erika Verdecia.
A convicted Florida killer, who murdered a teen girl in the 1990s, was recently released from prison only to allegedly kill another victim with a screwdriver.
Eric Pierson, 54, was released in September of 2020 after serving 25 years of his 40-year sentence for the 1995 murder of 17-year-old Kristina Whitaker, WFLA reports.
Within a year, he allegedly murdered another victim: Erika Verdecia.
The 33-year-old Sunrise resident was reported missing late last month, according to a press release from the City of Sunrise Police Department. Her family said she was last seen at a sandwich shop with a “grimy” man, the Daily Beast reports.
On Sunday, police transitioned the missing persons case into a homicide investigation.
Authorities alleged that Pierson had “confessed to the murder of Erika Verdecia,” according to the press release.
Pierson allegedly admitted to detectives that he stabbed Verdecia multiple times with a screwdriver before discarding her body in a canal, WFLA reports. He allegedly tried to weigh her down with rocks. Verdecia's body was retrieved from the canal with a diving team, local outlet WPLG reports.
"Why is this guy in the streets? Why," the victim's mother, Carmen Verdecia told the Orlando Sun-Sentinel. "He's going to pay this time."
These two murders are not the only heinous crimes that Pierson has been linked to. Nor was this the first time he was released from prison to go on to allegedly commit another crime. He was convicted in 1985 for the attempted murder of yet another woman. He served four years of that 18-year sentence.
Verdecia’s murder leaves her 6-year-old daughter without a mother.
It’s not clear if Pierson has an attorney.
