The Murders of Tiffany Sessions, Beth Foster and Linda Fida// Serial Killer? Artwork

Crime Valley Podcast

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Crime Valley Podcast

The Murders of Tiffany Sessions, Beth Foster and Linda Fida// Serial Killer?

February 24, 2022 • Amber Cavanaugh • Episode 4

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In 1972 a young woman was murdered in her Miami apartment. Her killer was apprehended and given a life sentence. Almost two decades later, college aged women began to vanish in the town of Gainesville, Florida. Did police have a serial killer on their hands?

Law Enforcement Contacts

Tiffany Louise Sessions

Alachua County Sheriff's Office 352-367-4161

Tracey Marie Kroh

Pennsylvania State Police

717-362-8700
717-705-0340

Elizabeth (Beth) Ann Miller

Colorado Bureau of Investigation 303-239-4222

Jennifer Odom

Detective George Loydgren at 352-754-6830.

Case Sources

https://edition.cnn.com/2014/02/06/justice/florida-missing-woman/

https://edition.cnn.com/2014/03/28/us/death-row-stories-criminal-police-confessions/index.html

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article1963500.html

https://www.gainesville.com/news/20140205/paul-rowles-timeline/1

https://www.news4jax.com/news/florida/30-years-later-tiffany-sessions-remains-missing

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-xpm-2008-09-11-found11-story.html

https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-xpm-1994-05-08-9405070320-story.html

https://justiceinmiami.org/the-search-for-missing-uf-student-tiffany-sessions/

https://www.wuft.org/news/2012/09/25/twenty-year-old-cold-case-cleared/

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article1963500.html

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/45625117/tampa-bay-times/

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/45625320/the-miami-herald/

https://mycbs4.com/archive/paul-rowles-a-look-into-the-life-of-a-serial-killer

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/state/florida/article225472130.html

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2014-02-07-sns-rt-us-usa-crime-coed-20140207-story.html

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This podcast episode contains themes that may be upsetting to some listeners. Listener discretion is advised.

You would know evil if you met it wouldn’t you? You wouldn’t go to the places that it went, wouldn’t talk to it or smile at it, wouldn’t feel the need to be polite and employ social graces... you would feel its energy, sense its danger...because it always presents itself as a monster. Evil is never charming, good-looking, or gregarious and it always acts under the cover of darkness, slinking away at the first hint of light. It avoids being seen in public, is anti-social, and never fits into general society... but what if you were wrong? What would you do if you met evil on a bright Spring day, in a place where you felt safe and at peace? Would you know it?….would you be ready for it?

Gainesville, home to The University of Florida and their beloved gators. Birthplace to Gatorade and nicknamed the swamp. A small college city with a hometown vibe offering national parks, hot springs, and the lure of an outdoor lifestyle. An afternoon drive to the Gulf of Mexico to the west or the Atlantic ocean to the east, promising relief from the summer’s smothering humidity, and the teasing rain which gives a brief reprieve from the heat before the stickiness returns threefold. The promise of mild winters, sun-kissed days, and a laid-back lifestyle while simultaneously carving out a college education must be an extremely attractive option to some prospective college students, especially to those from cooler climates. But for some individuals, who were pursuing their tertiary education, between 1989-1992, dreams of endless sun and days at the beach would turn to abject fear. Disturbing things were occurring in the sleepy college town. Disturbing things would keep the inhabitants of Gainesville awake at night, and send many students rushing home to the safety of their families. Some of these horrors would soon have a name, a resolution of sorts that would allow people to slowly push down the extreme terror they had once felt. As if giving evil a name somehow diminishes its hold and lessens its impact. When you can name a terror, give it a backstory and a face, you can begin to analyse and to rationalise….find reasons for its existence and convince yourself that evil could never enter your orbit. But some of the nightmares that occurred in Gainesville, remained nameless, faceless and unresolved.. For over a decade two grieving families with no answers searched and waited, had their hopes rise and fall on a never-ending merry-go-round…..unaware that the answers which they sought had their documented beginnings in March of 1972, in a small apartment complex in Miami Florida.

The Robin Hood apartment complex in North Miami Florida must have seemed like a nice place to live in 1972. The apartments had been built only 2 years prior, and were home to mainly young, married, professional couples. The complex housed 30 units in a 2 story structure, with a communal courtyard, for gatherings.

Linda Fida and Linda Rowles both lived at the complex. The two Lindas were in fact neighbours, living across from one another, in apartments 216 and 218. You might even say that the two women had a lot in common…. They were both young and attractive, both relatively newlywed to men that they loved, and both couples appeared to be working towards forging bright futures for themselves. Linda Fida was a former beauty queen who worked as a bookkeeper for a local business firm while her husband Joseph trained as an air force pilot during the day and worked in real estate in the evenings. Linda Rowles was an air hostess, and she and her husband had moved to Florida once she had completed her flight training. Her husband Paul was a full-time architecture student at Miami-Dade Junior college, and he played tennis in his spare time. For both Linda’s, their time living at the Robin Hood apartments should have been a distant memory by now. A brief fragment of time in the tapestry of their lives. Instead, one Linda would leave the complex, at the age of 20, the victim of a horrific murder, while the other Linda would leave alone, with the life that she had known irrevocably shattered.

