On the morning of Wednesday, September 20, 2006, Doris Worrell, mother of three young children, was shot and killed inside Jon’s Sports Park, the Worrell family’s business. A small amusement park with miniature golf, go-karts, skating rink, driving range, batting cage, arcade, and other such attractions, the park was a family-oriented facility that had become a popular hangout for kids and families in Coffee and surrounding counties.
Doris’s death sent shockwaves through the Douglas-Coffee County community. At the time of the murder, Doris was inside the park with Paola Yarberry, a young lady who lived with the Worrells and helped care for their children and was a student at South Georgia College. Yarberry, a native of Venezuela, was in the United States illegally. The Worrells had taken her in and were going through the process of helping her get her immigration status straightened out. Doris’s husband, Jon, was not at the park at the time of the shooting.
The prevailing theory in the immediate aftermath of the shooting was that it was a retaliation for Jon expelling people from the park who supposedly had affiliations to local gangs. It didn’t take long, however, for investigators to form another opinion regarding what they believed happened. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation took over the case and agents thought it highly likely that Jon Worrell was involved in the death of his wife. However, Worrell was never arrested.
That changed on Tuesday, May 20, 2025, nearly 19 years after Doris’s death when Worrell was arrested in Missouri on several charges, including malice murder. He has waived his right to an extradition hearing and will be brought back to Coffee County, where he will be booked into the Coffee County Jail.
Though no one was arrested and charged with murder until this week, there have been several important developments in the case over the years. Below is a timeline of key events related to this tragic incident.
- September 20, 2006: Doris Worrell was shot and killed inside Jon’s Sports Park. Jon Worrell, her husband, was not on the premises at the time. Paola Yarberry, a young lady and illegal immigrant who lived with the Worrells and whom the Worrells were helping with her immigration status, was inside the park cleaning Tubetown, a kiddie area, when the shooting happened.
- The initial motive behind the shooting was a gang retaliation for Jon expelling people from the park who had gang affiliations. Between Doris’s death and funeral, local law enforcement staged roadblocks in the area of the sports park in an effort to find potential suspects.
- Saturday, September 23, 2006: Doris Worrell was laid to rest in the Douglas City Cemetery. Her funeral was held at 2 p.m. that day at First Baptist Church.
- May 2, 2007: Paola Yarberry was arrested at Hannah’s restaurant (now closed) in Douglas while she was eating lunch with friends. She was taken to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Alabama, where she was held for several months. Agents believed Yarberry knew more about Doris’s death than she had admitted and leveraged her immigration status to gain more information.
- On the same day Yarberry was arrested, then-District Attorney Rick Currie sent a letter to an unnamed individual in Atlanta asking that Yarberry not be released from ICE custody. In the papers Currie sent to Atlanta were the following statements: ““As District Attorney of the Waycross Judicial Circuit, I have responsibility over murder prosecutions in Coffee County. In addition to her admission that she is withholding information crucial to a murder investigation, we have credible information that Paola Yarberry and Jon Worrell, the main suspect in the murder of his wife, are planning to relocate soon from Douglas, Georgia, to Montana. As such, I respectfully oppose bond being set for Paola Yarberry until completion of the criminal investigation or deportation of Paola Yarberry.”
- In August of 2007, Jon Worrell moved his family to Fernandina Beach, Florida. There he met another young woman and began a relationship with her, ultimately fathering a child. The two never married and the relationship did not last long.
- February of 2008: Agents’ efforts to get Paola Yarberry to talk hit the proverbial brick wall. Ultimately, she was deported.
- On March 17, 2008, Glidden Rodriguez, who was an employee of Jon’s Sports Park when Doris was murdered, and Brandon Cage were arrested in connection with the murder and charged with conspiracy to commit murder. They were held out of county for a period of time but ultimately released. The charges were dropped. Rodriguez has since passed away. Cage has a lengthy criminal record and was released from prison earlier this month after serving a sentence for aggravated assault, according to the Georgia Department of Corrections web site.
- In August of 2008, Jon Worrell moved to Liberia, Costa Rica, where he opened an ice business. Yarberry also moved to Liberia and the two lived together down there for many years. An about.me profile posted from his time in Costa Rica states the following: “Hey, I’m Jon and here’s a short bio of my life. My educational background started with an Associate in Psychology from Abraham Baldwin College and finished with a BBA in Business Administration from the University of Georgia. Following my education I played professional golf for 7 years and then entered the business world. Currently I own and operate an ice company in Costa Rica. I have a passion for fishing, sports, and the outdoors. My son and I try to fish every weekend as long as he has no basketball games. Both of my daughters are currently attending a university in Canada on basketball scholarships. I am a God fearing and family loving man who cherishes the time he spends with his family and friends.”
- In the summer of 2016, Crime Watch Daily filmed an episode devoted to the murder of Doris Worrell. The show aired nationwide later that year and can now be seen on YouTube.
- Summer of 2022: A Georgia State Patrol dive team searched a pond near Broxton for the gun used in the murder. Divers did not find anything.
- Undated developments: Worrell and Yarberry eventually split up. He moved back to the United States while she stayed in Costa Rica. Worrell would visit Coffee County from time to time but never stay very long. Agents from the GBI continued to work the case, both domestically and internationally, and their work led to Tuesday’s arrest of Jon Worrell in Maryville, Missouri. He was charged with Malice Murder, Felony Murder, Conspiracy to Commit Murder, and Aggravated Battery. As of Thursday morning, he had not yet been booked into the Coffee County Jail.