Buzz
During March and April, countless cities in the southern regions of North America become bustling hubs for college students. Eager to escape their academic pressures, they flock to beaches, don swimwear, and indulge in alcohol. Sadly, some of these young individuals become victims of unsolved crimes and vanish without a trace.
10. Sarah Ann Ottens
In 1973, the University of Iowa dormitory housing Sarah Ann Ottens was nearly deserted as most students had left for spring break. Sarah had remained on campus to earn extra income working as a waitress. She planned to visit her family in Illinois later that week but had access to a friend’s dorm room, where she occasionally stayed instead of her own.
Shortly before midnight on March 13, the 20-year-old nursing student was discovered beaten and suffocated in her friend’s room. Evidence suggested she had been washed, as blood was found in the sink. The room’s assigned occupants were away for the holiday, and Sarah’s body was found by the sole student remaining on the floor that week.
Police eventually arrested James Hall, a 20-year-old part-time African American student. Using hair, blood, and fingerprint evidence collected from the scene and Hall’s clothing, he was convicted and sentenced to 50 years in prison.
However, the trial faced significant issues from the start. Allegations of racist remarks during grand jury proceedings surfaced, and some jurors were accused of drinking alcohol during deliberations before reaching a verdict. Hall’s conviction was later overturned on appeal after it was revealed that the prosecution had withheld crucial evidence.
Hall was freed, and Sarah’s murder case reverted to unsolved. A decade later, Hall was convicted of strangling a 31-year-old woman. No other suspects were ever charged in connection with Sarah’s death.
9. Susan Jacques
In 1986, Susan Jacques, a Connecticut high school senior, traveled to Fort Lauderdale with nine friends for spring break. Near the end of their trip, Susan left her motel room at night, claiming she wanted to take a solitary walk on the beach. However, investigators later speculated she might have been meeting other partygoers at a different motel.
Three days later, Susan’s body was discovered floating in a canal 55 kilometers (35 miles) away. Severe decomposition made it impossible for the medical examiner to identify the exact cause of death.
The investigation yielded minimal evidence to connect her murder to potential suspects. No witnesses emerged, and no clear motive was established. Robbery was dismissed as a possibility since Susan was still wearing costly jewelry when found. Additionally, there was no indication of sexual assault.
Authorities looked into several men who had abruptly checked out of their motels and left the state early. However, each was cleared as a suspect. Investigators admit that a confession is their best chance of solving the case, but none has been made so far.
8. Kim Vaccaro and Lisa Eisman
On March 29, 1985, Kim Vaccaro and Lisa Eisman, both 20-year-old students at State University College in Buffalo, New York, were traveling to Fort Lauderdale for spring break. They planned to meet a friend who had already reached the destination.
The two women had not informed their families about their decision to hitchhike. Carrying only a couple of kitchen knives for safety, Kim and Lisa hitched a ride on a tractor-trailer. They were confirmed to have reached the southern border of Maryland, where Lisa mailed a postcard to her boyfriend.
Unfortunately, their makeshift weapons proved useless. Four days after their departure, the bodies of both young women were found near a river in an undeveloped area near Tampa. They had been brutally beaten, requiring dental records for identification.
Investigators concluded that Kim and Lisa’s bodies had been submerged in water for two days. They were found wearing only T-shirts, with their cash and belongings missing. The truck driver who gave them a ride was never located.
Three decades later, the case remains unsolved. Tragically, Kim and Lisa had originally registered for a university-sponsored bus trip to Florida. Despite receiving funds from their families for the trip, they reportedly decided to save the money and alter their plans for the vacation.
7. Karen Wilson
In a strange twist of fate, another New York college student disappeared around the same time as Kim Vaccaro and Lisa Eisman. Karen Wilson, a University of Albany student, had been preparing to travel to Fort Lauderdale with her roommate when she went missing.
Unlike Vaccaro and Eisman, Wilson had bought plane tickets to Florida but never collected them. Investigators suspect she was abducted from the street by a lone assailant while walking back to campus after a tanning appointment.
During a simulated kidnapping exercise, police determined it could take as little as 10 seconds for a man to seize and force a petite woman into a car trunk. However, there’s no proof this occurred with Karen. With no evidence, body, crime scene, or witnesses, the case has stalled.
