FL FL - Rita Zul, 46, Fort Myers, 15 Jan 1990

During a search for Chelsey Green, a car was discovered in a retention pond. The car is believed to have been the same one Rita Zul was last seen driving.

Search for missing woman leads to renewed interest in unsolved case

Authorities removed an older model red, Datsun 280Z. That was the type of car driven by Rita Sue Zul, when she disappeared in 1990.

Zul had attended a birthday party at the Marina 31 Lounge, which has since been torn down. Zul drove off and was never seen again.

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Family hopes recovered car solves 25-year-old cold case

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Vital Statistics at Time of Disappearance
• Missing Since: January 15, 1990 from Fort Myers, Florida
• Classification: Missing
• Date Of Birth: October 29, 1953
• Age: 46 years old
• Height and Weight: 5'3 - 5'5, 145 pounds
• Distinguishing Characteristics: Caucasian female. Brown hair, green eyes. Zul may use the first name Theresa and some agencies refer to her by that name. She has pierced ears and a tattoo of the name "Steven" on her right forearm.
• Clothing/Jewelry Description: A whit ruffled shirt, red suspenders and black pants.

Details of Disappearance
Zul was last seen at the Marina 31 Lounge in Fort Myers, Florida on January 15, 1990. She worked there, but on the night of her disappearance she was attending a private birthday party. Zul left the lounge at 2:00 a.m. and drove away in her red 1975 Datsun 280Z with the Florida license plate number GIQ75L. She has never been heard from again. It's uncharacteristic of her to leave without warning. Few details are available in her case.

Remains found in the vehicle identified as Rita Zul.

Body of woman missing since 1990 found in pond

A red sports car pulled out of a Lee Civic Center pond this week led to the identification of human remains that belong to a woman missing for a quarter of a century.

Rita Sue Zul, whose remains were found in the car, went missing in 1990 after a private party at Marina 31, a lounge where she worked.

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Body of woman reported missing in 1990 found in pond

As for this case, the sheriff's office says foul play is not suspected in Zul's death. But they do hope to figure out how she ended up in the water.

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RIP Rita

JusticeWillBeServed said:

Remains found in the vehicle identified as Rita Zul.

Body of woman missing since 1990 found in pond



Body of woman reported missing in 1990 found in pond




RIP Rita

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Sounds very close to where they found Chelsey Green this past week. I am glad the family knows where she is now. RIP.

Wow, this makes four missing person cases I've read within a few months of people being missing decades and found in their cars in water. How many more are waiting to be located? Prayers to her family.

Dockins said:

Wow, this makes four missing person cases I've read within a few months of people being missing decades and found in their cars in water. How many more are waiting to be located? Prayers to her family.

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I was just thinking that. Probably a lot. All those cases where someone goes to the store and their car is never found - I bet it's in the water.

I've posted this on many other similar threads - but I'll say it again. My cousin Lenny would be a MP to this day were it not for a woman letting her dog out who heard the splash of his car hitting the water in the middle of the night. He got lost coming home from a conference. Stopped for gas and got turned around, drove down a boat ramp that looks for all the world like a two lane country road. He made it out of the car but drowned trying to get back to shore. His car ended up over a hundred feet out in the water, and so deep it would not have been noticed.

I would love to see the nations' fishermen look for these type of accidents in the thousands of ponds and lakes they fish. I wager there are a LOT more cases like this.

meanmaryjean said:

I've posted this on many other similar threads - but I'll say it again. My cousin Lenny would be a MP to this day were it not for a woman letting her dog out who heard the splash of his car hitting the water in the middle of the night. He got lost coming home from a conference. Stopped for gas and got turned around, drove down a boat ramp that looks for all the world like a two lane country road. He made it out of the car but drowned trying to get back to shore. His car ended up over a hundred feet out in the water, and so deep it would not have been noticed.

I would love to see the nations' fishermen look for these type of accidents in the thousands of ponds and lakes they fish. I wager there are a LOT more cases like this.

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I bet that this happens more frequently than we realize. How many MP cases do we have WS that involves the person driving alone somewhere, never to be seen again (and no trace of their car)? As in the case of your cousin, it is very easy to become disoriented and drive off a boat ramp. And I know what you mean about boat ramps looking like roads in the dark if you are unfamiliar with them (why oh why isn't there clear signage?). In addition, it only takes one wrong move to fly off a bridge and go missing forever.

Anyway, I have always found it quite obnoxious how LE just says that the person probably ran away. I know that to LE there is not much they can do in these cases, but could they not at least offer to the family that it is possible that the person's car wound up in the water? As far as I can tell, that is a far more likely explanation than a person just walking away from their life.

Article focusing on Rita's daughter.

Closure comes 25 years later for daughter

Melissa Magier was 14 years old when her mother, Rita Sue Zul, disappeared.

"Today has been an emotional mess," said Magier, of Crestview. Magier and her family drove from the Panhandle through the night to Lee County to speak with detectives.

"You always think the worst," Magier said., "You never make peace with it, you never give up hope, but it's good to have closure."

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Rita was my friends mother. I’ve been told by my friend that she was told by investigators that foul play is not suspected in this case. However, video footage of the car after its removal from the pond pans across the car from hood to rear bumper. The car is basically intact with the exception of obvious wear and partial disintegration from spending 25 years under water. However, I was struck by the fact that the steering wheel is missing. Not deteriorated, not partially disintegrated, it’s just gone and there’s no trace of a license plate at all. Considering the metal Datsun emblem is still mostly intact and legible on the front of the car, and the steering column is visible and and identifiable, it doesn’t make sense to me that the steering wheel and the license plate would have been so damaged as to completely disappear. Makes me believe these items were removed from the car before it went into the water. If some scavenger had come along and taken these items after the car had spent time in its resting place below the water, wouldn’t you think a call would have been made at that point about the presence of the car in the pond containing a skeleton?