TIFFINY SESSIONS - 20 yo - (1989) - / Presumed murderer: Paul Rowles - Gainesville, FL

Prison notebook links Paul Rowles to missing UF student Tiffany Sessions


Thu, Feb 6, 2014 @ 4:08 pm | updated Fri, Feb 7, 2014 @ 7:05 am

Phil Sandlin/Associated Press
Hilary Sessions hugs FBI agent Brad Dando for his work in the case of her missing daughter Tiffany, a University of Florida student who disappeared in 1989.



GAINESVILLE — Hilary Sessions stood Thursday only yards from mounds of overturned dirt where she and police said they firmly believe her daughter’s body was buried by a man who died in prison years later for a Jacksonville rape.

The eerie scene in a woods west of downtown Gainesville unfolded during a news conference where police named Paul Rowles as their only suspect in the disappearance and presumed slaying of Tiffany Sessions, 20. Finding the remains of the University of Florida finance major, who disappeared 25 years ago Sunday, is something her mother said she dreams about daily.

“This is my only baby,” said Sessions, 68. “It would be nice to be able to put her to rest after all these years.”

The missing student’s father followed his wife by thanking those involved in the search and lashing out at Rowles, a pizza deliveryman whom police have linked to three killings along with kidnapping a Clearwater woman and raping her in Jacksonville.

He was convicted for the Jacksonville attack in 1994 and served 19 years before dying in prison last year. He was 64.

“This guy is scum of the earth,” said Pat Sessions, standing near posters of his smiling daughter and one labeling Rowles as a serial killer. “He destroyed three, four families and their daughters with no remorse.”

Alachua County Sheriff Sadie Darnell said evidence collected by police from Rowles’ prison cell after his death and a timeline of his whereabouts at the time of Sessions’ disappearance Feb. 9, 1989, makes it “highly, highly probable” that he kidnapped and killed her.

The prison cell evidence included a notebook and writings that link Rowles to Sessions, Darnell said.

Sessions was not mentioned in the notebook by name. But Darnell pointed to one of several posters set up by police that showed a copy of the notebook where he wrote “2-9-89” — the date she disappeared — and “#2” next to the date. Darnell said that Rowles, convicted in an 1972 killing of a female neighbor in Miami, was indicating Sessions was a second victim.

He’s also been linked by DNA to the 1992 slaying of Sante Fe Community College student Elizabeth Foster, 21, whose remains were found in the same wooded area off U.S. 331 and Southwest 13th Street where the news conference occurred. Authorities began digging at the site 10 days ago to look for signs of Sessions but have not reported finding anything.

Darnell said police suspect Rowles used the woods they’ve been searching as a “dumping ground.”

Sessions disappeared after an evening walk around her off-campus apartment, prompting intensive air and ground searches, fruitless leads and years of effort by her father. She was declared legally dead in 1994.

Darnell said many factors pointed to Rowles as Sessions’ killer, including the evidence collected in prison.

“He was in this community. He murdered in this community. He made comments about this being a dump site,” Darnell said. “He was in this area at the time of Tiffany’s disappearance. He worked at a [pizza delivery] business here but did not work the day or night of her disappearance.”

Darnell pleaded for anyone who knew of Rowles at the time of Sessions’ disappearance to call police with information that could help them close the case. Lead cold case detective Kevin Allen will be taking calls at (352) 955-1818.

“There’s no risk. He’s dead,” Darnell said of Rowles. “Don’t go to your grave thinking you had some information and you didn’t bring it forward.”

The rumble of a backhoe that had been digging up the woods before being turned off for the news conference kicked back up shortly after the briefing ended. Sessions’ parents stood nearby giving media interviews, hoping they could find some closure in the dirt.

http://members.jacksonville.com/news/crime/2014-02-06/story/prison-notebook-links-paul-rowles-missing-uf-student-tiffany-sessions?utm_source=Morris%20Digital%20Works&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Jacksonville.com%3ALocalNewsStories

Solving the Unsolved: Detectives Have New Evidence in Tiffany Sessions' Cold Case

May 2014

We continue our cold case series with Tiffany Sessions' story. Investigators announced in February that Paul Rowles is the suspect in the 25 year old case.

  GTN's Hailey Holloway has been working with the lead investigator and has more on new clues and witnesses that could close the case for good.

 A University of Florida student goes for a walk and disappears without a trace. Twenty-five years later, Tiffany Sessions is still missing but Alachua County detectives are piecing together more than ever before.

  "It's been twenty-five years but it's like it was yesterday," say Hilary Sessions, Tiffany's mom.

  It was every parent's worst nightmare: Patrick and Hilary sessions' 20 year old daughter - away at college - vanished

  Hilary's dad, Patrick Sessions remembers, “I was concerned but I wasn’t really worried. I thought, ‘I’m gonna kick her butt in the morning’ you know? She’s out, gone out partying with somebody and fallen asleep at their house or I don’t know what, but I mean…the odds of your child getting literally kidnapped is so rare that it takes awhile before you start jumping to that conclusion.”

