Troubled 25-Year Relationship Ends In Murder: Police

PALMETTO, FL -- They were born days apart around the Christmas holidays 41 years ago, but their troubled, 25-year relationship ended in murder just before this Valentine's Day, according to the Palmetto Police Department and the Manatee County Sheriff's Office.

On Monday, Palmetto police announced the arrest of Flozell Murrell for the murder of his longtime companion, Stephanie McNabb.

"These two have been together as a couple for about 25 years," police wrote in a Feb. 2 report following a recent incident involving Murrell and McNabb. "Murrell has an injunction against him to stay away from her. He was also just released after a two-year jail stay for (violation of probation) domestic battery."

Palmetto Police Chief Scott D. Tyler told Patch on Monday that McNabb was killed around 1 a.m. Sunday morning in the 1100 block of 17th Ave W.

Murrell was taken into custody a few hours later at around 3:30 a.m, according to the chief. He has been charged with premeditated murder and a number of other offenses.

The Manatee County Sheriff's Office confirmed that the agency had been looking for Murrell since the earlier incident described in the Feb. 2 report:

"They got back together again and went to a club in Sarasota. All was fine. At around [1 a.m.], they arrived at the new 7-11 at 6200 301 N. She went inside the store and he stayed in the driver seat. As soon as she got in, he started flipping out and accusing her of flirting at the club He grabbed her by the back of the head, punched her, and eventually pistol-whipped her in the head while heading north on I-75."

Police said the couple ended up at a motel off SR-64 and I-75. "While there, he held her against her will. At one point she tried to grab his gun as he left it on the bed for a moment but he wrestled it away from her," the report explained.

"Sometime later they went back to a relative's home in palmetto where she told her family what had happened," according to the report. "Murrell fled in his vehicle to Sugar Mill Lakes where his sister lives. He fled on foot from there and remained at large. She had wounds all about her person to include a swollen eye, cut fingers, and a large bump behind her ear on her skull."

Police said the woman was taken to Manatee Memorial Hospital after the earlier incident.

Photo of Flozell Murrell courtesy Manatee County Sheriff's Office