FL FL - Betty New, 17, Gainesville, 6 Sept 1974

On a fateful Friday night in September, the Newberry High School student was trying to get to her boyfriends house. She couldn’t find a ride so started hitchhiking through Gainesville. “She was leaving home, she took her belongings and left them at a friend’s house and caught a ride with a neighbor of the friend’s into a popular spot where all the kids hung out.” That was the last place Betty Ann New was ever seen alive.

The next day a train traveling through Alachua stopped just west of Burnett’s Lake. Even today it’s an uninhabited area and one that, in 1974, wouldn't have been seen by anyone. “So the train had stopped and the brakeman in the back of the train, probably a little bored, he was just looking around, and he saw the body at the bottom of a ditch. Whoever killed her just discarded her like garbage in between a big mound of dirt and a railroad tracks. So they pull in the low side of the berm, they drag her out... boom. Figuring that she's not going to be found for a long time."

Betty Ann was found nude and badly decomposed. There were indications of sexual battery, but there was no indication of a suspect.

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On September 6, 1974, the body of a 17-year-old white female was found in a stabbed to death in a field near Lake Burnett in Alachua County.

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microlex said:

Mary Jo Shelleby was an 18 yo college student when her body was found in the roadway on McIntosh Rd, just south of Clark Rd, in Sarasota, FL, on November 10, 1973. This event occurred just short of a year before and was located roughly 3 hours south of where Betty Ann New was found. Both disappearances have been linked to hitchhiking. The girls, themselves, also seem similar in appearance (fair skin, light colored long hair, subtle eyes, similarly arched eyebrows, understated upper lip, rounded face with slightly pointed chin). These similarities could simply be coincidental, but it may be worth exploring in order to eliminate possible leads. Link to Sarasota SO page featuring Mary Jo Shelleby: UNSOLVED CRIMES If you have any information concerning any of these cases, please contact Sarasota County Sheriff s Office Criminal Investigations at 941 861 4900

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NanaGram07 said:

She was a friend of mine that had moved from our hometown after she graduated, but sadly, we had lost touch after I graduated (a year earlier) and didn't even know she had moved until mutual friends got in touch with me about her murder. I had always hoped they would find who did it. She had been very sheltered when she lived in our town, so it was surprising that she hitched.

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FL - Mary Jo Shelleby, 19, college coed found beaten to death after being seen in downtown Sarasota, 10 Nov 1973

https://www.sarasotasheriff.org/news/unsolved_crimes.php On November 10, 1973 the body of Mary Jo Shelleby was discovered in the roadway on McIntosh Rd. just south of Clark Rd. Mary Jo’s death was a result of a homicide. Mary Jo was attending Manatee Junior College at the time and was known...

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