The Alachua County Sheriff’s Office named the late Paul Rowles, convicted murderer and sexual offender, as the primary suspect in the disappearance of Tiffany Sessions 25 years ago.
Sheriff Sadie Darnell announced new evidence Thursday morning in the case of Tiffany Sessions, a 20-year-old University of Florida student who disappeared on Feb. 9, 1989.
Andrew Kays / WUFT News
Pat Sessions speaks at the Feb. 6 press conference, when Paul Rowles was named as the primary suspect in the cold case.
Rowles died last year in state prison of cancer and among his belongings authorities found an address book with “2/9/89: #2” scribbled in it. Darnell said this is the strongest of a slew of circumstantial evidence which placed Rowles in the area at the time Sessions disappeared.
“All indicators are pointed to him,” Darnell said. “It is highly, highly probable that Rowles is responsible.”
She also asked any members of the public who had any possible connections to Rowles or the case to call the Sheriff's Office and with a suspect in focus she said she hopes for a “new stirring-up of info."
Sessions' parents, Pat and Hilary Sessions, also spoke at the press conference. They thanked the individuals and agencies who brought the case to this point and reinvigorated their hope for closure.
“In the bleak years, like the fifth to 20th, it was very hard not to give up,” Pat said.
He added that the work Sheriff Darnell has done in reopening the investigation has been key.
DNA evidence recently connected Rowles to the 1992 murder of UF student Elizabeth Foster. This led the search for Sessions body to the wooded area where Foster’s body was found, behind the closed Art of Billiards sports bar at the corner of Southeast Williston Road and Southwest 13th Street. Excavations are looking for skeletal remains or Sessions’ Rolex watch.
Anyone with information can call a 24-hour hotline at 352-955-1818.