11/27/2023
The bones of a young woman were found on Grassy Key in December of 1976. In 2004, they were finally identified as 15 year old Stephanie Sempell, last seen alive in March of 1976 by her mother, Dorothy Appel of Boca Raton, Florida.
On December 30, 1976, then Detective Richard Roth responded to investigate reports of human remains found on Grassy Key, near an area commonly called the “rock pit” at Mile Marker 55.5 of U.S. 1.
The bones were found scattered in a heavily wooded area grown wild with Spanish Bayonet. They were partially covered by Spanish moss, leafy debris and vines and they were judged to have been there for months if not longer.
The only clothing found at the site was a black T-shirt. It was knotted in such a way that Detective Roth said he believed it had been tied around the victim’s head for some unknown reason, perhaps as a blindfold. Hair was found tangled in the knot. On the t-shirt was a colorful depiction of a tiffany lamp.
The remains were reported by a camper from Lake Worth, Florida who said he and a friend had recently stayed in the area. He said while they were there they were approached by a “hippie type” man who offered to show them a human skeleton for a quarter.
The camper described where the body was and offered to return to the Keys to show officers where he’d seen the remains. Using the camper’s description of the area, detectives found the bones near a place called Gaines Rock Pit.
After the bones were photographed in place, they were collected for further examination. The Medical Examiner at the time, Dr. A. J. Fernandez, found the bones showed no signs of violent death – no gunshot injuries, no knife marks and no breaks consistent with injury.
The cause of death was classified as an unknown, but because of the t-shirt, Detective Roth suspected foul play.
The bones were believed to belong to a white female, 15 to 16 years old who was between five foot three and five foot five inches tall and approximately 105 – 115 pounds in weight. The hair recovered at the scene was reddish brown in color.
Dental records were used to compare the body to law enforcement reports of missing women from across the country. None of those comparisons were positive, and the victim was not initially identified.
The information on the case was reported to the Florida Crime Information Center (FCIC) and the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) where it was entered into those statewide and nationwide law enforcement databases. There were no initial hits from those databases, and detectives judged they had done all they could to identify the bones.
The case came to the attention of investigators in the Sheriff’s Office Homicide Division again in November of 2001 when the mother of a girl who went missing in 1974 became convinced the bones belonged to her daughter.
At her insistence, detectives, assisted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, compared mitochondrial DNA (a DNA sequence extracted from the mother) to DNA extracted from the bones found on Grassy Key.
The comparison concluded the bones did not belong to the missing child in question. However, the test allowed the DNA extracted from the Grassy Key bones to be entered into the FBI’s relatively new Mitochondrial DNA Missing Person Database, Unit II, based in Quantico, Virginia in the hopes that sometime in the future, the database would assist in identifying the victim. (For more information on the FBI DNA database, visit their web site at http://www.fbi.gov/hq/lab/org/dnau.htm).
Then, in 1997, Kim Quinn of New York, the sister of a Boca Raton girl missing since 1976, began looking into the status of her sister’s case. Her younger sister, Stephanie Sempell, was a chronic runaway who was last seen in March of 1976.
At the time of her disappearance, she told her mother she was going to the Keys with friends. She never returned. The family says they reported her missing, but for some unknown reason, there is no record of that report. Because there was apparently no official report that she was missing, her name and description was never entered into any database where a comparison with this case would have been possible.
When the sister began making inquiries, she discovered that because there was no official missing person’s report in existence, her missing sister was not in the nationwide missing child database.
As a result of Quinn’s inquiries, Sempell was finally entered into the database. Eventually, the NCMEC matched that missing person report with the Keys case from 1976 as a possible hit. Using DNA from Sempell’s mother, analysis indicated a match. That, along with a description of Sempell, which closely matched the bones, convinced detectives they had finally identified the bones found on Grassy Key.
Detectives hope that someone somewhere will see the picture of Stephanie, hear the story of where and how she was found, and will call them with information about the case.
To date, no one who has been questioned in this case can definitively say who she was traveling to the Keys with and detectives would like to know that so they can talk to her traveling companions. They would also like her friends, who might know who she hung out with, to come forward if they remember anything that might be significant.
Families who have missing children or missing adults should also consider having mitochondrial DNA entered into the FBI DNA database.
The process is simple – the mother of the missing person, or another related female should visit their local FBI office. The DNA test in question is a simple and painless mouth swab or a skin prick for blood.
Anyone with information should contact the Sheriff's Office at 305-292-7000.
Callers who wish to remain anonymous can call Crime Stoppers at 1-866-471-8477.
Tipsters can remain anonymous and if a tip leads to an arrest in the case, the caller may be eligible for a cash reward.
Tips may also be submitted online at www.floridakeyscrimestoppers.com