On the evening of Wednesday, March 29th 1972 at around 10 pm, Joseph Fida returned home from work to find the front door of his apartment ajar. Joseph had left home at quarter to six that night to attend a real estate call and had last spoken to his wife Linda, on the phone at around 6:30 pm. He had tried to contact his wife multiple times from a quarter to eight, but each time the phone remained unanswered.

As Joseph entered the apartment, expecting to see his wife, he no doubts heard the sound of running water and followed it to the bathroom. As he entered the bathroom, he saw his wife Linda lying lifeless in the bathtub, the running water spilling out and pouring into the overflow drain.

When police arrived, neighbours were questioned, and some of them reported seeing Linda Fida, outside her apartment around the time that she had last spoken to Joseph. The witnesses combined with the crime scene seemed to suggest that Linda had been going up and down the complex stairs, as she used the washer and dryer, situated on a lower level. There was clean washing strewn about the apartment, indicating that Linda may have been surprised by an intruder, as she carried washing back into her home. The fact that Linda was found nude seemed to point to a possible sexual assault, perhaps providing a motive for the horrific crime. Until an autopsy was conducted, Linda Fida’s exact cause of death would not be discernible.

The main items of interest found at the crime scene were two used band-aids. The Band-Aids were found in 2 separate places, within the Fida’s apartment. One was collected from underneath Linda’s body while the other was found on the Fida’s bedroom rug. They were still taped into the shape of a circle as if they had slipped off somebody’s big toe. The band-aids were too big to have been worn by either Linda or Joseph Fida, and neither of them had been wearing band-aids at the time. The band-aid type was distinctive and could not be matched to any that the Fida’s had in their home. Upon closer inspection, police found that the inner portion of the tape contained the pattern of a toe print. It soon became quite obvious that whoever had been wearing them had to have killed Linda. If law enforcement could find the person whose big toe prints matched those on the band-aids, then they would most likely have their killer.

The day after Linda Fida’s murder started with police no closer to finding her killer. Residents of the Robinhood apartment complex had been questioned about the previous evening and were no doubt feeling on edge Knowing that Linda’s killer remained at large. For the women living at the Robinhood apartments, it must have been a particularly stressful time. Would the murderer return and try to harm one of them? Or worse still, was the killer someone that they knew? One of the women who lived at the complex was no doubt thinking those very thoughts when she heard a noise coming from the Fida’s apartment that evening. Fearing that the killer had returned, the woman fled to the apartment of her friends and waited there. Meanwhile, another resident of the Robinhood apartments, an assistant state attorney, named James Woodard, went to investigate the sounds. Woodard soon found that the source of the noise was Joseph Fida and an accompanying police officer, collecting clothes for Linda’s funeral service. When Woodard went to reassure the frightened lady who was waiting in the neighboring apartment, James Woodard saw something that would break the case. 23-year-old Paul Rowles answered the door wearing sandals…..and around each of his big toes was a bandaid. Woodard noticed the band aids straight away, and immediately contacted law enforcement. Paul Rowles toe prints were tested by an evidence technician the next morning and were found to be a match to the used band-aids found at the Fida’s apartment and Rowles was arrested and taken in for questioning.

Once he was confronted with the evidence and accused of Killing Linda Fida, Paul Rowles admitted his guilt very quickly. He confessed that he had let himself into Linda and Joseph’s unlocked apartment while Linda was downstairs collecting washing. He said that his intention had been to sexually assault Linda, not to kill her. Rowles had covered Linda’s face during the attack, so that she wouldn’t be able to identify him, and had then stripped Linda in the bedroom in an unsuccessful attempt to sexually assault her. Rowles hadn’t counted on the fact that his victim would fight back and remove the makeshift blindfold, and that he would be identified. A surprised, 5’3 Linda would have had little chance at fighting off a 6’1 Rowles, bent on attack and preserving his freedom….but fight she did. When Paul Rowles lost control of the situation and Linda started to scream he said that he became enraged and after that things became a blur. Linda’s screams had actually been heard at around 7:15 pm that night by multiple witnesses, but it was impossible for them to pinpoint where the sounds were coming from. Autopsy results showed that Linda had been strangled to death and that the multiple knife wounds evident on her upper torso were most certainly inflicted post mortem. After all of that violence, Rowles had submerged Linda’s body in the bathtub, for what he estimated to be 5 minutes, to make sure that she was in fact dead.

When Rowles was arrested and charged with first-degree murder, his wife Linda vehemently defended him. Understandably Linda could not reconcile the man that she loved as the monster who had killed her neighbour. Linda felt that her husband had been very loving and attentive, to the point that he was old-fashioned. Paul had told her that he would be faithful to her, that he wanted a happy family life, so different from the one that he had been raised in. The only concern that Linda had was surrounding h20ser’s and her husband’s sex life. The regularity had become less and less, to the point where sex between the couple was almost non-existent. Definitely an anomaly for a relatively newly married couple both in their early 20’s. Linda had pushed aside her worries and actually blamed her own inexperience for her husband’s disinterest.

Rowles entered a plea of innocence by reason of insanity. Psychiatrists were then appointed to examine Paul Rowles and were given 30 days to conduct their assessments. Paul Eugene Rowles was born on the 28th of April 1948 and he grew up in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania. The Rowles Household was not a happy one.

