--- advertisement ---

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

It's one of the most difficult tasks for any law enforcement agency: trying to rejuvenate a "cold case."

They seem nearly impossible to solve. Investigators know that Within only a few days of a victim disappearing or a victim's body being discovered that they will significantly diminish their chances of solving a case. If the case can't be solved right away or a lead doesn't materialize quickly, some crimes will likely remain open for quite some time.

Then there is another kind of case. It's the that investigators have a strong lead in or feel in their gut that they know who is responsible for a crime. They somehow just can't manage to tie it all together and make a strong case against their suspect. Bay County Sheriff Frank McKeithen says this is the type of case they've seen most often in their still open instances of missing and murdered women.

As an example McKeithen points to his oldest cold case, Joanne Benner. Benner was a 21 year old mother of two who, according to her husband Gary, vanished in the middle of the night without a trace from her Bayou George home.

"We're pretty much convinced that her husband was responsible for her disappearance," the Sheriff said.

Gary Benner was said to have behaved suspiciously right after Joanne's disappearance including removing sections of their carpet and asking friends to mail toys and letters back to his children pretending to be Joanne.

McKeithen says Benner's case is a perfect example of the problems law enforcement runs into when dealing with missing and murdered women.

"Unfortunately it's a case where there are absolutely no witnesses but we have submitted evidence as recently as last year trying to get some DNA matches for this case," said McKeithen.

Investigators are hoping with technological advances happening everyday that there will no longer be a "perfect crime." They're also hoping to use new DNA databases and updated fingerprint records like AFIS to put to rest their many "Cold Cases."

Under McKeithen's direction, Bay County created a Cold Case Task Force a few years ago to work these cases, many of which are women. There are 12 cases of missing and murdered women in Bay County alone. There are nearly 25 cases in our immediate area.

McKeithen says one factor contributing to the large number of women's cases is that the majority of the cases have suspects that are close to the victims. Those suspects were able to delay law enforcement's investigation of the crimes by either not reporting a disappearance for awhile or making attempts to clean up or destroy the crime scenes.

The rise in domestic violence reports have also lead McKeithen to be suspicious of the victim's family and friends.

"We talk a lot about 'Stranger Danger' but people take for granted that oftentimes it's their own surroundings and the people in it that they need to cautious of."

National attention for missing women- especially missing pregnant women like Lacey Peterson have brought cases like Benner's again to the front of our minds. McKeithen says he hopes they'll be able to solve his latest case to go cold- Beth Prescott in 2004- in a much quicker time frame than Benner's but you just never know. You have to keep working for that big break.

"There's a lot of work that goes into this. You can't just put them on the backburner. Sometimes they're certainly not as hot as they were [but] you have to keep them alive. You have to keep these investigations going."

The Cases - Missing and Murdered Women in Our Area

(If you have a picture or information for a missing case, please e-mail bsison@wmbb.com)

Bay County

1976 Joanne Benner
Joanne disappeared in May at the age of 21. Her body was never found. Circumstances lead detectives to believe she was the victim of foul play. Her husband Gary Benner was named a suspect but more then 30 years later they still can't make an arrest.


1979 Julie Snell
This 19-year-old woman was last seen alive at Breakers East on Beck Ave on Halloween night. She left the bar alone but was found strangled to death behind the bar next to the bay.


1982 Ok Sun Kim West
This 20-year-old Asian woman found dead on March 29th inside her burning trailer in Callaway. Her throat was later discovered to have been cut.


1983 Vivian Lee Edwards
This 32-year-old woman disappears in January from her Dolphin Drive home. Blood was found inside her home and five years later her body turned up in a wooded area of Walton County.


1986 Jacquelyn Brant
18-year-old Jacquelyn disappears from Panama City Beach in April. Her remains were found at the end of November that year in a wooded area off of Back Beach Road.


1986 Lois Johnson
On January 20th a man driving by the Downtown Panama City Post Office at 1 a.m. discovered the body of this 57-year-old woman lying in the road. Johnson had been shot to death as she was getting into her car.


1988 Margaret Gilbert
This 54-year-old woman was found stabbed to death in her Joan Avenue home on October 24th.


1992 Pamela Ray
Pamela was last seen in the parking lot of Wilhite Hotel that used to sit on Front Beach Road. On August 12th she came to vacation here from Georgia with her two children. Her children were found sleeping in her car abandoned outside the motel. Mark Reebee a DeFuniak Springs area resident confessed to the murder but then recanted.


1993 Victoria Patterson
32-year-old Victoria vanished without a trace in September of 1993. Her body was found hog tied 17 months later in a shallow grave off Highway 390 in a clay pitt. Investigators say her killer was likely someone she knew and someone that still lives in the area.


1999 Janet Lay
This 45-year-old woman was found stabbed to death inside her mobile home located on Skunk Valley Road after it was set on fire.


2004 Elizabeth Prescott
Beth disappeared from her apartment at Abalone Sr. Apartments on Tyndall Parkway at 19-years-old. She has not been seen from April 30th. Her husband of several months, Coy Prescott, has not been ruled out as a suspect. Investigators are having a difficult time tying anyone to a crime without a body.


(Also a Cold Case according to the State Attorney's Office: Veresta Thomas, 1982)

Jackson County

1989 Kathryn McRae
Found shot to death by a small caliber weapon on January 29th. Her husband Robert's body was also found shot to death inside their home located on State Road #2 Graceville, Florida.


1991 Teresa and Tiffany Hall
On December 9, 1991, Teresa Hall, 25-year-old mother and Tiffany Hall, 5-year-old daughter were brutally murdered at their residence located in Cypress, Florida.


