On April 3, 1990 a prison work crew found the decomposed body of 57-year-old Patricia Ann Minnis under heavy brush in the Big Cypress National Preserve, along U.S. 41 East near Everglades City, Florida. Her remains were about 22 miles south of the road and in advanced decomposition; an autopsy determined she died from blunt force trauma to the head and estimated she had been dead about three weeks before discovery.

At the time she had been traveling in an RV across the United States with her husband. He told investigators she had left him for another man while they were in Southwest Florida; no immediate alarm was raised until Minnis’ purse was later found in the RV and her daughter reported her missing. Her body went unclaimed for years and a 1999 facial reconstruction did not lead to identification. In 2015 DNA submitted by her daughter and compared by the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification produced a positive identification. Detectives developed a person of interest, but no one has been publicly identified as responsible and the investigation remains open.

Did anyone in Southwest Florida or along U.S. 41 remember seeing Patricia Minnis or her RV during that spring of 1990?