His father Paul Eugene Sr was a world war 2 veterans and steel worker who was said to be an extremely violent man. Paul Sr would often take out his anger on Paul Jr physically, as well as verbally. The verbal assault that appeared to stick the most was the one where he told his son how feminine his features were. It was said that on multiple occasions Paul sr would beat his son unconscious. Paul’s mother was a nurse who struggled with mental illness and was in and out of psychiatric facilities throughout Rowles' childhood. It is believed that on multiple occasions, Paul Sr had attempted to hang himself, but survived when the rope broke. When Rowles was still a child he began to develop troubling sexual fantasies, which involved inflicting pain on women. He would sometimes dress in women's clothing and began to become something of a peeping Tom. His fantasies generally involved overpowering and forcing women to do his bidding and he also admitted to harming at least one animal during his childhood. Detectives would later say that the only time he broke down with emotion was when he talked about harming that cat. The Rowles household had clearly been a dysfunctional and abusive one and Paul Rowles jr was obviously a disturbed individual.

After the Psychiatrists findings were released, a newspaper ran the headline;

“ Unlocked door was fatal, court told.”

The article went on to describe the psychiatrists' findings…..which included the opinions that Paul Rowles was disturbed but that he was sane, and that he knew right from wrong at the time of the murder. The psychiatrists believed that Rowles was tormented by his sexual urges, which they deemed so powerful that he had trouble keeping them controlled. In effect, it was believed that he was suffering under the constant pressure of his impulses when he was around women. One of the psychiatrists made the incredibly redundant point that Rowles had mastered his impulses in the past and that if “The door had been locked, he would have been able to go away”. In a different report compiled by another doctor, Rowles was quoted as saying “ I followed girls home before but never succeeded in trying to have sex. I have a scared feeling. I fear being alone.”

Linda supported her husband for a time, before divorcing him On March 21st, 1973, While Rowles was in jail, awaiting sentencing, After the divorce, Linda reverted to her maiden name of Schaeffer, and moved out of state and attempted to rebuild her life. On March the 24th 1976, Paul Rowles was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Linda Fida. At sentencing, the judge recommended that Rowles never be released from prison. While in prison, it was said that Rowles remained obsessed with his ex-wife, writing her letters, and wearing paper rings around his fingers. The homemade rings had his ex-wife’s name on them, along with the date of their wedding anniversary. Methodically recording dates and names on paper seemed to be something that Paul Rowles would continue to do throughout his adult life. This habit of his would, 30 odd years later, seemingly provide the answer to one of Florida’s biggest puzzles.

1972 was a monumental year for change within the US legal system. The year saw the Furman v Georgia case in which the death penalty was deemed a cruel and unusual punishment and that it violated the US constitution. As a result of this find, a moratorium was placed on the death penalty across all states. It would not be reinstated until January 1977 when murderer Gary Gilmore would be executed by firing squad in Utah. 1972 also saw a major overhaul of the prison system itself. Changes in prison occupancy capacity brought about due to a complaint by a former inmate saw the legal maximum capacity for prisoner occupancy was set at 95%, At the time the prisons were well in excess of that. The Florida prison system was facing an overcrowding crisis of epic proportions, and Florida wasn’t the only state in trouble, with national rates of incarceration having almost doubled per 100,000 people from 1971-to 1983. In the 1975 annual report, compiled by the Florida parole and probation commission, it was clear that the system was in turmoil. In its opening letter the report bemoaned the fact that although probation and parole releases had declined that year, the caseload for probation officers remained at almost double that set out in the National Professional Standards. The commission was also deeply concerned by the further budget cuts which would mean a further decrease in parolees and would only add to the overcrowding within the prison system. The main worry for the commission seemed to be the correctional organization act of 1975. Changes were brewing and the act meant that the field officers who worked with parolees were in effect now separate to the parole and probation commission itself. The commission would now become a paroling agency, while the field officers would merge with what had been the division of corrections, and would now be under the umbrella of the brand new department of offender rehabilitation. Much of the efficiency of the parole system would now rely on communication in the form of reports, between the two agencies. When parolees slipped through the cracks in the community, or already overburdened field officers were unable to adequately do their job the Commission would potentially be kept in the dark.

By the early 1980s Florida was becoming known for its hard-lined approach to crime and punishment. According to a 1993 report titled the role of general government elected officials in criminal justice by 1987 the drug epidemic coupled with Florida’s harsh laws had placed such a burden on the prison system, there was now a real threat that inmates would soon be released en masse. As a result of this, a system called gain time was introduced. This meant that a computerised system would deduct 5 days from an inmate's sentence, every time that the prisoner occupancy rate hit 99 percent. The growing rate of prisoners soon meant that inmates were receiving one month off their sentence every 2 weeks! The system, in its infancy, was deeply flawed and police and their jails were bearing the brunt of the consequences when they were having to arrest and house re-offenders. It was truly a never-ending and vicious cycle.

When Paul Rowles was sentenced to life in 1976 it really meant that he would serve an average of 15 years in prison. Rowles had entered the Florida prison system in an era that, in hindsight, was a sweet spot for perpetrators. No death penalty was available at the time, and his release from prison would come before major crackdowns which would lengthen prison sentences in reaction to building crime rates. As the 1970s wore on and as crime rates spiked, Public opinion switched from the belief that an offender could be rehabilitated to the idea that the longer a perpetrator was locked away from society, the better it would be for everyone. Paul Rowles dodged another bullet when parole was basically abolished in the state of Florida. the legislation was passed in 1983, stating that perpetrators who committed crimes on October 1st, 1983 or after were now ineligible for Parole. Rowles of course would not be retroactively affected by this major change.

