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Sessions,Tiffany L. February 9,1989; Florida
Topic Started: Aug 18 2006, 01:08 PM (2,770 Views)
oldies4mari2004
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http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/s/sessions_tiffany.html
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oldies4mari2004
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Tiffany Louise Sessions
Sessions, circa 1989;
Lower Right: Age-progression at age 31 (circa 1999)


Vital Statistics at Time of Disappearance

Missing Since: February 9, 1989 from Gainesville, Florida
Classification: Endangered Missing
Date Of Birth: October 29, 1968
Age: 20 years old
Height and Weight: 5'3, 125 pounds
Distinguishing Characteristics: Caucasian female. Blonde hair, brown eyes. Sessions's lower front tooth is chipped. She has a crescent-shaped scar on her left knuckle. Sessions's family nickname is Tiffy.
Clothing/Jewelry Description: Red sweatpants, a long-sleeved white pullover sweatshirt with gray horizontal stripes and the word "Aspen" stitched in green lettering on the lower front of the collar, blue or white low-cut Reebok sneakers and a two-tone ladies' silver and gold Rolex watch with a blue-tinted face and serial number R-6009006.


Details of Disappearance

Sessions was a junior at the University of Florida in Gainesville in 1989; she majored in finance. She resided in the 2630 block of southwest 35th Place in Casablanca East Condominiums. Sessions told her roommate she was going to take a walk along Williston Road at approximately 6:00 p.m. on February 9, 1989. Witnesses saw a woman matching Sessions's description speaking to several unidentified individuals in a vehicle shortly afterwards. The woman may have entered the car, but the witnesses were uncertain. Authorities have never confirmed if the person was Sessions. She has never been heard from again. Sessions was carrying a black Sony Walkman radio at the time of her disappearance. She left her wallet, keys and identification inside her residence.
Michael Knickbocker was imprisoned in a Florida jail in 2000. He allegedly told other inmates that he chained Sessions to a tree near Gainesville on the night of her disappearance. Knickbocker claimed that he murdered her shortly afterwards and disposed of her remains in the Calosahatchee River near Fort Myers, Florida. Investigators searched the area after receiving the information from an informant, but no evidence was found at the scene. Authorities stated that materials connected to Sessions's disappearance may have been lost in the surf as a result of the time lapse.

Knickbocker also mentioned that Sessions's sweatshirt was buried outside of Gainesville. Investigators searched the specified location in August 2002 and recovered a piece of blood-soaked material. Authorities tested the material to determine if Sessions's DNA was on the item. The results have not been publicly announced. Several media outlets reported that the material did not appear to originate from a sweatshirt.

In 1994, a missing children's hotline received a bizarre anonymous call about Sessions's case. The caller stated that he or she had seen Sessions together with Tracy Kroh and Elizabeth Miller and that the three young women were being held against their will in Austin, Texas and forced to work as prostitutes. Kroh disappeared from Pennsylvania in 1989, and Miller from Colorado in 1983, and no one had suggested the cases were related. The tipster claimed the three women were being held by a man named Thomas Stewart and traveling in a white van with Florida license plates and a blue/gray van with unknown license plates. Police from all three states investigated the tip but decided it was probably a hoax.

Sessions's mother hired Florida-based psychic John Monti after her daughter disappeared. She said that he demanded money in return for his services and never produced any evidence related to Sessions's case. Monti denied her allegations and professed surprise that she was not pleased with his assistance. He claimed that he gave authorities the name of a prison inmate who was enrolled in a work-release program near the Gainesville campus in 1989. Monti said that he believed the individual was involved in Sessions's disappearance. He also claimed that he recommended investigators search remote areas of the campus for evidence. Monti also assisted Kelli Cox's mother search for her daughter, who disappeared from Texas in 1997.

Sessions's case remains unsolved. There have not been any arrests in connection to her disappearance.

Investigating Agency
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:
Alachua County Sheriff's Office
904-955-2500

Source Information
The National Center for Missing Adults
Child Protection Of America
The Gainesville Sun
WSVN TV-7
The Independent Florida Alligator
The Doe Network
The Dallas Observer
NewsLibrary
The St. Petersburg Times
TiffanySessions.com
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New Development in Tiffany Sessions Missing Person Case

By Jackelyn Barnard
First Coast News

Tiffany's Story
Christmas 1988 was the last time Tiffany Sessions would be home for the holidays. Six weeks later, she would just vanish into thin air.

The day was February 9, 1989. Her mom, Hilary, remembers it well. "Tiffany went out about four o'clock in the afternoon."

The University of Florida Junior left her apartment at Casablanca in Gainesville for some exercise. She went for a walk. An hour passed, then two hours, three hours. Five hours later, Tiffany's roommate made a phone call.

"About nine o'clock, Kathy called. It was her tone of voice, I immediately knew we had a problem," says Hilary Sessions.

Sessions says her daughter never came home. There was no sign of a struggle, no sign Tiffany even made it out of her apartment complex parking lot.

For days, crews searched the area looking for any clues. "Nothing -- no clothes, no walkman, no batteries, no shoes, no Rolex, no clothes -- nothing. It was like aliens came down and picked her up," says Sessions.

Eighteen years later, more than 2000 leads into Tiffany's disappearance have been investigated.

There have been possible sightings. The last one came in December 2006. Tiffany was believed to be a care giver at an elderly center in Hawaii. That lead and the thousands of others have been a dead end.

The lead investigator on the case, Agent Larry Ruby, of FDLE, says there is a new hope from a new lead.

"I've always told people when we solve Tiffany's case, it will be the last day I work," says Ruby.

Ruby has been assigned to Tiffany's case for the last 15 years. Ruby says a month ago, a new lead came in to his office. He says it actually surfaced back in 1996, but this time he says there is promising information. "It's nice to chase somebody instead of a ghost," says Ruby.

Ruby says the person he is investigating lives on the First Coast. He lived in Gainesville at the time Tiffany disappeared and he was also a long time student of UF.

"He's got kind of a violent history and he's just a person that could commit a crime like this and let it roll of his shoulders and never look back," says Ruby.

Ruby says the man had a job back in February 1989 that would allow him to go to apartment complexes as a delivery man. Ruby says right now, he has not found evidence that the man knew Tiffany.

"We don't have anything that connects them together other than we've gotten information that he liked to cruise the campus and kind of check out the girls on campus," says Ruby.

Ruby says he's not been able to rule out another man as a potential suspect either. Michael Knickerbocker, 41, is serving six consecutive life sentences for rapes in Gainesville and the 1989 rape and murder of a 12 year old girl in Starke.

"We haven't been able to associate him (Knickerbocker) to this crime and part of the reason is that we have no crime, no crime scene, no way we don't really know what happened," says Ruby.

No crime scene and no evidence means no DNA. "Rollercoaster... The worst rollercoaster I have ever been on. One day you're up, the next day you're down in deep depression. It's a fast ride it's a slow ride," says Sessions.

In the last 18 years, Hilary Sessions has looked at more than 170 dead bodies with the hope that one was Tiffany.

218 months have passed since she last saw her daughter. Still, Hilary holds out hope that her only child is still alive. "I can't give up that hope. There are days when I wish that it was over, one way or the other....either let me grieve or let me be happy, but this in-between is really difficult to deal with."

Sessions says tips called in over her daughter's disappearance have actually helped solve other murders. While frustrating, she is glad her daughter's case has brought closure to other families.

"I'm here on earth to learn two lessons and it took me a very long time to figure it out. The first one is I have to learn patience. Well, 18 years you can say well, my patience has run out, but I'm very patient. The second one is to educate. So, between both of those I'm learning my lesson."

Saving Other Kids
These days, Hilary spends all of her time focused on saving other kids. She is the director of the Child Protection Education of America. It is the second largest missing children's organization in the country.

