Chenzo Clues.
131 details noticed by putting the public records of 41 cases side by side. They are observations, not accusations and not police findings. If one means something to you, tell the investigators listed on that case.
Latest clues
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NewOtto Goodman: The Oldest Case on Volusia's Map Ormond Beach, Florida
Still record number one
When I pulled the Sheriff's Office cold case map data on Oct. 19, 2026, it held 51 records. Otto Goodman's is still record number one, and still the oldest year on the map.
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The Ghost Pier Under Flagler Beach Flagler Beach, Florida
Two miles from the town's first pier
The historical society places the first pier at the old casino on Moody Boulevard, with today's pier one block south. The 22nd Street pilings sit about 2 miles north of the pier in a straight line. So Bruner's pier…
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The Nameless Merchant Ship of Daytona Beach Shores Daytona Beach Shores, Florida
A second wreck turned up five months later
On April 20, 2023, more timbers surfaced in the 3200 block of Daytona Beach Shores, just north of the El Portal beach approach. It was reported about a mile and a half from the first wreck, and LAMP researchers said…
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Whose Anchor Is Buried North of the Flagler Beach Pier? Flagler Beach, Florida
Five feet or eight?
FlaglerLive's story calls it a roughly five-foot anchor, but the LAMP measurements in that same story put its overall length at 2.49 meters. That works out to about 8 feet 2 inches, so the measured number is the one to…
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The Bones at Toscana Palm Coast, Florida
The sheriff's read on the scene changed between July and October
The bone turned up while crews were building a new emergency exit near the development's southern end, and the first bone went to UCF's anthropology department to confirm it was human. In July 2022 the sheriff said it…
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Off the Grid: Anthony Toth Palm Coast, Florida
Two last-seen dates are floating around
The Sheriff's Office gives November 17, 2021 as the day Anthony was last seen. Missing-person databases like the Charley Project use May 28, 2021 instead. We go with the Sheriff's date. The Charley Project gives his…
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All clues, case by case
Every clue, grouped by case.
The Ghost Pier Under Flagler Beach Flagler Beach, Florida · 3 clues
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The Ghost Pier Under Flagler Beach Flagler Beach, Florida
Two miles from the town's first pier
The historical society places the first pier at the old casino on Moody Boulevard, with today's pier one block south. The 22nd Street pilings sit about 2 miles north of the pier in a straight line. So Bruner's pier wasn't the casino pier. It was a separate structure way up on the north end, which means Flagler Beach had at least two early piers.
How it was found: Measured on OpenStreetMap from 22nd Street at the beach to the Flagler Beach Pier, then checked the historical society's locations.
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The Ghost Pier Under Flagler Beach Flagler Beach, Florida
Three 1940s storms came close
The city never named the 1940s hurricane. NOAA's database shows three storms whose centers passed within about 40 miles of Flagler Beach that decade: one in October 1944 (about 39 miles away), one in June 1945 (about 22 miles) and a hurricane in September 1945 (about 23 miles). A 1944 hurricane is tied to heavy damage at the municipal pier, but no record I found says which storm took Bruner's.
How it was found: Filtered NOAA's HURDAT2 storm tracks for 1940 to 1949 by distance from 22nd Street in Flagler Beach.
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The Ghost Pier Under Flagler Beach Flagler Beach, Florida
A mid-1920s hurricane fits the casino pier story
The historical society says the casino pier was lost in a mid-1920s hurricane without naming it. NOAA's database has only one hurricane passing near Flagler Beach between 1923 and 1927: a late July 1926 storm that came ashore about 40 miles south and passed within about 20 miles of town. That is a match on timing only.
How it was found: Checked NOAA's HURDAT2 storm tracks for 1920 to 1929 near Flagler Beach.
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The Nameless Merchant Ship of Daytona Beach Shores Daytona Beach Shores, Florida · 4 clues
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The Nameless Merchant Ship of Daytona Beach Shores Daytona Beach Shores, Florida
A second wreck turned up five months later
On April 20, 2023, more timbers surfaced in the 3200 block of Daytona Beach Shores, just north of the El Portal beach approach. It was reported about a mile and a half from the first wreck, and LAMP researchers said both look like mid-to-late 1800s cargo ships, with more than six feet of the newer one still buried. Nobody has said whether they are two ships or pieces of one.
How it was found: Followed the 2022 find forward in later local news coverage.
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The Nameless Merchant Ship of Daytona Beach Shores Daytona Beach Shores, Florida
Lifeguards already knew this stretch
When the second wreck appeared, Volusia County's beach safety captain said that part of the beach had always been a known debris field, and that this was the first time it had been uncovered in about 20 years. That hints the sand here has been hiding old wreckage for a long time.
How it was found: Read the county beach safety comments in the April 2023 report.
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The Nameless Merchant Ship of Daytona Beach Shores Daytona Beach Shores, Florida
Pinning down the first site
The first wreck sat at Frank Rendon Park, 2705 South Atlantic Avenue, and LAMP's team measured it on December 5 and 6, 2022, working with the state's Bureau of Archaeological Research and the Florida Public Archaeology Network. Tides were already covering parts of it before they could finish.
How it was found: Read a St. Augustine news report from the week of the dig for the exact address and dates.
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The Nameless Merchant Ship of Daytona Beach Shores Daytona Beach Shores, Florida
Its neighbor up the coast got a name, this one didn't
The same LAMP director also studied the Crescent Beach wreck, about 40 miles up the coast and also uncovered by a storm. That one got a likely name because a lighthouse keeper's log and old newspapers lined up with it. Nothing like that has been published for this ship, and nobody has suggested the two wrecks are connected.
How it was found: Compared this case with the other storm-exposed wreck in this database, measuring between the two sites on a map.
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Whose Anchor Is Buried North of the Flagler Beach Pier? Flagler Beach, Florida · 4 clues
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Whose Anchor Is Buried North of the Flagler Beach Pier? Flagler Beach, Florida
Five feet or eight?
FlaglerLive's story calls it a roughly five-foot anchor, but the LAMP measurements in that same story put its overall length at 2.49 meters. That works out to about 8 feet 2 inches, so the measured number is the one to go by.
How it was found: Converted LAMP's recorded measurements and compared them with the size given in the article text.
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Whose Anchor Is Buried North of the Flagler Beach Pier? Flagler Beach, Florida
It surfaced in a calm week, not a storm
FlaglerLive reported that the sand loss north of the pier wasn't tied to any storm, and that there was talk of unusual tides linked to the moon. When I checked, the full moon came on the night of Aug. 11, 2022, three days after the anchor was found. The big erosion from Hurricane Nicole didn't come until that November.
How it was found: Checked U.S. Naval Observatory moon phases for August 2022 against the find date and the storm timeline.
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Whose Anchor Is Buried North of the Flagler Beach Pier? Flagler Beach, Florida
More 1800s pieces surfaced nearby that year
After Hurricane Nicole, erosion uncovered old pier pilings at North 22nd Street in Flagler Beach and the timbers of a wooden ship at Daytona Beach Shores, which state archaeologists believe was a merchant ship from the late 1800s. That's the same century LAMP estimated for the anchor. No one has tied the anchor to that wreck, and LAMP pointed out that anchors were often cut loose and lost on their own.
How it was found: Lined up the other 2022 beach finds in this database with LAMP's date estimate for the anchor.
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Whose Anchor Is Buried North of the Flagler Beach Pier? Flagler Beach, Florida
LAMP has put a name to a mystery like this before
The same FlaglerLive story recalls LAMP's work on the Crescent Beach wreck, which erosion exposed in 2020. By studying how it was built and which ships sank in that area, they identified it as likely, though not certainly, the Caroline Eddy, which left Fernandina Beach in 1880 and sailed into a hurricane. So a name for the anchor's ship isn't impossible, but it would take records or another find to get there.
How it was found: Followed the Crescent Beach comparison in the FlaglerLive article back to this database's Crescent Beach case.
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The Bones at Toscana Palm Coast, Florida · 2 clues
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The Bones at Toscana Palm Coast, Florida
The sheriff's read on the scene changed between July and October
The bone turned up while crews were building a new emergency exit near the development's southern end, and the first bone went to UCF's anthropology department to confirm it was human. In July 2022 the sheriff said it wasn't clear whether he died there or whether the dirt work moved him, since crews had been shifting soil for a retention pond and utilities. By October the sheriff said he was about 99 percent sure the death happened where the remains were found, and that it was not a historical find.
How it was found: Compared the sheriff's July 2022 comments in the Palm Coast Observer with his October 2022 comments in FlaglerLive.
