The year was 1989. With a Sony Walkman in hand, Tiffany Sessions left for a Thursday afternoon power walk in the February cold. The UF finance junior promised her roommate she’d return to wish her luck before an exam, that she’d give a call to her mom.
But hours ticked away and turned to days. They blurred into months, and stretched 35 years.
Tiffany Sessions never made it home, but her mother still waits by the phone in hopes someone will unravel the mystery that took her daughter.
"That's what keeps me going every day. You never know when a new lead is going to come in. You never, ever stop looking," Hilary Sessions said.
Among 20,000 unsolved Florida cold cases, Tiffany Sessions will appear on a new edition of cold case playing cards for distribution across jails and prisons.
Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody along with the Florida Association of Crime Stoppers, Florida’s Sheriffs Association and Florida Department of Corrections announced June 10 that over 5,000 decks will be sent across the state with the purpose of generating new cold case leads from inmates, according to an Office of the Attorney General news release.
The cards feature each victim’s story, a portrait or picture of an object they always carried and information on how to report a tip.
“We are giving Cold Case Cards to inmates, but we are not playing games. This low-tech approach to generating tips may prove to be an ace up the sleeve as we continue to bring finality to seemingly unbreakable cases,” Moody said in the news release.
Through an older version of the cards, state law enforcement saw success in solving previously unclear cold cases, including the murder of 34-year-old Ingrid Lugo. Her killer was identified and found guilty in 2008 following an inmate tip, according to the news release.
Bill Leeper, Nassau County Sheriff and Florida Sheriffs Association president, said current inmates have the potential to be a substantial resource in solving previously untapped cases.
“They may say something or somebody's memory may be jogged if they're looking at some of these cards and see that they may have some possible information they can pass along to law enforcement to help solve that crime,” he said.
Once booked into jail, inmates talk to each other and exchange information that might just be the key, Leeper said.
Florida Association of Crime Stoppers President Frank Brunner said the new edition decks feature more graphic crimes, an advancement compared to its 2008 predecessor.
“These decks of cards that are being distributed have some of the more horrific cold cases from around the entire state,” he said. “Now we have things where we can tie things in with QR codes, web tips, mobile apps and other things.”
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement reported in a news release that state crime dropped to a 50-year low in 2021. However, Alachua County retained a 2022 violent crime rate of approximately 201 victims per every 100,000 people compared to about 151 for the state, according to the Florida Department of Health.
In an attempt to resolve the mystery of aging state cold cases, physical cards are set to be distributed by Florida sheriff’s offices, and digital versions will be made available online. Inmate tips will be awarded with up to $9,500, according to the news release.
Tiffany Sessions’ case was featured in the 2007 first edition deck on a king of spades card. It described the last time she was seen and what she was wearing.
Hilary Sessions said she last spoke to her daughter the morning of her disappearance, describing her as a “determined” and “vivacious” young woman. She was expecting a call from her but instead heard from her roommate Kathy Sue who bore devastating news.
Though Tiffany Sessions’ body was never found, law enforcement named Paul Eugene Rowles as a suspect for her disappearance. A convicted serial killer and rapist, Rowles documented his killings in a notebook where he wrote “#2 2/9/89 #2,” which police believe represented the date Tiffany Sessions went missing and marked her as his second victim. Rowles died of cancer in 2013 while serving a life sentence for the murder of another woman.
Hilary Sessions helped distribute the original 2007 cold case deck in Wakulla Correctional Institution. She gave credit to the cards for solving the murder of Pasco County’s 12-year-old Jennifer Odom in 2023.
“I have learned over this time that one of the things that I have to do in my lifetime now is to educate people,” Hilary Sessions said.
Contact Lee Ann Anderson at landerson@alligator.org. Follow her on X @LeeAnnJOU
Lee Ann Anderson is a sophomore journalism major and The Alligator’s Summer 2023 criminal justice reporter. In her free time you can catch her reading articles, talking to her cat or losing her mind.
