GUILTY FL - Pamela Cahanes, 25, Sanford, 5 August 1984 *Arrest in 2019*

[JusticeWillBeServed]

Pamela Cahanes had finished basic training at the Navy Training Center in Orlando, Florida on August 3rd, 1984. Two days later, her body was found at an abandoned house in Sanford, Florida. She had been badly beaten and was most likely the victim of a sexual assault. She still had money on her so investigators believe this wasn't a robbery.

"Navy grad's cold-case homicide remains unsolved 30 years later":

Very detailed article offering a background on Pamela's life, her last hours alive and a description of the crime scene. Her mother is 96 years old and investigators would obviously want to give her (and the rest of Pamela's family) some answers before she passes away.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/crime/cold-cases/os-cold-case-pamela-cahanes-20150430-story.html#page=1

Investigators zeroed in on a man who hung around the base hitting on recruits, but his DNA was not a match when investigators tested it years later.

Today, there are no real suspects.

"She could have been killed in the Winter Park or Orlando area or on the Navy base, I don't know," Jaynes said. "Or just transported over there and dumped. What the attraction was, what the connection is ... when I find the guy, I'll find out."

Other articles and postings over the last few years for Pamela:

Will Justice Ever Come for Pamela Cahanes? - 03/12/2011

Seminole authorities offer $5,000 reward in Navy airman's 1984 murder - 10/29/2012

NEW PUSH TO SOLVE 30-YEAR-OLD COLD CASE - 12/06/2012

Seminole County Sheriff's Office- Pamela's Cold Case Information

 

[luckyseven]

The Sentinel article might be behind a paywall for some. Here's another link that offers many details.

http://www.military.com/daily-news/...homicide-remains-unsolved-30-years-later.html

 

[ezelaya]

The firm I am with is handling this investigation on behalf of the family, and I am the lead investigator on this case. I have been in close contact with Seminole County during this case as well. Anyone with any information, leads or ideas, whether big or small, please contact me.

 

[LisaWL7TR]

Did the Navy OSI get involved or are they willing to get involved today?

newbie poster

 

[dotr]

March 14 2019
Cold case arrest: Seminole County deputies make arrest in 1984 slaying of Navy recruit
"DNA evidence finally pointed investigators to a suspect.
Sheriff Dennis Lemma said the DNA of Thomas Lewis Garner, of Jacksonville, matched DNA that was found on underwear belonging to Pamela Cahanes. Garner was arrested on a first-degree murder charge in Jacksonville and is being held in the Seminole County jail without bond."
At one time, Garner had been a classmate of Cahanes' at the Orlando Naval Training Center.

"Thanks to decades of persistence from our Major Crimes Unit, and partners from NCIS and FDLE, we have taken a giant step forward."

 

[dotr]

 

[JerseyGirl]

Victim's family reacts to arrest in 1984 cold case

 

[Richard]

34 years later DNA leads to an arrest in this case. The accused is considered innocent until proven guilty in court, but one wonders how many other "alleged" victims there have been since 1984.

 

[PastTense]

"In March, Thomas Lewis Garner said he was trying to kick an old smoking habit, mourning the loss of his mother and preparing to ask the woman he loved to marry him.

He lived an ordinary life, he told Seminole County Sheriff’s Office Investigator Jennifer Spears and Naval Criminal Investigative Service Special Agent Bill Elflein, going to work as a dental hygienist and returning home every day. The investigators told Garner they just wanted to make “small talk," asking him to recall names of people he served with in the Navy more than 30 years earlier.

Garner would soon discover the investigators weren’t there for small talk. They arrested him for the 1984 murder of 25-year-old Pamela Cahanes, who was found strangled in an overgrown Seminole County lot just days after she graduated from Navy boot camp in Orlando.

“I don’t know how that could be possible,” Garner said when he was told his semen was found on Cahanes’ underwear. “I mean this is, this is bizarre. This is almost like the Twilight Zone.”