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The Bones at Toscana Palm Coast, Florida
The newest of only four unidentified people NamUs lists for Flagler
When I searched NamUs, it listed just four unidentified people recovered in Flagler County. He's the most recent. Two of the others, the 1980 man found off State Road 11 and the 1993 Palm Coast woman, are also on this site. Investigators have not said any of these cases are connected.
How it was found: Searched NamUs unidentified persons by county of recovery (Flagler) and checked each result against this database.
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Off the Grid: Anthony Toth Palm Coast, Florida · 3 clues
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Off the Grid: Anthony Toth Palm Coast, Florida
Two last-seen dates are floating around
The Sheriff's Office gives November 17, 2021 as the day Anthony was last seen. Missing-person databases like the Charley Project use May 28, 2021 instead. We go with the Sheriff's date. The Charley Project gives his birthday as May 22, 1966, so he was 55 either way. If you saw him anywhere between those two dates, that matters too.
How it was found: Compared the FCSO case page with the Charley Project entry and a public missing-persons listing.
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Off the Grid: Anthony Toth Palm Coast, Florida
Bald or brown hair, and two nicknames
One public missing-persons listing describes his hair as bald, while the Charley Project says brown. The Charley Project also lists two nicknames, "Chubby" and "Home Slice Jackson," which someone who met him on the road might recognize faster than his given name.
How it was found: Read the description fields of both database entries side by side.
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Off the Grid: Anthony Toth Palm Coast, Florida
How far the two possible destinations are
The Charley Project says he may have headed to Ocala or the North Carolina mountains. I mapped both from Forsythe Lane: Ocala is about 83 road miles away, and Asheville, in the heart of the North Carolina mountains, is about 500 road miles away.
How it was found: Measured OSRM driving routes on OpenStreetMap from Forsythe Lane to central Ocala and to Asheville, NC.
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Is the Crescent Beach Wreck the Caroline Eddy? Crescent Beach, Florida · 4 clues
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Is the Crescent Beach Wreck the Caroline Eddy? Crescent Beach, Florida
Every sailor made it off
This is easy to miss: LAMP's first write-up says the newspaper accounts it found describe the Caroline Eddy being driven south in the storm and breaking apart offshore, with all of the crew surviving. So if this is her, the dune holds a ship, not a grave.
How it was found: Read LAMP's original November 2020 announcement alongside its 2021 follow-up.
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Is the Crescent Beach Wreck the Caroline Eddy? Crescent Beach, Florida
The storm that matches the log
NOAA's hurricane database shows the fourth storm of 1880 coming ashore near Cocoa Beach on the morning of August 29 with about 105 mph winds, then crossing the peninsula toward the Gulf. By the early hours of August 30, when LAMP says the big wave hit the Caroline Eddy, the database puts the center inland roughly 100 miles southwest of Crescent Beach. That fits a ship caught on the storm's northern side and pushed down the coast.
How it was found: Pulled storm AL041880 from NOAA's HURDAT2 file and measured from its 6-hour positions to the Crescent Beach site.
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Is the Crescent Beach Wreck the Caroline Eddy? Crescent Beach, Florida
The keeper's date and the wreck date are a day apart
The lighthouse log entry LAMP cites is dated August 29, 1880, and places a wreck about nine miles south of the light. LAMP's 2021 story has the Caroline Eddy hit by the wave shortly after midnight on August 30. A late-night storm could explain a log entry and a wreck on back-to-back dates, but nobody has published the full log page to show it.
How it was found: Lined up the dates in LAMP's 2020 and 2021 posts.
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Is the Crescent Beach Wreck the Caroline Eddy? Crescent Beach, Florida
Which storm uncovered it depends on who you ask
NBC News credits Tropical Storm Eta, and LAMP's 2020 post says the timbers showed up after a tropical storm. LAMP's 2021 follow-up instead describes heavy nor'easter erosion and says the wood first showed the day before someone called the museum. LAMP could clarify which storm did the digging.
How it was found: Compared how each source describes the storm and the timing of the find.
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The Truck at Waterfront Park Palm Coast, Florida · 3 clues
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The Truck at Waterfront Park Palm Coast, Florida
What he was wearing
The missing person listing describes his last known clothes: a dark shirt with an angel-like figure holding a sword pointed down, dark jeans, and white sneakers with dark accents. He wears glasses and has tattoos on his forearms and back. That shirt is the kind of detail someone might remember.
How it was found: Pulled the clothing details from the Charley Project entry, which lists FDLE and NamUs among its sources.
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The Truck at Waterfront Park Palm Coast, Florida
His last evening, hour by hour
Fox 35 reported he was at Froggy's Saloon from about 3:30 to 9:30 p.m. on February 5, then showed up on camera buying cigarettes at a nearby Circle K. The next morning the truck rolled into Waterfront Park in Palm Coast, about 30 miles and roughly 45 minutes up the road.
How it was found: Put the times from the Fox 35 report on a map and ran the drive on OpenStreetMap routing.
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The Truck at Waterfront Park Palm Coast, Florida
His wallet and phone stayed in the truck
He moved down from Scotia, New York. When the truck was found, his wallet and cell phone were inside, and the truck had been in the park since about February 6. That means it sat in a public park for weeks before complaints brought deputies out to it.
How it was found: Lined up the Charley Project entry with the sheriff's timeline.
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Last Seen on Palm Coast Parkway Palm Coast, Florida · 3 clues
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Last Seen on Palm Coast Parkway Palm Coast, Florida
His birth date and age don't add up
The Charley Project lists his date of birth as Aug. 5, 1966 and his age as 42. Those two don't match: someone born in 1966 would have been 52 in February 2019. The Sheriff's Office case page gives no age or birth date, so FCSO is the one that could confirm which is right.
How it was found: Compared the Charley Project's birth date and listed age against the date he went missing and the FCSO case page.
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Last Seen on Palm Coast Parkway Palm Coast, Florida
Avenue or Parkway?
FCSO says the relative he visited lived on Hernandez Avenue in Palm Coast, while the Charley Project says Hernandez Parkway. It's a small difference, but for anyone who remembers seeing him in that neighborhood, the Sheriff's Office version is the agency's own record.
How it was found: Compared the street name on the FCSO case page with the Charley Project entry.
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Last Seen on Palm Coast Parkway Palm Coast, Florida
One of only four on the county list
FCSO's cold case list has just four open missing-person cases. Three of them are men from Palm Coast cases logged within about three years: Michael in 2019, Daniel Kriz in 2020 and Anthony Toth in 2021. The Sheriff's Office has not said these cases are connected, and their circumstances are different. It does show how few long-term missing cases the county carries, and that Michael's is one of them.
How it was found: Went through every case on FCSO's cold case index and matched it to the cases in this database.
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Last Seen in a Light Blue Robe Fort Myers, Florida · 4 clues
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Last Seen in a Light Blue Robe Fort Myers, Florida
The 'central Fort Myers' sightings have addresses
The vague 'possible sightings' come down to two spots. The Charley Project says that three days after she left, a Taco Bell employee in the 3400 block of South Cleveland Avenue recognized her from the missing posters, still in the same clothes. A 2017 Crime Stoppers appeal also named the area of Colonial Boulevard and Plantation Road.
How it was found: Cross-checked the Charley Project write-up with the archived 2017 FOX 4 Crime Stoppers story.
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Last Seen in a Light Blue Robe Fort Myers, Florida
Both sightings are across the river
She lived in North Fort Myers, and both reported sightings are south of the Caloosahatchee River. By road it is about 3.7 miles just from the north end of the downtown Caloosahatchee Bridge to that Taco Bell, and about 3 more miles by road from there to Colonial and Plantation. She left on foot without her purse or money, so anyone who noticed a woman in a light blue robe making that trip in early January 2017 could help.
How it was found: Ran OSRM driving routes on OpenStreetMap between the bridge, the Taco Bell and the Colonial/Plantation intersection.
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Last Seen in a Light Blue Robe Fort Myers, Florida
The reward and the number to call
The 2017 appeal says Southwest Florida Crime Stoppers tips could earn a cash reward of up to $1,000, and gives the line as 1-800-780-TIPS (8477), plus the P3 Tips app. That line isn't on the FBI poster, which lists the Lee County detective directly.
How it was found: Compared the archived 2017 Crime Stoppers appeal with the contacts on the 2023 FBI alert.
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Last Seen in a Light Blue Robe Fort Myers, Florida
Small differences in how she's described
The FBI alert says light blue robe, long shorts and flip-flops, and a rose tattoo on her right shoulder. The 2017 appeal says her boyfriend described shorts and a tank top, and calls the tattoo a flower. The Charley Project lists the robe and a tank top together and notes she also left her dentures behind, a detail that could matter if someone thinks they've seen her.