Life marched on for Paul Rowles in prison, as he served his life sentence for the murder of Linda Fida. While carrying out his sentence, Rowles met and formed a connection with a woman by the name of Kathryn Forguson. According to an article in the Miami Herald Kathryn and Rowles met when he was sent to work in an accounting office, and she was his supervisor. They fell in love and made plans for the future. Rowles was paroled in December 1985, after completing a sex offenders program and serving just over 9 years of his life sentence. As a condition of his release, he was instructed to seek psychiatric help and to register as a sex offender. Upon his release, Paul and Kathryn moved to Pinellas county with Kathryn’s two daughters. Years later some law enforcement officers who had viewed Rowles' records believed that Kathryn coached Paul and did everything within her power to make him an attractive and viable prospect for parole. Kathryn even wrote letters to the parole board painting Paul Rowles as the victim, due to his abusive childhood. This combined with the fact that Rowles presented as a quiet and mild-mannered man who not only behaved in prison but who also worked and took part in educational programs, not to mention the fact that he met most of the general factors used to assess parolees at the time. If you ignored the murder charge, on paper at least, he seemed like a good candidate for release.

The newlywed bliss didn’t last long. Kathryn and Paul’s marriage was apparently not a happy one, and it was said that his stepdaughters hated him. Their home life with Rowles was extremely volatile. Rowles would often leave the marital home for months at a time, but Rowles' parole officer was never alerted to this. Moving from his listed residential address, without alerting authorities, amounted to a parole violation, which if discovered, would have had him sent back to prison. Apart from two brief and unrelated incidents in the early 90s, Law enforcement would have no interactions with Paul Eugene Rowles until he again popped up on their radar in the winter of 1994.

MUSIC

On 31st Jan 1994, Paul Rowles had gone back to old habits and was Prowling the apartments where his wife Kathryn lived. By this point, Paul and Kathryn had been living apart for 6 months when Paul Rowles abruptly left their shared apartment in Clearwater. For 6 months he had lived in Jacksonville, but the two had recently reconciled and Rowles was talking about moving back to Clearwater to live with his wife. He had been visiting Kathryn more frequently, at her apartment complex, and while doing so he had begun to fixate on a potential victim. Rowles had seen the 15-year-old schoolgirl sunbathing, and on another occasion, they had passed one another, on a walkway, and the girl had nodded her head in greeting. Just as it had with Linda Fida two decades earlier, Paul Rowles’ obsession grew, until it reached the point where he was breaking into the girl’s apartment to steal her underwear. And so, on Monday the 31st of Jan 1994, Paul Rowles climbed into the girls’ apartment, via a window, intent on claiming more trophies. What Rowles didn’t know was that the girl had taken the day off from school, due to illness. When he entered the apartment, Paul Rowles came face to face with the unsuspecting and terrifying target of his sick fantasies and being the opportunist that he was, he forced the teenager at knifepoint to undress so that he could molest her. He then forced her to write a note to her mother, saying that she had gone out. The Girl was then bound, blindfolded, and gagged, before being bundled into Rowle’s red Ford Bronco. Paul Rowles drove the teenager toward Jacksonville, and along the way, he stopped at a steak n shake and bought them both food. He then drove to a heavily wooded area, in Gainesville, and made the remark that it was the kind of place you left something that you didn’t want to be found. The teenage girl had been threatened and sexually assaulted by Rolwe's multiple times on the five-hour drive to Jacksonville, and when they arrived at his apartment she was subjected to more indignities. The teenager though was focused on surviving, and using the ruse that she needed to get a glass of water, she was able to leave the bedroom, and Paul Rowle's field of vision. Rushing to the door, the teenager was able to open it while simultaneously moving a tire that Rowles had used to block the door, with her other hand, before running for her life. The teenager sought help from a neighbour, who contacted the police and after 9 years of freedom, Paul Rowles was again back in police custody. He was convicted of armed kidnapping and sexual battery of a minor….his sentence was 19 years. The length of the sentence didn’t matter much. The fact that he now had his parole revoked on his original murder charge, meant that he had no chance of ever being a free man again.

After his arrest, Paul Rowles was looked at for other crimes, including the 1993 murder of 12-year-old Jennifer Odom from Pasco county Florida. Jennifer had been abducted after getting off her school bus on Feb 19th 1993. Less than a week later, Jennifer’s body was found in an abandoned orange grove. Investigators were unable to link Rowles to that crime. Jennifer’s murder remains unsolved.

MUSIC

It is quite jarring to read Newspaper reports after the Clearwater abduction and assault. The articles at the time constantly mention how lucky the clearwater teenager was to escape with her life. Everyone at the time was aware that Paul Rowles had a criminal history, and that he had killed Linda Fida 22 years earlier. They knew that he had been sentenced to life in prison and that he had been out of prison and on parole for the past 9 years. It even appeared that he had led a law-abiding life at that time. But hindsight is funny like that. Everybody looking at Paul Rowles in the winter of 1994, was still missing 2 very big parts of the puzzle.

In 1990, Law enforcement had interviewed Rowles about the Gainesville ripper case. He was a murder parolee and registered sex offender living in the same area as where the crimes had taken place, so he had to be ruled out. Police took blood and hair samples from Rowles and did not get a match. But there had been something else… In April of 1991, Paul Rowles had been stopped by an Alachua sheriff's deputy, in an area near Bivens park. He was prowling and it looked suspicious when he was found to be carrying gloves and a towel. The Sheriff’s deputy thought that he was a potential burglar, but when could find no sign of a robbery they let him go.

