Trigger warning: This article contains graphic details.
A convicted murderer who was executed yesterday remained defiant in his stance before he was put to death.
Duane Eugene Owen was arrested after he fatally stabbed a Delray Beach babysitter and beat a single Boca Raton mom to death approximately 40 years ago.
The first incident saw Karen Slattery brutally raped and bludgeoned to death with a hammer while she was babysitting the two daughters of the Helm family. When the parents got home just after midnight, they noticed that their house was dark and quiet, which was unusual so they started looking around the rooms for Slattery.
They were shocked to see a pool of blood on the floor with a hammer laying next to it in the living room.
They then entered the master bedroom where they discovered the teenager's body which had been violated and stabbed a total of 18 times.
Slattery was only 14 at the time.
Law & Crime reported that Owen confessed to the teen’s murder and even detailed his plan in an audio transcript.
The 62-year-old told detectives that he broke into the home through the bedroom window earlier in the night and spotted Slattery braiding the young girls’ hair. He then decided to leave, have a few drinks, then go back to attack her.
Upon returning to the home, he grabbed a hammer that he had found in the bedroom closet, attacked the babysitter while she was watching TV before confessing that he "dragged" her upstairs and "just raped her."
Then just five days later, a similar incident saw Georgianna Worden brutally attacked inside her home in Florida.
Just like Slattery, Worden was killed and then sexually assaulted. The 38-year-old's children found her dead body the next morning while they were getting ready for school.
Owen was arrested and detained after DNA evidence linked him to the case. The killer confessed to both murders and was placed on trial in 1985 for Slattery's murder and then in 1986 for Worden's.
Both juries found the man guilty and he was sentenced to death.
The Palm Beach Post reported that Ron DeSantis initially delayed Owens' death sentence so he could be examined by three psychiatrists.
However, on June 15, the execution went ahead and the 62-year-old died at approximately 6:14 PM via a lethal injection at Florida State Prison in Raiford.
Owens appeared to lack remorse until the very end. When asked if he had any last words minutes before his lethal injection, he reportedly said "no" - seemingly in an act of defiance.
Though he did leave a final statement with authorities shortly after he woke up on his final day.
Insisting that he would "live on", he claimed in his final statement, per Palm Beach Post: "I have transcended space and time, I have see the visions of the Crow. My energy and particles will transform ad infinitum, I will live on. I am Tula. 13."
Owens had been on death row for 38 years before he was executed.
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