The group fingerprints kids, distributes photographs of missing children and is also there to help support the family. "We recognize their birthdays and you can't believe the heartfelt thanks that we get from their parents. We have one child that has been missing 30 years and the mom says you still remember my child and that makes us feel so good that we can bring a ray of sunshine to the mom."

Sessions has taken her message to national magazines and even on the road to make sure her story hits home. It's a story she never thought she'd have to tell. Sessions and her team help to train kids how to protect themselves if someone ever tries to abduct them.

The children are actually put into a scenario where a retired police officer tries to grab them. The kids have to try to get away.

Samantha Jackson, 10, of Citrus County just finished taking one of the classes. "I thought he was really going to take me. I did stomping on the foot, hammer to the nose, pepper to the eyes, I think that's all I did."

Her mother sat by watching and got a little emotional seeing her daughter struggle to get away from her attacker. While it was hard to watch, Samantha's mom says her daughter is more prepared because of the class. "I think she's safe now...kids aren't safe today. They're not safe without the knowledge they need the knowledge."

Sessions agrees and that is why she spends all of her time preparing kids and their parents for the possibility of what happened to her could happen to them.

"I look at parents sometimes and I just want to shake them and I just want to say don't you understand what you have there. It is the most precious, the most precious gift that God can ever give you. One of the things that I want to do is make sure that every child is prepared, every family is prepared, just in case this should happen, because I always thought it was going to happen to someone else."

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/local/n...s&storyid=81135
Ell

Only after the last tree has been
cut down;
Only after the last fish has been
caught;
Only after the last river has been
poisoned;
Only then will you realize
that money cannot be eaten.
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Lauran

"If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente.


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http://www.wcjb.com/news.asp?id=14590

On The Eve Of Disappearance Anniversary, A Look At Unsolved Cold Cases
2/8/2007

By Stacey Samuel, WCJB TV20 News

We see them on television, criminal investigations, and they're usually solved in the course of an hour. But many real life cases continue to mystify. February 9th, marks eighteen years since the disappearance of Tiffany L. Sessions, a University of Florida student who left her home in southwest Gainesville one evening and vanished.

Law enforcement says it's a delicate balance they must strike with every case, between efficiency, due process and patience. Even when no expense is spared, as in Session's case, crime investigations can't always close the book on open cases.

The 1989 search for Session spread far and wide for many months, foul play has always been suspected but no leads ever turned up. According to then Lieutenant of Alachua County Sheriff's office, Spencer Mann, says her disappearance was suspicious, "...credit cards that sort of thing certainly hasn't shown up anywhere," he said then.

He adds that there were thousands of leads and hundreds of people involved in the investigation. But the question begged is, with more resources than lesser known cases, how does a case like this go unsolved?

University of Florida professor emeritis in Sociology, with a specialty in crime, Dr. Fred Shenkman says the public's expectations are often too high and police resources too slim. According to Shenkman, "forensics have come a long way and that's gotten a lot of high profile coverage on television and people expect to find some DNA or some evidence." In reality only 20 percent of index crimes get solved. This type of crime that are officially included in crime rate statistics include murder, arson, rape and larceny. So when tiffany sessions left her home here at Casablanca East and never returned, her disappearance was never officially categorized as a crime, leaving law enforcement that much more dependent on the community for clues.

"The police could work more quickly but whether or not that crime would ultimately be proved beyond a reasonable doubt in court of law is something different that the police just knowing in their gut who committed that crime," adds Shenkman. He adds a large percentage of crimes are solved because someone tells the police.

That however hasn't been the case for the family of Tiffany Session. Mann says,"as I continue to say to many victim's families of crime of homicides and other disappearances is keep the hope, we never give up." Her case remains in the hands of the Alachua County Sheriff's Office.
Lauran

"If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente.


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Decades bring no answers in woman's disappearance

Last Edited: Friday, 09 Feb 2007, 5:51 PM EST
Created: Friday, 09 Feb 2007, 5:48 PM EST

18 years after her disappearance, Tiffany Sessions' mother holds out hope for answers. We've got you covered

BRANDON - Not much has changed in 18 years inside Tiffany Sessions' bedroom.

Photos from Tiffany's senior prom still hang on the wall.

Her favorite stuffed animal lies on her bed.

Her mother Hilary says it's her sanctuary.

Hilary has spent nearly two decades looking for any shred of evidence to tell her what happened to Tiffany.

She keeps a brave face, but on this day, the anniversary of her disappearance, it's tough.

"A little sad, it's been hard to get through today, because it was 18 years ago that Tiffy went out for a jog, and hasn't been seen," Hilary Sessions said.

Hilary spends her days thinking of her only child.

But she is also a crusader to find other missing children.

Three years ago, she became the executive director of Child Protection Education of America.

"When I come to work everyday here, I know that we're making a difference in people's lives," she said.

She works alongside other women who have a relative missing.

This summer, she'll head up a program for young children, teaching them how to fight back against an abductor.

Hilary is now writing a book about Tiffany's disappearance. In a few months, she'll be going back to Gainesville to search another area. She says she has information from three different psychics.

Hilary doesn't think Tiffany is still alive.

But she says there's a chance.

Even if she's no, Hilary just wants to know who took her, and why.

"Initially my thought was a stranger came along. But because of the length of time, my thought is it was either someone she knew peripherally, or someone who knew of her," Sessions said.

Hilary never thought this much time would go by with no answers.

She says in her field, they bring back a lot of children.

But she knows sometimes, they just can't.

The night she disappeared, Tiffany had on a Rolex watch.

Rolex has put a red flag on the serial number of that watch.

But they say no one has ever tried to sell or pawn it, anywhere in the world.
Lauran

"If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente.


In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
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http://www.theyaremissed.org/ncma/gallery/...php?A200300454W

Endangered Missing Adult

If you believe you have any information regarding this case that will be helpful in this investigation please contact:
Alachua County Sheriff's Office at (386) 418-5400

Name: Tiffany Louise Sessions

Classification: Endangered Missing Adult
Date of Birth: 1968-10-29
Date Missing: 1989-02-09
From City/State: Gainesville, FL
Age at Time of Disappearance: 20
Gender: Female
Race: White
Height: 63 inches
Weight: 125 pounds
Hair Color: Blonde
Eye Color: Brown
Complexion: Medium
Identifying Characteristics: Bottom front tooth chipped, cresent shaped scar on left hand at knuckle.
Clothing: Long sleeved pullover sweatshirt with gray horizontal stripes and the word "Aspen" written in green letters on front, red sweatpants, blue or white low cut "Reebok" athletic shoes.
Jewelry: Two tone silver and gold ladies "Rolex" watch with blue face.

Circumstances of Disappearance: Unknown. Tiffany disappeared from the University of Florida at approximately 6:00pm. She told her roommate she was going for a walk and never returned.

Investigative Agency: Alachua County Sheriff's Office
Phone: (386) 418-5400
NCIC #: M-343925045

Lauran

"If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente.


In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
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Old sweat shirt tested for link to student missing since '89
©Associated Press
August 31, 2002
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The FBI is running tests on a sweat shirt unearthed near Gainesville two years ago to see if it belonged to missing University of Florida student Tiffany Sessions, her mother said.

Hilary Sessions said she doesn't know why it took so long.

Tiffany Sessions disappeared Feb. 9, 1989, after leaving her apartment for an evening walk along a jogging path. She was 20.

Two years ago, a prison inmate, reportedly dying, told authorities where to find a bloody sweat shirt that belonged to the student. Alachua County sheriff's deputies went to the scene and found it.

Hilary Sessions said she was told this week that the sweat shirt was being tested. Nobody has told her why the evidence languished for so long, she said.

Jeff Westcott, an FBI spokesman in Jacksonville, wouldn't talk about the reasons for the delay or any other specifics of the case.

