Creepy corpse found on Halloween: Mystery of dead “baggage lady” finally solved after 53 years

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It’s reminiscent of a creepy horror movie: On Halloween 1969, police discovered a female body in a suitcase in a wooded area in St. Petersburg, Florida. She was wrapped in a plastic bag and had head and strangulation injuries.

For a long time, the identity of the strangled victim was unknown – a missing person was never reported. Now the riddle has finally been solved: thanks to a new DNA test, the “suitcase lady” has a name.

A hair sample from the victim was recently discovered. It was taken at the original autopsy. The sample was immediately sent to a private DNA lab. And indeed: A little later the deceased could be identified as Sylvia Atherton († 41). ‘She’s got a name now. The family can conclude,” said the responsible police chief Michael Kovacsev at a media conference on Tuesday. To solve an unsolved criminal case, above all, perseverance is needed.

Numerous crime series covered the case

Kovacsev said 53 years ago, two children witnessed two men unload the bulky suitcase from a pickup truck and then drive off.

Then they drove off. For years, the police failed to solve the mystery of the deceased woman. Numerous crime series, journalists and amateur detectives set themselves the task of finding out what happened then.

Atherton’s daughter Syllen Gates was relieved about the investigative coup during the media conference via live broadcast: “You didn’t know what happened to her for so long.” Gates was only five years old when her mother left the family and moved to another state. For a long time she knew nothing about the “suitcase lady” until a “cold case” investigator contacted her.

Second husband suspected

Syllen Gates told police she last saw or heard from her mother when she was nine — when she moved to Chicago with Stuart Brown, her second husband. Gates and her brother, who is two years older, stayed with their father in Arizona. She told broadcaster 10 Tampa Bay, “I’m still shocked. I had no idea what happened to my mom.”

Stuart Brown died in Las Vegas in 1999. If he were alive, lead researcher Mike Kovacsev would have some very pertinent questions for the widower. “While we do not yet have any evidence to identify the killer, Brown has never reported his wife missing. We are now hoping that new witnesses will contact us.”

The police are asking for all kinds of support to somehow fit the puzzle pieces together. In a first step, an attempt will be made to locate other family members. (A)

Source: Blick