Missing Woman's Body Identified After 30 Years

In 1982, 29-year-old Amy Rose Hurst, a New Port Richey resident, was reported missing by her family in Michigan. Three months of phone calls went unanswered, and the only explanation from her husband, William, was that she left him.

Three months earlier, fisherman stumbled across the body of a woman 27 miles off the coast in the Gulf of Mexico. Her body was wrapped in an afghan, and a rope tied around her waist was attached to a cement block.

Hurst’s body was brought by the U.S. Coast Guard to the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office as a Jane Doe, and she was interred in a Hillsborough County cemetery. In 2001, Hurst’s body was exhumed during the investigation of what turned out to be an unrelated cold case.

Her body underwent a second autopsy that revealed her death to be a homicide by blunt force trauma.

Eight years later, Hurst’s son Jeff Early, who was 9 years old when his mother went missing, contacted the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office after viewing the profile of the Jane Doe in the Doe Network, an international database for missing and unidentified persons.

The afghan described sounded like the one his grandmother had made Hurst and her sister, Judy.

Three years passed before the FBI labs finished testing the DNA, including nuclear DNA from Hurst’s skeletal remains and mitochondrial DNA from Early, to help make the identification.

“Most of us don’t have DNA lying around somewhere unless we are real lucky to get a toothbrush or something that belonged to the person to get their DNA,” said Lisa Schoneman, the detective assigned to the case. “Most of the time it has to be gotten from the family members, then processed and put into the database.”

Between the DNA and circumstantial evidence, Dr. Russell Vega of the Manatee County Medical Examiner’s Office was able to positively identify the body as that of Hurst.

The body has been identified, but the investigation is just beginning, Schoneman said. She is flying to Michigan on Monday to begin interviewing Hurst’s remaining family members.

“I know my victim was murdered,” Schoneman said. “I know where she was found. I know who she is, but that’s all I know at this point. We need your help; we need people who in 1982 knew Amy, knew William, were neighbors, friends, co-workers, landlords – anybody that knew them when they lived here that maybe can shed some light on what happened.”

Schoneman said Hurst’s family is planning a reunion in September and their one wish was that if this is Hurst, they could bring her home and put her to rest. With the identification of Hurst’s body, their wish has come true.

Now it's time to bring her justice, Pasco Sheriff Chris Nocco said.

Anyone with information about the disappearance of Amy Hurst is asked to call the Pasco Sheriff's Office Crime Tips Line at 1-800-706-2488.