Florida Department of Law Enforcement spokeswoman Sharon Gogerty said Alachua County authorities gave the shirt to them in May 2001, and it was handed over to the FBI in June 2001. Hilary Sessions said she and Tiffany's father gave blood and DNA samples two years ago, along with a baby tooth from Tiffany.

Test results won't be available for three weeks, Hilary Sessions said.

http://www.sptimes.com/2002/08/31/State/Ol...irt_teste.shtml
Lauran

"If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente.


In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
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Ell
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http://www.fdle.state.fl.us/MCICSearch/Results.asp

http://www.fdle.state.fl.us/mcicsearch/Fly...=3625&case_nbr=
Ell

Only after the last tree has been
cut down;
Only after the last fish has been
caught;
Only after the last river has been
poisoned;
Only then will you realize
that money cannot be eaten.
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monkalup
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http://www.orlandosentinel.com/community/n...0,953524.column

For Jennifer Kesse's family, news in Caylee Anthony case renews their hope for closure
George Diaz | COMMENTARY
December 19, 2008
For families of missing children, closure is a convenient euphemism. It never touches the jagged edges of pain, like a father who has looked at porn movies where women are tied up and beaten in a padded room, on the chance one of them might be his daughter.

Or a couple who had to wait 27 years before police in Florida officially identified a serial killer as the man who decapitated their 6-year-old son.

Or grandparents who returned home to Orlando last week with the realization that a skull and bones found near their home may be the remains of their granddaughter.

It's human nature, I suppose, to peek into graphic details of a true-life horror show without bothering about the nuances. But how can any family cope with a litany of unspeakable sins? The road leads to many places.



George Diaz E-mail | Recent columns

Related links
Could the search for Caylee Marie Anthony have ended months ago?
Did investigators find Caylee Anthony's book at search site? John Walsh turned the pain of losing his son, Adam, in 1981 into becoming one of the leading child advocates in this country.

George and Cindy Anthony are still at an emotional crossroads, not knowing whether the remains found are those of granddaughter Caylee Marie Anthony, and whether the killer is their daughter.

Drew and Joyce Kesse are in a twilight zone of a different kind. Their daughter, Jennifer, was thought to have been abducted nearly three years ago in the vicinity of the Mall at Millenia and is still missing. There have been more than 2,000 leads reported that have gone nowhere. The Orlando Police Department considers it an active case.

The Kesses push on. They've received close to 700 leads on their own, many of them addressed to a post-office box that was shut down more than a year ago.

The journey has taken them to strange places, opening doors to the dark underworld of porn to see if Jennifer had been abducted and forced into some form of sex trade. As bad as it's been, Drew Kesse knows that it's worse for others. Like a daughter who had to wait 26 years before authorities identified her mother's remains. They were stored in a locker at a morgue just a few blocks from her home.

"For this family, closure is everything. Period," Drew Kesse said Thursday. "For good or bad. Do we hope for the miracle? Absolutely. But we're very realistic. What we truly want is Jennifer to be found for her sake."

Not knowing is worse. It renders Christmas Day meaningless. The Kesses will gather with a few family and friends and ask themselves the same question they've asked over and over again:

"How do we do this?"

Advocacy is a therapeutic reaction. Similar to John Walsh, who became a tenacious criminal hunter as the face of America's Most Wanted, Drew Kesse has wrapped himself in helping others.

His fingerprints are on Senate Bill 502, the " Jennifer Kesse and Tiffany Sessions Missing Persons Act," which expands the Amber Alert system to send out notifications within two hours of any missing person under age 26. The bill was passed earlier this year with the help of Hilary Sessions, whose daughter, Tiffany, went missing on Feb. 9, 1989, in Gainesville, and has yet to be found.

There's a new cause now. Kesse is lobbying legislators for a bill that would require DNA testing for unidentified human remains in Florida. Right now, that's an option but not a requirement. Making it mandatory should help many families looking for answers, because DNA testing can identify human remains about 30 percent of the time.

It's important for Kesse because it's personal, in more ways than the obvious. He is respectful of all the attention lavished upon missing children but also wonders why adults who go missing don't always become a priority for law-enforcement officials.

"Why do we distinguish children from adults?" he asks. "I don't see why everyone isn't equal. When it comes to law, a person is a person. You are someone's child."

His child vanished near her south Orlando apartment on Jan. 24, 2006. The tears come and go, but they don't matter as much anymore. They are inconsequential.

"We still get to sleep, eat, shower," Kesse said. "But just think of what Jennifer has gone through. Our feelings don't count."

The uncertain journey continues. Drew and Joyce Kesse pray for closure, knowing that it might only bring more heartbreak.


George Diaz can be reached at gdiaz@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5533.
Lauran

"If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente.


In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
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Ell
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Heart of Gold
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Father Uses Social Media to Find Missing Daughter After 20 Years
Patrick Sessions Launches Official Tiffany Sessions Blog and Outreach

February 05, 2009 01:24 PM Eastern Time
MIAMI & GAINESVILLE, Fla.--(EON: Enhanced Online News)--When missing person Tiffany Sessions (http://tiffanysessions.com/) disappeared from Gainesville without a trace on February 9, 1989, there was no Amber Alert, no Web sites displaying pictures of missing kids – and no social media to spread the word across the country with a few keystrokes.

“There was no Facebook when Tiffany was in college. No cell phones to trace her whereabouts. No MySpace pages to investigate”
Tiffany Sessions is still missing, her case is still open, and Miami-based real estate developer-turned missing children advocate, Patrick Sessions, is leveraging social media tools to help police find missing children and especially the daughter he last saw when she was 19-years-old and a senior at the University of Florida. Refusing to give up on his daughter, Sessions is launching the “Official Tiffany Sessions” Web site on February 9, 2009, the 20th anniversary of his daughter’s disappearance.

The Alachua County Sheriff’s office will be conducting a press conference on Monday, February 9, 2009 at 10:00 AM.

“This is still a viable case with several new leads being developed and explored by members of the Unit. This 20-year anniversary of Tiffany’s disappearance is a time to remember and recommit ourselves to resolving as many unsolved missing persons and murder cases as possible,” said Alachua County Sheriff Sadie Darnell, who was originally part of the case in 1989 as the Gainesville Police Department’s public spokesperson.

A $25,000 reward is being offered by the Sessions family for information leading to the remains of Tiffany Sessions and the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for her abduction.

“There was no Facebook when Tiffany was in college. No cell phones to trace her whereabouts. No MySpace pages to investigate,” Sessions says. “I am launching this Web site in hopes that someone out there knows where Tiffany is or can offer new leads that will help us find her. We believe social media can play a vital role in finding missing children everywhere, including Tiffany.”

To learn more about the missing persons case of Tiffany Sessions, including the details surrounding her unexplained disappearance and links to contact legal authorities with pertinent information, visit http://TiffanySessions.com. In addition to serving as a vital resource for Tiffany’s case, the Web site will also act as a resource for other parents and friends coping with the disappearance of a loved one by providing phone numbers and links to missing persons organizations.

