Lathan Thornton, an 82-year-old former Gainesville businessman and World War II Navy veteran, died in Melrose, Florida, on February 8, 1988. Thornton co-founded Alachua Furniture Company and Imperial House and was active in local fraternal organizations, including R.T. Schafer Lodge 350 F&AM and the Morocco Temple Shrine.

Thornton’s death was initially recorded as natural but was later linked to Jeffrey Lynn Feltner, a former nurse’s aide who confessed anonymously to a crisis hotline in July 1988 that he had smothered multiple patients between 1988 and 1989. Feltner was arrested on August 10, 1989, convicted on two counts of first-degree murder, and received life sentences; he died in custody in 1993. Thornton was not formally charged in court as part of Feltner’s plea arrangements, though his death is reported as one of the cases Feltner admitted.

Are there readers who knew Thornton or worked at the care facilities involved who can share details about the events or investigations around his death?