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Lottery winner's death was from stab wounds, coroner says

By Amy Leigh Womack

An East Dublin woman found dead Monday afternoon was stabbed several times in the chest, authorities said.

An autopsy was scheduled for Tuesday, but results were not complete by late afternoon, Laurens County Coroner Richard Stanley said.

Doris Murray, 42, was found dead in her home at 439 Barnes Road about 1:40 p.m., according to the Laurens County Sheriff's Office. Murray gained widespread attention in April 2007 after she won $5 million in the Georgia Lottery on her 41st birthday.

Sheriff Bill Harrell said Murray's family met 51-year-old Derrick Lorenzo Stanley in the yard as he was leaving the house Monday afternoon. After learning that Stanley, of 310 Rice St. in East Dublin, could be a suspect in Murray's death, deputies issued a lookout for him.

Deputies soon spotted him driving a green Mercury Mountaineer at the intersection of Ga. 29 and Ga. 199 in East Dublin, and they tried to pull him over, Harrell said. Instead, Lorenzo Stanley led deputies, police officers and state patrolmen on a chase into Dublin.

Deputies forced the sport utility vehicle to stop on North Franklin Street by forcing him against a guardrail, according to a statement from the sheriff's office.

Lorenzo Stanley was taken into custody and treated at Fairview Park Hospital for knife or puncture wounds, according to the release.

He was not listed as a patient at the hospital Tuesday, however.

Harrell said it's too early in the investigation to say how Lorenzo Stanley was injured.

At some point in the pursuit, a deputy fired a gun in hopes of flattening Lorenzo Stanley's tires, according to the sheriff's office.

Since a deputy fired a weapon, Harrell has requested a Georgia Bureau of Investigation review of the incident in accordance with sheriff's office procedure.

Deputies collected evidence at Murray's home, Harrell said. But deputies have not released a motive in the killing.

Since 2001, Lorenzo Stanley has been arrested twice for aggravated assault, according to jail records.

To contact writer Amy Leigh Womack, call 744-4398.