Media Contacts:

Please see the following sources for more information and/or interviews:

Patrick Sessions – Miami, Florida

Tiffany’s Father, 305-609-6443

Jason Sessions – Jacksonville, Florida

Tiffany’s brother, 904-386-8380

Alachua County Sheriff’s Department

Public Information Office:

Steve Maynard, 352-367-4041

Send Tiffany Sessions Leads to:

rdean@alachuasheriff.org, 352-367-4161

Case #: 01569-89

Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE)

Larry Ruby, LarryRuby@FDLE.State.Fl.US, 386-418-5411

National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC)

Nancy McBride, 877-446-2632




Contacts
Tiffany Sessions Media Contact
The Buyer Group, PR/SEO
Lisa Buyer, 954-354-1411 x14
lbuyer@thebuyergroup.com
http://eon.businesswire.com/portal/site/eo...029&newsLang=en
Ell

Only after the last tree has been
cut down;
Only after the last fish has been
caught;
Only after the last river has been
poisoned;
Only then will you realize
that money cannot be eaten.
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monkalup
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The Old Heifer! An oxymoron, of course.
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I remember when I first read of Tiffany's disappearance. I thought of so many other young women who just disappeared in Fla that decade and remain missing. So many strikingly beautiful young women. Rosario Gonzales, Beth Kenyon, Tammy Lynn Leppert, Carol Elain Donn Ellen Akers Barbara Jean Barkley Diana Harris
Peggy Sue Houser Robyn Adler
There are so many many more.
Lauran

"If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente.


In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
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monkalup
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The Old Heifer! An oxymoron, of course.
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Charlotte Doles ,
Shari Lynn Farner .
Darlene Webb ,
Linda Kay Carroll . Tinze Lucinda Huels .
Kaycee Lemire .
Colleen Emily Orsborn .
Angela Loraine Westberry .
Carol Leigh Woolsoncroft . Billie Jean Hall ,
Lauran

"If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente.


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Martha Jean Lambert
Virgina Joyce Wilson
Angela Renae Ambrocio
Tavia Elizabeth Bailey
Sheri Lynn Swims
Cindy Lee Smith
Shiela Dinese Williams
Heidi Ann Zampell
Michelle Louise Harley
Lauran

"If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente.


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http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking-n...ory/895586.html

Police take fresh look at leads in Tiffany Sessions case


Tiffany Sessions disappeared while jogging 20 years ago in Gainesville.
Photo BY ILEANA MORALES
imorales@MiamiHerald.com
The Alachua County Sheriff's Office, which recently took over the cold case of missing UF student Tiffany Sessions, said Monday they are taking a fresh look at information from the 20-year-old case. After a Monday new conference marking the 20-year-anniversary of Sessions' disappearance, Sheriff Sadie Darnell said since the agency took charge of the investigation again in 2007, they are pursuing two leads reporting suspicious persons in Gainesville.

One lead reports a suspicious person and a vehicle description. The other reports a suspicious person who lived near Sessions' apartment.

''So that's promising,'' Darnell said.

Darnell said the leads were recently discovered by detectives in the sheriff's office cold case unit as not having been completely looked into.

Tiffany, who would now be 40, left her Gainesville apartment between Williston Road and Archer Road for an evening jog and never returned. That was in 1989.

One of the recent tips came from someone in jail.

The missing girl's case was printed in 2007 in the first issuance of cold case playing cards to jails. The regular deck of cards features information and pictures of missing people with an 800 number to call, in hopes that it will remind inmates of information they may have heard.

The recent leads are still not complete and the sheriff's office needs more information.

''We're asking people . . . to revisit back in time and see if there's anything they remember from that time,'' Darnell said. ``Call it in. However dated it is.''


Lauran

"If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente.


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Cold case unit continues 20–year searchBy HUNTER SIZEMORE, Alligator Writer
Twenty years and over 3,000 leads after the disappearance of Tiffany Sessions, the Alachua County Sheriff's Office held a press conference to remind people the search is still on.

ASO tries to crack cold cases by holding press conferences on anniversaries. The cold cases unit was created in 2007 to pursue unsolved murders and disappearances.

Monday marked the 20–year anniversary of Sessions’ disappearance from Gainesville.


She was a 20–year–old finance major at UF at the time.

Between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. on Feb. 9, 1989, Sessions went for a jog, leaving her apartment in Casablanca East Condominiums and heading along Southwest 35th Place.

Her roommate and frequent jogging partner, Kathy Hsu, studied that night and stayed home.

But, when Sessions was still gone five hours later, Hsu began to worry. That’s when she called Sessions’ mother and the search began.

itnesses reported that a woman fitting Sessions' description was seen speaking to people in a vehicle along Williston Road, and that the woman may have entered the vehicle, but the witnesses weren’t sure.

“We’re fairly certain that something bad happened to her,” said Steve Maynard, spokesman for Alachua County Sheriff’s Office. “And we’d really like to bring someone to justice for this.”

More than 30 cold case files are still being investigated by the sheriff’s office, some of them going as far back as the 1960s.

Novel strategies have been used by cold case detectives to find information, such as distributing playing cards featuring victims' faces through Alachua jails.
http://www.alligator.org/articles/2009/02/...sappearance.txt
Lauran

"If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente.


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20 Years Later, Search Continues For Missing UF Coed


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20 Years Later, Family Still Searching For Tiffany Sessions
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WJXT-TV
updated 5:56 p.m. ET Feb. 10, 2009
GAINESVILLE, Fla. - When missing person Tiffany Sessions disappeared from Gainesville without a trace 20 years ago, there was no Amber Alert, no Web sites displaying pictures of missing kids, and no social media to spread the word across the country with a few keystrokes.

Tiffany Sessions is still missing, her case is still open, and her father -- Miami-based real estate developer-turned missing-children advocate Patrick Sessions -- is leveraging social media tools to help police find missing children and especially the daughter he last saw when she was 19-year-old student at the University of Florida.

Tiffany, who would now be 40, went out for a jog on the evening of Feb. 9, 1989 and never returned. Her father was joined by 1,000 people in a search the first week after she disappeared.

Refusing to give up on his daughter, Sessions is launching the

Official Tiffany Sessions Web site

, and investigators said they have developed new leads.

"This is still a viable case with several new leads being developed and explored," said Alachua County Sheriff Sadie Darnell, who was Gainesville Police Department's public spokesperson when the UF coed disappeared in 1989. "This 20-year anniversary of Tiffany's disappearance is a time to remember and recommit ourselves to resolving as many unsolved missing persons and murder cases as possible."


A $25,000 reward is being offered by the Sessions family for information leading to the remains of Tiffany Sessions and the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for her abduction.

"There was no Facebook when Tiffany was in college. No cell phones to trace her whereabouts. No MySpace pages to investigate," Sessions said. "I am launching this Web site in hopes that someone out there knows where Tiffany is or can offer new leads that will help us find her. We believe social media can play a vital role in finding missing children everywhere, including Tiffany."

In addition to serving as a vital resource for Tiffany's case, the Web site will also act as a resource for other parents and friends coping with the disappearance of a loved one by providing phone numbers and links to missing persons organizations.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29100526/
Lauran

"If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente.


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http://www2.tbo.com/video/2009/feb/09/tiff...237/video-news/

20 Years Later, Family Still Searching For Tiffany Sessions


JEFF PATTERSON

Published: February 9, 2009

Updated: 02/09/2009 06:28 pm



Tiffany Sessions
University of Florida student Tiffany Sessions put on a sweatshirt, took her Walkman and told her roommate she was going for a walk.

It was Feb. 9, 1989. Sessions was 20.

She hasn't hasn't been heard from since.

Today, her mother, step-brother and detectives from the Alachua County Sheriff's office gathered in Gainesville to mark the 20th anniversary of her disappearance. The Alachua County Sheriff's office has now moved the Sessions file to the Cold Case Unit.

Tiffany's half brother, Jason Sessions, was just 16 when she was first reported missing. Now he has helped develop a Web site – tiffanysessions.com - with information to develop new leads in the case.

"Do I believe that she's out there and living a normal life somewhere, no,'' Jason Sessions said. "But I do believe the case can be solved and I think it will.''

The Sessions family has also helped produce a deck of cards with information about Tiffany and other cold cases that are being distributed in prisons across the nation. Their hope is that an inmate with information may come forward to help solve the case.

"One of the things that I want everyone to know is that she was a living, breathing person and I know that we're talking about a cold case right now, but we're not talking about a closed case,'' said her mother, Hilary Sessions.

