Tiffany Sessions: The College Student Who Went for a Walk and Vanished – DNA from a Prisoner Brings Police Closer Than Ever

On the afternoon of February 9, 1989, 20-year-old University of Florida student Tiffany Louise Sessions left her Gainesville apartment for a routine power walk along Williston Road. She never returned. Now, more than 37 years later, the case remains one of Florida’s most haunting cold cases—marked by the largest search in state history and a prime suspect whose own prison notes and DNA links have kept investigators closing in.

Tiffany, a finance major from Tampa, was last seen wearing a gold Rolex watch, white Reebok sneakers, and a pink sweatshirt. Her father, developer Patrick Sessions, launched an immediate, high-profile search involving thousands of volunteers, helicopters, and divers. The effort yielded her purse and personal items near a construction site but no trace of Tiffany herself.

In 2014, Alachua County Sheriff’s Office named convicted murderer and serial rapist Paul Eugene Rowles as the prime suspect. Rowles, who had killed and raped another young woman, Beth Foster, in the same area in 1992, died of cancer in prison in 2013. Detectives discovered notes in his cell referencing Sessions and linking him circumstantially to her disappearance. DNA from the Foster scene matched Rowles, strengthening the connection.

As of early 2026, the investigation remains active under Detective Todd Hand. The family continues offering rewards, and tips still pour in. Tiffany’s mother Hilary has written a book, Where’s My Tiffany?, and the case is featured in national media. No body has ever been found, and no charges have been filed.

Tiffany would be 57 today. The gold Rolex remains missing, and the woods around Gainesville keep their silence. Yet with Rowles’s prison writings and DNA evidence from related crimes, police believe they are closer than ever to answers—if only someone steps forward with the final piece.