An anonymous tip led investigators to Brad Woodworth, a 33-year-old truck driver. Detectives doubted Woodworth would have reported for his 4:00 AM shift if he had kidnapped and killed a woman at 8:00 PM the night before. Despite two years of investigation, Woodworth was never charged.
Another tip prompted police to search a wooded area near an abandoned country club close to Woodworth’s home. Months of searching yielded no results. Woodworth later died in a fire, and Karen’s parents do not believe he was involved in their daughter’s disappearance.
Karen Wilson’s body was never found, and her case remains unsolved.
6. Reny Jose
In 2014, Reny Jose, a senior engineering student at Rice University, vanished while vacationing with friends in Panama City, Florida, during spring break. On the fourth day of the trip, around 6:30 PM, Reny left the house he shared with about 20 friends. Later, his clothes, cell phone, and wallet were discovered in a trash can behind the house.
Police theorized that Reny, possibly under the influence of LSD, wandered into the cold water and drowned. Some friends mentioned that drug use was prevalent during the trip and that Reny had made concerning remarks about self-harm. His family rejected claims of suicidal tendencies, noting he was set to graduate with a 4.0 GPA and was enthusiastic about starting his career.
Search teams scoured the waters near the beach house but failed to locate Reny’s body. Many of his friends departed the rental house less than 24 hours after his disappearance. None claimed to have seen him leave or participated in the search. No suspects have ever been identified.
A year after Reny vanished, his family organized a vigil to keep his case in the public eye as they persist in their search for answers.
5. Dana Bailey
In March 1987, Dana Bailey, a 21-year-old Penn State student, was preparing for her wedding and eagerly anticipating graduation. She had traveled to Washington, DC, to visit her fiancé during spring break but returned home early following an argument.
Dana informed her mother that she had experienced a flat tire on her way back to Pennsylvania. She also asked her mother to notify her workplace that she wouldn’t be in, as she wanted to enjoy a tanning session. That night, her fiancé called from DC, and after a 30-minute conversation, Dana mentioned she was tired and heading to bed.
At that time, State College was a peaceful college town, averaging no more than one or two murders every ten years. The street where Dana resided was particularly quiet, as most students were still away for spring break.
When Dana’s mother, Shirley, visited the next day to deliver a rent check, she was devastated to discover her daughter had been fatally stabbed in the chest. Dana’s diamond engagement ring remained on her finger, but her nightgown had been forcibly removed.
With the area largely deserted, there were no witnesses to the crime. Investigators withheld many details, leading Dana’s parents to suspect a lack of substantial evidence. One puzzling aspect was Dana’s claim of a flat tire, as her tires appeared intact, and no nearby garages reported assisting her.
Nearly three decades later, the case remains unsolved.
4. Rachel Taylor
Nearly five decades before Dana Bailey’s tragic case, another Penn State student fell victim to a baffling crime. In 1940, Rachel Taylor, a 17-year-old freshman from New Jersey, was heading back to campus after visiting her family during spring break.
She disembarked from her hometown bus around 1:20 AM and began the 0.8-kilometer (0.5 mi) walk to her dorm. Ten minutes later, Rachel was spotted entering a car near her dorm. Early the next morning, a janitor discovered her brutally beaten body approximately 6 kilometers (4 mi) away. She had been sexually assaulted and mutilated.
Some theorized that a white slavery ring might be active in the area, as another young woman had been found tortured and murdered near Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. However, Rachel’s friends believed she likely knew her killer, as she wasn’t the type to accept rides from strangers.
An autopsy revealed Rachel had eaten shortly before her death. Since no local restaurants were open at that hour, it suggested she was familiar with her attacker. Despite a thorough search of the campus, no leads were uncovered.
Authorities questioned prison inmates, mental hospital patients, and several potential suspects across the state. A bloodstained handkerchief and a man’s footprint were found near the site where Rachel’s body was located.
However, her killer was never identified. Neither the car nor the murder weapon was ever found. Rachel’s murder remains one of the oldest unsolved cases in the region.
3. Brittanee Drexel
The disappearance of Brittanee Drexel, a 17-year-old high school junior from Rochester, New York, is one of the most widely publicized spring break cases since Natalee Holloway vanished in Aruba in 2005.
