70 Years ago...
Lewana Newman, age 23
Murdered 22 August 1951
On the morning of 22 August 1951, Joe Gould, owner and manager of Gould Hotel, in Golden Shores section of North Miami, Florida, discovered his night-clerk ,twenty-three-year-old Lewana Newman had vanished. In addition, $925 in cash was missing.
There were signs that Mrs. Newman had put up a strong fight against the early morning robber and kidnaper. Investigators found a shoe, a belt buckle, an earring and a blood stain in the parking lot outside the hotel. Inside the hotel safe, Gould recovered $7,000 in cash and expensive jewelry that the robber(s) had missed.
Five days later, on 27 August, Lewana Newman’s decomposed body was discovered in a patch of thick woods beside a lonely North Dade County farm road. Her body had been covered with leaves and tree branches.
She had been murdered by a gunshot through the temple with a .38-caliber revolver. A .38-caliber slug was recovered from the coral roadbed near a blood stain, and an autopsy revealed a second bullet embedded in her jaw.
Police questioned a number of potential suspects, including Lewana's husband, who died of a heart attack shortly after her death. But no one was ever arrested or charged with her murder, and the case remains unsolved.
LINK:
Kidnapping, Murder, and Mayhem: Who Murdered the Miami Playgirl?
Lewana Newman, age 23
Murdered 22 August 1951
On the morning of 22 August 1951, Joe Gould, owner and manager of Gould Hotel, in Golden Shores section of North Miami, Florida, discovered his night-clerk ,twenty-three-year-old Lewana Newman had vanished. In addition, $925 in cash was missing.
There were signs that Mrs. Newman had put up a strong fight against the early morning robber and kidnaper. Investigators found a shoe, a belt buckle, an earring and a blood stain in the parking lot outside the hotel. Inside the hotel safe, Gould recovered $7,000 in cash and expensive jewelry that the robber(s) had missed.
Five days later, on 27 August, Lewana Newman’s decomposed body was discovered in a patch of thick woods beside a lonely North Dade County farm road. Her body had been covered with leaves and tree branches.
She had been murdered by a gunshot through the temple with a .38-caliber revolver. A .38-caliber slug was recovered from the coral roadbed near a blood stain, and an autopsy revealed a second bullet embedded in her jaw.
Police questioned a number of potential suspects, including Lewana's husband, who died of a heart attack shortly after her death. But no one was ever arrested or charged with her murder, and the case remains unsolved.
LINK:
Kidnapping, Murder, and Mayhem: Who Murdered the Miami Playgirl?
