1. Human remains exhumed from Immokalee cemetery 1978 homicide
2. Immokalee cemetery 1978 homicide remains exhumed.
Accident – Death – Obituary News : The Collier County Sheriff’s Office revealed a significant breakthrough in a cold case homicide investigation after identifying one of the 13 unidentified bodies exhumed from Lake Trafford Cemetery in Immokalee. The victim, Joan Shirley Joyce, born in 1936, was discovered to be the subject of a 1978 unsolved homicide.
The initiative to exhume the remains took place on December 11, 2023, and the following day, resulting in the identification of Joyce. These 13 bodies were linked to various cold case homicides, accidental deaths, and natural death investigations, all of which were buried at the cemetery.
Joan Shirley Joyce’s body was found in a shallow grave on a dirt road off State Road 29 on June 3, 1978. The Collier County Medical Examiner’s Office determined that Joyce had died from blunt-force trauma to her head. Despite her disappearance in the 1970s while living on the east coast of Florida, no missing person report was ever filed regarding her case.
The breakthrough in identifying Joyce came after a DNA sample extracted during the exhumation was submitted to Othram Inc., a Texas-based lab specializing in forensic genetic genealogy. The test results positively confirmed her identity, revealing that Joyce had family residing in California.
Authorities continue to investigate Joyce’s death in the hopes of finding her killer. The Sheriff’s Office has emphasized their commitment to identifying all the exhumed remains, marking this project as the largest exhumation effort ever undertaken in Florida.
For further inquiries or information, you can contact Tomas Rodriguez, the Breaking/Live News Reporter for the Naples Daily News and The News-Press, at TRodriguez@gannett.com or 772-333-5501. Connect with Tomas on Threads, Instagram, and Facebook for the latest updates on this case..
– Human remains exhumed from Immokalee cemetery linked to homicide
– Human remains exhumed from Immokalee cemetery tied to 1978 homicide investigation.