Jason Sessions says new leads have come in as a result of the deck of cards. Alachua County detectives say they are working on those leads but gave few details about the new information.

Hilary Sessions is now the executive director of Child Protection Education of America. She keeps hundreds of files on missing children cases and has made it her life's work to help other families who have missing children.

She said she believes Tiffany's case will be solved but admits the odds are against her. Hillary Sessions says there are thousands unidentified human remains around the country. Sessions says she has viewed more than 170 sets of remains with the hope of identifying her daughter but still has no answers.

Jim Eckert was a detective with the Alachua County Sheriff's Office when Tiffany Sessions was reported missing.

"I remember driving into Gainesville on the interstate, seeing helicopters all over the place,'' he said.

Now retired, Eckert says the small sheriff's office was technologically ill-equipped back then to deal with the case.

"None of us knew what a database was, and in fact the sheriff's office was so small, Patrick Sessions had to buy us our first two fax machines. We didn't have a fax machine in our detective office.''

Tiffany Sessions had a Walkman-type music player when she went on her walk, and detectives spent hours searching the area for the music player, Eckert said.

"We were looking for triple "A" batteries and double "A" batteries on the side of the road that might have indicated there was a struggle and she dropped it, or a set of headphones and none of that ever turned up,'' Eckert said. "It was frustrating, a very frustrating case.''

Today, young reporters from the University of Florida came to interview Hillary Sessions as she planted a tree outside of the Alachua County Sheriffs Office. The tree is a memorial to Tiffany. Three of the reporters from the University of Florida say they were not yet born when Tiffany was reported missing.

Hillary says today is especially difficult for her because it marks the day that Tiffany has now been missing for the same amount of time that she lived at home.

News Channel 8 reporter Jeff Patterson can be reached at (813) 221-5703

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/feb/09/09...ffany-sess/c_1/
Lauran

"If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente.


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monkalup
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[ *  *  * ]
College student went for a run, never came back


Tiffany Sessions was a 20-year-old junior studying economics at the University of Florida in Gainesville when she decided to go out for a run. She never came back.


Sessions left her off-campus apartment about 6 p.m. February 9, 1989. She told her roommate she'd be back shortly and took her Walkman with her.

It was the last time anyone would see her.

That was 20 years ago, a time when no one had cell phones, Blackberries or Web sites to aid in tracking a missing or abducted person.

The only clues came from people who recalled seeing a young woman fitting Sessions' description walking down the main street just before dusk.

"Much of the area in the last decade has been paved over, with new construction, making a search today very difficult," said Detective Bob Dean of the Alachua County Sheriff's Office. However, investigators are still searching and working this case actively.

Searchers were out as recently as late December, seeking clues with newer technologies.

"We have used ground sonar equipment, even," Dean said.

Over the years, there have been some possible suspects -- people who came forward and confessed -- but police have ruled them out as credible suspects.

One potential suspect was a man who was in jail for killing a 5-year-old girl. He'd written a letter to police, claiming he was responsible for Tiffany Sessions' disappearance.

But when questioned later by police, he denied writing the letter, even though handwriting analysis indicated that he had.

"Although police don't think so, I still believe this guy could have something to do with my daughter's disappearance," said Patrick Sessions, Tiffany's father.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/02/24/...case.sessions/
Lauran

"If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente.


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monkalup
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http://www.abcactionnews.com/news/local/st...7ey77A86mw.cspx
Mother of daughter missing for 20 years finds renewed hope
Reported by: Elizabeth Dinh
Email: edinh@wfts.com
Last Update: 8/28 7:10 pm

Related Links
•Man and wife plead not guilty in 1991 kidnap
•Kidnap suspect's father says son is 'out of his mind'
VALRICO, FL -- It was 1989 when Tiffany Sessions, a 20-year-old University of Florida student with a smiling face and feathered-blonde hair, was last seen.

Though two decades have passed, Tiffany's mom, Hilary, works everyday to search for missing children like her daughter.

"Make sure that you keep it going," Hilary said. "Because once you give up, the chances of getting your child back are very slim."

Inspiration for Hilary to continue with her work came this week when Jaycee Dugard's story broke out of California: 18 years after she was kidnapped as an 11-year-old girl, police found her alive, saying her captor had two children with her.

Officials say Dugard and the children were kept in a secret backyard shed. The woman has since been reunited with her mother.

"I was totally ecstatic that miracles do happen," Hilary remembered.

For years, Hilary ran Child Protection Education of America, which not only featured her missing child, but even the now-discovered Jaycee Dugard.

Lack of funding caused her to shut down the non-profit, but her ongoing mission for missing children, for finding her "Tiffy", has renewed hope. Maybe she'll eventually meet the woman her daughter has become.

Hilary's hope has only grown.

Tiffany's 41st birthday is coming up in October. Hilary kept her daughter's bedroom just as it was in 1989, with optimism that she'll one day set foot in the room again, seeing it was exactly as it used to be.

"Because you never know when that call's going to come through and I certainly hope that my call comes through."

Even though Hilary's organization has shut down, her website is still up and running. It has plenty of information about missing children. Visit www.find-missing-children.org


Copyright 2009 The E.W. Scripps Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Lauran

"If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente.


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http://www.gainesville.com/article/2010020...ES/2091005/1002

Tips sought on 21st anniversary of UF student's disappearance
By Karen Voyles
Staff writer
Published: Tuesday, February 9, 2010 at 6:01 a.m.
Last Modified: Monday, February 8, 2010 at 11:28 p.m.

Twenty-one years have passed since a 20-year-old University of Florida student went out for a walk and was never seen again.

The disappearance of Tiffany Sessions was among the cases that Alachua County Sheriff Sadie Darnell cited when she formed the Alachua County Sheriff's Office Cold Case Unit in 2007. The unit works with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to re-release information on anniversary dates of unsolved murder and missing persons cases.

Sessions told her roommate she was going for a walk around 6 p.m. on Feb. 9, 1989. When she did not return, an intensive search was launched but Sessions was never found.

Anyone with information about Sessions or other unsolved missing persons or homicide cases is urged to call Detective Bob Dean at the Sheriff's Office at 367-4161. Callers who wish to remain anonymous and be eligible for a reward of up to $1,000 should call CrimeStoppers at 372-STOP (7867) or leave an anonymous tip at www.alachuasheriff.org.
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Anniversary of missing persons investigation .
Thursday, 11 February 2010 00:00 Special to Alachua County Today .The Alachua County Sheriff’s Office Cold Case Unit, partnered with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, has been re-releasing information on the anniversary dates of unsolved homicides or suspected foul play/missing persons.

On 02/09/89, 20 year-old, W/F Tiffany Sessions (DOB 10/29/68) disappeared from the University of Florida. At approximately 6 p.m., Sessions told her roommate she was going for a walk and never returned. An extensive search provided no clues as to what happened to Sessions.

This year marks the 21st anniversary of this case. Tiffany’s disappearance is a time to remember and recommit ourselves to resolving as many unsolved missing persons and murder cases as possible. Sheriff Darnell created the Cold Case Unit in 2007 to show her commitment to solving this and all other unsolved missing persons and murder cases in Alachua County.

The Alachua County Sheriff’s Office is asking anyone with information about this incident or any other missing persons or homicide case to call Detective Bob Dean at the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office at 352-367-4161. Callers can also remain anonymous and be eligible for a reward of up to $1,000 for information leading to an arrest by calling Crime Stoppers at 372-STOP (7867). For those that prefer the internet, anonymous tips may be left on the website at www.alachuasheriff.org.
http://www.alachuatoday.com/index.php?opti...ocal&Itemid=426
Ell

Only after the last tree has been
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Only after the last fish has been
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Only after the last river has been
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Only then will you realize
that money cannot be eaten.
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[ *  *  * ]
Oh I am so glad to see this renewed interest in Tiffany's case.
Lauran

"If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente.


