Cold Case Florida

On the morning of August 16, 2004, a property owner in the rural woods of Walton County, Florida, noticed a large wake of buzzards circling high above his property. He knew that behavior usually indicated that they were assessing something dead or dying and were preparing to move in. When he went to check it out, he didn't find a dead deer or hog as he expected. It was a man who was later identified as Manuel M. Ruiz. And although his body was badly decomposed, it was his almost invisible presence in the community that would make this case even more difficult for the Walton County Sheriff's Office to solve. Contact Information Walton County Sheriff's Office Call in an Anonymous Tip: (770) 267-6557 Submit a Tip Online

At about 9:30 am on June 6, 2009, Gil Perez was seen by a neighbor walking down the street near his home in Palm Beach County, Florida. That would be the last time the 47-year-old would be seen alive. Later that day, Gil's brother discovered his body on his bedroom floor, naked and covered in blood. Mary Bain, crime scene manager at the Palm Beach Sheriff's Office, said it was one of the bloodiest scenes she had ever encountered in her over 20 years on the job. Who murdered Gil with such malice, just hours before he was to join his family for a birthday party, is still unknown.

On March 11, 1982, two males were camping in the woods near Ormond Beach in Volusia County, Florida. While exploring the area, they found more than broken branches and kindling to start a fire. Buried under a pile of pine needles, the campers stumbled across a set of human bones. Their discovery would launch an investigation into the identity of the remains spanning 45 years — and counting. Today, the Volusia Sheriff's Office is getting outside help from Allison Peacock, president of FHD Forensics, to explore how DNA and family history may one day solve this mystery.

For nearly 55 years, the Sumter County Sheriff's Office, located in rural central Florida, has been working tirelessly to solve the murder of a young woman referred to as Little Miss Lake Panasoffkee, in reference to the body of water where her body was found. In an amazing story of perseverance and advancing technology, we now know her identity to be Maureen "Cookie" Rowan, born on March 21, 1949. All that's left now is to find her killer.

On Saturday, June 20, 2020, Gainesville, Fla., native Natisha Covert and her friends planned to attend an out-of-town concert, but at the last minute noticed a Facebook post about a block party in nearby Waldo. Just hours later in the noisy, dark, early-morning chaos of the outdoor gathering, Natisha Covert would be dead, shot through the heart with a bullet intended for someone else. Who pulled the trigger and why, remains unknown.

On Christmas Eve 2018, with colored lights hung and presents under the tree, a 32-year-old ex-Navy Corpsman living in Central Florida offered his longtime girlfriend the best gift he could imagine: a proposal of marriage. But just three weeks later, he was shot and killed outside the gate of their rural Central Florida home. So instead of looking forward to the wedding of her dreams, his finance was now faced with planning the funeral of the love of her life.

In 1973, two sisters from New Jersey set out for the trip of their young lives. They wanted to experience spring break in the exotic and southernmost vacation spot in America, Key West, Florida. Together, they embarked on the long bus ride down the East Coast and spent several fun weeks with friends – both old and new. And even though they reportedly had been wired the money to take a return bus home, the sisters decided to hitchhike for the experience – a decision that cost them their lives.

In virtually every city in America, there are areas that statistically are more prone to violent crime than others, and there are certainly times of day – or night – that are considered less safe to be out and about. But what happened to 81-year-old Karl Lievense in Naples Florida, at his office in the middle of the day in 2018, proves that sometimes a criminal with murderous intentions doesn't care about any of that. The right time and place for them – is simply now.

On December 19, 1959, a family of four was gunned down in their home in the town of Osprey, located in a rural part of Sarasota County along Florida's southwest coast. The gruesome scene from the Walker Family home gained national attention for its brutality and its possible connection to a similar crime in Kansas just weeks before that inspired the bestseller In Cold Blood written by author Truman Capote. It is one of Florida's oldest cold cases and has been featured in the New York Times, CBS News and even has its own Wikipedia page. But after all the sensational claims and media-fed theories have been exhausted, it is the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office that continues to work the case, examine the evidence and provide hope to the Walker family that justice will be done and the killer will be made known.

In the late 1990s in the rural area of Flagler County, Florida, just north of world famous Daytona Beach, two women were shot and killed, their bodies left in ditches on the side of the road. They were known drug users and prostitutes with reputations for being unafraid of the local biker bars or the company they kept. But someone took advantage of that fact and ended their lives, discarded their bodies and robbed their families of the chance to ever see them again. The cases appear connected, but after almost 30 years, remain unsolved.

On September 30, 1971, Bobby Ray Jones went to work as a bartender at the Lone Branch in Darlington, Florida, located near the Alabama border in the northernmost part of Walton County. The bar closed early that night, but Bobby Ray answered a knock at the door and let someone in. Minutes later, that person would shoot and kill Bobby Ray, and over 50 years later, his family, friends and local law enforcement are still looking for answers. This case, like their other cold cases, still has the full attention of Walton County Sheriff Mike Adkinson and his team. They are hoping you just may know something to help solve this case and bring closure to the Jones family.

In the early morning hours of March 3, 2013, Phillip Davenport was shot and killed in his front yard, with his wife and three young children hiding in a closet inside the home. Mr. Davenport had returned from a routine trip to a Wal-Mart in Navarre, Florida, just a few minutes away. He had just gotten off the phone with his wife Tamara, and did not indicate that anything was wrong. But something was wrong – he just didn't know it yet. Now almost 12 years old, Sheriff Bob Johnson and the Santa Rosa County Sheriff's Office are still working to solve the murder of Phillip Davenport. They are hoping you just may know something to help solve this case and bring closure for the Davenport family.