Gov. Ron DeSantis issued a death warrant for Thomas Overton, who killed a Tavernier couple in the Florida Keys in 1991. Their unborn child did not survive the attack.
Barring any successful stays or appeals, this would be the 20th execution of the year after the planned Nov. 5 execution of Jesse Guardado, breaking DeSantis' record of 19 set last year. Florida under DeSantis has surged forward with executions since 2025, putting more inmates to death than the rest of the country combined.
Overton would have been the 21st person executed in 2026, but earlier this month DeSantis withdrew a death warrant for William Thompson after three psychiatrists evaluated him for dementia and mental disability. Thompson was convicted of the 1976 Miami kidnapping,
rape, and murder of 23-year-old Sally Ivester. DeSantis issued Overton's warrant a day after Florida executed William Reaves, Jr. for the 1986 murder of Indian River County Sheriff's Deputy Richard Raczkoski,
Overton, 70, was charged in 1997 for the rape and murder of Susan "Missy" MacIvor, 29, and the murder of Michael MacIvor, 30. Susan MacIvor was eight months pregnant at the time.
When will Thomas Overton be executed?
Overton is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection starting at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 19, 2026, at Florida State Prison in Raiford, about 45 miles southwest of Jacksonville, according to the death warrant signed Oct. 21.
The next scheduled execution is Nov. 5: Jesse Guardado, who pleaded guilty to the 2004 stabbing and beating death of 75-year-old community activist Jackie Malone in Walton County.
Who is Thomas Overton? Who did he kill?
In 1991, Thomas Mitchell Overton, then 35, worked at an Amoco gas station in Tavernier in Monroe County in the Florida Keys, on the southwestern part of Key Largo. That's where he met local resident and teacher Susan Michelle "Missy" MacIvor.
According to two men incarcerated with Overton at the Monroe County Detention Center, Overton admitted he broke into the MacIvor residence on Aug. 22 specifically to rape Susan MacIvor, court records show. One man, James Zientek, said that Overton described the crime to him in extreme detail as part of a plan for Zientek to tell authorities another inmate had admitted to the murders.
Overton told Zientek that after surveilling the house on several occasions, he approached with a bag of tools, including a gun and a police scanner, and wearing a "Ninja-type suit." He cut the phone wires, climbed onto a balcony, and entered the home. While walking through the house, Michael MacIvor entered the kitchen and Overton "slammed him in the back of the head" with a pipe, Zientek testified, before punching him into unconsciousness.
Susan MacIvor ran out of the bedroom screaming, Zientek said, and Overton chased her back in and restrained her before going back out and covering Michael's face. Then he raped Susan and strangled her because Overton said he "doesn't leave any witnesses," Zientek testified. Overton kicked Michael in the stomach and strangled him.
Zientek also described the effort Overton said he put into confusing the crime scene, including a random shell casing, some pages ripped from an address book, and some stolen pictures of Susan's pregnant stomach.
During the investigation, Overton was suggested as a known "cat burglar" whom police suspected in the murder of 20-year-old Rachelle Surrett. He was arrested in late 1996 while committing a burglary but refused to provide a blood sample.
A few days later, when Overton used the blade from a razor to make two cuts into his own throat, corrections officers stopped the bleeding and police obtained a court order to test the blood on his towel, according to court records. His blood matched DNA at the scene.
“The evidence found at the crime scene was consistent with the testimony of Mr. Zientek and shows beyond a reasonable doubt that a fundamental part of the Defendant’s criminal plot was a carefully conceived plan to avoid detection and arrest,” the sentencing order stated.
Overton was sentenced to the death penalty in 1999 for the murders of Susan and Michael MacIvoy, and two terms of life imprisonment for the sexual battery and burglary, and sentenced to 15 years for the killing of an unborn child.
Thomas Overton's appeals
Overton appealed multiple times, pointing to strands of dark hair on the tape used to bind Susan MacIvoy that did not match either Overton or the victims and asking for further DNA testing.
The appeals were denied.
C. A. Bridges is a journalist for the USA TODAY Network-Florida's service journalism Connect team. You can get all of Florida’s best content directly in your inbox each weekday by signing up for the free newsletter, Florida TODAY.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Florida to execute Thomas Overton for 1992 double murder in the Keys
