FL FL - Tiffany Sessions, 20, Gainesville, 9 Feb 1989

DNA Solves
DNA Solves
DNA Solves

New Posts

http://www2.tbo.com/video/2009/feb/09/tiff...237/video-news/

20 Years Later, Family Still Searching For Tiffany Sessions


JEFF PATTERSON

Published: February 9, 2009

Updated: 02/09/2009 06:28 pm



Tiffany Sessions
University of Florida student Tiffany Sessions put on a sweatshirt, took her Walkman and told her roommate she was going for a walk.

It was Feb. 9, 1989. Sessions was 20.

She hasn't hasn't been heard from since.

Today, her mother, step-brother and detectives from the Alachua County Sheriff's office gathered in Gainesville to mark the 20th anniversary of her disappearance. The Alachua County Sheriff's office has now moved the Sessions file to the Cold Case Unit.

Tiffany's half brother, Jason Sessions, was just 16 when she was first reported missing. Now he has helped develop a Web site – tiffanysessions.com - with information to develop new leads in the case.

"Do I believe that she's out there and living a normal life somewhere, no,'' Jason Sessions said. "But I do believe the case can be solved and I think it will.''

The Sessions family has also helped produce a deck of cards with information about Tiffany and other cold cases that are being distributed in prisons across the nation. Their hope is that an inmate with information may come forward to help solve the case.

"One of the things that I want everyone to know is that she was a living, breathing person and I know that we're talking about a cold case right now, but we're not talking about a closed case,'' said her mother, Hilary Sessions.

Jason Sessions says new leads have come in as a result of the deck of cards. Alachua County detectives say they are working on those leads but gave few details about the new information.

Hilary Sessions is now the executive director of Child Protection Education of America. She keeps hundreds of files on missing children cases and has made it her life's work to help other families who have missing children.

She said she believes Tiffany's case will be solved but admits the odds are against her. Hillary Sessions says there are thousands unidentified human remains around the country. Sessions says she has viewed more than 170 sets of remains with the hope of identifying her daughter but still has no answers.

Jim Eckert was a detective with the Alachua County Sheriff's Office when Tiffany Sessions was reported missing.

"I remember driving into Gainesville on the interstate, seeing helicopters all over the place,'' he said.

Now retired, Eckert says the small sheriff's office was technologically ill-equipped back then to deal with the case.

"None of us knew what a database was, and in fact the sheriff's office was so small, Patrick Sessions had to buy us our first two fax machines. We didn't have a fax machine in our detective office.''

Tiffany Sessions had a Walkman-type music player when she went on her walk, and detectives spent hours searching the area for the music player, Eckert said.

"We were looking for triple "A" batteries and double "A" batteries on the side of the road that might have indicated there was a struggle and she dropped it, or a set of headphones and none of that ever turned up,'' Eckert said. "It was frustrating, a very frustrating case.''

Today, young reporters from the University of Florida came to interview Hillary Sessions as she planted a tree outside of the Alachua County Sheriffs Office. The tree is a memorial to Tiffany. Three of the reporters from the University of Florida say they were not yet born when Tiffany was reported missing.

Hillary says today is especially difficult for her because it marks the day that Tiffany has now been missing for the same amount of time that she lived at home.

News Channel 8 reporter Jeff Patterson can be reached at (813) 221-5703

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/feb/09/09...ffany-sess/c_1/
 
College student went for a run, never came back


Tiffany Sessions was a 20-year-old junior studying economics at the University of Florida in Gainesville when she decided to go out for a run. She never came back.


Sessions left her off-campus apartment about 6 p.m. February 9, 1989. She told her roommate she'd be back shortly and took her Walkman with her.

It was the last time anyone would see her.

That was 20 years ago, a time when no one had cell phones, Blackberries or Web sites to aid in tracking a missing or abducted person.

The only clues came from people who recalled seeing a young woman fitting Sessions' description walking down the main street just before dusk.

"Much of the area in the last decade has been paved over, with new construction, making a search today very difficult," said Detective Bob Dean of the Alachua County Sheriff's Office. However, investigators are still searching and working this case actively.

Searchers were out as recently as late December, seeking clues with newer technologies.

"We have used ground sonar equipment, even," Dean said.

Over the years, there have been some possible suspects -- people who came forward and confessed -- but police have ruled them out as credible suspects.

One potential suspect was a man who was in jail for killing a 5-year-old girl. He'd written a letter to police, claiming he was responsible for Tiffany Sessions' disappearance.

But when questioned later by police, he denied writing the letter, even though handwriting analysis indicated that he had.