  But it wasn’t long before Sessions starting going through the possibilities in his head. He was on a flight from Miami to Gainesville the next morning.

  “I remember flying in and I remember looking out the window of the airplane and looking at all those woods out there…and I remember thinking to myself, ‘If she’s really missing, how will we ever find her in that?’”

  Tiffany had left everything behind. Her wallet, her keys, her car were all at her apartment, leaving her father to turn to every resource he had. Patrick Sessions launched one of the biggest missing persons searches in history to try to find his daughter.

  Detective Kevin Allen says the efforts were shocking. “I’ve never seen anything like it… It was unprecedented. I mean, the father brought in helicopters and private investigators and army or air force reserves to look through wooded areas and they were in the press every day. They put flyers up and down I-75…they just inundated the area with flyers with pictures of Tiffany.”

  "I really thought we had a shot for the first week or two....then it became more... uh oh... you know. Let's try and at least find out what happened to her and see if that leads us somewhere that we can find her. And then as, you know, years go by, you get to a point where you just want to know what's happened."

  After more than a decade, the leads stopped coming in and Tiffany's family was left without answers. Then, Detective Kevin Allen came along.

 "I was working here for a couple of days. I asked the previous cold case detective what I should be doing and she said, 'Get up to speed on Tiffany Sessions'"

  Shortly after, ASO named serial killer Paul Rowles as the suspect. A documented sociopath, Rowles slipped through the cracks of the legal system. He served just 13 years of a "life sentence" for raping and murdering his neighbor in the seventies.

  He eventually moved to Gainesville where investigators believed he stalked and abducted Tiffany in '89. In '92 he abducted and murdered Santa Fe student, Beth Foster, but was never considered a suspect

  It wasn't until 1994, when a 15 year old victim escaped after he kidnapped and sexually assaulted her, that Paul Rowles was put back in prison with at least two of his victims' cases still unsolved.

  Because he was a registered sex offender, Rowles was brought in for the violent Gainesville student murders in 1990. That's when investigators got his DNA samples that would link him to the death of Elizabeth Foster, decades later. That's when aso thought to link him to Tiffany.

  Detective Allen got a hold of some of Rowles' prison possessions last year and evidence started to fall into place.

  "You know, we have no physical evidence that links Paul Rowles to Tiffany Sessions. We have no evidence from Tiffany Sessions, we never found that body... But that entry in his journal...."

  Rowles had a journal for the last decade of his life in prison. He used it to document his victims and the date of each incident. Tiffany would have been victim #2 which is exactly what is written next to the date of her disappearance.

  "When we find out that the guy never missed work and the day Tiffany disappeared he missed not one, but two jobs..."

  "He had motive because he'd already done it before, he had opportunity and he, I believe he was stalking her for a period of time."

  Once the connection was made, detectives went straight to Rowles' known dumpsite; it's where Elizabeth Foster's body was found.  "This is a place people bring things they don't want to be found."

  Detectives excavated 10 acres and found nothing, but no one is giving up.

  Patrick says everything has changed now, "The difference now is we have a target... For 24 years, we were looking at the universe....Now we say, if you knew Paul Rowles or you worked with him..now talk to us about him."

  People are coming forward; the most recent witness to come to town is Rowles' son.

  "Andrew brought us to a location in Gainesville we were not aware of before. He said that his mother, Katherine, had pawned some jewelry at a specific pawn shop in Gainesville. And there is a record of Katherine Rowles pawning some jewelry at that location."

  Detectives were hoping for a record of Tiffany's gold Rolex, one of the only things she had with her when she disappeared. So far, there's no match, but the new clues don't stop there.
  "Paul Rowles almost always used a knife and he choked his victims. Andrew gave me a knife that belonged to Paul Rowles and the FBI has that now. They're taking it apart and they're checking it for any blood or potential DNA evidence of Tiffany Sessions."

  Detective Allen says there is another big lead

  "We're trying to find Paul Rowles' truck. He drove a red Ford Bronco when Tiffany Sessions was abducted, he drove a red Ford Bronco when Beth Foster was abducted and he drove a red Ford Bronco when he abducted his last victim that survived in 1994."

  "If we could find one of her hairs in that car or a drop of blood or something, then that ends it, there's no more discussion."

  "That would link Paul Rowles directly to the Tiffany Sessions case."

  "And would that close the case?"

  "That would close the case."

  Paul Rowles died in prison last year leaving Tiffany's family with more questions than answers. But detectives feel like, with hard evidence they can finally answer those questions and close the Tiffany Sessions cold case for good.

  If you have any information about this case, you're asked to please come forward.
 
   Detective Kevin Allen: (352) 384-3323. kallen@alachuasheriff'org

  You can also help detectives track down Tiffany's missing rolex.   We have a picture of it on our website and Facebook page.

http://www.mygtn.tv/story/25531702/solving-the-unsolved-detectives-have-new-evidence-in-tiffany-sessions-cold-case