'Little Miss Panasoffkee' identified 55 years later in Sumter County cold case

Investigators say they have now identified the victim of a more than half-century-old cold case in Sumter County.

The body of a woman nicknamed "Little Miss Lake Panasoffkee" was found in 1971 by a pair of hitchhikers walking on the Interstate 75 bridge over Lake Panasoffkee. The woman appeared to have been strangled by a men's-sized belt.

The Sumter County Sheriff’s Office has spent 54 years investigating the case and has put out several renderings of what they believe the woman looked like. But they never got any solid information about who she could be until this month, when they were able to identify her as Maureen L. Minor Rowan, known as "Cookie" to her loved ones. She lived in Tampa and would be 76 years old today.

The case was called "Little Miss Panasoffkee."

The Sumter County