How it was found: Lined up the clothing and marks in the FBI alert, the 2017 appeal and the Charley Project.
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Who Killed John Stubbs? Bunnell, Florida · 3 clues
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Who Killed John Stubbs? Bunnell, Florida
Early-morning sounds, a mid-morning discovery
FCSO's page says he was found early in the morning. Same-day local reporting says someone from the neighborhood found him around 10 a.m., and that sounds like firecrackers had been heard in the area earlier that morning. If those sounds were the shooting, there may be a few hours between them and the discovery, and anyone up and about on East Drain Street in that window could matter.
How it was found: Compared the FCSO case page wording with FlaglerLive's same-day report.
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Who Killed John Stubbs? Bunnell, Florida
The backyard was his own
FCSO describes the backyard of a home on East Drain Street. The Palm Coast Observer's report the same day says he was found outside his own doorstep, so this happened at his home, not somewhere he was passing through. The Bunnell city manager said that day that it appeared to be a homicide while they waited for FDLE and the medical examiner.
How it was found: Matched the location wording on the FCSO page against both 2015 news reports.
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Who Killed John Stubbs? Bunnell, Florida
The newest entries on Flagler's unsolved list
On FCSO's unsolved homicide list, the two newest cases are both from 2015: John Stubbs in November, and George Contos, reported missing that May, whose car turned up in Palm Coast and whom FCSO believes was killed. Nothing newer is on the homicide list. Investigators have not said the two cases are connected.
How it was found: Read the FCSO Cold Case index, sorted the unsolved homicides by year, and opened the Contos case page.
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What Happened to George Contos? Bunnell, Florida · 3 clues
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What Happened to George Contos? Bunnell, Florida
The reward changed over time
In May 2015 the reported rewards were $2,500 for help finding him and up to $7,500 for an arrest and conviction if foul play was involved. By the 2018 Cold Justice episode, the Sheriff's Office was citing a Crime Stoppers reward of up to $5,000 for information leading to an arrest. The current case page doesn't list an amount.
How it was found: Compared reward figures in the 2015 news report, the 2018 sheriff's release and today's case page.
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What Happened to George Contos? Bunnell, Florida
Two different report dates
The case page says he was reported missing May 17, 2015 and his car was found May 20. The sheriff's own 2018 release says the family filed the missing person report on May 20. The 2015 coverage says the family asked for a welfare check on May 17.
How it was found: Lined up the dates in the case page, the 2018 release and the 2015 news report.
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What Happened to George Contos? Bunnell, Florida
Details that could jog a memory
The 2015 description: 5'11", about 240 pounds, a prosthetic left leg, and diabetic. His white four-door Lincoln had Florida plates and was found off Palm Coast Parkway east of Pine Lakes Parkway. Family said he had last been in contact May 7, and he was reportedly last seen May 9 in Palm Coast's F Section.
How it was found: Pulled the full description from the original 2015 missing person report.
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Who Killed Dennie Cayton? Palm Coast, Florida · 3 clues
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Who Killed Dennie Cayton? Palm Coast, Florida
The timeline in days
When you count it out, about 25 days passed between the date investigators think he was killed (around December 17, 2012) and the day he was found (January 11, 2013). His name wasn't released until June 24, 2013, roughly six months after his death.
How it was found: Counted the days between the dates on the sheriff's case page and the 2013 identification report.
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Who Killed Dennie Cayton? Palm Coast, Florida
Three detectives in the public record
The 2013 report names Detective Annie Conrad, the 2014 anniversary appeal names Detective Nate Koep, and the case was reopened in 2020 by Detective Andrew Cangialosi, the agency's first full-time cold case detective. Tips today go through the main FCSO line or Crime Stoppers.
How it was found: Compared the contacts listed in each official appeal from 2013 to 2020.
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Who Killed Dennie Cayton? Palm Coast, Florida
The reward has stayed at $5,000
Every appeal I found, in 2013, 2014 and 2020, offers the same thing: anonymous tips through Crime Stoppers of Northeast Florida at 888-277-TIPS can earn up to $5,000.
How it was found: Checked the reward wording in each appeal.
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The Yellow Cobalt on Franklin Street Ocoee, Florida · 4 clues
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The Yellow Cobalt on Franklin Street Ocoee, Florida
The bar was in Orlando, about 8 miles from where her car turned up
The FBI ViCAP alert says the Florida Tap Room on Raleigh Street was "in Ocoee," but OpenStreetMap places that stretch of Raleigh Street in MetroWest, inside Orlando. The Charley Project and the West Orange Times also describe it as Orlando/MetroWest. By road, Raleigh Street to Franklin Street in Ocoee is about 8 miles, around 15 minutes without traffic. The Charley Project adds that the spot where the car was found was about 3 miles from the home she shared with her parents.
How it was found: Geocoded Raleigh Street and Franklin Street in OpenStreetMap and ran an OSRM driving route between them.
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The Yellow Cobalt on Franklin Street Ocoee, Florida
Morning or evening? The car's timing doesn't match everywhere
The FBI alert and the Charley Project both say her car was found at 7 p.m. on May 27, 2009. The West Orange Times' 2026 story says it was found in the morning that day. Its 2020 story says Ocoee police opened the investigation on May 26, 2009, which is the night she was still at the bar. Ocoee police could clear up the exact timeline.
How it was found: Compared the dates and times in the FBI alert, the Charley Project entry and two West Orange Times stories.
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The Yellow Cobalt on Franklin Street Ocoee, Florida
Details from the FBI alert that could jog a memory
The ViCAP alert gives her car's Florida plate, J051EC, on a yellow 2002 Chevrolet Cobalt. It also lists identifying details that aren't on most posters: pierced ears, tongue and navel. The Charley Project says the phone that disappeared with her was a Verizon LG Voyager.
How it was found: Read the full text of the FBI ViCAP alert and the Charley Project entry for identifiers not in the news coverage.
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The Yellow Cobalt on Franklin Street Ocoee, Florida
Who is working it now, and the reward
Retired Ocoee detective Michelle Grogan now works the case for the department. She re-examined the evidence and sent items to FDLE for DNA, which is now going through genetic genealogy. The 2026 lake search used Sunshine State Sonar, a volunteer group whose team included a trained search otter named Splash. Crimeline tipsters can get up to $5,000 if their information leads to a felony arrest, and FOX 35 reported in 2026 that the $5,000 reward still stands.
How it was found: Combined the 2020 and 2026 West Orange Times stories with FOX 35's 2026 report.
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The Belongings Under the Bridge Palm Coast, Florida · 3 clues
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The Belongings Under the Bridge Palm Coast, Florida
Everything went quiet in early 2007
When you line up the dates, her trail goes quiet within about three months. Family last spoke to her around December 2006 or January 2007 (the official date is Jan. 3), her license, a health insurance card and a check made out to her turned up near the Hammock Dunes Bridge on Jan. 25, and Social Security stopped her payments in March 2007 because it had no forwarding address. She wasn't reported missing until September 2008, about 20 months later.
How it was found: Put the dates from the Charley Project entry and the FCSO case page on one timeline.
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The Belongings Under the Bridge Palm Coast, Florida
Details that could help identify her
The Charley Project lists details that aren't on the FCSO page and could help match her to unidentified remains: she was born Jan. 2, 1961, two or three toes were missing from her right foot, and part of her right calf had been removed because of infections. She usually used a wheelchair or walker.
How it was found: Compared the identifying details in the Charley Project entry with the FCSO case page.
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The Belongings Under the Bridge Palm Coast, Florida
The oldest open missing case on the county list
FCSO's cold case list has just four open missing-person cases, and Patricia's, from 2008, is the oldest and the only woman. One practical note: the Charley Project still lists 386-586-4823 for the Sheriff's Office, but the current case page says to call the non-emergency line at 386-313-4911.
How it was found: Went through FCSO's cold case index and compared the contact numbers on the FCSO page and the Charley Project entry.
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The Disappearance of Brandon Swanson Taunton, Minnesota · 2 clues
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The Disappearance of Brandon Swanson Taunton, Minnesota
Taunton and Porter sit on the usual way home
I mapped the drive from Canby to Marshall. The fastest route, about 30 miles on Highway 68, runs straight through Porter and Taunton, the area where cell records placed Brandon. Lynd, where he thought he was, sits about 6 miles off that route, southwest of Marshall, and about 17 miles from Taunton in a straight line.
How it was found: Built an OSRM driving route on OpenStreetMap from Canby to Marshall and measured how far Taunton, Porter and Lynd are from it.