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[ *  *  * ]
Tiffany Sessions
MISSING Feb. 9, 1989
Gainesville, Fla.

Tiffany Sessions, then 20 and a junior at the University of Florida, stepped outside for a run 18 years ago and never returned. Since then her mother, Hilary, doing whatever she can to find her daughter, has looked at 175 unidentified bodies across the country. She has visited more than 100 psychics. And she has left her daughter's room untouched, complete with an ALF doll on her bed and high school sports trophies on the dresser. "I was not about to let Tiffy go," says Sessions.

She will never forget her first morgue visit. It was April 1989, two months after Tiffany disappeared after leaving her Gainesville apartment in the early evening (she had left her purse with her ID behind). Hilary was informed that an unidentified girl about Tiffany's age had been found buried in Massachusetts. Shaken, she hopped a plane to Boston. "I was absolutely terrified," says Sessions, now 61. "I remember thinking, 'This can't be real. I can't be walking down this hallway to look at a dead body that may be Tiffy.'"

She remembers the overwhelming smell of formaldehyde and alcohol: "I'm sure I was shivering." But it took her only a few seconds to realize the body before her was not her daughter's: "She had a lot of the same physical features as Tiffy, but it just wasn't her." She felt relieved. But as Sessions got on the plane to return home to Tampa, the relief faded. "Of course I was happy that it wasn't my child at that morgue," she says. "But I also started wondering if I'd ever get any answers."

In 2004, Sessions became executive director of the Tampa-based Child Protection Education of America, a nonprofit group that uses high-tech fingerprint scanners set up in malls, stores and daycare centers to create IDs for children. They also raise money to buy trained bloodhounds to help police search for missing persons. "Hilary has become a real advocate for this cause," says Larry Ruby, a special agent at the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the lead investigator on Tiffany's case. Says Sessions: "Everything I do is intended to bring her back home."

http://www.people.com/people/archive/artic...0062796,00.html
Lauran

"If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente.


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[ *  *  * ]
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2011/feb/09/09...er-daughter-va/
Mom still seeks answers 22 years after daughter vanished
MAURICE CAPOBIANCO/STAFF
Hillary Sessions still lives in the same Valrico home she was in the day her daughter Tiffany vanished.
Hillary Sessions still lives in the same Valrico home she was in the day her daughter Tiffany vanished.

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BY JEFF PATTERSON

News Channel 8

Published: February 9, 2011

Updated: 06:27 pm



Tiffany Sessions was just 20 years old when she vanished in Gainesville on February 9, 1989. She was attractive, blonde and had a bright smile.

Authorities say just before 6 p.m. she told her roommate she was going out for a jog. She never returned.

Tiffany's father, Patrick Sessions, helped organize a massive search by volunteers, but it turned up no answers.

Hillary Sessions, Tiffany's mother, says the first days after her daughter vanished were particularly difficult for her.

"I was totally cut out of all that information," she said. "I had no briefings on the case."

Hillary Sessions says her husband was a business partner of Jeb Bush at the time and convinced Alachua County authorities to allow him to have a major role in the search for their daughter.

Hillary Sessions says she had to call the sheriff at the time, and ask for information about the investigation, but the information was not promising.

"At the very beginning of the investigation, the first thing they said was, 'We're no further ahead today than the day she disappeared.' "

In some ways, that hasn't changed.

Hillary Sessions still lives in the same Valrico home she was in the day Tiffany vanished. The investigation is now considered part of the "cold case file" in Alachua County. Many of the original investigators have long since retired or moved on.

She says that over the years prison inmates have confessed to killing Tiffany, even leading investigators on searches that turned up no evidence or answers. Other inmates have turned in cellmates, hoping to reduce on their own sentences, but those tips also have not panned out.

She says she has not been able to move on.

"I live in two different worlds. I live in the world that's there's going to be a knock on the door and it's going to be Tiffy and I'm going to say, 'Where have you been all these years.' The other side I live with is that she has been murdered."

In the last 22 years, Hillary Sessions has been called to identify a number of corpses in various levels of decomposition. Each time has been difficult, but she went, hoping to find the answers. Sessions has now given a blood sample so that her DNA can be used to test when remains are found.

Sessions helped run the Missing Children's Help Center before it closed because of a lack of donations.

Her work with the foundation led her to become friends with other parents going through similar circumstances.

She has now written a book on her experience and the investigation. She says the book, entitled "Where's My Tiffany," also has information to help other families who have experienced loss.

She still wants answers in the case, but no longer worries about what will happen to the person who took her daughter.

"I know that there is a higher being that's going to mete out any justice, and I don't have to be the one to do that."

jpatterson@wfla.com

(813) 221-5703
Lauran

"If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente.


In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
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[ *  *  * ]
an older article
Waiting for Tiff

For 16 years, she has stayed in the same house, kept the same phone number. Her daughter disappeared without a trace, but when there's no body, there's still hope.

By LETITIA STEIN
Published July 16, 2005
photo
[Times photo: Melissa Lyttle]
At her home in Valrico, Hilary Sessions sits in her daughter’s room, holding Tiffany’s favorite stuffed animal. The room is mostly unchanged since Tiffany disappeared, the only additions being many files chronicling her case.

photo
Tiffany Sessions was a 20-year-old student at the University of Florida when she disappeared in 1989.

BRANDON - Hilary Sessions never knows when a phone may ring with the news she waits for.

Photographs of her daughter decorate her office. In a wood frame on a wall, Tiffany Sessions smiles in a black, sequined shirt. The word MISSING is scrawled across the top in red letters. Below, three sentences sum up a search in its 16th fruitless year: Tiffany disappeared from the University of Florida. She told a roommate that she was going for a walk, and she never returned. An extensive search provided no clues.

Fresh tips still trickle in. This year, detectives tracked a lead about a stripper in Destin who matched Tiffany's description. Last month, they received a letter describing a woman crying for help inside a dog crate at a St. Petersburg flea market after the 1989 disappearance.

No one has turned up so much as a footprint.

Still, a mother has to hope.

Now executive director of Child Protection Education of America, Sessions has turned her search into a mission to educate others. She believes a chance encounter could lead to her daughter. She refuses to change her phone number, just in case Tiffany dials home. By now, the call that she prays for is likely to come from a detective. Sessions wants answers but no longer expects miracles.

"I'd like to know what happened," Sessions says. "I can close everything else, but I can't close that."

* * *

At 60, Sessions has the breezy confidence of a former Massachusetts debutante. She can fly airplanes, tile floors, rebuild car engines. She has married three times but had only one child.

She called her Tiffy and taught her how to ride horses. Sessions bought her daughter's first car, a 1966 Mustang convertible. They talked daily while Tiffany studied finance at the University of Florida.

Tiffany's parents had divorced when she was 8 months old. Hilary had raised her mostly in Massachusetts, and Tiffany only began visiting her father in high school. The parents rarely spoke.

Hilary had moved to the Tampa Bay area in 1982 and built a house on a cul-de-sac in Valrico, a quiet Tampa suburb. She remarried and managed a seafood company in St. Petersburg with her husband.

Tiffany's father, Patrick Sessions, was a real estate executive in Miami.

On Feb. 9, 1989, Sessions was expecting a call from her daughter. She had promised an update on her grandmother's condition after a surgery.

When the phone rang, Tiffany's college roommate was on the other end. "Mrs. Sessions, I think we have a problem."

Sessions raced to Gainesville. For six weeks, cameras followed her and ex-husband Patrick, who had offered a $250,000 reward. Charter buses brought in more than 700 searchers. Across the state, hundreds of thousands of fliers begged for clues about the 20-year-old student with blond hair, brown eyes and a radiant smile.

