On the day after Valentine’s Day of 1991, a group of windsurfers was enjoying a camping trip at the Bahia Honda State Recreation area on West Summerland Key in South Florida. The location where they had set up camp was a thickly wooded copse not far off the beach and quite close to the Bahia Honda Channel Bridge, an area known locally as “the horseshoe.”
As they headed down toward the shore on that particular winter day, they spotted something strange in the underbrush, and sadly, this turned out to be the nude, dead body of a young woman.
The victim, later christened Florida Jane Doe or Valentine Doe, was likely white, estimated to be between sixteen and twenty-five years old, standing approximately five-foot-four to five-foot seven, and weighing around one-hundred-forty pounds. She had straight, dark brown hair that was cut to collar-length, and eyes that were light brown or green. She also wore a silver Timex watch, had her ears pierced four times in each ear, and wore silver ball and imitation pearl earrings.
Distinguishing marks included a small, crude tattoo of a cross with sunrays emitting from it, etched into the girl’s left hand, between her thumb and forefinger; and another, larger tattoo on her upper left arm, of a heart with the word “love” inside. Both tattoos were amateur-quality and had been done in blue ink.
When police officers arrived at the scene, they noted drag marks in the dirt and droplets of blood near the body. Following the trail, they discovered Valentine Doe’s scattered clothing, articles of which included a reddish-pink-and-dark-blue-striped cardigan sweater, a pair of knee-length denim shorts, a bikini top, and a pair of black, ankle-high moccasins with red stitching, turquoise bead-work, and leather fringe on the back seams.
After an autopsy was performed, it was determined that the victim had been raped and badly beaten, then strangled to death with her own bikini top, probably only the day before her body was discovered.
Additionally, she was thought to have suffered from both anemia, and painful cysts on her ovaries and fallopian tubes; and she had perhaps been pregnant at some stage, judging by stretch marks on her abdomen. Her teeth were in excellent shape, save for one filling, though it appeared that she had had two top teeth extracted when she was around ten years old.
After news of the murder went public, several witnesses came forward and asserted that they had seen Valentine Doe at various points along US 1 on February 14th; the last sighting was thought to have been at around six-thirty p.m., approximately eighteen miles away from the site where her body was eventually found. It was believed that she had been hitchhiking north, and that she was not native to the area, as her lack of tan lines and her atypical clothing—particularly the sweater and moccasins—did not suggest someone who lived in South Florida.
Witnesses also reported having seen an older model white pickup truck with a camper shell in the area in the days prior to the murder, and this vehicle was believed to contain two white males.
The case languished for decades until June of 2020, when authorities announced that they had not only identified Valentine Doe through DNA, but were also absolutely certain who had killed her. The victim was eighteen-year-old Wanda Kirkum, originally from Hornell, New York. She had evidently run away from home not long before her murder, though her parents—both of whom are deceased—had never reported her missing.
Her killer, also identified through DNA, was a young man named Robert Lynn Bradley. Bradley was himself found dead in a ditch in Tarrant County, Texas in April of 1992; he had been shot multiple times in the head. In fact, it was the DNA from his own homicide that linked him with the murder of Wanda Kirkum.
Valentine Doe, therefore, has had her identity restored, and some justice received in her death.
Crime Immemorial 