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The Disappearance of Brandon Swanson Taunton, Minnesota
An overcast, chilly night with the moon hidden
During the call, roughly 2 to 2:50 a.m., the Marshall airport weather station, about 15 miles east of Taunton, reported solid overcast at about 3,500 feet, a temperature around 45 degrees, a north-northwest wind near 10 mph and no rain. The moon was a bit more than three-quarters full but set at 3:21 a.m., and the sky only cleared after about 3:30. That fits a very dark walk across open fields.
How it was found: Pulled the archived KMML airport observations for May 14, 2008, and the U.S. Naval Observatory moon table for that date and place.
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Into the Bar, Never Out Columbus, Ohio · 3 clues
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Into the Bar, Never Out Columbus, Ohio
The weather that night
Light rain passed over Columbus between about 10 and 11:15 p.m. on March 31, 2006, then cleared. At 1:53 a.m., minutes before Brian's last camera sighting, the Ohio State University Airport station reported clear skies, 54 degrees and a light wind, with no rain falling.
How it was found: Pulled the archived hourly airport observations for the OSU and Columbus airports for that night.
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Into the Bar, Never Out Columbus, Ohio
The $100,000 reward and a short walk home
Our timeline only says a reward was offered in 2006. Dateline's May 2006 report put it at $100,000 and said his apartment was only about half a dozen blocks from the bar. Columbus police could confirm whether any reward is still active.
How it was found: Read the original May 2006 Dateline report in full.
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Into the Bar, Never Out Columbus, Ohio
One way out without a camera
Dateline reported that both bar exits and the escalator to the street had cameras, but that a service exit led into an area under construction. That is the clearest public description I found of a route the cameras did not cover. Police have not said publicly that he used it.
How it was found: Read the original May 2006 Dateline report in full.
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The Drive to Work That Never Ended Orlando, Florida · 3 clues
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The Drive to Work That Never Ended Orlando, Florida
The person in the video was shorter than Jennifer
Case summaries say the FBI was asked to help size up the person seen parking her car and could only estimate 5'3" to 5'5", with no way to tell gender. Jennifer was 5'7", per the FBI's own alert. The Charley Project adds that the person wore clothes like a painter or manual worker. Neither detail is on the current FBI or FDLE releases, so FDLE is the agency that could confirm them.
How it was found: Compared the height estimate in Wikipedia and the Charley Project with the height on the FBI ViCAP alert.
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The Drive to Work That Never Ended Orlando, Florida
FDLE's 2026 release adds identifying marks
FDLE's 20th-anniversary release describes a quarter-sized shamrock tattoo on her left hip, a surgical scar on the inside of her left elbow, and a defined cleft chin. The 2023 FBI poster lists only the shamrock tattoo and places it a little lower. The scar and chin are details someone might actually remember.
How it was found: Read the FDLE January 2026 release side by side with the FBI ViCAP alert PDF.
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The Drive to Work That Never Ended Orlando, Florida
One summary is off by a day
The FBI alert and FDLE both use Jan. 24, 2006 as the date of last contact, and Wikipedia puts her last calls on the evening of Jan. 23 (her dad around 6:15 p.m., her boyfriend around 10 p.m.). The Charley Project's write-up instead puts the 10 p.m. call on Jan. 24 and has her leaving for work the next morning, even though its own header says missing since Jan. 24. The official dates line up with the night of the 23rd.
How it was found: Checked the date and time of the last call across the FBI alert, the FDLE release, Wikipedia and the Charley Project.
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The Crash on Route 112 Haverhill, New Hampshire · 3 clues
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The Crash on Route 112 Haverhill, New Hampshire
It had been fully dark for two hours
The crash was logged at about 7:30 p.m. When I looked up that date for Haverhill, the sun set at 5:08 p.m. and twilight was gone by 5:38, so it had been fully dark for nearly two hours. The moon was 88% full, but it didn't rise until 8:56 p.m., almost an hour and a half after the crash.
How it was found: Checked U.S. Naval Observatory sun and moon data for the crash area on Feb. 9, 2004 against the time in the FBI's ViCAP alert.
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The Crash on Route 112 Haverhill, New Hampshire
A bitter cold night on deep snow
The closest NOAA weather station with records for that day, Benton 5 SW, sits roughly 7 miles south of the crash area. Its report for Feb. 9, 2004 shows a high of 13°F, a low of -2°F and about 7 inches of snow on the ground, after roughly 3.5 inches fell over the two days before. That lines up with the snow-covered roads described in the ViCAP alert.
How it was found: Pulled the NOAA daily record for the nearest station that reported on Feb. 9, 2004 and compared it with the ViCAP alert.
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The Crash on Route 112 Haverhill, New Hampshire
Dental work on the FBI poster
The 2024 ViCAP alert lists a detail most write-ups skip: besides dimples on both cheeks, she has fillings and crowns, the kind of thing that helps match dental records. The alert also says its photos of Maura were taken in 2003 or 2004, so they show her within a year or so of when she went missing.
How it was found: Read the full text of the FBI's 2024 ViCAP alert PDF and compared it with the case pages.
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Found After 22 Years: Mary Lou Combs Palm Coast, Florida · 3 clues
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Found After 22 Years: Mary Lou Combs Palm Coast, Florida
Her case number, saved by the Wayback Machine
Now that the case is closed, FCSO's cold case page for her is gone and she's off the unsolved list. An archived 2023 copy still shows it: the page title reads case 03-22975, while the case card and tip form on the same page read 03-33975. FCSO would be the one to say which is right, but either one helps when asking for records.
How it was found: Found the archived FCSO page on the Wayback Machine after the live page returned not found, then read the title, card and tip form.
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Found After 22 Years: Mary Lou Combs Palm Coast, Florida
About two miles from where her car was found
The same FCSO card lists Armand Beach Drive in Palm Coast as the location for her disappearance. By road that's about 2 miles from 18th Road, where divers found her car in the Intracoastal in 2025, and under 2 miles in a straight line. She was found remarkably close to where she was last known to be.
How it was found: Located both streets in OpenStreetMap and ran an OSRM driving route between them.
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Found After 22 Years: Mary Lou Combs Palm Coast, Florida
August 1 or August 19?
FCSO says she was last seen Aug. 19, 2003, and its old card says she was reported after her family hadn't seen her for more than six weeks, which fits the Oct. 9 report. The Charley Project lists her as missing since Aug. 1, 2003. The Sheriff's Office dates are the ones to go by.
How it was found: Compared the dates on the FCSO release, the archived FCSO card and the Charley Project entry.
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The Passenger Seat Ocala, Florida · 3 clues
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The Passenger Seat Ocala, Florida
More identifying marks than the FBI poster shows
The FBI alert lists the tooth gap, the chipped tooth, the ankle rod and a pierced nostril. The Charley Project, which cites NamUs and FDLE, adds a faded burn scar on her left cheek, a scar on her right cheek, scars on both arms, a rod that runs into her lower right leg, and a skeleton ring she was wearing. Those are details a person or a medical examiner could actually match.
How it was found: Compared the FBI ViCAP poster with the Charley Project entry and its listed sources.
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The Passenger Seat Ocala, Florida
A South Dakota note nobody explains
The Charley Project says she may be in South Dakota. Nothing in the FBI alert mentions another state, and no official source I opened explains where that came from. The Ocala Police Department (case 03-012296) is the agency that could confirm or rule it out.
How it was found: Read the Charley Project entry against the FBI alert to see what each one says about where she might be.
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The Passenger Seat Ocala, Florida
The age math doesn't fit 49
Her published birth date is March 19, 1955. That makes her 48 on both April 7 and April 12, 2003; she would not have turned 49 until March 2004. So the FBI's age of 49 doesn't line up with either reported date, which is one more reason to ask Ocala police which records are current.
How it was found: Did the birthday arithmetic using the date of birth on the Charley Project and the dates on the FBI alert.
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The Shooting at the Elm Avenue Rail Crossing Bunnell, Florida · 3 clues
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The Shooting at the Elm Avenue Rail Crossing Bunnell, Florida
The crossing is on the FEC main line
The Elm Avenue crossing is federal crossing number 271910T, an at-grade public crossing on the Florida East Coast Railway. Its inventory records show regular traffic. A 1980 record lists 16 through trains a day, a 2011 record lists 10, and a 2018 record lists 21, with timetable speeds of 60 to 65 mph. Stopping there for a train was an everyday thing. The federal coordinates put the crossing a bit southeast of downtown Bunnell, not right in the center of town.
How it was found: Looked up every Bunnell crossing in the FRA Highway-Rail Crossing Inventory and read the Elm Avenue records from 1980, 2011 and 2018.
