Single Dad Found Dead in Florida, Murdered by Two Young Sons

As firefighters responded to a call about a blaze at a home in Cantonment, Florida, on Nov. 26, 2001, they walked into a scene that didn’t make sense.

Inside the charred one-story house was the body of a man positioned as if he’d been relaxing in a living room chair, drink nearby. But there was blood spattered on the walls, an aluminum baseball bat in a bedroom — and the man’s head injuries were severe.

The victim was Terry King, a 40-year-old single father. His two sons — Derek, 13, and Alex, 12 — were missing.

“From day one, this was a strange case,” said retired Escambia County Sheriff’s Office homicide investigator John Sanderson, 65, describing the puzzling discovery. “I can’t recall seeing another like this.”

The boys returned — and detectives heard a shocking account

A day later, the investigation took a turn when Ricky Chavis, a local handyman who had grown close to Terry and often watched the children while Terry worked, brought Derek and Alex to the sheriff’s station.

Questioned by detectives, the boys gave a detailed account of beating their father to death and setting the house on fire after he threatened to punish them for running away to stay with Chavis.

Not long after, they changed their story. This time, they accused Chavis — who was 40 at the time — of killing Terry. Alex also claimed he had been in a sexual relationship with Chavis, and said the handyman then took the boys to his house to hide them from authorities.

A rare courtroom showdown — and split outcomes

In an unusually structured proceeding the following year at the Escambia County Courthouse, Chavis and both brothers were tried for the same murder.

Ultimately, Terry’s sons pleaded guilty to third-degree murder and arson and spent nearly a decade in juvenile detention.

Chavis, meanwhile, went through three separate trials. Jurors acquitted him of murder, kidnapping and child molestation, but convicted him of being an accessory to the crime and false imprisonment. He is serving a 30-year prison sentence.

The case — including the lead-up to the courtroom confrontation and what followed — is revisited in “Playing With Fire,” an episode of People Magazine Investigates, premiering Feb. 2 on ID and streaming on HBO Max.

“I never thought the boys would do such a thing,” said Lisa Spurlock-Litle, 65, who at the time was married to Alex and Derek’s maternal grandfather. “Until Derek confessed, we just didn’t believe it.”

A difficult childhood — and a troubling influence

Life for the King boys had been unstable long before the fire. Their parents, Terry and Janet French, now 58, split when the boys were toddlers.

Terry remained committed to raising them, but he struggled. He worked minimum-wage jobs while dealing with narcolepsy, and the family’s circumstances were often difficult.

When Alex and Derek were 5 and 6, they were placed in a group home and later separated into foster care. Alex eventually returned to live with his father, but Derek stayed away for years.

It wasn’t until seven years later that Derek — who had ADHD and had grown unhappy in what he described as a well-off foster home — reunited with Terry and Alex after Terry found better work.

In “Playing With Fire,” Derek describes moving back in with his dad, who didn’t have a working television, as “a huge culture shock.”

Their lives, investigators say, shifted further when they began spending significant time with Chavis, who — unknown to the family — was a convicted pedophile.

Instead of taking the boys to school, Sanderson says Chavis often drove them to his own home, where they played video games and watched TV. Over time, Sanderson believed the boys began to see Chavis’s home as an alternative future. “Soon the boys had the mindset that if something happened to their dad, they could live with Rick — and he told them they could,” Sanderson said.

The aftermath, years later

After serving time in separate juvenile facilities, the brothers hoped to stay close and see each other often, Derek said. But those plans didn’t last.

Alex died of a drug overdose in 2024. Derek was arrested last June in Milton, Florida, and faces a felony sexual-assault charge.

Before that arrest, Derek was interviewed for People Magazine Investigates at the cemetery where his father is buried. Asked what he would say if Terry could hear him now, he replied quietly: “Please forgive me.”

“Playing With Fire,” a new episode of People Magazine Investigates, premieres Feb. 2 on ID and streams on HBO Max.