In this Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2007, file photo, death row inmate Juan Carlos Chavez is shown during the first day of hearings at a Miami-Dade County courtroom in Miami.
Juan Carlos Chavez expressed no remorse in his final written statement before he was executed by lethal injection on Wednesday.
The Christian Science Monitor reports that Chavez confessed to the 1995 abduction of 9-year-old Jimmy Ryce in south Florida. The child’s disappearance garnered national attention, which turned to horror when police found Ryce’s remains near Chavez’s trailer. The Cuban immigrant admitted to raping Ryce then shooting him in the back as he tried to escape.
Ryce’s parents became prominent advocates for abduction victims. “This is the kind of loss that never gets right, that you never completely recover from,” said his father Don Ryce, who attended the execution.