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The Shooting at the Elm Avenue Rail Crossing Bunnell, Florida
Another unsolved Bunnell shooting is about half a mile away
John Stubbs was found shot behind a home on East Drain Street in Bunnell in 2015, and his case is also on this site. On the map, East Drain Street is well under a mile from the Elm Avenue crossing, roughly half a mile. The two cases are 14 years apart, and investigators have never said they are connected.
How it was found: Measured the distance between the FRA coordinates for the crossing and East Drain Street in OpenStreetMap.
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The Shooting at the Elm Avenue Rail Crossing Bunnell, Florida
What still hasn't been made public
Beyond the date, the place and the two calibers, the Sheriff's Office hasn't released much. The case page doesn't give the time of day, which way the train was going, what kind of vehicle Stanton was in, or what the passenger told deputies. The only description of the two men is their race and sex, with no height, clothing or getaway details. The FCSO Cold Case Unit is the agency that could confirm any of it.
How it was found: Read the FCSO case page and cold case index for every detail released, and searched for news coverage, which turned up none.
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Who Killed Prosecutor Tom Wales? Seattle, Washington · 3 clues
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Who Killed Prosecutor Tom Wales? Seattle, Washington
The gun had a rare replacement barrel
There's a second FBI file on this case that's easy to miss. It says forensic scientists determined the weapon was a Makarov semi-automatic pistol fitted with an aftermarket stainless steel barrel with six lands and grooves and a left twist. Only a limited number of those barrels were sold in the U.S., so investigators have been trying to find and test-fire as many as they can. Over the years they've also run ads in gun-industry publications.
How it was found: Opened the separate "Information on Makarov Pistol" PDF attached to the FBI listing and matched it with NPR's 2011 and AP's 2021 coverage.
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Who Killed Prosecutor Tom Wales? Seattle, Washington
The sketch has two details worth remembering
The FBI page just says it released a sketch. AP's 2021 report adds that the man in it had a chipped front tooth and was seen pulling a small nylon suitcase through Wales' neighborhood shortly before the shooting. The FBI's weapon flyer also names the neighborhood: Queen Anne.
How it was found: Compared the FBI poster and sketch with AP's description of the sketch and the FBI's weapon flyer.
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Who Killed Prosecutor Tom Wales? Seattle, Washington
One month to the day after 9/11
Wales was shot on October 11, 2001, exactly one month after the September 11 attacks, when authorities were still scrambling to respond to them. AP also noted that the U.S. attorney who took over the case in 2021 was the sixth one appointed since the killing. That's a lot of turnover for one case.
How it was found: Lined up the FBI's date with AP's 2021 report on the reward and the handoff to the Seattle office.
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The Call Before the Ballgame Plantation, Florida · 3 clues
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The Call Before the Ballgame Plantation, Florida
The game she planned to make
The Marlins played the Phillies at home that night, a 7:05 p.m. start at Pro Player Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 30, 2000. Case summaries say she took a call around 3 p.m. and expected to be back by 5:30 or 6, which would have left time to get to the 7:05 first pitch.
How it was found: Checked MLB's official schedule data for the Marlins' games that weekend.
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The Call Before the Ballgame Plantation, Florida
Where the car turned up, on the map
The Charley Project places the Tamarac shopping center near Pine Island Road and McNab Road, and says a family friend spotted the car. I mapped it: that corner is about 6 miles from central Plantation and about 4 miles from central Coral Springs, roughly between the two. The usual driving route from Plantation to Coral Springs, up University Drive, passes about a mile east of it.
How it was found: Placed the intersection named in the Charley Project entry on OpenStreetMap and compared it with an OSRM driving route between Plantation and Coral Springs.
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The Call Before the Ballgame Plantation, Florida
Her description differs between official flyers
The 2026 FBI ViCAP alert lists her at 100 pounds with sandy blonde hair and red highlights. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement flyer lists 110 pounds and blonde hair, and notes that its photo was age-progressed to 36. Plantation police could confirm which numbers come from the original report.
How it was found: Compared the description fields on the FBI ViCAP alert PDF and the FDLE missing person flyer.
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Dawn Petterson: Linked by a Bullet Palm Coast, Florida · 3 clues
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Dawn Petterson: Linked by a Bullet Palm Coast, Florida
Andrea Ford also went by another name
The sheriff's 2020 cold case announcement lists her as Andrea Ford, also known as Andrea Daniluk. The current case pages only use Ford. Someone who knew her by the other name might not connect today's case pages to her.
How it was found: Read the archived 2020 news release on the Wayback Machine and compared it with today's case pages.
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Dawn Petterson: Linked by a Bullet Palm Coast, Florida
"Same gun" or "similar ballistic characteristics"
Today's case pages say the same gun was used on both women. The 2020 release words it more carefully: both were shot with firearms sharing similar ballistic characteristics. The Sheriff's Office could clarify whether the link is a confirmed match to one weapon.
How it was found: Compared the wording in the 2020 release with the current Ford and Petterson pages.
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Dawn Petterson: Linked by a Bullet Palm Coast, Florida
The reward has a number
The case page just says a cash reward may be available. The 2020 release spells it out: tips through Crime Stoppers of Northeast Florida at 888-277-TIPS stay anonymous and can earn up to $5,000.
How it was found: Found the reward amount in the archived 2020 release.
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Andrea Ford: One Gun, Two Unsolved Murders Bunnell, Florida · 4 clues
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Andrea Ford: One Gun, Two Unsolved Murders Bunnell, Florida
"Same gun" today, "similar ballistics" in 2020
The Sheriff's Office case pages for Andrea and for Dawn Petterson now both say the same firearm was used. The October 2020 news release that launched the Cold Case Unit worded it more carefully: both women were shot with firearms "sharing similar ballistic characteristics." FCSO is the agency that could say what changed between the two descriptions.
How it was found: Compared the archived 2020 FCSO news release #192 with the current Ford and Petterson cold case pages.
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Andrea Ford: One Gun, Two Unsolved Murders Bunnell, Florida
Two roadsides about seven miles apart
I mapped both documented spots. The intersection of SR 100 and CR 302 west of Bunnell and the corner of Squash Blossom Trail and Seminole Woods Boulevard in Palm Coast are about 7 miles apart in a straight line, roughly 8 miles by road. Both women were from the Daytona Beach area, and the two scenes are about 27 and 19 road miles from downtown Daytona.
How it was found: Placed the intersections named on the FCSO case pages on OpenStreetMap and measured straight-line and OSRM driving distances.
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Andrea Ford: One Gun, Two Unsolved Murders Bunnell, Florida
Fall 1997 in this database: three Flagler cases in seven weeks
When you line up the Flagler cases on this site, Andrea's is the third FCSO cold case file from a seven-week stretch in fall 1997. An unidentified man, later named as Bruce McPhail, was found in the Intracoastal on Sept. 10, Robert Picard of the Mondex area was reported missing Sept. 20 with signs of foul play at his home, and Andrea was found Oct. 29. FCSO has only linked Andrea's case to Dawn Petterson's; it has not said these 1997 cases are connected.
How it was found: Sorted the Flagler County cases in this database by date and checked each against its FCSO cold case page.
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Andrea Ford: One Gun, Two Unsolved Murders Bunnell, Florida
The reward has been quoted at different amounts
The 2020 release said anonymous Crime Stoppers tipsters could be eligible for up to $5,000 on unsolved Flagler cases. When Bruce McPhail was identified in 2023, the tip notice for that case quoted up to $9,500. The Ford case page does not list an amount, so Crime Stoppers of Northeast Florida is the place to confirm what applies today.
How it was found: Compared the reward language in the 2020 FCSO release with the 2023 McPhail identification notice.
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Who Killed Bruce McPhail? Flagler Beach, Florida · 4 clues
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Who Killed Bruce McPhail? Flagler Beach, Florida
The old listing called him a likely local man
Before he had a name, the Doe Network listing (built from NamUs and Florida records) said the best leads suggested he was a local man. After the 2023 identification, detectives said Bruce had no known connection to Flagler County. The same old listing gives details I did not see on the FCSO page: he was found near Marker 11 in the Intracoastal, about 60 feet off an undeveloped shoreline, under medical examiner case 97-23-251.
How it was found: Pulled the archived Doe Network entry for the 1997 Flagler Beach John Doe and compared it with 2023 coverage of the identification.
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Who Killed Bruce McPhail? Flagler Beach, Florida
A boat in both records
The pre-2023 listing says investigators believed he was taken by boat to the spot where he was found. Othram's 2023 identification update describes Bruce as passionate about boats, and places the recovery northeast of the old Sea Ray Boats plant at 100 Sea Ray Drive, now Boston Whaler. FCSO has asked anyone who knew him in South Florida in the 1980s and 1990s to come forward.
