October 22, 2024
Pamela Kay Wittman’s skeletal remains were discovered on November 5, 1980, by Florida Department of Transportation workers in Volusia County, off I-95 north of Port Orange. The discovery was made on a wooded strip of land along the interstate in the coastal resort of Daytona Beach, Volusia County.
The woman was dressed in a red T-shirt and shorts, wearing green size 8 shoes. She had 27 cents on her person, as well as a handkerchief.
It was determined that she had been stabbed to death several weeks earlier, but who she was, and who murdered her, was unknown.
The woman was given the place-holder name Daytona Beach Jane Doe / Jane Doe 1980.
An investigation into the identity of the woman was launched, however without any clues or suspects, the case went cold.
A composite sketch generated by an NCMEC Forensic Artist of what the victim may have looked like was circulated but would later be critizised by those following the case as looking nothing like Pamela Witman.
A description on the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children listed her race as "an admixture, both black and white, with probable Hispanic origin," she was estimated to have been around 5'7" - 5'11" in height.
Serial killer Gerald Stano later confessed to the murder as part of a plea deal. He is believed to have killed 23 women and girls, however he confessed to over 40 more. Authorities believe he could have killed upwards of 80.
Stano claimed that Wittman was a sex worker whom he met in either 1978 or 1979. He remembered the T-shirt she had been wearing that day, recalling that it was red and said, "Do it in the Dirt."
It is believed that Stano began murdering women in the early 1970s, although he claimed to have started around a decade earlier when he was just a teenager. Although girls had disappeared from the area he lived in around that time, no murders were officially linked to him. He mainly killed in the state of Florida, as well as in New Jersey, where he claimed to have first murdered in the late 1960s.
He admitted that he had mostly killed white women, teenagers to early adults, who were vulnerable, often sex workers he could easily lure.
One such sex worker, Donna Hensley, had escaped her fate when she fled from a motel room with severe injuries.
On March 25,1980, Stano had picked up Hensley and taken her to a local motel. They got into a verbal altercation inside the room, that resulted in Stano slashing and stabbing her multiple times before leaving her for dead. Hensley reported Stano to the authorities.
Stano was known to local sex workers in the area for being a violent individual who assaulted workers. Following his arrest, he began confessing to the killing of multiple women and girls.
When it comes to victims of homicide with unknown identities investigative genetic genealogy is performed using analysis of identity-by-descent (IBD) segments of DNA that link the victim to ancestors.
Through investigation, living next-of-kin can be tracked down and provide information on the victim’s personal details and history. Often next-of-kin can be found through commercial genealogy website databases.
Law enforcement often work alongside genetic genealogy experts, or labs based in a similar field, who use DNA results and other information to compile family trees and narrow down living relatives.
The victim had lived at Daytona beach at some point during her childhood, before relocating to Martinsville, Indiana. Around 1979 she is thought to have moved to Daytona beach and hadn't been back long before she was brutally murdered.
In the case of Pamela Wittman, it took several months to trace a living family member who was then able to fill in the blanks of where Pam resided and travelled circa 1980. Blood relatives then gave DNA samples, confirming Pamela's identity. Since Stano was prolific in the area spanning the 1970s and 1980s and had confessed to her murder, the case was re-examined, and the slaying was officially linked to Stano. Stano has been dead since 1998, when he was sentenced to death by electric chair. At the time he was serving eight life sentences, three of which resulted in death sentences. It is believed he was responsible for the murders of upwards of 80 women and girls.
Pamela’s loved ones, or Pam as friends and family called her, remembered her as beautiful, generous, and a great singer. "She had the voice of an angel," they said. At the time of her disappearance, Pam had a younger sister, Donita Bishop, who was too young to remember Pam, but was happy the family finally received closure.
A memorial marker has been erected at the site where Pamela’s body was found. The marker has a black and white photograph of her along with the discovery date of her body, date of birth, and the words: "She had the voice of an angel."
November 19, 2024
