TARPON SPRINGS, Fla. — September is National Cold Case Month, and experts estimate the nation has 350,000 unsolved murders. Florida currently reports over 20,000 cold cases, one of those being in Tarpon Springs.
“Lynn was pretty naive. She had just learned how to drive a car,” said Karen Miller, Lynette’s sister.
Lynette Ray Campbell was a shy, single mother with a full life ahead of her.
“She was just getting divorced and trying to be on her own, really,” said Miller.
Campbell was finding her purpose in life, driven by the support and love from her 10-year-old daughter, friends, and family.
“We were very close. So, um, she was just always in my life, and then she wasn't,” explained Miller.
Her life was suddenly snuffed away in a mystery. Haunting her family for nearly three decades.
“What has life been like without her?” asked Tampa Bay 28 anchor Andrew Kinsey
“Wow, hard, very hard,” said Miller.
Miller said life without her sister just hasn’t been the same. She wonders daily why anyone would kill her.
“You seem to think more about it, because there's nothing been solved, you know, and that makes it even harder to know that you know someone's out there that could do this again,” said Miller.
It’s a case that put the small town of Tarpon Springs on edge.
“It’s been too long, she wouldn’t take off and leave her daughter, she hasn’t been to work, hasn’t picked up her paycheck. That’s not like her,” said a family member back in 1996.
Campbell was last seen alive on May 31, 1996. She told her mother she was going out with her new boyfriend, “Mark.” However, she ended up at the Bridge Lounge on the South Side of Anclote Bridge without “Mark.”
A witness told police they last saw Campbell outside the neighborhood bar with an unidentified man near her Oldsmobile. A car was found ditched eight days later in the woods east of the corrections center by a deputy on patrol.
“It was heavily vandalized, windows broken out, stereo system had been ripped out of the car. The vehicle had been stuck in the sand and left like it had been abandoned,” said the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office in 1996.
A week later, the search for Campbell was over when deputies found her body on the Riverbank, just feet from where she was last seen alive.
It’s a day her sister will never forget.
“I was there when they brought a body out. A friend came by and told me they were bringing something out of the water. And so, I went there, and they were bringing her out,” said Miller.
The discovery sparked an intense investigation that eventually stalled with no leads and no suspects.
“I was just hoping and praying that something would happen. You know,” explained Miller.
Nearly 30 years later, the case is now getting renewed interest as fresh information points to persons of interest.
“We have found some interesting information about people, places, and events that perhaps are pieces of the puzzle,” said Paul Novack
He continued, “And I think that possibly the person who killed Miss Campbell is still out there and alive.”
The glimmer of hope stems from a collaborative effort between The Law Office of Paul Novack and a group of volunteers who have spent years looking into unsolved cases.
“You know, there have been so many rumors over the years, we involving this case. It was somebody from a personal ad, or it was somebody working on the shrimp boats, or somebody on the sponge diving boats or a passing tourist or a serial killer, all sorts of rumors and possibilities, but I don't think he was any of those. I think we're going to make some progress and see if it was somebody that can still be held accountable,” explained Novack.
Even with the update in the case, Novack said any information from the public is still important. It can possibly provide Campbell’s family with the closure they’ve waited years for.
“Just knowing that she didn't die for nothing, you know, maybe she could stop someone else getting hurt,” said Miller.
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