Missing Man's Father Wants 'More Substantial' Charges

By THOMAS W. KRAUSE tkrause@tampatrib.com

Published: Jan 28, 2006

TAMPA - As far as James L. Thompson is concerned, 200 years is not enough.

Thompson, speaking from his home in Harvard, Ill., said he hopes Steven Lorenzo will face the death penalty one day. Only with the threat of execution, he said, will Lorenzo admit to all his crimes - those prosecutors can prove and those they cannot.

On Halloween night 2001, Thompson's son Mark left a Clearwater apartment to visit area bars. Friends and family have heard nothing from the 30-year-old since. Days later, his Ford Ranger pickup was found about 10 blocks from Lorenzo's Seminole Heights home. Thompson was known to frequent the same Tampa gay bar where Lorenzo met some of his victims.

On Friday morning in federal court, Lorenzo received a 200-year prison sentence for drugging and raping nine men. One of them is dead; another is missing and presumed dead. Mark Thompson's name was not among Lorenzo's victims.

Still, James Thompson said he thinks Lorenzo is connected to his son's death.

With federal charges concluded, Thompson said, he hopes State Attorney Mark Ober will file murder charges. Last week, Thompson sent Ober a letter, asking him to push the case forward.

"There is no doubt in our minds, or in the minds of some police investigators, that there is an abundance of circumstantial evidence linking Mark's disappearance to Lorenzo," Thompson wrote.

Pam Bondi, the spokeswoman for Ober's office, said she could not comment on ongoing investigations.

As of Friday, Ober had not received Thompson's letter. Bondi said he would be happy to speak with James Thompson and his family.

Although Ober has kept quiet about the investigation, he has held several closed meetings with the families of Lorenzo's victims.

He also met with members of a local gay activist group, Equality Florida, who came away satisfied with the progress of the case.

Thompson said he's not sure a meeting is what he's looking for.

"I was simply hoping that he'd press charges for something more substantial than what [Lorenzo] has been convicted on," Thompson said. "Like murder."