Detective details work in Fla. serial killer case

VERO BEACH, Fla. — Detective Tom White knew David Alan Gore was a killer well before Gore murdered his fourth, fifth and sixth victims. He just had a hard time proving it.

But he came close — frustratingly close.

White was convinced Gore was responsible for the disappearance of Judy Kay Daley and a Taiwanese mother and daughter, but the state attorney’s office said he didn’t have enough evidence to issue a warrant. So White searched for their bodies in an orange grove where Gore worked.

After a week of digging, he gave up. Two years later, the serial killer led authorities to bodies he buried in the same grove, five feet from where White stopped digging.

Gore is scheduled to be executed Thursday for murdering 17-year-old Lynn Elliott, his last victim.