2005 Danielle Baker and family
19-year-old black woman was found dead in her home along with the bodies of her three small children. Investigators have charged her ex-boyfriend Wesley Williams with the crime after he was indicted by a Grand Jury in late 2007.





Leon County

2007 Cheryl Dunlap
A nationally publicized case- this Crawfordville woman was discovered missing December 1. Her body was later found in the Apalachicola National Forest. Authorities are questioning Gary Hilton in connection with this case. Hilton came to their attention after he was arrested in another high profile murder of a young Georgia hiker, Meredith Emerson.




Holmes County

2002 Sharon Mills
On February 13 her body was found located in a drainage ditch at the intersection of County Road 173 and Lyons Lane located just north of Bonifay. The 51-year-old woman was last seen alive around December 30, 2001 when she allegedly traveled to Panama City. She was a resident of Dothan, Alabama for the last several years.


(Also a Cold Case according to the State Attorney's Office: Shirley Beagell, 2002)
Special Report by Bree Sison
 
To watch video online please click here to download the latest version of the Flash plugin.
 
To watch video online please click here to download the latest version of the Flash plugin.
 

The Rise of Violence in America
*according to "The Cold Case Concept" by Charles L. Regini of the FBI

  • 1960- 9,110 homicides were recorded
  • 1985- Department of Justice records 18,980 homicides
  • 1993- Department of Justice records 24,530 homicides
  • In 1985, 21 percent of Washington DC's homicides were drug-related; by 1988, that amount had risen to 80 percent.
  • Historically, homicide victims and killers usually have had some type of relationship. However, murders committed by strangers accounted for 53 percent of the homicides in the United States in 1992
  • In 1965, the U.S. murder clearance rate was 91 percent; by 1992, the rate had fallen to 65 percent.

If you have information on a Cold Case

  • Crimestoppers- (850)785-TIPS or www.tipsubmit.com
  • Bay County Sheriff's Office- (850)747-4700
  • Calhoun County Sheriff's Office- (850) 674-5049
  • Franklin County Sheriff's Office- (850) 697-2113
  • Gulf County Sheriff's Office- (850) 227-1115
  • Holmes County Sheriff's Office- (850) 547-3681
  • Jackson County Sheriff's Office- (850) 482-9624
  • Liberty County Sheriff's Office- (850) 643-2235
  • Walton County Sheriff's Office- (850) 892-8111
  • Washington County Sheriff's Office- (850) 638-6111

Domestic Violence- The Statistics
*according to endabuse.org

  • On average, in 2005 more than three women a day were murdered by their husbands or boyfriends in the United States.
  • Women of all races are about equally vulnerable to violence by an intimate.
  • Nearly one-third of American women (31 percent) report being physically or sexually abused by a husband or boyfriend at some point in their lives.
  • In 2001, intimate partner violence made up 20 percent of violent crime against women.
  • As many as 324,000 women each year experience intimate partner violence during their pregnancy.
  • Women ages 20 to 24 are at greatest risk for partner violence.
  • In 2000, intimate partner homicides accounted for 33.5 percent of the murders of women and less than four percent of the murders of men.

Help Stop the Trend- Report Domestic Violence

  • IF YOU NEED HELP IMMEDIATELY, CALL 911.
  • National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 (SAFE) ndvh@ndvh.org. They will help you come up with a plan for leaving safely
  • Shelter House, Inc. P.O. Box 220 Fort Walton Beach FL 32549 Business #: 904-833-3772 Hotline/Crisis: 904-863-4777 Toll Free #: (800)44ABUSE
  • Salvation Army Domestic Violence Program 651 - J W.14th St. Panama City FL 32401 Business #: 904-769-7989 Hotline/Crisis: 904-763-0706
  • Refuge House of Leon County, Inc. P.O. Box 4356 Tallahassee FL 32315 Business #: 904-921-0692 Hotline/Crisis: 904-681-2111
  • OR CALL YOUR LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCY.

Domestic Violence Escape Kit
Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Domestic Violence Awareness Handbook

Pack a survival kit. Including:

  • Money for cab fare
  • A change of clothes
  • Extra house and car keys
  • Birth certificates
  • Driver’s license or passport
  • Medications and copies of prescriptions
  • Insurance information
  • Checkbook
  • Credit cards
  • Legal documents such as separation agreements and protection orders
  • Address books
  • Valuable jewelry
  • Papers that show jointly owned assets

Conceal the kit in the home or leave it with a trusted neighbor, friend, or relative. Important papers can also be left in a bank deposit box.

Protecting Your Children From Domestic Violence and Abuse
Source: American Bar Association

How to make your children safer:

  • Teach them not to get in the middle of a fight, even if they want to help.
  • Teach them how to get to safety, to call 911, to give your address and phone number to the police.
  • Teach them who to call for help.
  • Tell them to stay out of the kitchen.
  • Give school officials a copy of your court order; tell them not to release your children to anyone without talking to you first; use a password so they can be sure it is you on the phone; give them a photo of the abuser.
  • Make sure the children know who to tell at school if they see the abuser.
  • Make sure that the school knows not to give your address or phone number to anyone.

 

Walton County

Walton County reports two cases of missing and murdered women but investigators were unable to provide News 13 with details.

Washington County

2006 Lisa Giles
Last seen May 27 at her home on Bream Blvd. in southwest Washington County. All of her personal belongings were left at her residence and she has made no known contact with friends or family.


2007 Britney Janae Wright
She was last seen on July 22nd outside her home on Country Road in the Vernon area. Her mother says Britney left behind her purse, clothes, shoes and doesn't have a car. 19-years-old, 5 feet tall, weighs about 100 lbs. There is a $1,000 dollar reward for information on her whereabouts.


(Also a Cold Case according to the State Attorney's Office: Vickee Davis, 1987 and Versa Whitehead, 2003)