The Nameless - The Blue Bin Murder

Florida has numerous cases of murder victims whose identities have yet to be found. In most of these cases, their murderers also go undiscovered. Yet, we strive to seek justice.

The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office has around 360 unsolved homicides and a dedicated team of COLD CASE investigators working on the most GUT-WRENCHING homicides, dating back to 1962. These are those stories...

“The Blue Bin Murder”

The year is 2005. It's a calm and peaceful day in the isolated farmlands of the Glades, in South Florida… The rich black soil and the lake's vast waters make South Bay a desolate field in the westernmost part of South Florida, where sugar cane fields can be seen from either way of the highways.

On April 18th, a British long-distance cyclist who was pedaling north along the isolated U.S. 27 road into Palm Beach County was looking for a place to camp overnight. As he looked at his surroundings, he noticed a large blue container partially hidden and stopped to take a look. To his surprise, he found something he never thought he would come across…
This is the case of an unidentified woman found naked and stuffed inside of a blue Rubbermaid container in South Bay, Florida.

Detectives immediately arrived at the scene of the gruesome disposal of a woman. This unidentified woman was described as white, five feet tall, weighing approximately 112 pounds, with reddish-brown hair.

Detectives immediately delve into any clues they could gather from the body, including sending DNA samples to a genealogy testing company to learn about the woman's origins. When those results returned, they learned that she was believed to be from a Southeastern European background. The genotype results from DNA extracted from the victim’s hair show that she could have been from Albania, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Montenegro, or North Macedonia.

A medical examination was also conducted by Forensic Odontologist, Barbara L. Needell, who has more than 20 years of experience in the field. Due to her teeth composition, she is believed to be elderly, she was missing several teeth and had several porcelain fuses and gold crowns in her mouth and a gap between the two front teeth.

A turning point in the case was when the medical examiner concluded her findings. The autopsy revealed her manner of death was … A violent HOMICIDE. Yet, the means of how she was murdered were not still specified.
This raises many questions, what kind of person would kill and stuff the body of a naked woman in a container? Many believe only someone who wanted to make a statement.

South Florida (Miami, Broward, and Palm Beach County) has numerous cases of bodies found in rural areas. Many of those are linked to prostitute-related homicides. However, this case was never linked to any of those cases. There is nothing to suggest our victim was a prostitute, and her toxicology results show she was negative for drugs. However, what we do know is that the victim had a right breast mastectomy, which indicates she, at some point, could have had breast cancer. Her body left us with indications that she had been receiving radiation therapy.

Tragically, because of the decomposition of the body, our detectives visited our Forensic Artists in our Homicide Division. These talented artists examined the skeletal composition and coupled that with the genealogy information to render a composition of what the woman would have looked like.
Our detectives are doing all they could to solve this homicide and they will not rest until they get answers. But now we need your help. Take a good look at this rendering and if you or someone you know matches this description, these detectives need to know. Additionally, if there is a missing relative or friend who matches this description and has gone missing around 2005 or prior, Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office Detectives want to speak with you.

Together, we can solve this brutal homicide and bring to justice those responsible.