Little Miss Lake Panasoffkee

"Little Miss Lake Panasoffkee"
Forensic facial reconstructions of "Little Miss Lake Panasoffkee", constructed in 1971 (left) and 2012 (right).
Born	Approx. 1946 - 1954 Southern Europe. Possibly Lavrion, Greece.[1]
Status	Unidentified for 44 years, 2 months and 8 days
Died	c. 20 January 1971 (aged 17 – 25) Lake Panasoffkee, Sumter County, Florida, United States[2]
Cause of death	Ligature strangulation
Body discovered	February 19, 1971
Known for	Unidentified victim of homicide
Height	Between 5 ft 0 in (1.52 m) and 5 ft 5 in (1.65 m) [1][3]
Weight	Between 100 lb (45 kg) and 120 lb (54 kg) [4]
Children	1 or more

Little Miss Lake Panasoffkee, or simply Little Miss Panasoffkee, is the name given to the unidentified remains of a young woman found on February 19, 1971 in Lake Panasoffkee, Florida^[3][5] The murder currently remains unsolved, despite the reconstruction of the victim's face on two occasions, in 1971 and 2012.^[3][6] The case was featured on the television show Unsolved Mysteries in 1993.^[1][2]

Discovery

On February 19, 1971, two teenage hitchhikers discovered a decomposing, partially submerged body floating beneath a highway overpass in Lake Panasoffkee, Florida.^[7] Reporting their discovery to police, authorities retrieved the fully clothed, badly-decomposed body of a young woman from the lake. The woman bore no identification, although she wore a green shirt, green plaid pants, and a green floral poncho. She also wore a white gold watch,^[3][8][9] a gold necklace and her fourth finger bore a gold ring with a transparent stone.^{[4][9][10][11]}

A forensic examination of the remains was conducted by Dr. William Schutze. Schutze concluded the victim had been killed approximately thirty days prior to her discovery, although she may have been deceased for up to two months.^{[1][6][9][10][11]} A man's size 36 belt was fastened around her neck, strongly indicating ligature strangulation as the cause of death.^[1][9][12]

Forensic examination of remains

The body was exhumed in February, 1986 for further forensic examination.^{[1][8][9][13]} The woman was between 17 and 24 when she died, and weighed approximately 115 lbs. She had dark hair and brown eyes, prominent cheekbones and was between five feet, two inches and five feet, five inches in height. She had received extensive dental work in her lifetime, including numerous silver fillings, and had a porcelain crown upon one of her upper right teeth.^[9][10][12] It was also determined that she had borne at least two children^[14] prior to her death.^{[1][7][8][15]} In addition, one of her ribs was fractured at the time of her death, leading investigators to theorize her killer had possibly knelt upon his victim as he strangled her with his belt.^[16]

Investigators initially believed the woman to be either of European or Native American ancestry; a further exhumation and examination of the remains, conducted in 2012, established that she was of European descent.^[1] In addition, an examination of Harris lines on the victim's bones indicated that an illness or malnutrition had briefly arrested her growth in childhood.

The remains of Little Miss Lake Panasoffkee, as discovered beneath the Lake Panasoffkee bridge. February, 1971

Additional facial reconstruction of the victim

Examining the lead isotopes within the victim's teeth, a geological scientist was able to deduce the victim had undoubtedly spent her childhood and adolescence in a location in southern Europe close to the sea; most likely a location south of the Greek city of Athens, until within a year of her murder.^[6][10] This geological scientist, George Kamenov, was able to pinpoint the most likely place "Little Miss Lake Panasoffkee" had lived to within a year of her murder as being the fishing port of Lavrion, Greece, which is also known for its mining history.^{[1][3][6][8][9][12][17]}

Given the fact a large Greek-American population exists within Tarpon Springs (approximately 117 kilometers (73 mi) from Lake Panasoffkee), and the additional facts that the victim had been deceased for approximately 30 days before her discovery, and had likely lived in Greece until an unknown date in 1970, it is possible that the victim may have traveled to the United States to attend an Epiphany celebration prior to her death.^[9]

To support the theory that the victim had been visiting temporarily was the forensic examination of her hair, which indicated that she had been in Florida for less than two months before her murder.^[10] An orthopedic surgery procedure, known as the "Watson-Jones" technique, had been performed on her right ankle when she was approximately 16 years old.^[18] This operation—which involved stretching the tendon through screws drilled into the bone^[4][8][13]—would most likely have been performed to rectify a chronic instability which would likely have seen the victim sprain her ankle several times prior to the operation. Periostitis was also found on her right leg, which may also have been discomforting and noticeable to the victim in life.^[10]

External images

Scale model of clothing

1971 Age regressions

Reconstructions

In 1971, a collection of composite images were created in an attempt to show what Little Miss Lake Panasoffkee may have looked like at different stages of her life.^[2][8][13] In 2012, another composite was created, which was visually different from the first. The composite was also combined with a scaled model of the victim's clothing.^{[1][8][9][12][17]}

See also

• List of unidentified murder victims in Florida

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Little Miss Lake Panasoffkee.

• Little Miss Lake Panasoffkee at the NCMEC
• Doe Network page
• Little Miss Lake Panasoffkee at NamUs