Tiffany Sessions was a 20-year-old college student at the University of Florida in Gainesville when she disappeared in 1989. Three years after her disappearance another college student named Beth Foster went missing. Police found Foster’s body just a mile from where Tiffany went walking the day she disappeared. Ex-con Paul Rowles, who was convicted of murdering 20-year-old Linda Fida in Miami in 1972, lived in the area but was never questioned about Foster or Sessions. Two months after Foster’s murder, he left town.
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18 years later armed with newly available DNA technology, detectives submitted Rowles’ DNA to the FBI database and found a match to Elizabeth Foster. When the lead detective on the case, Detective Kevin Allen went to question Rowles about Sessions, he was in a coma, dying of lung cancer. He died two weeks later. Allen searched Rowles’ personal belongings and did find a record of dates in his address book, including the date Tiffany disappeared. Tiffany’s father Pat Sessions told 48 Hours, “I don’t know what’s worse. Having absolutely no idea what happened to her or having someone as bad as Paul Rowles having done it.” The case is still officially open. Anyone with information is urged to contact Det. Kevin Allen of the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office at 1-352-384-3323 or by email: [email protected].
