Little Miss Lake Panasoffkee

Discovery of the body On February 19, 1971, two teenage hitchhikers discovered a partially submerged figure floating beneath a highway overpass in Lake Panasoffkee, Florida.

A forensic examination of the remains was conducted by Dr. William Schutze who concluded that the victim had been killed approximately 30 days before her body was discovered.

The woman was determined to have been between 17 and 24 years old when she died, weighing about 115 pounds. She had brown hair 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 on one of her upper right teeth.

It was determined that she had borne at least two children before her death. One of her ribs had been fractured at the time of death, leading investigators to theorize that the killer had possibly knelt on her while he strangled her with the belt.

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.

Given that there is a large Greek-American population in Tarpon Springs (about from Lake Panasoffkee), and 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.

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.

An orthopedic surgery procedure, known as the "Watson-Jones" technique, had been performed on her right ankle when she was about 16 years old. This operation—which involved stretching the tendon by 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 before the operation.

Facial reconstructions A collection of forensic facial reconstructions were made in the 1980s to show what Little Miss Lake Panasoffkee may have looked like at stages of her life.