Investigators are asking for help in identifying a murder victim killed nearly 40 years ago.
According to the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office, the victim was discovered dead in a canal in River Beach, Florida back in 1982. Officers say that there is a person of interest, a truck driver, who was in the area where the victim’s body was discovered, but that he has not been criminally charged.
The unidentified suspect is reported to have set fire to his semi truck around the time of the murder and a “single long hair strand” was recovered from the rig, but officers were unable to test it for DNA at the time it was discovered.
The still unidentified victim was exhumed in 2016 in another attempt to identify her and has been determined to have been a resident of Washington County, North Carolina. The suspect is also known to live in Washington County.
In a recent interview, the suspect denied knowing the victim, but witnesses claim that they saw the suspect with a woman who resembled her photos.
The victim is described as a woman 30 to 40 years old, between 5’5 and 5’7, and weighing from 140 to 160 pounds. She was wearing two rings when she was discovered. Anyone with information on the murder case is encouraged to call Chris Cassenari with the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office at 772-783-5671.