Records released Monday by the Seminole-Brevard State Attorney’s Office included interviews with Garner and hundreds of pages of files from the 34-year-old killing. Pictures of Cahanes while she was alive and of her bloodied and battered body were also included in the records."
Man reacts with disbelief after DNA links him to decades-old killing: ‘This is almost like the Twilight Zone’

 

[jaejae]

Here is another report about the legal developments in this case:

https://www.tribpub.com/gdpr/orlandosentinel.com/

 

[tmar]

Here is another report about the legal developments in this case:

https://www.tribpub.com/gdpr/orlandosentinel.com/

We are now finding 'cold cases' are being solved, due to DNA findings.
Hope this jerk, if guilty, has many years in prison, ahead for him.
Also other Creeps, must be waiting, for LE to appear on their doorstep, with ongoing findings.
YIPPEE.

 

[PayrollNerd]

GARNER, THOMAS LEWIS
Case Number: 2019CF000950A
UCN: 592019CF000950A000XX

Future Event(s):
DOCKET SOUNDING 01/27/2021 / 0830 AM

https://courtrecords.seminoleclerk.org/criminal/crim_details.aspx?d=4c5bldheSMZlN+r5d/SQfw==

 

[dotr]

May 3 2021 rbbm.
Jury selection begins for Thomas Garner accused in 1984 cold case Sanford murder
''Jury selection is expected to begin Monday for the trial of a Seminole County man arrested in a 1984 cold case murder.

Thomas Garner was arrested in 2019 for the murder of Pamela Cahanes.

Cahanes, 25, was found strangled west of Sanford in August 1984. She had just graduated from Navy boot camp. Garner went to the Naval Training Center in Orlando during the same time as Cahanes.

At the time of her death, authorities had evidence that included DNA that was found under Cahanes' fingernails.''

''More DNA was found at the scene, but authorities at the time were unable to find out whom it belonged to.


Advances in DNA research allowed investigators to build a DNA family tree that led them to Garner, her former Navy classmate.''

 

[SandyQLS]

Florida dental hygienist, 61, will go on trial for the 1984 cold case murder of female Navy graduate | Daily Mail Online

• Jury selection is under way in trial of Thomas Garner for the 1984 murder of Navy recruit Pamela Cahanes
• Cahanes, 25, was found beaten and strangled to death two days after graduating from Orlando Naval Training Center in August 1984
• Garner, who was Cahanes' classmate, was arrested in March 2019 thanks to DNA testing throwing up a match on ancestry website GEDMatch
• Garner has since been linked to another cold-case murder that took place in September 1982 in Hawaii, where he was stationed at the time
• Garner has yet to be charged with killing 25-year-old Kathy Hicks, who was found beaten and strangled to death in Honolulu
  
  
  

 

[faithx]

WATCH LIVE: Family of Pamela Cahanes, prosecutors speak after killer found guilty

"A jury on Thursday found a man guilty of first-degree premeditated murder in the slaying of a Navy recruit in Seminole County in 1984.

Thomas Garner was found guilty in the killing of Pamela Cahanes and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole."

 

[MajorHoople]

Dental hygienist, 61, found guilty of beating and strangling female US Navy recruit to death in 1984 | Daily Mail Online

"A 'promiscuous' dental hygienist has been convicted of the 1984 murder of a Navy recruit after claiming he couldn't remember whether he'd had sex with her.

Thomas Garner, 61, was convicted of first-degree murder for the killing of Pamela Cahanes, 25, on Thursday and immediately was sentenced to a life in prison.

A jury in Orlando, Florida, took just two hours to convict him of Cahanes' beating and strangulation murder, after prosecutors explained how his DNA had been found in her underwear.

No motive for the slaying was given, but Garner admitted in court earlier this week that he was 'pretty promiscuous' around the time of Cahanes' murder.

And he was unable to deny meeting her, saying: ' If I had casual sex with Miss Cahanes, I probably wouldn't remember, being that long [ago], because it was nothing of a relationship.'

Garner is also being investigated in connection with another cold-case killing in Hawaii, and prosecutors said that his Florida conviction could help with that case. They even speculated that he could turn out to be a serial killer."

 

[faithx]

On June 18th, a grand jury indicted Thomas Garner for second-degree murder in the 1982 killing of Kathy Hicks in Honolulu, Hawaii.

A Man Who Was Just Convicted of Murdering a Navy Recruit Has Been Indicted in the Cold Case Murder of Another Woman

Florida man charged in 1982 cold case murder on Oahu

 

[PayrollNerd]

Hopefully, they're running his DNA against any backlog of rapes and murders in locations he was known to be. I wonder if he chose his victims from his line of work - dental patients.