Murder Victim Found 40 Years After She Vanished From Work

Authorities finally have a break in a Florida mystery that has lingered for four decades. Police in Cape Coral say human remains discovered by kayakers in a canal in May 2024 have been identified as those of 23-year-old Rose Marie Gayhart, who vanished from the area on March 21, 1985, per NBC News. Her case, once featured in Dateline's "Cold Case Spotlight," is now officially classified as a homicide. Cape Coral Police Chief Anthony Sizemore said the identification both answers a long-standing question for Gayhart's family and intensifies the department's push to find out who killed her.

She was last seen outside Big Howie's Hot Dogs, the Cape Coral restaurant where she worked, WINK reports, adding that she was then living with her boyfriend and his mother in a trailer park in North Fort Myers. She was reported missing by her parents in Dansville, New York. In a 2017 interview, Gayhart's sister, Laurie Travis, said she believed Gayhart was murdered, referencing reports of constant "fighting" at the trailer park, per CBS News. Investigators are asking anyone with information to contact Cape Coral police at 239-574-3223.