For more than half a century, the woman was known only as the “trunk woman.”
Her body was found in a steamer trunk in the woods behind a St. Petersburg seafood restaurant on Halloween 1969. She had been strangled with a necktie and beaten. Witnesses saw two men in a pick-up dump the trunk and take off.
Not only were the police unable to find his killer, they were also unable to identify his victim. His murder would become one of the most mysterious cold cases in the city’s history.
Now St. Petersburg police say they have used DNA to identify the woman. Her name was Sylvia June Atherton and she was 41 when she died. He was from Tucson, Arizona and had no known ties to St. Petersburg.
At a news conference announcing the discovery, detectives also said they had used DNA to identify a suspect in another cold case: the 1997 slaying of 18-year-old Richard “Juicy” Evans. Police said the killer was 15 at the time of the killing and has since died of natural causes. They did not release his name Tuesday.
After her body was found, Atherton was buried as a Jane Doe at Memorial Park Cemetery, 5750 49th St. N. His body was exhumed in 2010 by Dr. Erin Kimmerle and the Department of Anthropology at the University of South Florida. Researchers tried to use samples of her teeth and bones to identify her, but they were too decayed.
Investigators are still trying to determine who killed Atherton. Her husband, who died in 1999, never reported her missing.
One of Atherton’s sons, Sillen Gates, attended a police news conference via Zoom on Tuesday. Gates’ mother and stepfather left her with her father in Tucson in 1969. Gates never heard from either of them again, and has still not been able to locate two sisters who left with them.
Before his family was contacted about the cold case update, Gates had never heard of the “woman in the trunk.”
“It was so shocking,” she said. “We had no idea, nothing.”
Suprina Byrd, aunt of Richard “Juicy” Evans, left, and Catherine Clarkson, Evans’ mother, address the media with St. Petersburg police spokeswoman Yolanda Fernandez, center, and Detectives Wally Pavelski, second from left, and Paul Etcheson, far left. . [ NATALIE WEBER | Times ]
At Tuesday’s press conference, police also announced they had identified a suspect in Evans’ murder using a fingerprint found on the suspect’s bicycle.
Evans was shot in an alley near the 3400 block of 22nd Avenue S on May 28, 1997.
Witnesses saw Evans arguing with an approximately 6-foot tall man between 15 and 20 years old. They said he shot Evans once. They chased the suspect and he dropped a bike in the alley before fleeing. Detectives then lifted fingerprints from the bike, but were unable to match them to anyone.
Last year, Pavelski reviewed the case and matched a fingerprint from the bike to a man who was 15 at the time and knew Evans. The man matched the description given by witnesses and had a history of violence, police said.
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Evans’ mother, Catherine Clarkson, and aunt, Suprina Byrd, also attended the agency’s news conference Tuesday. They said they were grateful the case had been resolved.
“I’m so grateful because I thought ‘I’m 65 years old. I don’t want to leave this world not knowing who took my son’s life,'” Clarkson said.
