Cops Name Suspect in Student's '89 Disappearance

Florida police think they're close to closing a 25-year-old case involving a missing University of Florida student. The sheriff of Alachua County said today that it's "highly, highly probable" that suspected serial killer Paul Rowles murdered Tiffany Sessions in 1989, reports CNN. Rowles died in prison last year at age 64, and a journal that turned up after his death contains a chilling clue, reports the Orlando Sentinel. In it, Rowles wrote "2-9-89"—the date that 20-year-old Sessions disappeared in his Gainesville neighborhood—and "#2" next to it. Investigators think it means he was referring to his second victim. (Rowles had been convicted of a previous murder but released from prison after nine years.)

Police have begun looking for Sessions' remains at the site where yet another of Rowles' suspected victims was buried in 1992. “To me, the case is solved,” Sessions' father tells the Miami Herald. “I’m convinced this is the guy who did it.” Rowles, who was serving time for a separate case in which he kidnapped and raped a teenage girl, denied involvement in Sessions' disappearance while he was alive. Police were about to interview him about the case again when he died of cancer. (More Paul Eugene Rowles stories.)