How it was found: Read the archived unidentified-person listing next to Othram's identification update.
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Who Killed Bruce McPhail? Flagler Beach, Florida
Reward quoted at up to $9,500
Our case page only says Crime Stoppers tips may earn a reward. The 2023 identification notice put a number on it: up to $9,500 for anonymous tips through Crime Stoppers of Northeast Florida. In 2020 FCSO's release quoted up to $5,000 for unsolved cases, so Crime Stoppers is the place to confirm the current amount.
How it was found: Compared the reward wording in the 2023 Othram/FCSO notice and the 2020 FCSO release.
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Who Killed Bruce McPhail? Flagler Beach, Florida
One of three Flagler cases in seven weeks of 1997
Bruce was found on Sept. 10, 1997. Ten days later Robert Picard was reported missing from the Mondex area west of Bunnell, with signs of foul play in his home, and on Oct. 29 Andrea Ford was found shot beside SR 100. All three are still open FCSO files. The Sheriff's Office has not said these cases are connected.
How it was found: Sorted the Flagler County cases in this database by date and checked each against its FCSO cold case page.
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The Disappearance of Robert Picard Bunnell, Florida · 3 clues
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The Disappearance of Robert Picard Bunnell, Florida
The waterway case that wasn't him
FlaglerLive's 2014 story says that around the start of the 1997 investigation, a man's body found in the Intracoastal Waterway was ruled out as Picard by blood testing. This database also has the case of a man found in the Intracoastal at Flagler Beach on Sept. 10, 1997, identified in 2023 as Robert "Bruce" McPhail. The story doesn't name the body it means, so whether that was the McPhail case isn't confirmed. FCSO could say.
How it was found: Compared the 1997 details in FlaglerLive's 2014 story with the other September 1997 Flagler case in this database.
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The Disappearance of Robert Picard Bunnell, Florida
Three dates and two ages
FCSO's case page says he was reported missing on Sept. 20, 1997, while its case card and 2014 coverage say Sept. 30, and the Charley Project gives Sept. 1 as his missing-since date. FlaglerLive gave his age as 39 and said he'd been missing since October, but Charley's birth date of Oct. 20, 1959 makes him 37, which matches the age in the other 2014 coverage.
How it was found: Compared the dates and ages across the FCSO page, the 2014 news stories and the Charley Project entry.
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The Disappearance of Robert Picard Bunnell, Florida
His bike was still at home
The Charley Project says his bicycle, his usual way of getting around, was found by the back porch. It also gives a description that isn't on the FCSO page: 5'10", 150 pounds, blond hair and blue eyes.
How it was found: Compared the Charley Project entry with the FCSO case page.
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The Drive Home That Never Ended Flagler Beach, Florida · 4 clues
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The Drive Home That Never Ended Flagler Beach, Florida
Pointed home, about 20 miles short
Her car was on the northbound side of I-75 in Morrow, facing Atlanta. On an OpenStreetMap driving route, that spot is about 20 road miles, roughly half an hour, from Peachtree Battle Avenue, the Atlanta street the Charley Project lists as her home. So the car was found on the main interstate route into the city, near the end of the trip she had planned.
How it was found: Ran OSRM driving routes on OpenStreetMap data from the I-75 and Highway 54 area in Morrow to her listed street.
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The Drive Home That Never Ended Flagler Beach, Florida
About 400 road miles, mostly in daylight
The trip is often described as roughly 300 miles, but that's closer to the straight line, about 340 miles. The fastest driving route from Flagler Beach to Morrow runs about 400 miles by I-95, I-10 and I-75, roughly 7 to 7.5 hours. Leaving around 11:30 a.m., a straight-through drive would have reached Morrow before sunset there at 8:22 p.m.
How it was found: Measured the driving and straight-line distances with OSRM and checked U.S. Naval Observatory sunset times for Aug. 16, 1996.
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The Drive Home That Never Ended Flagler Beach, Florida
A nail, a tag and an exit
The Charley Project says the flat was caused by a nail in the right front tire and puts the car near Exit 76, between Macon and Atlanta. The GBI and Charley both list the Georgia tag as BKT664. The GBI's case card lists her last-seen time as 12:00, while its text says 11:30 a.m., and Charley gives the window as 11:30 to noon.
How it was found: Compared the GBI case page field by field with the Charley Project entry.
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The Drive Home That Never Ended Flagler Beach, Florida
What Gracie showed people
One of her two dogs, Gracie, survived and went to her sister; the other was killed in traffic. Witnesses said Gracie wandered along Valley Hill Road and Upper Riverdale Road near the Stratford Arms apartments in Riverdale, and a resident said she seemed to lead him toward woods across the street. Investigators searched there and found nothing tied to the case.
How it was found: Read the full Charley Project entry for details missing from the GBI page.
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The Beer Cans That Solved a 1996 Store Killing Orlando, Florida · 3 clues
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The Beer Cans That Solved a 1996 Store Killing Orlando, Florida
He was opening the store, not working overnight
Our summary calls him the lone overnight clerk, but two sources say something different. Othram's case write-up says he arrived between 5 and 6 a.m. to get ready for a 6 a.m. opening and was killed within a few hours. WFTV calls him the store manager and says he was getting ready to open for the day. Othram also notes he'd moved to Orlando only a few years earlier and worked 60-hour weeks.
How it was found: Compared how Othram, WFTV and NBC News each describe his job and the time of the attack.
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The Beer Cans That Solved a 1996 Store Killing Orlando, Florida
One bloodstain on a freezer handle did it
When you line up the timeline, the case was actually closed in 1997, reopened in 2003, and the DNA went into the FBI's CODIS database with no match. The break came from a bloodstain on a freezer handle in the store. FDLE explained that a vendor turned the sample into a data file that was uploaded to two public genealogy sites, Family Tree and GEDmatch, and the family tree pointed to one of three brothers.
How it was found: Combined the FDLE statements quoted by NBC News in 2021 with WFTV's 2023 account of the case history.
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The Beer Cans That Solved a 1996 Store Killing Orlando, Florida
Three versions of where the beer cans came from
NBC's 2021 arrest story says detectives watched Stough throw away beer cans at a Lake County gas station. WFTV in 2023 says they had put a GPS tracker on his car and saw him toss a bag of cans into a public dumpster in Eustis. NBC's 2023 verdict story says the cans were picked up outside his home in Eustis, and it also dates the arrest to March 2021, while the other sources say early November 2021. The trial record would settle it.
How it was found: Compared the arrest and DNA-collection details across the three news reports.
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Who Was the Woman on Sea Ship Place? Palm Coast, Florida · 4 clues
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Who Was the Woman on Sea Ship Place? Palm Coast, Florida
Her NamUs file has small details worth knowing
NamUs UP3037 lists her under Medical Examiner case 93-008. It describes the spot as palmetto scrub and lists a shoe with "Tennies" inside and size 7 1/2 on the sole, plus what was left of a pocket lining, a zipper and a faded clothing tag. NamUs estimates she was born between 1958 and 1968, while the Sheriff's release says 1955 to 1965. NamUs also records a near-complete skeleton, while the release says partial remains.
How it was found: Pulled the public NamUs record and compared each field with the FCSO release as published by FlaglerLive.
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Who Was the Woman on Sea Ship Place? Palm Coast, Florida
Sea Ship Place is at the far south end of Palm Coast
The Census Bureau's geocoder puts Sea Ship Place at about 29.43 N, 81.18 W, deep in the southern part of Palm Coast. That's about 11 miles south of the general Palm Coast point that NamUs uses for her case, and only about 5 miles from downtown Bunnell. Anyone thinking about who lived near there around 1990 should picture that end of town.
How it was found: Geocoded Sea Ship Pl with the U.S. Census Geocoder and measured straight-line distances to the NamUs map point and to Bunnell.
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Who Was the Woman on Sea Ship Place? Palm Coast, Florida
Her family's home ground is a day's drive away
Edgefield and Aiken, South Carolina, where DNA points her family line, are about 335 to 345 road miles from Palm Coast, roughly 6.5 to 7 hours by car. One of the relatives on the tree is a genealogist who specializes in African American family history in Edgefield, and she has been helping the detective. Crime Stoppers of Northeast Florida offers up to $5,000 for tips.
How it was found: Ran OSRM driving routes from Edgefield and Aiken to Palm Coast and read the full FCSO release text on FlaglerLive.
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Who Was the Woman on Sea Ship Place? Palm Coast, Florida
Same team, same tools as the 1980 Bunnell man
Nine months after her new image came out, the same Cold Case Unit used the same two partners, Othram for DNA and the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office Forensic Imaging Unit for the face, on the 1980 man found off State Road 11. In her case, DNA showed the original ancestry estimate was wrong. In his, the original estimate held up.