MUSIC

Almost 3 years before the clear water abduction that put Paul Rowles away indefinitely, a young woman named Elizabeth Foster came face to face with Evil. Beth was a 21-year-old student attending Santa Fe College community college in Gainesville but had lived most of her life in New Jersey, where her parents Helen and Richard still resided. She was a philosophy and photojournalism student and had been studying and living in Gainesville for almost 2 years. Beth was an artistic soul, who loved to read and study in the park, and driving to nearby Bivens nature park and reading a book, is what she intended to do on Sunday, March 15th, 1992. Beth left her shared apartment with her keys, and some cash, leaving her credit cards and license at home. It was about 1 pm when she drove away in her 1986 blue Honda CRX. When Beth didn’t come home, police were notified, and soon the community of Gainesville was out in force, searching for yet another missing college girl. Only 3 years earlier a 20year old university of Florida Junior had disappeared without a trace, while out for an evening walk. Her disappearance had sparked one of the biggest missing person’s manhunts in Florida’s history. And now People wondered if the 2 disappearances of college-aged women were connected. Newspaper reports at the time suggested that law enforcement had no evidence to link the 2 missing cases, but that they couldn’t conclusively rule out a connection

Upon hearing that their daughter was missing, Beth’s parents Helen and Richard Foster left straight for Gainesville, where they set up a command center in her apartment. Search parties went out looking for her and missing person’s posters were put up all over the area.

On Wednesday the 18th of March 1992, 3 days after Beth Foster had disappeared in broad daylight, her dark blue Honda was found parked near a local restaurant. The situation looked grim, but people stepped up the search, placing great focus on the one-mile radius surrounding Beth’s abandoned car. Then on the 27th of March, 11 days after her disappearance, Beth's body was found in a wooded area off Williston rd. Her body had been discovered by a state worker, who had found the shallow grave, off a dirt track, about a quarter of a mile from the road. The area was in close proximity to the Brown Derby restaurant, where Beth’s car had been found a week earlier. An autopsy was performed and the findings were that Beth had been beaten to death and sexually assaulted, although neither the cause of death nor the sexual assault was public knowledge at the time. DNA was collected from her body and stored. It would be years before Beth’s family had any answers.

The late 80’s early 90’s were a tumultuous time for the college town of Gainesville. In the summer of 1990 five college students were viciously murdered, over a 3 day period in what would become known as the Gainesville Ripper case. It was a horrific crime spree, and like something straight out of a horror movie. A drifter, from Louisiana, by the name of Danny Rolling's was arrested 2 weeks after the murders for an unrelated robbery. It would be 4 months before law enforcement would discover

Rolling’s guilt in the Gainesville slayings, using multiple types of gathered evidence, including a DNA sample they had collected. Then in June 1991, a carpet cleaner by the name of Alan Robert Davis was arrested for the murders of 2 female universities of Florida students in their apartment. It was a bizarre crime, Davis had actually completed the task of cleaning the carpet at the women’s apartment before he killed them both. Apart from the killer’s claim that he had become angered when one of the students had sprayed mace at him, no clear motive for the murders was ever made apparent. It was thought that he may have attacked one of the women before her roommate had arrived home and used the mace to stop the assault. Less than a year later, in the Spring of 1992, Beth Foster was brutally assaulted and murdered without any arrests being made. But the case that predated all of these, and the one that would take the longest to solve, occurred on the 9th of February 1989, when a college senior named Tiffany Sessions disappeared while out for her regular evening walk. Tiffany’s disappearance would launch one of the biggest missing person’s investigations in Florida’s history and along with the 2004 disappearance of Jennifer Kesse, would set new precedents for how police handled the disappearances of young adults.

Tiffany Louise Sessions was born on the 29th of October 1968 in Hillsborough county, Tampa Fl. Tiffany’s parents Hilary and Pat divorced when Tiffany was only a few months old. Hilary was in the air force and she raised Tiffany, with the two living all around the united states. Hilary and Tiffany were extremely close, and once Tiffany had headed off to college, they would speak on the phone every day. When Tiffany was a teenager she started to spend some time with her Father Pat. By this stage, Pat had a son named Jason from a second marriage. Tiffany and Jason had both been raised as only children, and soon formed a close bond. By all accounts, Tiffany was a determined woman with big plans for her future.

Tiffany Sessions lived at the Casablanca East apartments, with her roommate Kathleen. In the early evening of Thursday, February 9th, 1989, Tiffany Sessions was preparing to head out for her daily power-walk. She was Dressed in red tracksuit pants, white or blue Reeboks, and a white pullover jumper with grey horizontal stripes with the word aspen printed on the collar in green writing. Kathleen would usually accompany Tiffany on the nightly walk, but that evening Kathleen had an exam that she needed to attend. As Tiffany was leaving the apartment she shared with her roommate Kathleen, she made the off-hand remark that although she had taken her jewelry off, she refused to leave behind her two-toned silver and gold Rolex watch and that if somebody tried to grab her they would have to fight her for it. The Rolex had been a gift from her father Pat, and Tiffany liked to keep it close, no doubt for sentimental reasons as much as aesthetics. Tiffany headed out for her walk at around 6 pm, telling Kathleen that she would be home in an hour. Tiffany would always walk the same 4-mile route which took her from the Casablanca east apartments, where she lived, south to State Route 331 before she walked west toward Interstate-75. As Tiffany reached I-75 she would then turn around and walk the same route home. When an hour went by and Tiffany hadn’t arrived home Kathleen became concerned and went out driving the route that Tiffany usually walked.

