GADSDEN Co., Fla., (WTXL) -- A man has been charged in a 2011 murder of a 23-year-old woman.
Gadsden County Sheriff's Office said last month, a Grand Jury indicted 27-year-old Dekendrick Lamar Ford in the death of 23-year-old Teresa Manuel, the mother of his two children, and at the time, live-in girlfriend.
The sheriff's office said Ford was 23 when he killed Manuel after an argument.
Manuel was found dead in the Rocky Comfort Management Area, on Magnolia Farms Road, August 10, 2011, the day after Ford filed a missing persons report with the Gadsden County Sheriff's Office.
In that report, Ford claimed they were driving in Quincy, when Manuel asked to be let out of the vehicle near the Walmart Supercenter, on Pat Thomas Parkway and Joe Adams Road, after an argument about him being unfaithful. Ford said he felt bad after driving off, so he turned around about a mile later, but when he got to the spot he dropped her off at, she was not there. He stated he drove home and called Manuel's cell phone about an hour later. When there was no answer, he started contacting her family. Ford claimed he started driving around Quincy looking for her, to no avail. The report said earlier that afternoon Manuel had asked her parents to pick up their two children from daycare, but she never contacted them again after.
An autopsy was performed August 11, 2011, ruling Manuel's death a homicide.
