INDIAN RIVER COUNTY, Fla. — At Hillcrest Memorial Gardens, Marc Raczkoski stares painfully at a place he's often tried to avoid.
"Richard Raczkoski, beloved son, corporal, sheriff's department, Indian River County," reads Marc Raczkoski, blinking back tears.
It's the grave of his older brother, who was just 29 years old when he was buried at the Fort Pierce cemetery.
"I was 22," Marc said quietly. "I was 22."
It's always been an agonizing place for Marc — one that's brought up too many painful memories. Yet this time, his grief feels a little lighter.
This time, for the first time in the 40 years he's come to visit his older brother, he finally has the answer he's been longing to give.
"That I love him. And it's finally over," Marc said.
Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday signed the death warrant for William Reaves, the man convicted of killing Raczkoski in 1986. If carried out, the execution will mark Florida's 18th this year. It is scheduled for October 20, and Reaves has one last chance at an appeal.
"It gives closure," Marc said. "Now, when everybody asks me, 'What happened to the guy that murdered my brother?' That the first question I get, and I got to say, 'He's still — still hasn't happened."
"You'll finally have a different answer," Investigative Reporter Kate Hussey supplied.
"Yes, finally have a different answer," Marc replied.
The shooting
On September 23, 1986, 29-year-old Deputy Richard Raczkoski answered a 911 call at a convenience store in Indian River County. Minutes later, he was shot 4 times and killed, launching a multi-agency manhunt for the killer.
Days later, authorities arrested 37-year-old William Reaves in Albany, Georgia, who was extradited to Indian River County, where he confessed to killing Raczkoski, saying he "panicked" when a gun fell out of his shorts, and that he was under the influence of drugs at the time.
Forty years later, Marc said the memories of that night are still fresh and painful, recalling the middle-of-the-night knock on the door that changed everything.
"One of the friends that was on the police department in Fort Pierce, my brother's friend, was at the back door. He was in uniform. He took me up in the car and raced me up to the hospital, but I knew when they were talking to me in there for too long, I knew he didn't make it. I knew he didn't make it, and from then, it was just a blur of everything else after that," Marc told WPTV. "How could somebody do something like that? Richard was calling him a cab, for God's sake's. To empty his gun into him is beyond me. How could somebody do something like that?"
In 1987, Reaves was convicted of murder and sentenced to death, yet for nearly four decades, Reaves sat on death row while Marc stood beside his brother's grave, waiting and wondering.
"Wondering what's happened. Feels like everybody forgot," Marc said.
Marc said the years without resolution took a toll on his entire family.
"It's something I wouldn't wish on anybody to have to go through. And watch your parents go through," Marc said. "No more Christmas trees in the house. Holidays were never the same. Mom didn't decorate."
When DeSantis signed Reaves' death warrant, Marc said the weight of the wait finally lifted.
"It's finally over. It's finally over," Marc said.
The news also brought relief to the Indian River County Sheriff's Office, and Sheriff Eric Flowers himself, who has pushed for Reaves' death warrant to be signed.
"All of that is very heavy on our agency, and knowing that this execution is coming in October gives a little weight lifted off. I think it's going to be a moment of healing for our agency," Flowers told WPTV.
Flowers said he plans to attend Reaves' execution.
"Because I want to make sure the last thing he sees is an Indian River County Deputy uniform," said Flowers.
Florida's execution rate
Reaves' execution would mark Florida's 18th this year, following 19 executions in 2025, which set a modern-day record. The rapid pace has prompted concern from groups like Floridians Against the Death Penalty, who, along with capital defense attorneys, have raised concerns about how quickly executions are being carried out.
"One I think is around the transparency of this process. We don't know how people are being chosen for execution or why. We also don't know the impact this is having on corrections staff and those who are involved," Grace Hanna of Floridians Against the Death Penalty said.
Hanna, though, knows the pain Raczkowski's family is experiencing. Her own family member was murdered, and said she understands everyone processes that grief differently.
"And far be it for me to tell any family how they should feel. I can only speak to my own experience and my family's experience of having a loved one who was murdered, and I can say that I came out of that feeling that another death and another family's pain was not going to give us closure or peace," said Hanna. "Though certainly don't hold any ill will towards those who feel that this is what gives them closure."
Hoping for Closure
For Marc, standing at his brother's grave — a place that will always hold pain — he's reminded of all he's lost.
"The time I never got to spend with him," Marc said, holding back tears. "Mom and Dad didn't see any closure in this, time that they didn't get to spend with him, time he didn't get to spend with my children, his nieces and nephews. It's all very much to take in."
Marc described his brother as someone always focused on public service.
"He was quick to make you laugh. He was always focused on public service, to serve people. He enjoyed that. He enjoyed that. He had found a man — an elderly man — that wandered away from a facility one time, and he's the one that found him out in the woods by the facility," Marc recalled. "He liked to fish and he liked the outdoors. And he was just basically fun to be around."
Yet as he walks away from the grave, knowing the grief will never go away, he hopes the coming execution will bring something he has long sought.
"There is finally closure for Richard," Marc said. "For what he [Reaves] did to Richard, yes. What he did and the way he did it, yes, it gives me some closure, but still the pain will still always be there."
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