Sessions told investigators about her daughter's boyfriends, chipped bottom front tooth and crescent-shaped scar on her left hand.

Since the disappearance, investigators have tracked tips across North America, hypnotized possible witnesses to enhance their memory, listened to psychics for clues.

In jails across the country, men accused of violent crimes against students have been interviewed for possible connections. Investigators have checked out Joseph P. Smith, charged with killing 11-year-old Carlie Brucia in Sarasota, for links to Tiffany and Gainesville.

Larry Ruby, a special agent with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, estimates that more than 1,800 leads have come to dead ends.

"If we get to a door and we can close it, we're happy," said Ruby, who has been on the case for 14 years. "There is not a shred of evidence anywhere. No idea where she was actually abducted. No clothing. No nothing."

The case remains active. Ruby considers all credible leads, no matter how slim. The bride who ran away in Georgia this spring caught his attention. Like Tiffany, she was a jogger.

* * *

In the initial weeks, Sessions made a silent promise to her daughter. She would let her hair grow out until Tiffany was found. The coarse waves were a daily reminder.

She kept the promise for eight years, through 100 sessions with psychics and scores of trips to Gainesville. The resolve broke when Sessions separated from her husband of 18 years. The search for Tiffany had strained the marriage.

She sat up one night in the bathroom lopping off her long waves. She noticed that the color of her hair had changed. The roots had grayed.

In 16 years, Sessions has screened more than 170 bodies. She says about one-third required morgue visits. The others could be ruled out with phone conversations or DNA tests.

When remains are found, calls come at all hours. Sometimes, fearing the worst, Sessions has called her church to prepare for a funeral. Other days, a promising lead encouraged her to dream about a wedding and grandchildren.

A psychic has convinced her that Tiffany found peace in death. But until her remains are found, there is still that chance that her daughter suffered amnesia, or was kidnapped as a sex slave, and is trying to find her way home.

"She once told me that when your child is missing and you start to think that they are dead, you feel guilty," said Dorie Faulkner, a college friend. "I think intellectually there has been closure and acceptance, but spiritually she'll never rest until she's found."

When she feels depressed, Sessions has a sanctuary in her Valrico house. "Tiff's Room," reads a needlepoint stitching on the door.

She opens the top dresser drawer and rifles through Tiffany's wallet. There's Tiffany's Florida driver's license. A prescription that never got filled.

"Just to say she really did exist, because sometimes you wonder," said Sessions, standing by one of her daughter's twin beds with rainbow blankets.

A talking Alf toy sits on Tiffany's bed. The batteries struggle but still work. In the closet, Sessions opens a box of photographs, organized under "Christmas" and "Miami boys."

"You have to see how organized Tiffy is," she says.

Sessions shifts between present and past tenses when talking about her daughter. She is considering whether she would want to see an age-enhanced photograph of a woman who would be 36 years old today.

"I'm on that edge," she admits. "Do I want to change what I remember?"

Tiffany would not recognize everything in her bedroom. Piled on the bed and in the closet are files and plastic bins stuffed with papers that chronicle her missing person's case.

* * *

When Tiffany was young, Sessions and her daughter would grade each other on Tiffany's riding and Mom's cooking. Sessions now works to earn an A in missing children's advocacy.

After Tiffany disappeared, Sessions learned of a Brandon group called the Missing Children Help Center, which since has shut down and reopened as Child Protection Education of America, or CPEA.

She began as a volunteer, stuffing envelopes and consoling other parents. Last summer, Sessions assumed the top role at CPEA.

With 464 missing children's cases last year, Sessions said, CPEA was the nation's second-largest advocacy group. It publicizes the cases and collects information.

Five years after Tiffany disappeared, Sessions asked the courts to declare her daughter legally dead so that she could collect a $50,000 life insurance policy. She said the money has helped families of missing children and bought a bloodhound named Tiffany for Miami schools.

Like John Walsh, she channeled her energy into the cause. After the abduction and murder in Hollywood, Fla., of his 6-year-old son in 1981, Walsh changed careers to host the television show America's Most Wanted. When they see each other, Sessions says, Walsh asks her how she keeps going. His case at least had resolution.

"It is both an avocation and a vocation," says Sessions, who previously worked in sales. Her life feels more balanced working at the agency, where all employees are related to missing children.

During a financial pinch last year, Sessions cut herself from the agency's payroll for several months. She relied on her part-time business, managing and renting investment properties, to pay the bills.

Board members credit her for restoring the nonprofit's financial health through business contracts that award the organization a percentage of sales from stuffed animals and children's safety items.

To Sessions, the job is about educating. At local schools, she teaches about good and bad strangers. She fingerprints children.

At weekend and evening events, she teases boys and girls about washing too many dishes, or practicing too long on ballfields. She can tell because their fingerprints are worn.

"Keep track of dental records," she says in a singsong voice to a parent at Mintz Elementary in Brandon, which hosted a safety night this spring.

When a parent calls to thank her for a safety tip that helped a child avoid a potentially dangerous situation, Sessions credits her daughter.

Tiffy, we made that happen, she thinks.

* * *

Early one Saturday morning, Sessions headed north on Interstate 75 in a minivan decorated with images of children playing in the ocean. Contact information for CPEA is stripped on the bumper and hood.

She caravaned with Amanda Brown's parents. Zachary Bernhardt's grandmother and aunt met her in Trilby in Pasco County to plant trees in honor of missing children.

Renee and Clark Converse, the parents of Jennifer Odom, surprised her there. They had not seen each other since the 12-year-old's funeral in 1993.

A small crowd gathered for speeches. Sessions spoke of the progress since Tiffany's disappearance, such as the Amber Alert, which can quickly get information out nationally.

"I see my brothers and sisters out there," Sessions announces, grinning and waving both hands at the other families.

Sessions drifted away from her three siblings after Tiffany's disappearance. She felt her family wanted her to mourn and move on. She couldn't.

Instead, she calls family a circle of people known by the names of their lost children. Some are in touch daily. Others she sees occasionally at memorials.

"I didn't choose them, but we chose to be together," Sessions says.

They are there for her hardest days: Christmas, Mother's Day, Tiffany's birthday on Oct. 29, the anniversary of her disappearance on Feb. 9.

"I used to give her Tiffany roses. That's all you can really do," says Ivana DiNova, a Valrico neighbor whose cousin, Dorothy Scofield, has been missing since 1976. She introduced Hilary to the agency, which she previously ran.

* * *

Sessions has considered the question: What if I never find out?

"I keep saying, "God, I've had enough. It's time,' " she says, laughing. "And he keeps giving me more to do."

Last fall, Sessions took her first vacation in five years, a fundraising cruise to the western Caribbean for her nonprofit.

When she is not working on weekends, she takes out a 25-foot sailboat. She closes her eyes, feels the wind on her face. She lives in the moments.

The boat is named Oz Two, but Sessions will not move from her home. Year after year, she stays in the Valrico house with Tiffany roses planted in front.

She needs to be there if Tiffany comes home.

- Times researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report. Letitia Stein can be reached at 813 661-2443 or lstein@sptimes.com
FOR MORE INFORMATION

Learn more about Child Protection Education of America by calling 813 626-3001 or toll-free 1-866-USA-CHILD (1-866-872-2445). Fingerprinting events are listed online at www.find-missing-children.org

[Last modified July 15, 2005, 08:53:02]
http://www.sptimes.com/2005/07/16/Floridia..._for_Tiff.shtml
Lauran

"If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente.


In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
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Pilgrim
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Humbug!! It's All A Humbug!
[ *  *  * ]
http://www.alachuasheriff.org/most_wanted/...ng_persons.html
www.missing-and-unidentified.org
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monkalup
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The Old Heifer! An oxymoron, of course.
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http://www.gainesville.com/article/2012020...ICLES/120209469
Leads still coming in for missing woman's 23-year-old case

Tiffany Sessions, a University of Florida student who disappeared 23 years ago while jogging on Williston Road. (Courtesy photo)
By Cindy Swirko
Staff writer
Published: Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 4:06 p.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 4:06 p.m.

