A Florida man has confessed to murdering another man in 1997, closing a cold case that’s more than a quarter-century old, officials said.
Stephen Edenfield was found stabbed and beaten inside his Tampa, Florida, condo on Feb. 1, 1997, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release Monday.
The night before he was found dead, Edenfield had gone out twice, sheriff’s office cold case investigator Dan Bendig said on “Unfinished Business,” a podcast run by the agency. First, he had gone out to dinner with his brother and sister, Bendig said. Before midnight, he left the complex again, then returned around 12:50 a.m. on Feb. 1.
Edenfield briefly spoke to a security guard because he had forgotten his remote to enter the complex gate, Bendig said. Edenfield told the security guard that the driver of the car behind him was also with him. The security guard let both cars into the complex, but did not get a good look at the driver of the second car, Bendig said.
Bendig said that neighbors started hearing “violence in the house” and “calls for help” within an hour of Edenfield returning home. Three neighbors told police they had heard “some sort of disturbance.” Around 2 in the morning, the security guard was conducting rounds at the complex. He saw a “dark shadow” near Edenfield’s apartment, Bendig said, and realized it was a person, but did not get a good look at the person’s face.
Edenfield’s brother found him dead in his apartment the next day. There was evidence of a violent struggle, and the word “Greed” was written on Edenfield’s bedroom wall in blood, but there were no signs of forced entry. An initial investigation did not lead to any arrests.
The sheriff’s office’s Cold Case Unit reopened the investigation in 2022. The unit worked with Othram Labs, a forensic genetic genealogy company. Othram Labs said that it used forensic evidence from the initial investigation to develop a comprehensive DNA profile for an unknown suspect. That profile was then used in a forensic search to find new investigative leads, the company said.
In 2024, a forensic search found that the DNA profile was also linked to an unsolved 2005 sexual assault case in Illinois, the sheriff’s office said. Brandon Gliha had been identified as a suspect in the case.
Police turned their attention to Gliha, now 47 and living in Tampa. They found he had been arrested on an Illinois forgery warrant just weeks before and was in custody, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office told CBS News.
Investigators from the Cold Case Unit interviewed Gliha at a police facility, the spokesperson said. During the interview, he confessed to Edenfield’s murder, the sheriff’s office said. On Monday, he was charged with first-degree murder and robbery with a deadly weapon. Online jail records show Gliha is being held at a Tampa jail. A bond amount has not been set.
Edenfield’s sister, who he had dined with the night before his death, died before Gliha’s arrest. Edenfield’s brother, who found his body, was alive to see it, local media reported.
“For 28 years, Stephen Edenfield’s family has waited for answers. Today, we can finally give them some measure of peace,” said Sheriff Chad Chronister in the news release. “No family should have to endure this kind of pain for so long. While nothing can erase the loss they have suffered, we hope knowing that justice has been served brings them comfort.”
Kerry Breen is a news editor at CBSNews.com. A graduate of New York University’s Arthur L. Carter School of Journalism, she previously worked at NBC News’ TODAY Digital. She covers current events, breaking news and issues including substance use.
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