The area was heavily wooded and interspersed with student housing and the occasional family home. Although it was popular for joggers and frequented by vehicles, it was quite isolated and not well lit.

When Kathleen was unable to locateTiffany, she called Tiffany’s Mother. Hilary then proceeded to call the Alachua ( ah-LATCH-you-uh) Sheriff’s department. Although her daughter had not been missing for long, Hilary felt that there was something very wrong. Hilary quickly made her way to Gainesville to search for her missing daughter. Tiffany’s father Pat Sessions flew into Gainesville within hours of her disappearance. Pat’s initial feeling was that Tiffany would be ok and turn up safe with an explanation. Tiffany sessions didn’t have any obvious people in her life who could have been responsible for her disappearance. Law enforcement was quick to look at Tiffany’s ex-boyfriends and her friends and acquaintances.

Acquaintances and ex-boyfriends were looked at, but none of them panned out as suspects. When more time went by, and there was still no sign of his daughter, Pat put his business skills and contacts to use and hit the ground running. Pat was a property developer with plenty of contacts, and soon Tiffany’s face was on every pizza box in the area. Missing posters were distributed at truck stops throughout the south and fast-food restaurants were also distributing fliers. A toll-free number was set up for tips and soon there were upwards of 500 calls per day. A 75,000 reward was put up by Pat Sessions himself. Pat called on famous friends such as Football player Dan Marino, who took part in a press conference and promised to recruit other NFL friends to help. A private investigator specialising in missing children was hired and other famous names such as politician Jeb Bush and America’s most wanted host and victims advocate John Walsh lent their help, expertise, and support. Co-workers, Friends, Family, naval recruits, Marine reservists, and 300 students from the University of Florida were involved in the search for Tiffany. Many of the searchers wore white tee shirts with Tiffany’s photo and description. When no tracker dogs were available, Pat sourced the bloodhounds himself, and when he found out that the police department didn’t have a fax machine, he bought them one. Thanks to his finances, contacts, and his will to find his daughter, Pat was leaving no stone unturned. Within 2 weeks of his daughter’s disappearance, Pat Sessions offered a $75000 reward, for information which would lead to the safe return of his daughter. Hilary Sessions held on to the hope that no body meant that there was a chance that Tiffany would be found alive. She and her husband Doug would pack dozens of flyers in every box that their fishing company sent off nationwide. Despite the massive search effort, nothing was found. Not an item of Tiffany’s clothing, her treasured Rolex, or her black Sony Walkman were ever recovered. It appeared that Tiffany Louise Sessions had disappeared without a trace.

Within a few months of Tiffany’s disappearance, Pat Sessions had increased the reward for Tiffany’s safe return to $250,000. Alternatively a $100,000 reward was offered for information which , would lead to the arrest of the person or persons responsible for her kidnapping.

In June of 1989, 4 months after Tiffany’s disappearance, two men from Florida contacted Pat Sessions and asked for $200,000 in exchange for his daughter’s return. Pat Sessions followed the Men’s directions in the hopes of finding Tiffany alive, before it was revealed that the two men were perpetrating a hoax. The men were arrested and later jailed for over 6 years, for extortion.

Michael Christopher Knickerbocker was a name that Florida law enforcement knew well. Knickerbocker had been in and out of jail for years and in May of 1989, Knickerbocker viciously attacked and raped a Santa Fe community college student in her Gainesville apartment. He was charged with rape, kidnapping, and burglary and given 5 life prison terms for the horrific crime. Knickerbocker was an obvious person of interest when it came to the abduction and suspected murder of Tiffany Sessions. His attack on the Gainesville woman in her apartment, and the fact that it occurred 3 months after Tiffany vanished seemed like too much of a coincidence. Even so, Through his lawyer, Michael Knickerbocker continued to deny any knowledge or involvement in the crime. However, in 1993 law enforcement was sent an anonymous letter from a prisoner who claimed that Knickerbocker had confessed to murdering Tiffany. When Knickerbocker was questioned he did not admit to any involvement. Instead he in great detail told police how he would have carried out the crime if he had been involved. It was a strange situation, but then again Michael Knickerbocker was reportedly a very strange person. In the end, he confessed to writing the anonymous letter, where he implicated himself, for a bit of fun. Law enforcement soon ruled him out of their investigation into Tiffany’s disappearance, but Pat Sessions still felt that Knickerbocker may have been responsible.

In 2004, and while still in prison, Knickerbocker was linked, by DNA, to the March 1989 shooting death of a 12-year-old girl. In May 1994 the FBI received a tip that Tiffany and 2 other missing girls 17-year-old Tracey Marie Kroh who disappeared from Pennsylvania in August 1989 and 14 year old Colorado teenager Beth Miller who had been missing since 1983 were alive and being held against their will in Texas. The tip had been passed on to the FBI by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and specifically stated that Tiffany had been spotted at a motel, On April 9th, 1994 in Austin Texas. Although the tip seemed highly improbable, given the vastly different scenarios surrounding each girl’s disappearance, not to mention the different years and locations the 3 girls had disappeared from, the FBI investigated the tip. It was a dead end.

