The victim of one of the strangest and longest-running cold cases in Florida has been identified nearly 55 years after her body was found in Sumter County.

Sumter County Sheriff Patrick Breeden announced the news in the “Little Miss Lake Panasoffkee” case on Wednesday, alongside the lead investigator, Capt. Jon Galvin of the Criminal Investigations Division.

According to investigators, the case dates back to Feb. 19, 1971, when a couple of hitchhikers discovered a woman’s body under the Lake Panasoffkee Bridge on Interstate 75.

She was found with a man’s leather belt wrapped around her neck and a section of carpet covering her body.

At the time, the body was already heavily decomposed, having been sunken in the water there for at least a month before being found.

With no one to claim

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