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Trunk Lady Identified After 53 Years — But Who Killed Her, And Where Are Her Children?

In solving one mystery, detectives have opened up more unanswered questions about the 1969 cold case.

Verity Partington
3 min readMay 31, 2023
Trunk Lady, AKA Sylvia June Atherton, and the trunk she was dumped in (Image: St Petersburg Police Department)

It was Halloween night in 1969 and police in St Petersburg, Florida had just answered a call that, unbeknown to them, would spark a murder mystery spanning more than five decades.

Two kids had seen a pickup truck pull up behind a restaurant and park near a small wooded area. As they watched, two men got out, pulled a large black steamer trunk from the truck bed and dumped it in the undergrowth before driving off.

The kids thought it was strange and they called the police. When investigators got there, they opened the trunk to discover a woman’s body wrapped in a large plastic bag. The woman was wearing only a pyjama top and had visible injuries to her head. She had also been strangled to death with a man’s Western-style Bolo tie.

Unfortunately, despite an extensive investigation and multiple attempts to identify the victim, detectives were unable to find any leads and the case went cold. The woman was buried as a Jane Doe in Memorial Park Cemetery and investigators were left forever wondering who the victim that became known as Trunk Lady really was.

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Verity Partington
Verity Partington

Written by Verity Partington

A writer and author of crime thrillers living in the UK. Partial to books, stationery, papercrafts and walking. You can find her books on Amazon here: https://a

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