19case filesUpdated Jul 16, 2026
Casepin holds 19 unsolved cases in Florida. By legal status, 15 marked unsolved and 4 marked cold. On Casepin a case is unsolved when no one has been convicted for it; files the record marks as cold, where active investigation has stalled, are counted here too and carry their own Cold label.
Vortex Spring, near Ponce de Leon, Florida · 2010
Ben McDaniel, a 30-year-old diver from Memphis, Tennessee, vanished after entering a cave system at Vortex Spring in the Florida Panhandle on August 18, 2010, and has never been found, despite extensive searches and a Florida death certificate issued in 2013.
Credit: DanTDCC BY-SA 4.0SourceCOLDListenWildlife on Easy Street sanctuary, Tampa, Florida · 1997
Don Lewis, a Tampa, Florida, businessman and co-founder of an exotic-animal sanctuary, disappeared on August 18, 1997, at age 59, after leaving home on an early-morning delivery; his van was found two days later at an airport 40 miles away with the keys inside. He was declared legally dead in 2002. No one has been arrested or charged, and investigators have said they have no evidence a crime occurred; the case drew renewed public attention after the 2020 documentary series Tiger King.
Image recordPublic domainSourceUNSOLVEDListenSW 35th Place area, Gainesville, Florida · 1989
Tiffany Sessions, a University of Florida student, vanished on February 9, 1989 after leaving her Gainesville apartment for an afternoon walk; she has never been found, and the case remains unsolved.
COLDListenCocoa Beach, Florida, United States · 1994
Amy Gellert was fatally attacked outside her Cocoa Beach home in 1994, and the Brevard County Sheriff's Office continues to list the homicide as unsolved.
Credit: Koba-chan; cropped, marked and wording by Laszlovszky András at Hungarian WikipediaPublic domainSourceUNSOLVEDListenStraits of Florida / Miami vicinity, en route from San Juan, Puerto Rico to Miami, Florida · 1948
A Douglas DC-3 airliner, registration NC16002, disappeared on 28 December 1948 during a scheduled overnight flight from San Juan, Puerto Rico, to Miami, Florida, with 29 passengers and three crew aboard. No wreckage was ever found and the official investigation could not determine a probable cause.
Credit: HectorMoffetCC BY-SA 3.0SourceUNSOLVEDListenThe Retreat at Twin Lakes, Sanford, Florida · 2012
On February 26, 2012, George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch coordinator in Sanford, Florida, fatally shot 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, who was unarmed. Zimmerman was charged with second-degree murder and later acquitted after arguing self-defense.
UNSOLVEDListenAuburndale area, Polk County, Florida · 2023
Charles Griffith was fatally shot in Oklahoma in 2023 and Catherine Griffith was fatally stabbed in Florida in 2024; neither death produced a conviction.
The files run from 1916 to 2023. The 1920s hold the most, with 3 files. The oldest is Newberry Six lynchings, from 1916.
They are spread across 17 cities and towns; the most are in Miami (2) and Fort Lauderdale (2). By type, the largest groups are murder and homicide cases (14), disappearance cases (6) and kidnapping and abduction cases (3).
6 files of the 19 have coverage attached: 32 videos, podcasts and documentaries from 9 creators. The most covered is Disappearance of Ben McDaniel, with 4 items to watch or hear. 48 Hours, Kendall Rae and Crime Weekly have covered the most of them.
Every file is written from cited sources and pinned where it happened, and every person named carries the legal status the record gives them. If you hold information about an unsolved case, contact the investigating agency named in its file rather than posting it publicly. Families and anyone involved can request a correction from any file.
CMA Memorial (1 of 1) — Credit: Bstodd00CC BY-SA 3.0Source
Vortex Spring — Credit: Paul Clark. Edited slightly by Daniel Case prior to uploadCC BY 2.0Source
A DC-3 útvonala — Credit: Koba-chan; cropped, marked and wording by Laszlovszky András at Hungarian WikipediaPublic domainSource
File:Amy Billig Daytona Beach Morning Herald Coconut Grove 1974. 13 March 1974.jpg — Credit: Family portrait commissioned by Nathaniel and Susan Billig, circa 1974.Public domainSource
Shooting of Trayvon Martin map — Credit: HectorMoffetCC BY-SA 3.0Source
File:Pilot Country Airport Gateway.jpg — Credit: DanTDCC BY-SA 4.0Source
The skyline of Downtown Fort Lauderdale, Florida. — location anchor for the caseCC BY-SA 4.0SourceThe skyline of Downtown Fort Lauderdale, Florida. — location anchor for the caseCC BY-SA 4.0Source
Martha Jean Lambert, the missing 11-year-oldEditorial useSource
Town Center at Boca Raton - New Addition - panoramio — Credit: MikesMegapixelsCC BY 3.0SourceTiffany Louise Sessions, the missing 20-year-oldPublic domainSourceThese files are published and cited but are kept out of search listings for now, either because they fall outside Casepin’s true-crime scope or because they are still being deepened.
19. By status: 15 unsolved and 4 cold. The count covers published files only and changes as new files clear review.
Newberry Six lynchings, from 1916. Open the file
Disappearance of Ben McDaniel, with 4 videos, podcasts and documentaries linked from its file. Open the file
48 Hours (3 cases), Kendall Rae (2 cases) and Crime Weekly (1 case), among 9 creators in all.
Miami (2) and Fort Lauderdale (2).
It rebuilds hourly from the published files; the newest file change here is dated Jul 16, 2026. A status changes only when the record behind it does.
