On December 3, 1997, Frank Dosso, a 35-year-old white male, was found dead in Bartow, Florida. He was one of four victims in a mass murder that took place at the Erie Manufacturing plant. The other victims included Diane Patisso, a 28-year-old white female and state prosecutor; George Patisso, a 26-year-old white male and Diane's husband; and George Gonsalves, a 69-year-old white male.
All four were shot execution-style, a method indicating a premeditated and cold-blooded act.
The primary suspect in the case was Nelson Iván Serrano, a former business partner of the victims. Serrano, an Ecuadorian-American businessman, had been in a bitter dispute with Dosso and Gonsalves over financial matters related to their business ventures, Erie Manufacturing and Garment Conveyor Systems. The conflict escalated when Serrano was ousted from the companies, leading to a series of legal battles and accusations of theft and graft.
Despite Serrano's claims of being 500 miles away in Atlanta, Georgia, at the time of the murders, prosecutors argued that he had flown back to Florida under assumed names to commit the crime. The prosecution's case was built on circumstantial evidence and testimonies from Erie employees who described the strained relations between Serrano and the other partners. Serrano was arrested in Ecuador in September 2002 and extradited to the United States, a process that was later contested by the Ecuadorian government.
In October 2006, a jury found Serrano guilty of four counts of first-degree murder and recommended the death penalty. Judge Susan Roberts sentenced him to death by lethal injection on June 26, 2007. Serrano's conviction has been controversial, with debates over the lack of physical evidence linking him to the crime scene and the legality of his extradition. Despite these controversies, Serrano remained on death row until his death from natural causes in 2024.