"Although police don't think so, I still believe this guy could have something to do with my daughter's disappearance," said Patrick Sessions, Tiffany's father.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/02/24/...case.sessions/
 
20 Years Later, Search Continues For Missing UF Coed


More local links from news4jax.com
Check Today's Top Stories
Take Great Care of Your Car
What's New In Schools? Find Out Here

Related stories What’s this?
20 Years Later, Family Still Searching For Tiffany Sessions
Girlfriend Describes Waking Up, Finding Haleigh Gone


WJXT-TV
updated 5:56 p.m. ET Feb. 10, 2009
GAINESVILLE, Fla. - When missing person Tiffany Sessions disappeared from Gainesville without a trace 20 years ago, there was no Amber Alert, no Web sites displaying pictures of missing kids, and no social media to spread the word across the country with a few keystrokes.

Tiffany Sessions is still missing, her case is still open, and her father -- Miami-based real estate developer-turned missing-children advocate Patrick Sessions -- is leveraging social media tools to help police find missing children and especially the daughter he last saw when she was 19-year-old student at the University of Florida.

Tiffany, who would now be 40, went out for a jog on the evening of Feb. 9, 1989 and never returned. Her father was joined by 1,000 people in a search the first week after she disappeared.

Refusing to give up on his daughter, Sessions is launching the

Official Tiffany Sessions Web site

, and investigators said they have developed new leads.

"This is still a viable case with several new leads being developed and explored," said Alachua County Sheriff Sadie Darnell, who was Gainesville Police Department's public spokesperson when the UF coed disappeared in 1989. "This 20-year anniversary of Tiffany's disappearance is a time to remember and recommit ourselves to resolving as many unsolved missing persons and murder cases as possible."


A $25,000 reward is being offered by the Sessions family for information leading to the remains of Tiffany Sessions and the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for her abduction.

"There was no Facebook when Tiffany was in college. No cell phones to trace her whereabouts. No MySpace pages to investigate," Sessions said. "I am launching this Web site in hopes that someone out there knows where Tiffany is or can offer new leads that will help us find her. We believe social media can play a vital role in finding missing children everywhere, including Tiffany."

In addition to serving as a vital resource for Tiffany's case, the Web site will also act as a resource for other parents and friends coping with the disappearance of a loved one by providing phone numbers and links to missing persons organizations.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29100526/
 
Cold case unit continues 20–year searchBy HUNTER SIZEMORE, Alligator Writer
Twenty years and over 3,000 leads after the disappearance of Tiffany Sessions, the Alachua County Sheriff's Office held a press conference to remind people the search is still on.

ASO tries to crack cold cases by holding press conferences on anniversaries. The cold cases unit was created in 2007 to pursue unsolved murders and disappearances.

Monday marked the 20–year anniversary of Sessions’ disappearance from Gainesville.


She was a 20–year–old finance major at UF at the time.

Between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. on Feb. 9, 1989, Sessions went for a jog, leaving her apartment in Casablanca East Condominiums and heading along Southwest 35th Place.

Her roommate and frequent jogging partner, Kathy Hsu, studied that night and stayed home.

But, when Sessions was still gone five hours later, Hsu began to worry. That’s when she called Sessions’ mother and the search began.

itnesses reported that a woman fitting Sessions' description was seen speaking to people in a vehicle along Williston Road, and that the woman may have entered the vehicle, but the witnesses weren’t sure.

“We’re fairly certain that something bad happened to her,” said Steve Maynard, spokesman for Alachua County Sheriff’s Office. “And we’d really like to bring someone to justice for this.”

More than 30 cold case files are still being investigated by the sheriff’s office, some of them going as far back as the 1960s.

Novel strategies have been used by cold case detectives to find information, such as distributing playing cards featuring victims' faces through Alachua jails.
http://www.alligator.org/articles/2009/02/...sappearance.txt
 
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking-n...ory/895586.html

Police take fresh look at leads in Tiffany Sessions case


Tiffany Sessions disappeared while jogging 20 years ago in Gainesville.
Photo BY ILEANA MORALES
imorales@MiamiHerald.com
The Alachua County Sheriff's Office, which recently took over the cold case of missing UF student Tiffany Sessions, said Monday they are taking a fresh look at information from the 20-year-old case. After a Monday new conference marking the 20-year-anniversary of Sessions' disappearance, Sheriff Sadie Darnell said since the agency took charge of the investigation again in 2007, they are pursuing two leads reporting suspicious persons in Gainesville.

One lead reports a suspicious person and a vehicle description. The other reports a suspicious person who lived near Sessions' apartment.

''So that's promising,'' Darnell said.

