Georgia man who fled with the nanny after his wife's killing is charged with murder 19 years later

In this image from video provided by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Coffee County Sheriff Fred Cole speaks with reporters in Douglas, Ga., on Friday, May 23, 2025, to discuss the arrest of Jon Worrell in the 2006 death of his wife, Doris Worrell. (Georgia Bureau of Investigation via AP)

 Investigators first believed Doris Worrell was killed in a botched robbery after her husband found her fatally shot at the South Georgia business they ran in 2006. When suspicion later turned toward Worrell’s husband, he fled the U.S. to live in Costa Rica with the couple’s live-in nanny.

Nearly 19 years later, Jon Worrell was jailed on murder charges Thursday in rural Coffee County, where the sheriff said authorities never gave up on the cold case. They got a big break in April, when investigators traveled to Costa Rica and found the nanny willing to talk after her relationship with Worrell had ended.

“This case was never forgotten,” Sheriff Fred Cole told reporters at a news conference Friday. “And while the road has been long and often frustrating, we never gave up. Justice delayed is still justice.”