The suspect confesses to the decades of the decades in Florida Cold, after DNA has led to arrest, says the sheriff's office says

A man from Florida confessed to having murdered another man in 1997 and closing a cold case that is more than a quarter of a century old, said officials.

On February 1, 1997, Stephen Edenfield was stabbed and beaten in his office of the sheriff of the Hillsborough County in a press release on Monday in his office of the Hillsborough County.

On the night before it was found dead, Edenfield had run out twice, said Sheriff's Office Cold Case, investigator Dan Bendig, about “unfinished business”, a podcast run by the agency. At first he went to dinner with his brother and sister, said Bendig. He left the complex again before midnight and then returned on February 1 at 12:50 p.m.

Edenfield briefly spoke to a security guard because he had forgotten his remote control to enter the complex goal, said Bendig. Edenfield told the security guard that the driver of the car was also with him behind him. The security officer put both cars into the complex, but did not look at the driver of the second car, said Bendig.

Bendig said that the neighbors heard “violence in the house” and “help for help” within an hour after returning. Three neighbors told the police that they had heard “a kind of disturbance”. At around 2 a.m., the security guard carried out rounds in the complex. He saw a “dark shadow” near Edenfield's apartment, said Bendig and realized that it was one person, but did not get a good view of the person's face.

The next day, Edenfield's brother found him dead in his apartment. There were indications of a violent struggle, and the word “greed” was written in blood on Edenfield's bedroom wall, but there were no signs of an enforced admission. A first examination did not lead to arrests.

The Cold Case Unit of the Sheriff office was reopened in 2022. The unit worked with Othram Labs, A Forensic genetic genealogy Company. Othram Labs said that the first examination used forensic evidence to develop a comprehensive DNA profile for an unknown suspect. This profile was then used in a forensic search to find new investigations, the company said.

In 2024, a forensic search showed that the DNA profile was also associated with an unsolved case from 2005 in Illinois, said the Sheriff's office. Brandon Gliha had been identified as a suspect.

The police turned their attention to Gliha, now 47 and lived in Tampa. They found that he had been arrested and custody for a counterfeiting order in Illinois just weeks earlier, a spokesman for the Sheriff's Office told CBS News.

The investigators of the Cold Case Unit interviewed Gliha in a police facility, said the spokesman. During the interview, he confessed to Edenfield Murder, said the Sheriff's office. On Monday he was charged because of a fatal weapon because of the first degree murder and the first degree. Online prison records show that Gliha is held in a Tampa prison. A bond was not set.

Edenfield's sister, whom he had eaten on the night before his death, died of Gliha's arrest. Edenfield's brother who found his body was alive to see him, reported local media.

“Stephen Edenfield's family has been waiting for answers for 28 years. Today we can finally give them a certain level of peace,” said Sheriff Chad Chronister in the press release. “No family should have to endure this type of pain for so long. Although nothing can extinguish the loss that they have suffered, we hope to know that justice will bring them comfort.”