Disappearance of Tiffany Sessions
Tiffany Louise Sessions is a missing woman from Tampa, Florida, who was last seen on February 9, 1989. Her family nickname was "Tiffy". She was attending the University of Florida in Gainesville and was majoring in business.
Disappearance
On the afternoon of her disappearance, Sessions told her roommate that she was going out alone for a power walk. Between 4:00 and 5:00 in the afternoon, she left her apartment on SW 35th Place. Sessions left her wallet, identification, and keys in her apartment. She was wearing a white pullover sweatshirt with long sleeves and grey horizontal striping with "Aspen" printed on the front of the shirt's collar, red sweatpants, and tennis shoes. She was also wearing a two-tone silver and gold women's Rolex wrist watch and carrying a black Sony Walkman.After five hours, when Sessions had not returned, her roommate alerted Sessions' mother that her daughter was missing. The police did not initially handle the disappearance as a crime because a crime scene had not been found. There was no sign that Sessions left her apartment's parking lot or of a struggle.
People in the area of Sessions' disappearance have stated that someone fitting her description was speaking to individuals sitting inside a vehicle. Eyewitnesses were uncertain whether the woman entered the vehicle, and authorities have never confirmed that the individual was Sessions.
Investigation
Michael Christopher Knickerbocker was considered a suspect in Sessions' disappearance. While Knickerbocker was in prison serving five consecutive life sentences, he reportedly told his fellow inmates that he murdered Sessions. He also said he chained Sessions to a tree and discarded her body close to Fort Myers in the Caloosahatchee River, but because Knickerbocker was not living in Gainesville at the time of Sessions' disappearance, the feasibility of his involvement has been questioned., police believe that now-deceased and convicted serial-killer Paul Eugene Rowles was responsible for Sessions' disappearance and murder. At the time Sessions disappeared, Rowles was working for a construction-related company near the path where she was last seen. Rowles did not show up for work on the day Sessions went missing. Rowles had kept an address book with information on people he murdered. The book listed Linda Fida, a known victim, as the first woman he killed; it may also contain a cryptic reference to Elizabeth Foster. Notably the book contained a notation "#2 2/9/89 #2", believed by investigators to refer to Sessions' date of disappearance, and to identify her as Rowles' second victim.
Sessions has been excluded from 150 unidentified decedents in the United States.