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Pamela Kay Wittman: A Name After 43 Years

A solved unidentified case involving Pamela Kay Wittman from Port Orange, Florida, Nov 5, 1980. It was resolved on Oct 17, 2024.

Who
Pamela Kay Wittman, 25
When
Where
Port Orange, FloridaVolusia County
Investigating
Volusia Sheriff's Office

The case

Our summary of the public record. The small numbers show where each fact comes from.

On November 5, 1980, a road worker found the remains of a young woman off Interstate 95 just north of Port Orange in Volusia County. She could not be identified, and for more than four decades she was carried in records as a Jane Doe.

Investigators connected her death to Gerald Stano, the Daytona Beach-area serial killer. As part of plea agreements, Stano confessed to dozens of killings and led detectives to the place where her remains were found; she became one of two victims attributed to him who had never been named. Stano was convicted of multiple other murders and was executed by Florida in 1998.

With grant funding from the nonprofit Genealogy for Justice, FHD Forensics extracted DNA from bone and built a genetic genealogy case. In October 2024, the Volusia Sheriff's Office announced that the woman was Pamela Kay Wittman, 25, from Indiana, who had moved to the Daytona Beach area. Her remains were returned to her family, and a memorial marker now stands near the site with words her family chose about her singing voice.

Timeline

  1. A road worker finds the remains of an unidentified woman off I-95 north of Port Orange.12

  2. Gerald Stano is executed by the State of Florida.3

  3. FHD Forensics completes a genetic genealogy identification funded by Genealogy for Justice; relatives confirm.24

  4. A memorial marker is placed at the site on the National Day of Remembrance for Murder Victims.4

  5. Sheriff Mike Chitwood announces the Jane Doe has been identified as Pamela Kay Wittman.125

Key facts

Each one checked against a source.

  • Wittman was 25 and from Indiana; she had moved to the Daytona Beach area.23
  • The Volusia Sheriff's Office said she was a victim of Gerald Stano, who confessed to dozens of killings under plea agreements and led detectives to her remains.12
  • Stano did not formally plead guilty to her death; under plea agreements he was convicted of other murders, and he was executed in 1998.23
  • DNA was extracted from bone fragments and analyzed by FHD Forensics, with funding from Genealogy for Justice.24

Open questions

  1. What were the last weeks of Pamela Wittman's life like after she moved to Florida?
  2. Is the second unnamed victim attributed to Stano still awaiting identification?

Why it stands out

The killer was known and long dead, but the victim had no name: a woman a serial killer led detectives to in the early 1980s went 43 years as a Jane Doe until DNA from bone gave her name back.

Photos and video

Official releases, public-domain and openly licensed files, credited.

Sources

Everything in this file comes from these. News coverage is linked, never copied.

Official records

  1. 1Genetic genealogy IDs 1980 Jane Doe as victim of serial killer Gerald StanoVolusia Sheriff's Office, Oct 17, 2024
  2. 51980 Jane Doe homicide victim identified via genetic genealogy (video)Volusia Sheriff's Office (YouTube), October 2024

Databases

  1. 4Daytona Beach Jane DoeGenealogy for Justice, 2024

News coverage

  1. 2'Voice of an angel': Woman ID'd in 1980 slaying was victim of Daytona Beach-area serial killerWKMG News 6 ClickOrlando, Oct 17, 2024
  2. 3Cold case victim identified, killed by Daytona Beach serial killer Gerald Stano in 1980FOX 35 Orlando, Oct 17, 2024

Related files

Same county, same state or the same kind of case.

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