LAKE COUNTY, Fla. – A person found dead 40 years ago in Lake County and referred to by detectives as “Judy Doe” has been identified, according to the sheriff’s office.
The person was identified late last year as Rebecca Sue Hill of Little Rock, Arkansas, the Lake County Sheriff’s Office said Wednesday in a news release.
Hill’s body was located April 18, 1984, off a dirt road in the Lake Dorr Recreation Area of the Ocala National Forest near Altoona. She had been dead for two to four weeks, and detectives were initially told that she was new to the area and was possibly hitchhiking through, according to the sheriff’s office’s Cold Case Team, which adds she was most likely the victim of a homicide. Among these details, detectives reported she was found wearing a night shirt bearing the words, “Have you Kissed your Child Tonite.”
Come November 2023, the sheriff’s office contracted Othram, Inc. — billed as a private laboratory specializing in forensic genetic genealogy — to find new leads. More than a year was spent studying Hill’s genealogy, leading detectives to a suspected close relative by November 2024 who by December was confirmed to be her sister, the release states.
Hill had been missing from Arkansas since sometime in 1981, according to the release, which would have put her at 16 or 17 years old around the time of her disappearance. Remains found in Little Rock were misidentified as Hill by a family member, what the sheriff’s office says led to Hill’s nonexistence as “missing” in any database.
Detectives will continue investigating the circumstances of Hill’s disappearance and death, the release states.
The Lake County Sheriff’s Office currently has three other cases in the genetic genealogy process. The first is “Julie Doe,” who was located in Clermont on September 25th, 1988, and is being investigated in conjunction with the DNA Doe Project. The second is “Jane Doe,” who was located in Sorrento on December 7th, 1991, and is being investigated with Othram Inc. The third is a sexual battery suspect from 2007, which is being worked with the help of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and Parabon Nanolabs.
Lake County Sheriff's Office Detectives Identify "Judy Doe" in 1984 Cold Case 1/29/2025 (excerpt)
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