Victim identified 25 years after decomposed body found in Big Cypress National Preserve

Collier County sheriff's detectives say DNA evidence from purse helped determine identity of Patricia Minnis

This is a 1986 photograph of Patricia Minnis, whose body was discovered in the Big Cypress National Preserve 25 years ago.

NAPLES, Fla. ā€“ Collier County sheriff's detectives have confirmed the identity of a decomposed body found 25 years ago in the Big Cypress National Preserve.

The body of Patricia Minnis, 57, was found by a prison work crew on April 3, 1990. The Collier County Sheriff's Office confirmed the victim's identity Friday.

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An autopsy revealed that Minnis died from blunt-force trauma to the head. Detectives believe that she had been dead for about three weeks when her remains were discovered.

Although there were some clothes found on the body, there had been no identifying clues. An autopsy revealed extensive dental work and metal plates in the victim's lower back, but her identity remained unknown for 25 years.

A letter from the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification last month said that DNA evidence resubmitted for testing in 2005 was a strong possible match to DNA provided by Minnis' daughter, who had reported her mother missing after finding Minnis' purse in the family's recreational vehicle.

Minnis and her husband were regularly traveling throughout the country in the RV in 1990, so her daughter didn't suspect that her mother was missing until her stepsister spotted the purse. When the stepsister inquired about the purse, her father told her that Minnis had left with another man while they were traveling in Florida, leaving her purse behind.

"The purse was key to everything, because it initiated enough questions and suspicions from both children," Detective Thomas Cullen, who was the lead investigator in the woman's death, said.

Minnis' daughter filed a missing person report and in 2006 submitted her DNA in the event that her mother was ever found.

Cullen said Minnis' killer remains unknown, but detectives do have a potential person of interest.

The death investigation continues.

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