DAYTONA BEACH -- The son of murdered Tomoka corrections officer Donna Fitzgerald gathered with friends Wednesday before saying goodbye for the last time to his remaining parent.
The corrections officer went alone June 25 to look for missing inmate Enoch Hall, who has confessed to making a knife out of sheet metal and stabbing Fitzgerald several times, leaving Kyle Antonelli, 20, without a mother. See previous story.
In an exclusive interview with Central Florida News 13, Antonelli said the last two weeks have been "a rough time in my life. It's been very hard. I've crashed and burned -- you know what I mean."
Hall was charged with first-degree murder, and the nonprofit work program he was a part of at the time of the murder is being closely scrutinized.
Confirmed reports from the St. Petersburg Times show corrections officials are reviewing policies and procedures regarding the same work program.
The report shows of the inmates working in the program, only 10 percent are serving life sentences.
Hall was serving two life sentences for a kidnapping and rape during the early 1990s in Escambia County, the westernmost county in the Florida Panhandle.
Fitzgerald was the first officer killed on duty at the Tomoka Correctional Institution, but the second female corrections officer in the state to die at the hands of an inmate.
Just like Fitzgerald, the first officer, Darla Lunthrem, was working the night shift and was left alone, and the murder had to do with a work program.
Janet Bes, Lunthrem's sister, attended Fitzgerald's funeral Wednesday.
"I'm just totally devasted and in shock, just like it happened again," Bes said.
Antonelli said he wants answers.
"How was she allowed to go in there alone?" Antonelli asked.
Fitzgerald's murder has left Antonelli parentless. He lost his father less than a year ago.
Hall could face the death penalty if convicted in Fitzgerald's murder.
Comment on this story.