Darnell said the leads were recently discovered by detectives in the sheriff's office cold case unit as not having been completely looked into.

Tiffany, who would now be 40, left her Gainesville apartment between Williston Road and Archer Road for an evening jog and never returned. That was in 1989.

One of the recent tips came from someone in jail.

The missing girl's case was printed in 2007 in the first issuance of cold case playing cards to jails. The regular deck of cards features information and pictures of missing people with an 800 number to call, in hopes that it will remind inmates of information they may have heard.

The recent leads are still not complete and the sheriff's office needs more information.

''We're asking people . . . to revisit back in time and see if there's anything they remember from that time,'' Darnell said. ``Call it in. However dated it is.''
 
Father Uses Social Media to Find Missing Daughter After 20 Years
Patrick Sessions Launches Official Tiffany Sessions Blog and Outreach

February 05, 2009 01:24 PM Eastern Time
MIAMI & GAINESVILLE, Fla.--(EON: Enhanced Online News)--When missing person Tiffany Sessions (http://tiffanysessions.com/) disappeared from Gainesville without a trace on February 9, 1989, there was no Amber Alert, no Web sites displaying pictures of missing kids – and no social media to spread the word across the country with a few keystrokes.

“There was no Facebook when Tiffany was in college. No cell phones to trace her whereabouts. No MySpace pages to investigate”
Tiffany Sessions is still missing, her case is still open, and Miami-based real estate developer-turned missing children advocate, Patrick Sessions, is leveraging social media tools to help police find missing children and especially the daughter he last saw when she was 19-years-old and a senior at the University of Florida. Refusing to give up on his daughter, Sessions is launching the “Official Tiffany Sessions” Web site on February 9, 2009, the 20th anniversary of his daughter’s disappearance.

The Alachua County Sheriff’s office will be conducting a press conference on Monday, February 9, 2009 at 10:00 AM.

“This is still a viable case with several new leads being developed and explored by members of the Unit. This 20-year anniversary of Tiffany’s disappearance is a time to remember and recommit ourselves to resolving as many unsolved missing persons and murder cases as possible,” said Alachua County Sheriff Sadie Darnell, who was originally part of the case in 1989 as the Gainesville Police Department’s public spokesperson.

A $25,000 reward is being offered by the Sessions family for information leading to the remains of Tiffany Sessions and the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for her abduction.

“There was no Facebook when Tiffany was in college. No cell phones to trace her whereabouts. No MySpace pages to investigate,” Sessions says. “I am launching this Web site in hopes that someone out there knows where Tiffany is or can offer new leads that will help us find her. We believe social media can play a vital role in finding missing children everywhere, including Tiffany.”

To learn more about the missing persons case of Tiffany Sessions, including the details surrounding her unexplained disappearance and links to contact legal authorities with pertinent information, visit http://TiffanySessions.com. In addition to serving as a vital resource for Tiffany’s case, the Web site will also act as a resource for other parents and friends coping with the disappearance of a loved one by providing phone numbers and links to missing persons organizations.

Media Contacts:

Please see the following sources for more information and/or interviews:

Patrick Sessions – Miami, Florida

Tiffany’s Father, 305-609-6443

Jason Sessions – Jacksonville, Florida

Tiffany’s brother, 904-386-8380

Alachua County Sheriff’s Department

Public Information Office:

Steve Maynard, 352-367-4041

Send Tiffany Sessions Leads to:

rdean@alachuasheriff.org, 352-367-4161

Case #: 01569-89

Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE)

Larry Ruby, LarryRuby@FDLE.State.Fl.US, 386-418-5411

National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC)

Nancy McBride, 877-446-2632




Contacts
Tiffany Sessions Media Contact
The Buyer Group, PR/SEO
Lisa Buyer, 954-354-1411 x14
lbuyer@thebuyergroup.com
http://eon.businesswire.com/portal/site/eo...029&newsLang=en
 
Media Coverage
Father, brother of missing UF student visit Haleigh’s family
Posted on 10 March 2009

By Lise Fisher, The Gainesville Sun


The father and brother of missing University of Florida student Tiffany Sessions stopped in Satsuma Monday to talk with the family of a 5-year-old Putnam County girl who vanished from home a month ago.

Patrick Sessions and Jason Sessions spoke with the paternal grandmother of Haleigh Cummings outside a tent near the home where the child lived with her father and brother.

Patrick Sessions said he wanted to meet Haleigh’s family, offer his support and help them if he could in getting and keeping news of the child’s disappearance in the public eye.

“We’re thinking about you, and we’ve been there,” Patrick Sessions said he wanted to let Haleigh’s family know.