It has been 23 years since Tiffany Sessions disappeared while walking in southwest Gainesville, but leads about the case still come in to the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office and are investigated.

The University of Florida student has not been heard from since she disappeared on Feb. 9, 1989, and no trace of Sessions has been found despite searches with ground-penetrating radar, tracking dogs and other means.

“The cold-case detective has done several interviews over the last year on it. They’ve done several searches on it,” Alachua County sheriff’s spokesman Art Forgey said. “We’ve had a lot of people who’ve claimed to have involvement in this, and they go out and follow up on it. The cold-case people have been very active on it.”

The 20-year-old disappeared in 1989 while she was taking a walk from her condominium at Casablanca East off Southwest 35th Place, north of Williston Road.

Sessions told her roommate she was taking a walk. She left with a Sony Walkman but no other belongings, such as her keys or wallet. She was last seen wearing red sweatpants and a white, long-sleeved sweatshirt with the word "Aspen" stitched across the front in green letters.

Her disappearance was followed by a major search that reached across the nation and included the involvement of notable friends of Sessions’ parents such as former Miami Dolphins star quarterback Dan Marino.

Sessions’ father, Patrick, is a South Florida developer who worked for a major firm that built such communities as Weston in Broward County.

Forgey said a number of the leads from the past few years have come from prison inmates who claimed to know something about Sessions’ disappearance or to have heard others talk about it.

“Within the past year they have done several searches with ground-penetrating radar, dogs and people with information that was developed,” Forgey said. “Nothing ever came of it.”
Lauran

"If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente.


In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
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monkalup
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The Old Heifer! An oxymoron, of course.
[ *  *  * ]
http://www.myfoxtampabay.com/dpp/news/loca...p-policy-020912
Hillary Sessions urges never-give-up policy

Updated: Thursday, 09 Feb 2012, 12:00 PM EST
Published : Thursday, 09 Feb 2012, 12:00 PM EST

TAMPA - Hillary Sessions made it very clear Thursday: She never wants to give up on a missing person.

Her daughter, Tiffany Sessions, a University of Florida student, went missing 23 years ago today.

She left her apartment near campus to take a walk and hasn’t been seen since.

“I’m not giving up, and I don’t want them to give up,” Sessions told the regional Child Abduction Response Team in Tampa. “When they get a case, sometimes they get it solved right away, sometimes they don’t, and the most important thing is that their heart is always looking for missing children.”

There are child abduction response teams in place throughout Florida. They’re made up of local, state and federal law enforcement, as well as private sector partners.

Sessions wanted to remind them of what it is like being the mother of a missing child.
Lauran

"If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth." The late, great Roberto Clemente.


In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
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mimi
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http://miami.cbslocal.com/2013/02/07/new-c...-sessions-case/

New Cold Case Detective Assigned To Tiffany Sessions Case

February 7, 2013 11:22 PM
MIAMI (CBS4) – Twenty four years after Tiffany Sessions disappeared, a new cold case detective has been assigned to take another look at the evidence, Patrick Sessions told CBS 4 News.

The detective with the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office was hired last month to focus on the case.

“Did I do everything I could do?” Patrick Sessions asked Thursday. “Is there anything else I could be doing?”

He still ponders those questions more than two decades after his daughter was last seen.

“She was, at heart, a good kid, hard worker” Sessions told CBS 4’s Lauren Pastrana at his Coconut Grove home. “She was doing great in school, had a lot of dreams.”

Tiffany Sessions vanished from Gainesville on February 9, 1989.

The University of Florida student told her roommate she was going for a walk, but never returned.

She would have been 44 years old now.

“Whoever took her, took that away from her. From her, from us, from everybody else,” Pat Sessions said.

Investigators said they never stopped digging in to the Sessions case.

But now, for the first time in more than 20 years, there’s a detective devoted entirely to taking a closer look.

Det. Kevin Allen used to work for the Fort Lauderdale Police Dept.

He now works with the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office, and Tiffany’s case is priority number one.

“24 years is a long time,” Allen said during a phone interview Thursday. “We’re going to need some luck on this one.”

Det. Allen said he’s spent the past six weeks getting up to speed. He said he’s already found some useful information.

He met with Sessions recently in South Florida to discuss details.

”There are several areas of interest that could be followed up on,” Det. Allen said. He said he would rather not share specific details.

But Sessions said he’s been in contact with a man who was recently released from jail who claims to know what might have happened to Tiffany.

He said that man was mentioned in the files of evidence accumulated over the years, but somehow, the information slipped through the cracks.

Now that Det. Allen is on the case, Sessions is hoping this new perspective will be the key to finding answers.

“I can’t expect them to put a detective on this for 24 years, but we’ve been lucky and now we’ve gotten lucky again. This is really important,” Sessions said.

Pat Sessions said he is willing to issue a reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction, or to Tiffany’s remains.
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tatertot
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http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/...0,1792240.story

Tiffany Sessions: Did serial killer murder missing UF student 25 years ago?
Developments in the investigation, including naming a suspect in her abduction and probable murder, will be released
New Development In Case Of Missing UF Student Tiffany Sessions
By Kevin P. Connolly and Hal Boedeker, Staff Writer
9:28 a.m. EST, February 5, 2014

New information will be released Thursday in the case of Tiffany Sessions, a 20-year-old University of Florida student who vanished nearly 25 years ago.

The UF junior who disappeared on Feb. 9, 1989 while walking along a wooded road near her apartment southwest of the university in Gainesville may have been the victim of a serial killer, "CBS This Morning reported today.

Paul Rowles is a lead suspect in Sessions' disappearance because his last victim was found near where Sessions vanished, Tracy Smith of "48 Hours" reported.

On Thursday, detectives will announce their findings in a case that has long baffled law enforcement.

Rowles died of natural causes on Feb. 12, 2013, at a prison near Miami. He had been serving a life sentence for first-degree murder and was a registered sex predator.

His last victim was Elizabeth Foster, 21, whose 1992 murder went unsolved for 20 years. In September 2012, DNA evidence linked Rowles to her murder, but he was never charged in her death.

Smith said the serial killer left behind an address book with the date of Sessions' disappearance.

Rowles had been a pizza deliveryman and construction worker in Gainesville, Smith added.

The search for Sessions, a business student, captured nationwide attention.

Her father, a wealthy South Florida real estate executive, called on influential friends such as Miami Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino to publicize her disappearance.

He hired an investigator, met with then Gov. Bob Martinez and rented a helicopter to search the woods.

"To commemorate Tiffany's disappearance and release new information on the case uncovered by the Alachua County Sheriff's Office Cold Case Squad, the Sheriff's Office will hold a press conference to announce significant developments in the investigation, including naming a suspect in Tiffany's abduction and probable murder,'' a news release said. "In an unprecedented action by the Sheriff's Office, details of the investigation, case photographs, and information regarding the new suspect will be made available to the media and public in the hope that disclosing this information will result in leads from the public that may help solve this case.

The press conference will take place at 10 a.m. Thursday in Gainesville.

This is a developing story. Check back later for new information.
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Ell
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Heart of Gold
[ *  *  * ]
She was last seen jogging and was wearing a sweatshirt with "Aspen" in green letters printed on the front collar, red sweatpants, reebok tennis shoes, Ladies roles with a blue tinted face and a black Walkman radio

http://www.wesh.com/news/central-florida/6...lorida/17568648
Ell

Only after the last tree has been
cut down;
Only after the last fish has been
caught;
Only after the last river has been
poisoned;
Only then will you realize
that money cannot be eaten.
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