After investigators closed the dig site where they’d hoped to find the body of missing UF student Tiffany Sessions, the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office is continuing to collect tips for further investigation.
The site, just past the intersection of U.S. Highway 441 and Williston Road, was closed Thursday evening after heavy rainfall, said Michael Warren, director of the C.A. Pound Human Identification Laboratory at UF.
He said it could always be reopened in the future if needed.
But that doesn’t mean the search is over, said ASO spokeswoman Sgt. Becky Butscher.
She said public announcements about the case Thursday brought in some phone calls with potential leads. The department will follow up on those tips as they occur, she said.
“Any bit of information from this point on will be helpful,” Butscher said.
ASO named deceased serial killer Paul Rowles as its formal suspect Thursday. Sessions, a 20-year-old UF finance junior, went for a walk down Williston Road on Feb. 9, 1989, and never returned.
Patrick Sessions, the father of the student who went missing 25 years ago, said the recent two-week excavation of the area was inspired by two factors.
The body of Elizabeth Foster, a UF student whom Rowles killed two years after Sessions disappeared, was found there.
Secondly, when investigators brought forensic search dogs to the site during the summer, Sessions said, the dogs raised a red alert. They barked frantically, dug holes and jumped into them.
“That was the reason we were as enthusiastic as we were to excavate that site,” he said.
The team waited for cooler temperatures and started digging about two weeks ago. But they discovered old sewage tanks from what was once an illegal trailer park. The tanks were leaking fumes that confused the dogs.
“Some of the same smells that come out of septic tanks come out of bodies,” Sessions said.
After closing the dig site, Sessions said, he thought the search was thorough. He said he felt comfortable his daughter’s remains are not in the immediate area.
“It doesn’t mean we won’t go back,” he said. “It doesn’t seem there’s any urgency to go back.”
Butscher emphasized that because Rowles is dead, there are no consequences of sharing leads in the case. She said people should understand they don’t need to be scared to speak up about any details they recall.
“There’s no retribution,” she said.
[A version of this story ran on page 5 on 2/11/2014 under the headline "Sheriff’s Office closes dig site, still collecting Sessions case tips"]
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TO REPORT TIPS:
The Alachua County Sheriff’s Office is requesting that people who may have known Paul Rowles at any point or may have seen his red Bronco truck come forward and help reconstruct the course of events.
No tip is too vague or too insignificant.
They are urging those with information to call the office at 352-384-3323.
An ASO Forensics Unit investigator tapes off a dig site Thursday where a team searched for the remains of Tiffany Sessions, who went missing 25 years ago in Gainesville.
