LARGO, Fla. — The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office (PCSO) is digging up the land at a property in Largo after receiving a tip a couple of chilly case on Wednesday.
PCSO stated forensic models are conducting excavation work at 1201 Gooden Crossing, which is west of the Pinellas Trail and close to Ulmerton Road.
WFTS
WFTS
The tip obtained, in accordance to PCSO, lead to “detectives and forensics following up on cold cases from the 1970s and 1980s regarding three missing females.”
The sheriff’s workplace stated the tip it obtained is said to the disappearance of Retha Hiers and stated its present work is barely associated to her.
However, her disappearance is related to a person named Cleveland Hill Jr., who can be related to the disappearances of two different ladies, Donyelle Johnson and Margaret Dash.
Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office chilly instances:
- Retha Hiers
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Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office
- 42 years previous when she went lacking in 1982
- “Retha Hiers was last seen leaving her residence in her vehicle. It was found abandoned in March 1983 at the Breakers Apartments at 2929 Gulf to Bay Blvd in Clearwater, Florida. Hiers had been involved in a relationship with Cleveland Hill Jr.”
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- Donyelle Johnson
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Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office
- 21-22 years previous when she went lacking in 1989
- “Donyelle Johnson was last seen leaving her residence for a class at Saint Petersburg Junior College in Clearwater, Florida. Johnson’s vehicle was found abandoned behind the Hardees restaurant at Belcher Road and East Bay Drive in Largo, Florida. A black male named “Johnny Bailey” called a towing company to report car trouble and to have the vehicle towed. He has never been identified or located. Johnson had been involved in a relationship with Cleveland Hill Jr.”
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Clearwater Police Department chilly case:
- Margaret Dash
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Clearwater Police Department
- 38 years previous when she went lacking in 1974
- “Margaret Dash was reported missing by her husband. He reported that Dash was having an affair with Cleveland Hill Jr. (Black Male, 23 years of age at the time). The husband stated Hill threatened to kill his wife if she did not leave her husband and run away with him. Dash’s vehicle was located in St. Petersburg two months after she was last seen.”
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Hill, per PCSO’s web site, “died in 2018 and denied any knowledge or involvement until his death.”
Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office
The Clearwater Police Department stated it has no cause to consider that Margaret Dash’s case is related to the excavation. The solely factor that connects the disappearances of Dash and Hiers is their relationships with Hill Jr.
PCSO stated they are going to be excavating the realm on Wednesday and Thursday.
Several members of the family of Retha Hiers spent the day Wednesday watching as forensic specialists dug up the property and combed the soil for proof.
Dana Hiers will always remember her final reminiscence of her mother. She was 14 and going together with her dad and siblings to purchase presents a number of days after Christmas.
“My dad was on the again door getting in the truck and my dad requested my mother ‘Retha, are you going to be right here after I get again?’ and he or she stated ‘Yes, Howard I’ll be right here.’ I can keep in mind her simply waving bye telling us she beloved us. It was the final time I noticed her,” Dana Hiers remembered.
She and her six siblings have wondered every day for 39 years what happened to their mom.
“I miss that smile. Her love for her youngsters. I simply pray we discover one thing. It’s been too lengthy. Too lengthy. I’ve labored on this for over 30 years myself,” she explained.
In 1982, Hiers left her Largo home to buy laundry soap and she was never seen again.
The property detectives are focusing on now was once owned by Hill who was a local minister and asphalt contractor who Hiers had a relationship with.
She had just severed ties with Hill before her disappearance.
A few days after she disappeared, her husband received a letter that was supposedly from Hiers saying she was leaving him for Hill and that she wanted her husband to care for their children.
Four months later, her car was discovered abandoned on Gulf to Bay Blvd. in Clearwater.
Hill served time in prison for assault after shooting his wife and mother-in-law in 1968. He was released prior to meeting all three women. He later died of cancer in 2018 and the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office said he denied being linked to the disappearance of any of the women.
Dana Hiers doesn’t believe it.
“Every lady who he received concerned with, I’ve heard they struggle to break off the connection they usually disappear. They simply disappear so I do know he had one thing to do with it,” she said.
Detectives dug up the same land in 1993 but didn’t find anything. Now, they hope improved technology will help them find evidence that could potentially give the Hiers family closure.
Habitat for Humanity currently owns the property and planned to break ground on the land for three new homes within the next few months. The families were already selected. Now, that project is on hold as the investigation continues.
Mike Sutton, who heads up Pinellas County’s Habitat for Humanity Chapter said they won’t decide what will happen next until the investigation is finalized.
“If they do discover some stays, we are going to take care of it at that time and determine the subsequent steps. We’ve constructed virtually 800 houses now in our neighborhood and we’ve by no means had a state of affairs like this however simply getting to know the Hiers household and figuring out the ache they’ve skilled, we wish some solutions for her so pausing the undertaking received’t damage Habitat for Humanity in any approach,” Sutton stated including that they’ll discover a new location for the households if wanted.