July 2001 brought the news that a Wisconsin prisoner, who was serving a 65-year sentence for kidnapping, sexual assault, and battery of a college student was being charged in the murder of Beth Foster. George Everitt Taylor was extradited to Florida to await arraignment. The Florida prosecutors' office announced that they would be seeking the death penalty. Everett had been linked to Beth Foster when a fellow inmate in Wisconsin came forward and told authorities that Everitt had bragged about killing a girl in Gainesville, in 1992. It appeared that Beth Foster’s killer may have finally been caught, almost a decade after her murder. However, In December of 2003, two and a half years after George Everitt Taylor had been charged with Beth's murder, the charges against him were dismissed by a circuit court judge. The inmate who had implicated Taylor back in 1996, said that Taylor had strangled the Gainesville victim. This did not match Beth Foster’s cause of death. The judge felt that there was insufficient evidence to charge Taylor with Beth’s murder. It was a low blow for Beth’s parents, who had been instrumental in ensuring the successful extradition of George Everitt Taylor to Florida, after 3 failed prior attempts to do so by law enforcement.

In 2012 police had a breakthrough in Beth Foster’s case. New DNA technology had matched a swab taken from Beth’s body in 1992 to a hair sample taken from Paul Rowles. Police went to interview Rowles about Beth’s murder, but he gave them nothing. Paul Rowles was very ill at this point, and dieing of lung cancer. Police suspected that he may have been responsible for Tiffany Session’s murder, but he would not speak to them. Just a few months later Rowles would succumb to the disease while under medical care. A picture of Tiffany sessions had been placed next to his bed, in the hope that he would wake up and be willing to speak to law enforcement. Rowles never regained consciousness, and he took the details of what happened to Beth and Tiffany to his grave.

In 2013 a cold case detective by the name of Kevin Allen was hired to work as a detective on the Alachua sheriff’s department cold case unit. It was said that Sheriff Darnell told Detective Allen to make solving Tiffany’s case his top priority. Detective Allen would go back to the beginning and treat the case as though it had just happened. That year great strides would be made in finding answers to what happened to Tiffany sessions after almost a quarter of a century.

Also in that year, Paul Rowles's personal effects were given to his long-time friend Joe Nilsen. Joe had actually married Paul and Linda Schaeffer back in 1970. When police contacted him and asked if they could look through Rowles’ possessions he was reluctant, not wanting to further besmirch his friend’s name. However, when it was presented to him that Rowles may be responsible for the death of Tiffany sessions and that he should go and look at the website that had been set up to give details on Tiffany’s case. After seeing a photo of Tiffany Sessions it is said that Joe was shocked at the similarity between Tiffany and Paul’s first wife Linda. Joe soon turned over Paul Rowles's belongings to the police. When detectives searched through the boxes of random possessions they found a prison-issued religious diary. It was innocuous enough on the outside, a simple diary with notes. but when the detectives looked more closely, they found an insight into the mystery that was Paul Rowles. Listed in the diary were details pertaining to the 15-year-old clearwater victim as well as references to Linda Fida and an entry that may have been related to Beth Foster. His victims' Names, related dates, and addresses. But the entry that would change everything was to the average eye unremarkable. The entry simply read #2 2/9/89 #2. In other words the ninth of February 1989. It was the date that Tiffany Sessions went missing, and if Paul Rowles was her abductor, then she would have been his second victim. The detectives could not believe what they were seeing. They had already tried to question Rowles about Tiffany, prior to his death to no avail. Now they had evidence. It was circumstantial, but it made so much sense. Put together with other circumstantial evidence, the case for naming Paul Rowles as Tiffany Sessions' abductor and killer became more apparent.

Apart from the diary entry, the circumstantial evidence Pointing to Paul Rowles being responsible for Tiffany’s abduction include the following …

Over the years reports had come in that a woman matching Tiffany’s description had been seen talking to a person in a red vehicle and even that the woman had been seen entering that vehicle, on the evening of Tiffany’s disappearance. Paul Rowles had been driving a red bronco at the time that Tiffany went missing and was still driving that vehicle 5 years later when he abducted the clearwater teenager.

Paul Rowles moved to Gainesville in April of 1988, 9 months before Tiffany disappeared. He lived there until the 11th of May 1992, which was less than two months after he murdered Beth Foster.

On April 16th 1991, less than a year before Beth’s murder, Rowles was stopped on South Main St, by an officer from Alachua sheriff’s office for prowling behind some businesses, in a wooded area. where he was found carrying a towel and gloves. The area where Rowles was found prowling was Bivens park, the very place that Beth Foster had been going to on the day that she was murdered.

Rowles had been working for Crom equipment rentals and as a pizza hut delivery driver for much of the time that he lived in Gainesville. At the time of Tiffany’s disappearance, Rowles was known to have been working, delivering scaffolding to a new building complex, situated on the route that Tiffany walked each day. Tiffany would have passed the apartment complex twice each time she walked, as she doubled back to walk the same route home. It is highly probable that Paul Rowles noticed Tiffany and that he had been stalking her over a period of time. His job as a pizza delivery driver may also have given him access to Tiffany. When you look at the attacks on Linda Fida and the Clearwater teenager it seems apparent that Rowles M.O was to stalk his victims.

On the day that Tiffany disappeared, Paul Rowles called in sick to both of his jobs. One has to wonder what could possibly have occurred on the 9th of Feb 1989, a day that Paul Rowles called in sick to both of his jobs, that he would be documenting it, without an entry, in his diary years later.