How it was found: Compared the February 2023 and November 2023 FCSO releases; both cases are in this database.
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Christy Mirack and the Wedding DJ East Lampeter Township, Pennsylvania · 3 clues
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Christy Mirack and the Wedding DJ East Lampeter Township, Pennsylvania
Seven months from a predicted face to a charge
The DA's Crime Stoppers page lays out the order. A Parabon DNA composite showing the unknown man at 25, 45 and 55 went public in November 2017. Genealogy matches to relatives followed, and on May 31, 2018 investigators collected gum and a water bottle Rowe used while working as a DJ. He was charged on June 25, 2018.
How it was found: Read the Lancaster County DA's Crime Stoppers 17-11 page and put its dates in order.
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Christy Mirack and the Wedding DJ East Lampeter Township, Pennsylvania
The confirming sample came from a school in the same township
The DA's office says the gum and water bottle were collected at Smoketown Elementary School, where Rowe was working as a DJ. On the map, that school sits on Old Philadelphia Pike in East Lampeter Township, the same township where Christy lived.
How it was found: Looked up the school named by the DA's office on OpenStreetMap.
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Christy Mirack and the Wedding DJ East Lampeter Township, Pennsylvania
What the 2022 ruling turned on
Rowe's petition asked to test items from the scene, including a cutting board, a toaster and clothing. After three hearings in August and September 2021, Judge Reinaker denied it, noting that touch DNA testing was already available before Rowe's 2019 guilty plea and that the record, including his own statements, did not support a claim of actual innocence.
How it was found: Read the DA's April 2022 release on the post-conviction ruling in full.
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Who Killed Tammy Zywicki? Utica, Illinois · 3 clues
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Who Killed Tammy Zywicki? Utica, Illinois
Police are asking about a woman who may have ridden with the trucker
The 2026 lead isn't anonymous. On their own tip page, Illinois State Police identify a woman, now deceased, who was known to hitchhike and may have traveled with the unknown trucker. They say plainly she is not a suspect. They want to hear from anyone who knew her between the late 1980s and the mid 1990s, especially in Southern California (Oceanside, Vista, Pomona, San Bernardino and Fontana). Her name and photos are on the Illinois State Police page, which is the place to start if you think you knew her.
How it was found: Read the Illinois State Police tip page in full and compared its spelling and details with KY3's August 2026 story.
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Who Killed Tammy Zywicki? Utica, Illinois
Almost 475 miles between her car and where she was found
Mile marker 83 is only about 105 road miles from Evanston, roughly a third of the way to Grinnell. Her body was found along I-44 in Lawrence County, Missouri, which is about 470 road miles and close to 9 hours of driving from that spot on I-80. She was found 9 days after she was last seen.
How it was found: Ran OSRM driving routes on OpenStreetMap data from Evanston to mile marker 83, then from mile marker 83 to Mount Vernon, Missouri, on I-44 in Lawrence County.
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Who Killed Tammy Zywicki? Utica, Illinois
The FBI page hasn't caught up with the new lead
The FBI's Seeking Information listing files the case under Lawrence County, Missouri, and the Chicago Field Office. It was last updated on September 3, 2026, but it still only describes the trucker and the missing camera, watch and patch, with no mention of the 2026 lead. If you only read the FBI poster, you'd miss the lead. The Illinois State Police tip page is the one that's current.
How it was found: Pulled the FBI listing through the FBI's public Wanted data feed, checked its location, field office and last-modified date, and compared it with the ISP page.
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The Springfield Three Springfield, Missouri · 3 clues
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The Springfield Three Springfield, Missouri
A moonless window that ended in daylight
The FBI puts the disappearance between about 2:15 and 7:30 a.m. When I looked up that night for Springfield, the moon had set at 12:54 a.m., so the first three hours of that window were moonless dark. Dawn light started at 5:22 a.m. and the sun rose at 5:53, so the last hour and a half or so was full daylight. NOAA's Springfield airport station logged a dry night with a low of 52°F.
How it was found: Checked U.S. Naval Observatory sun and moon data and the NOAA daily record for Springfield against the FBI's time window.
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The Springfield Three Springfield, Missouri
Identifying details on the police page
Springfield Police list details that aren't on the FBI poster: freckles on Sherrill's neck and upper chest, freckles on Stacy's face and a dimple in her chin, and a 3.5-inch scar on top of Suzie's right forearm. The police page also notes Suzie had no dental work, which matters for any dental comparison.
How it was found: Compared the Springfield Police case page with the FBI's 2022 ViCAP alert, line by line.
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The Springfield Three Springfield, Missouri
Records that don't quite match
The FBI's 2022 alert lists Suzie's height as 5'2" to 5'5", while Springfield Police list 5'2". The alert also names a direct contact that isn't on the police page: Lt. Bryan Welch of Springfield Police at 417-864-1751, along with FBI ViCAP at 800-634-4097.
How it was found: Read the full FBI ViCAP alert PDF and compared it with the Springfield Police page.
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The Unsolved Murder of Irene Firda Palm Coast, Florida · 3 clues
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The Unsolved Murder of Irene Firda Palm Coast, Florida
The older case card fills in her age and the timeline
An archived 2021 version of FCSO's case card says Irene was 68 and that she had been in the wood line for several weeks before she was found. So May 20, 1992 is the day she was found, not the day she went missing, and the real gap starts weeks earlier, after she was last seen leaving her Deltona home.
How it was found: Pulled the 2021 FCSO cold case page from the Wayback Machine and read its case card next to the current FCSO page.
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The Unsolved Murder of Irene Firda Palm Coast, Florida
Case number and street are written two ways
The 2021 card lists the case as #9242-92 and the street as Karen Place, with no photo of her. Today's page uses #92-9424, spells it Karren Place, and now shows her picture. Same case, digits shuffled; if you call in a tip, 92-9424 is the number FCSO uses now, and FCSO is the one who can confirm the exact spot.
How it was found: Compared the archived 2021 case card with the current FCSO case page line by line.
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The Unsolved Murder of Irene Firda Palm Coast, Florida
Two Palm Coast cases, eight months apart
About eight months after Irene was found, on Jan. 10, 1993, the remains of a still-unidentified woman turned up in brush on a vacant lot on Sea Ship Place, also in Palm Coast. FCSO estimates that woman died around 1991, before Irene. They are the two oldest Palm Coast homicides on FCSO's unsolved list. Investigators have not said the cases are connected.
How it was found: Lined up FCSO's unsolved homicide index with the 1993 Unidentified Female case page and compared dates and places.
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The Coach Next Door: Linda Slaten Lakeland, Florida · 2 clues
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The Coach Next Door: Linda Slaten Lakeland, Florida
Arrested Dec. 12, announced Dec. 18
Most retellings date the arrest to Dec. 18, 2019, but that's the day Lakeland police announced the murder charges. Per the arrest affidavit described by ABC Action News, detectives spoke with Mills on Dec. 4, and he was taken into custody on Dec. 12 on a separate warrant for two counts of perjury. The charges announced Dec. 18 also included burglary with assault and battery, on top of murder and sexual battery.
How it was found: Compared the arrest dates and charges in the FOX 13 and ABC Action News reports from Dec. 18, 2019, including the affidavit details.
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The Coach Next Door: Linda Slaten Lakeland, Florida
Fingerprints backed up the DNA
The genealogy lead and the trash DNA get the headlines, but fingerprints mattered too. FOX 13 reported that prints from an unrelated 1984 arrest were matched to the evidence, and the affidavit cited by ABC Action News says four fingerprints from the scene were matched to Mills in August 2019. Prints that had been on file since three years after the murder helped confirm a lead that took 38 years to find.
How it was found: Pulled the fingerprint detail from the two 2019 arrest reports and compared it with the DNA timeline.
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Buckskin Girl: Marcia King Troy, Ohio · 2 clues
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Buckskin Girl: Marcia King Troy, Ohio
A day-by-day timeline from 2019
A year after she was named, the Miami County Sheriff's Office laid out a more exact timeline. Detectives believe Marcia boarded a bus in the Little Rock area on April 6, 1981, headed to Louisville, and was in Louisville by April 10. They believe she was killed on April 22 and found on April 24. That leaves about 12 days between Louisville and Troy, which is about 170 road miles away.
How it was found: Found the Sheriff's Office 2019 update in Arkansas TV coverage and measured the Louisville to Troy drive on OpenStreetMap.
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Buckskin Girl: Marcia King Troy, Ohio
April 24 or April 28?