Twenty-year-old Tiffany Sessions disappeared in 1989 on the same date Haleigh was last seen at her home. The college student went for a walk, leaving her condominium at Casablanca East off SW 35th Place north of Williston Road. She was never seen again.

The Sessions family is one of a number of people who are part of a small group who have been through the same difficulties as Haleigh’s family and have contacted or visited her relatives. The list includes the grandfather of Caylee Anthony, who was found dead near her grandparents’ Orange County home, and the father of missing Leesburg toddler Trenton Duckett. Full story here.

go to -> http://tiffanysessions.com/ for rest of the story....

I am new to Websleuths and have been reading through numerous missing but not forgotten and am very interested in this case, would like to know if any other members have any updates.

Pearly :)
 
I agree that the Rolex watch she had is one aspect of the case that should be the focus. Maybe a highly concentrated advertisement of it through a new media blitz of pictures of the watch with pertinent info about it. I often wondered if the watch has been tracked internationally enough, not just domestically through the usual pawn shops & jewelry stores. It just seems to me that if someone still has it and it has not been sold, that they would have a hard time not telling anyone about it or would eventually be strapped for cash and would need to sell it, especially in this tough economic environment.
Richard said:
I feel that the most important piece of information - and one which should be brought out more on her website and in other forums - is the fact that she was wearing a Ladie's Rolex Watch, two tone gold and silver with a blue face, Serial number R 609006. Knowing exactly what model watch, when it was made, and providing some good photos would help her case. That watch would probably be worth a lot of money and if it was recognized as such by the perpetrator, it may have been sold. It may be the key piece of evidence that leads back to Tiffany's abductor and to Tiffany. If someone now owns/wears that watch, seeing a photo of it on TV or on a computer screen might provide a much needed tip.
Click to expand...
 
Tiffany Sessions was just 20 years old when she vanished in Gainesville on February 9, 1989. She was attractive, blonde and had a bright smile.

Authorities say just before 6 p.m. she told her roommate she was going out for a jog. She never returned.

Tiffany's father, Patrick Sessions, helped organize a massive search by volunteers, but it turned up no answers.

Hillary Sessions, Tiffany's mother, says the first days after her daughter vanished were particularly difficult for her.

"I was totally cut out of all that information," she said. "I had no briefings on the case."

Hillary Sessions says her husband was a business partner of Jeb Bush at the time and convinced Alachua County authorities to allow him to have a major role in the search for their daughter.

Hillary Sessions says she had to call the sheriff at the time, and ask for information about the investigation, but the information was not promising.
"At the very beginning of the investigation, the first thing they said was, 'We're no further ahead today than the day she disappeared.' "

In some ways, that hasn't changed.

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2011/feb/09/091827/mom-still-seeks-answers-22-years-after-daughter-va/
 
http://www.gainesville.com/article/20120209/ARTICLES/120209469

By Cindy Swirko
Staff writer
Published: Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 4:06 p.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 4:06 p.m.

It has been 23 years since Tiffany Sessions disappeared while walking in southwest Gainesville, but leads about the case still come in to the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office and are investigated.
Click to expand...
 
I wonder if this could be Tiffany?
Investigators will be combing a site off Newberry Road where a set of skeletal remains were found by a homeless couple Tuesday evening. Officials said it was well after sunset when the remains were discovered and so they planned to return to the scene Wednesday to recover any evidence they find there.

http://www.gainesville.com/article/20120222/ARTICLES/120229865
 
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/s/sessions_tiffany.html

Police recovered a piece of "blood soaked" clothing where Michael Knickerbocker said he buried her sweatshirt but the results where never publicly announced and news media leaked that the material did not seem to originate from a sweatshirt.

Okay, so who's clothes is it? Could Tiffany been wearing another garment underneath (ie t-shirt, sports bra) and it is hers or did he kill someone else? He knew where this garment was buried and it was blood soaked.

I think it would have been important if LE had released the results.

I remember when Tiffany went missing in 1989. it was big news. Sad that all these years gone by and no answers.
 
This case haunts me-how could she have disappeared like that? Remind me to NEVER go to Florida. Too many weird cases there.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

DNASolves

Who is DeKalb County John Doe (2022)?

Members online

... and 83 more.
Total: 3,319 (members: 84, guests: 3,235)

Online statistics

Members online
84
Guests online
3,235
Total visitors
3,319
Totals may include hidden visitors.

Forum statistics

Threads
602,661
Messages
18,144,598
Members
231,476
Latest member
ceciliaesquivel2000@yahoo
Back
Top