And finally, the comment that he made to the clear water victim when he parked in the vicinity where Beth Foster’s body was found. The comment was that it would be a good place to dispose of something that you didn’t want others to find. The area was in close proximity to Bivens arm nature park and in relatively close proximity to the route that Tiffany sessions would always walk.

In 2014 the media was abuzz with news out of Alachua county that pertained to the 25-year-old Tiffany Sessions case. Police were searching the area where Beth Foster’s body had been found 22 years before. It was also thought to be the area that Paul Rowles had taken the 15-year-old clearwater teenager in 1994. Alachua County Sheriff Sadie Darnell had been following Tiffany Sessions' case from the beginning and had sent correspondence to Pat Sessions over the years, lending her support. When Sheriff Darnell took up office Solving Tiffany Sessions' case became one of her department's top priorities. At the 2014 press conference Sheriff, Darnell spoke to the media at the dig site and said that the possibility of Paul Rowles being Tiffany Sessions' killer was highly, highly probable. Both of Tiffany’s parents attended the dig site as it was excavated over a period of days. Sadly the extensive dig found no evidence of Tiffany.

According to the Alachua county chronicles dated the 27th Feb 2020, the Alachua County sheriff's office along with the national center for missing and exploited children were currently searching an area of commercial timberland in Northeast Alachua, following a tip that a man and a woman matching Tiffany Session’s and Paul Rowles’ description was seen in the area at the time of Tiffany’s disappearance. A witness who had been very young at the time of Tiffany’s disappearance had come forward. The witness remembered seeing a red truck that was parked along a county road in Alachua county. Near the truck, the witness says that they saw a man fitting Rowles Appearance dragging a woman fitting Tiffany Sessions' appearance into the woods. In the Feb 2020 search of the area, Cadaver dogs alerted but no body was found. It was said that evidence was found and was taken away to be processed.

Although police believe that they have solved the mystery of who killed Tiffany Sessions, the evidence is not definitive, and the search for Tiffany’s remains is ongoing. The two-toned, blue-faced Rolex watch gifted to her, by her father Pat, so many years ago is a key piece of evidence that has never been found. If the watch is ever located then its serial number can be used to identify it and trace it back to Tiffany. In 2014 the Alachua county sheriff’s office was offering a 10,000 reward for information that led to the recovery of the Rolex. The watch was described in more detail as a Ladies Rolex, Datejust 2 tone watch with a stainless steel case and blue dial. The watch had a 2 tone stainless steel and gold jubilee bracelet. They believed that Paul Rowle’s second wife Kathryn may have pawned it in Gainesville some time in the 1990s. Law enforcement would also like to locate the red Ford Bronco previously owned by Paul Rowles. Tiffany’s parents are certain that Paul Rowles murdered their daughter, and for them finding Tiffany’s remains will give them the chance to provide their daughter with a Christian burial.

In 2008 a bill was passed by the Florida House of Representatives, who unanimously passed senate bill number 502 or the Jennifer Kesse and Tiffany Sessions missing person act. The bill was established to completely shake up the way that missing person’s cases are dealt with in the state of Florida. The new bill means that once a person aged 25 years or under is reported missing, police need to start searching for that person within 2 hours of the time they are reported missing. People who are 26 and older are also covered by this act if police suspect that they are in danger. Law enforcement must also ask for a voluntary DNA sample from the family members of individuals who are missing for more than 90 days. If a DNA sample is provided, it is then entered into the FBI”s national database, where continuous cross-checks are made against collected DNA and unidentified human remains. Local law enforcement, handling individual cases, are also required to submit missing person reports to both the state and federal criminal database, within 2 hours of receiving a missing person report.

In the Summer of 2007, 100,000 card decks were distributed amongst inmates in Florida Prisons. The decks consisted of a series of two different card decks, covering 104 cases. The individual cards each had pictures and information pertaining to unsolved disappearances and murders within the state of Florida. Law enforcement hoped that it would get inmates talking and that some inmates would ultimately share information with authorities. Tiffany Sessions' card was the King of Spades. Twelve-year-old Jennifer Odom, who I talked about earlier, was the Queen of Diamonds.

In this episode, we have discussed the disappearances, kidnappings, sexual assaults, and murders of multiple people. I would like to point out that although many of these cases are now solved, the disappearances of 17 year old Tracey Kroh from Millersburg Pennsylvania which occurred on August the 5th 1989, and the disappearance of14-year-old Beth Ann Miller from Idaho Springs Colorado on August 16th, 1983 as well as the kidnapping and murder of 12-year-old Jennifer Odam, who disappeared 200 meters from her home in St Joseph Florida on the 19th of February 1993, remain unsolved. If you have any information regarding any of these cases, please check the show notes or head over to crime valley’s Instagram or Facebook page where you can find the relevant law enforcement contact numbers for each case. Additionally, if anyone has information pertaining to Paul Rowles, his red Ford Broncho, or Tiffany Sessions' blue-faced, two-toned, silver and gold Rolex watch serial number R-6009006 please call the Alachua County sheriff's office on (352) 955-1818.

Thank you for listening to today’s episode. Don’t forget to show your support by giving me a review on the podcast platform you are listening to. Stay safe, stay informed and I will meet you again next week in Crime Valley.

I love you, you sexy fox mwah xoxoxo

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