The Sheriff's Office timeline and 2018 Dayton-area coverage both say she was found April 24, 1981. The DNA Doe Project case page says April 28. Our page lists the month only. Her NamUs file (UP4790) or the Miami County Sheriff's Office could settle the exact date.
How it was found: Compared the discovery date across the DNA Doe Project page, the 2019 sheriff's timeline and 2018 news coverage.
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Pamela Kay Wittman: A Name After 43 Years Port Orange, Florida · 4 clues
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Pamela Kay Wittman: A Name After 43 Years Port Orange, Florida
Named months before the public knew
Genealogy for Justice says FHD Forensics identified her in March 2024. The sheriff's announcement didn't come until Oct. 17, 2024, and the marble marker at the site went up on Sept. 25, three weeks before the public heard her name.
How it was found: Lined up the identification date on the Genealogy for Justice case page with the sheriff's announcement and the marker date.
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Pamela Kay Wittman: A Name After 43 Years Port Orange, Florida
1979 or 1980?
Her case was always filed as a 1980 Jane Doe because she was found on Nov. 5, 1980, and news reports describe a 1980 killing. Genealogy for Justice's case page says she was about 25 at the time of her murder in 1979. I couldn't find a date of death made public by the Sheriff's Office, so it's the agency that could settle when she actually died.
How it was found: Compared the year of death on the Genealogy for Justice page with the year used by the sheriff's office and news coverage.
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Pamela Kay Wittman: A Name After 43 Years Port Orange, Florida
Martinsville, and a fund with its own Daytona story
The case page narrows her hometown to Martinsville, Indiana, and says she lived in Daytona Beach briefly as a child before coming back as an adult. Her identification was paid for by the Dean and Tina Linn Clouse Memorial Fund, named for a couple killed in Texas in 1980. Their families chose this case because Dean and Tina grew up in the Daytona Beach area, and Dean's brother placed Pamela's marker.
How it was found: Read the full Genealogy for Justice case page, which carries details the news coverage left out.
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Pamela Kay Wittman: A Name After 43 Years Port Orange, Florida
Where Stano said they met
WFTV reported that Stano claimed he met the then-unknown woman at a bar on Main Street. Investigator Bill Weaver, who reached her family after the DNA work, said she had moved from Indiana to start a new life in Daytona Beach.
How it was found: Compared the WFTV report with the sheriff's office release and other coverage.
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The Man on State Road 11 Bunnell, Florida · 4 clues
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The Man on State Road 11 Bunnell, Florida
His NamUs file has older, different numbers
He's in the national missing and unidentified database as NamUs UP4882, under Medical Examiner case 80-23-314. That file lists him as 22 to 28, about 5'9" and 160 pounds, with race marked "uncertain." The Sheriff's 2023 release says 20 to 27, 5'6" to 5'7" and 145 to 150 pounds. NamUs added a reconstruction image in June 2024 but still lists only the Medical Examiner, not the Sheriff's Cold Case Unit, as the agency.
How it was found: Pulled the public NamUs record and compared its estimates with the FCSO 2023 release.
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The Man on State Road 11 Bunnell, Florida
What he was wearing and what was found near him
NamUs lists dark blue slacks, size 34 Hanes underwear, a tank-style shirt, a brown or tan sweater with a long sash, and size 8 tennis shoes. Found near him were two yellow rubber boots, part of a leather belt, two rolls of electrical tape and yellow tape. A Texas hunting license belonging to another man was also found nearby. NamUs says attempts were made to rule that man out, but no conclusion was ever reached. NamUs also describes the culvert as being next to a dirt lane.
How it was found: Read the circumstances and clothing fields of the NamUs record.
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The Man on State Road 11 Bunnell, Florida
Two unidentified men found in Bunnell eight weeks apart in 1980
NamUs lists only four unidentified people found in Flagler County, and two are men found in Bunnell in spring 1980. The other one, UP928, was a hitchhiker struck by a tractor-trailer on April 3, 1980, a Florida Highway Patrol case. NamUs lists him as white. They are separate cases, but if you're searching old records, don't mix them up.
How it was found: Searched NamUs for unidentified persons recovered in Flagler County and opened each record.
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The Man on State Road 11 Bunnell, Florida
Same team, same tools as the 1993 Palm Coast woman
This is the second Flagler cold case in nine months where the Sheriff's Cold Case Unit used Othram for DNA and the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office Forensic Imaging Unit for a new face. The 1993 Palm Coast woman's release came out in February 2023 and his in November 2023. In her case, DNA showed the 1993 ancestry estimate was wrong. In his case, the 1980 description of a Black man in his 20s held up, and DNA added that his family may be from around Flagler County.
How it was found: Compared the two FCSO releases side by side; the 1993 case is also in this database.
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The Golden State Killer Sacramento, California · 4 clues
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The Golden State Killer Sacramento, California
The count grew after the arrest
The 2016 FBI appeal described at least 12 homicides and 45 rapes, with the first known attack in June 1976. The 2018 charges went back further: the first charged murder was in Visalia on September 11, 1975, nine months before that "first known" attack, for 13 murder counts in all. By sentencing, prosecutors counted 87 victims across 11 counties.
How it was found: Compared the 2016 reward appeal with the 2018 charging list and the 2020 sentencing coverage.
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The Golden State Killer Sacramento, California
The first charged murder was next door to his first police job
DeAngelo was an officer with the Exeter Police Department from 1973 to 1976. The first murder he was charged with, in September 1975, happened in Visalia, about 11 miles and a 15-minute drive from Exeter.
How it was found: Matched his work history with the charging list and ran the drive on OpenStreetMap routing.
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The Golden State Killer Sacramento, California
The 2016 description held up
The 2016 appeal described a white man about 5'9", 150 to 175 pounds in the 1970s, who would likely be 60 to 75 by then. DeAngelo was 72 when he was arrested two years later.
How it was found: Compared the FBI-era description with arrest coverage.
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The Golden State Killer Sacramento, California
A five-year gap at the end
After the first one in 1975, the charged murders cluster between 1978 and July 1981. Then there is a gap of almost five years until May 5, 1986 in Irvine, the last charged killing.
How it was found: Sorted the charged counts in the consolidation announcement by date and counted the gap.
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The Lady of the Dunes Provincetown, Massachusetts · 3 clues
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The Lady of the Dunes Provincetown, Massachusetts
Two weeks or several weeks?
Officials quoted in 2022 and 2023 said she was killed several weeks before she was found on July 26, 1974. The longer Wikipedia account says she may have died about two weeks before. That window matters for anyone placing her and her husband on Cape Cod that summer, and investigators have not released the full timeline.
How it was found: Compared the time-of-death wording in the WBUR and AP reports with the Wikipedia article.
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The Lady of the Dunes Provincetown, Massachusetts
The trip was to see her family in Tennessee
The 2023 AP report says the couple had traveled to Tennessee to visit her family a few months after they married, and that he came back from that trip driving what was believed to be her car. Wikipedia gives her birth as Sept. 8, 1936 in Whitwell, Tennessee, and the wedding date as Feb. 16, 1974, about five months before she was found. Whitwell sits about 950 miles in a straight line from the Provincetown dunes where she was found.
How it was found: Lined up the AP account of the trip with the birth and marriage details in Wikipedia.
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The Lady of the Dunes Provincetown, Massachusetts
The old age guess was close
For decades she was described as somewhere between 20 and 40 years old, with some summaries stretching it to 49. Once named, she turned out to be 37, inside the range investigators had used all along. What kept her nameless wasn't a bad description; it was the missing DNA match.
How it was found: Compared the original age estimate in WBUR and Wikipedia with her confirmed birth date.
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Otto Goodman: The Oldest Case on Volusia's Map Ormond Beach, Florida · 3 clues
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NewOtto Goodman: The Oldest Case on Volusia's Map Ormond Beach, Florida
Still record number one
When I pulled the Sheriff's Office cold case map data on Oct. 19, 2026, it held 51 records. Otto Goodman's is still record number one, and still the oldest year on the map.
How it was found: Queried the public map layer the Sheriff's Office publishes and checked the record count and Goodman's record.
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NewOtto Goodman: The Oldest Case on Volusia's Map Ormond Beach, Florida
It happened on a Sunday
October 15, 1967 fell on a Sunday. If you or your family were around Ormond Beach that weekend, that might help place the memory.
How it was found: Checked the weekday of the date the Sheriff's Office gives.
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NewOtto Goodman: The Oldest Case on Volusia's Map Ormond Beach, Florida
Two versions of the place
A crime-listing website puts this case at a different station on a different road. The Sheriff's Office's own record says the Standard Station at I-95 and State Road 40, so that's the version on this page.
How it was found: Compared the agency record with an unofficial listing; went with the agency.
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