Little Miss Lake Panasoffkee

Little Miss Lake Panasoffkee
Forensic facial reconstruction of "Little Miss Lake Panasoffkee", created in 2012.
Born	Approx. 1946 - 1954 Southern Europe. Possibly Laurium, Greece.[1]
Status	Unidentified for 45 years, 9 months and 19 days
Died	c. 20 January 1971 (aged 17 – 25) Lake Panasoffkee, Sumter County, Florida, United States[2]
Cause of death	Homicide by ligature strangulation
Body discovered	February 19, 1971
Resting place	Wildwood Cemetery Bartow, Florida, US
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	2 or more

Little Miss Lake Panasoffkee, or simply Little Miss Panasoffkee, is the name given to an unidentified young woman found on February 19, 1971, in Lake Panasoffkee, Florida.^[3][5] It is believed that she was a murder victim.

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 also featured on the television show Unsolved Mysteries in 1993.^[1][2]

Discovery of the body

On February 19, 1971, two teenage hitchhikers discovered a partially submerged body floating beneath a highway overpass in Lake Panasoffkee, Florida.^[7] Authorities subsequently retrieved the fully clothed, badly decomposed body of a young woman from the lake. The body had no identification papers.^[8]

The body was dressed in a green shirt, green plaid pants, and a green floral poncho. Also found were a white gold watch^[3][9] and a gold necklace. On her ring finger there was a gold ring with a transparent stone, indicating that she may have been married.^[4][10][11]

A forensic examination of the remains was conducted by Dr. William Schutze. Schutze concluded that the victim had been killed about 30 days prior to being found.^[6][9] A man's size–36 belt was fastened around her neck, strongly indicating strangulation as the cause of death.^[9][12]

Forensic examination

The remains of Little Miss Lake Panasoffkee, as discovered beneath the Lake Panasoffkee bridge on February 19, 1971.

The body was exhumed in February 1986 for further forensic examination.^[8][13]

The woman was determined to have been between 17 and 24 years old when she died, and weighed about 115 pounds. She had dark hair, brown eyes, and prominent cheekbones. She was between 5 feet, 2 inches and 5 feet, 5 inches in height. She had received extensive dental work, including numerous silver tooth fillings. She had a porcelain crown upon one of her upper right teeth.^[9][10][12]

It was determined that she had borne at least two children prior to her death.^[7][14][15] One of her ribs had been fractured at the time of death, leading investigators to theorize that the killer had possibly knelt upon her while he strangled her with the belt.^[16]

Additional facial reconstruction of the victim.

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][14] An examination of Harris lines in the victim's bones indicated that an illness or malnutrition had briefly arrested her growth in childhood.^[1]

Examining the lead isotopes within the victim's teeth, a geological scientist was able to deduce that 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] The geological scientist, George Kamenov, was able to pinpoint the most likely place where the victim had lived as the fishing port of Laurium, Greece.^[1][3][17]

Given the fact that there is a large Greek-American population within Tarpon Springs (about 117 kilometers (73 mi) from Lake Panasoffkee), and the two additional facts that the victim had been dead for about 30 days and had likely lived in Greece, it was possible to conclude that she had traveled to the United States to attend an Epiphany celebration.^[9]

Forensic examination of her hair supported the theory that she had been visiting temporarily. This was indicated by the fact that she had been in Florida for less than two months before her death.^[10]

An orthopedic surgery procedure, known as the "Watson-Jones" technique, had been performed on her right ankle when she was about 16 years old.^[18] This operation—which involved stretching the tendon by means of screws drilled into the bone—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.^[4][8][13] Periostitis was found in her right leg, which may have been discomforting and noticeable to the victim.^[10]

A further development with the case occurred when it was featured on a Greek crime show. A woman came forward to say she believed the facial reconstructions looked like a girl she knew called Konsantina. Both she and Konstantina attended a prep school in Greece, where they were trained to be domestic help. After finishing the course the school sent their students abroad to either Australia or America to work as part of a two year work contract. The school was funded by the International Organisation for Migration. The woman lost contact with Konstantina when she was sent to Australia and Konstantina to America. Konstantina arrived in America in exactly the same time period as the forensic testing indicated the victim had.

External image

Scale model of clothing

Facial reconstructions

In 1971, a collection of forensic facial reconstructions was made 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 scale model of the victim's clothing.^[1][9][17]

• 
  1971 facial reconstruction
• 
  Age regression
• 
  Age regression
• 
  Age regression
• 
  Age regression

See also

• List of murdered American children
• 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 National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
• Little Miss Lake Panasoffkee at The Doe Network
• Little Miss Lake Panasoffkee at NamUs