In 2009, Brittanee asked her mother for permission to visit Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, for spring break. However, her mother only allowed her to go to Charlotte Beach near their home. Unbeknownst to her mother, the Charlotte Beach trip was a cover for Brittanee to travel to Myrtle Beach. Her mother had refused the Myrtle Beach trip because she didn’t know the three friends accompanying her.
During her time in Myrtle Beach, Brittanee encountered Peter Brozowitz, a 20-year-old club promoter and acquaintance from Rochester. The night before her planned return home, she visited Brozowitz at his hotel and left around 9:00 PM to head back to her own accommodations.
While walking back, Brittanee was texting her boyfriend, but the messages abruptly ceased. Subsequent calls to her phone went directly to voicemail, as did attempts to reach the friends she had traveled with.
Between 9:30 PM and midnight, Brittanee’s cell phone connected to two towers—one near Myrtle Beach and another about an hour south. The final location where her phone was traced (but never recovered) is a swampy area known for alligators, leading some to fear her body may have been disposed of there.
In a highly suspicious move, Brozowitz abruptly checked out of his hotel between 1:00 AM and 2:00 AM and returned to Rochester, while the four friends he shared the room with remained behind.
Numerous theories surround Brittanee’s disappearance. Some, including her mother, believe she may have fallen victim to human trafficking. Myrtle Beach has gained notoriety as a trafficking hotspot, with South Carolina reporting a dozen confirmed cases.
Some speculate that Brittanee’s friends might have played a role in her disappearance, as there was a disagreement over a pair of shorts. Brittanee vanished while walking back to her hotel to return the shorts to one of her friends.
The friends who accompanied Brittanee to Myrtle Beach failed to notify her family or authorities when she went missing and did not participate in the search for her. Others suspect Brozowitz’s involvement may be greater than the evidence suggests. As of February 2016, Brittanee remains missing.
2. Brian Shaffer
On a March evening in 2006, Brian Shaffer, 27, dined with his father at a restaurant before meeting a friend at a Columbus, Ohio, bar to kick off spring break celebrations.
Brian, a second-year medical student at Ohio State, was set to travel to Florida in a few days with his girlfriend, Alexis Waggoner, also a medical student at Ohio State. Alexis anticipated the trip might include a marriage proposal.
At the bar, Brian became separated from his friend, William “Clint” Florence. Surveillance footage captured Brian talking to two women near the bar before seemingly heading back inside. Unable to reach Brian on his phone, Clint assumed he had gone home.
However, the bar’s surveillance footage showed no evidence of Brian ever exiting. Police meticulously accounted for every individual who entered the bar to ensure Brian hadn’t left in disguise. His car and apartment were untouched, and none of his belongings were ever found.
Clint Florence declined to take a polygraph test on two occasions, making him the only person in the investigation to do so. His lawyer claims Brian is alive and intentionally causing his family distress. However, many, including Alexis, her father, and Brian’s brother Derek, believe Clint is withholding crucial information.
1. Stacie Madison and Susan Smalley
Stacie Madison and Susan Smalley, two high school students from Carrollton, Texas, were spending their final night of spring break. Before heading to Susan’s house for a sleepover, they visited friends in the Dallas suburbs, shopped at the mall, and attended a party in Arlington. Typical teenage activities.
They made it back to Susan’s house by their midnight curfew. However, shortly after, they decided to visit the restaurant where Susan worked to talk to a boy she liked. After that, they vanished without a trace.
Stacie’s 1967 Ford Mustang convertible was discovered locked and abandoned at a busy intersection a few miles south of Carrollton. Investigators questioned Stacie’s ex-boyfriend, who had allegedly boasted to his new girlfriend about killing both girls and burying them near State Highway 121. However, a search yielded no results. The ex-boyfriend retracted his confession, passed a polygraph test, and was cleared.
In 2010, Shawn Sutherland, a Dallas-area paralegal, was motivated to write a book about the disappearances of Stacie and Susan. Titled This Night Wounds Time: The Mysterious Disappearances of Stacie Madison and Susan Smalley, the book didn’t uncover new evidence but revived police interest in the case.
Both law enforcement and Stacie’s family suspect her ex-boyfriend hasn’t been entirely ruled out as a suspect. Sutherland’s book seems to support this view. Despite promising leads from the renewed investigation, the case remains unsolved.
