Florida Police Identify ‘Trunk Lady,’ Found in Steamer Trunk in St. Petersburg Field

Police in Florida have identified a woman found dead and wrapped in plastic in a steamer trunk in 1969.

The “Trunk Lady,” as she became known, is Sylvia June Atherton, who was 41 when she died, according to St. Petersburg Police.

According to WBBH, two juveniles saw two men pull up in a pickup truck and deposit the trunk in the field behind a restaurant on October 31, 1969. They called police, who opened the trunk and found the body.

She had visible injuries to her head and was strangled with a western-style bolo tie and was wearing only a pajama top.

The body was eventually buried as Jane Doe in Memorial Park Cemetery, and the mystery deepened as time went on. Earlier this year, however, a detective found an original sample of the Trunk Lady’s hair and skin taken during the initial autopsy. He sent it off to a DNA lab, which produced a profile that led to one of her children — Syllen Gates, who was nine years old in 1969.

Gates, who now lives in California, told detectives that her mother left Tucson, Arizona, with her husband, Stuart Brown, 5-year-old daughter Kimberly Anne Brown, adult son Gary Sullivan, adult daughter Donna Lindhurst, and Donna’s husband David Lindhurst and went to Chicago. Gates and an 11-year-old brother were left behind with their father from a previous marriage.

Gary Sullivan eventually returned to Tucson to live with them.

Detectives learned that Stuart Brown died in 1999 in Las Vegas, Nevada, with no mention of a wife in his court records.

Police said they’re now turning their attention to who killed Sylvia Atherton. They said the other two children who went to Chicago — Kimberly and Donna, who was 20 at the time, have not been located.

Police ask anyone with information to contact Detective Wallace Pavelski at 727-893-4823.

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[Featured image: Sylvia Atherton and the trunk in which she was found/St. Petersburg Police Department]