The death of an inmate on Florida's death row is being investigated as a potential crime, according to the state Department of Corrections.
Lloyd Chase Allen, 69, died Wednesday at the state prison hospital in Lake Butler.
He had been on Death Row since 1993, when he was convicted in Monroe Circuit Court of first degree murder for the stabbing death of Dortha Cribbs.
Cribbs had met Allen in November 1991 at a Waffle House in Calhoun, Ga. She was a widow from Ohio; she and her late husband had always wanted to become long-haul truckers.
Allen, using a different name, told her he was a trucker and the couple traveled together through Florida to a vacation home that Cribbs owned on Summerland Key. Cribbs was found dead in the home on Nov. 13, 1991.
Detectives tracked down Allen by some documents they found in Cribbs' car. He was arrested outside of Sacramento, Calif., and brought back to the Keys for trial.
A statement from the state Department of Corrections Tuesday said the medical examiner would determine cause of Allen's death. The DOC's Office of Inspector General is now handling the case as an "open and active criminal investigation."
