A Serial Killer’s Little Black Book – The Tiffany Sessions Murder Mystery

This blog post is an excerpt from Synova’s book: Shattered

The daughter of a powerful real estate mogul was snatched on her evening powerwalk just a short distance from her apartment. Thirty-five years later cold case investigators find a clue in a serial killer’s tattered black address book. Eleven years have passed since the discovery, and still, Tiffany Sessions’ body hasn’t been found. What happened to this college student?

________________________________________

Tiffany Louise Sessions, 20 was a finance/economics major at the University of Florida in 1989. Her roommate said she returned from the holiday break on a fitness craze trying to lose a goal of 14lbs. She had a trip planned and like many other coeds wanted to look great for the summer. This had prompted the young blond to start power walking in the evenings near her apartment complex. On the night of February 9, 1989, she set off promising the roommate she would return within the hour. She left behind her keys, wallet, and jewelry, but not her favorite golden watch given to her by her father. She never took that thing off.

When Tiffany didn’t show up within the hour, the concerned roommate jumped in her car and drove along Tiffany’s usual route. Perhaps she had fallen and needed medical attention. Tiffany was nowhere in sight, and the police were called in. That phone call would set off a thirty-five year investigation that is still unsolved today.

Tiffany’s parents divorced when she was three months old, but both parents vowed to find their daughter whatever it took. Tiffany was Hillary Sessions’s only child. She set out trying to find every way possible to distribute flyers and posters. Patrick Sessions was the President of a major real estate corporation, and that’s how he handled the case. Instantly, he took charge and began pouring resources and manpower into the search. While there is much animosity between the two parents, and it’s easy to start blaming each other, both of them are doing everything in their power to find Tiffany.

A thousand volunteers joined to search for the missing coed, but her body was never located. Police plowed through false leads, false confessions, and pranksters preying on the victim’s families. Twenty-five years passed without answers. In 2014, the authorities finally found an obscure connection that pointed to an incarcerated serial killer.

Photo courtesy of Murderpedia.com

Paul Rowles was convicted in a case that had a ton of eerie similarities. The astute detective began to research Rowles movements at the time of Tiffany’s disappearance and found everything lined up. Rowles not only lived in the area, but he also worked delivering scaffolding to a construction site along Tiffany’s jogging route. Rowles had missed work on the very day of Tiffany’s abduction and moved from the area a short time afterward.

Investigators visited the prison to interrogate Rowles but found he was dying of cancer in the prison hospital. The convicted serial killer was in a coma. Time had run out. After the monster’s death, investigators raided his cell for any clues. There they found a tattered black address book. In this book, he had documented many illicit things including the date of Tiffany’s disappearance. Beside the fateful date was written, “#2.”

Photo courtesy of Alachua County Sheriff’s Office

According to the timeline of murders, Tiffany Sessions would have been his second killing. Although the investigators and the family agree that Paul Rowles killed Tiffany, there hasn’t been enough evidence to prove it without a doubt, and Tiffany’s body has never been recovered. The eerie clue was found eleven years ago, and investigators are still running down leads.

Do you have any information that would help solve this mystery? If so, please contact the Alachua County Sheriff’s Cold Case Unit at (352) 367-4161.

Check Out Synova’s Chasing Justice Video On this Case:

WATCH Video

This blog post is an excerpt from Synova’s book: Shattered

Buy Book

Shattered: Behind Every Story Is A Shattered Life (Synova’s Case Files Series)

Follow the heart-rending cases Synova first wrote about on her blog in 2018. Filled with missing persons’ cases, unsolved homicides, and even serial killer cases, this book will give you a greater insight into the shattered lives behind every story. Cases Included in this book: Jayme Closs, Haley Owens, Josh Robinson, Timothy Cunningham, Carol Blades, Pam Hupp, Arthur Ream, Angela Hammond, The Springfield Three, Jennifer Harris, Danny King, Angie Yarnell, Jack Robinson, Madelin Edman, Alexis Patterson, Amber Wilde, Sandra Bertolas, Jennifer Casper-Ross, Crystal Soulier, Jody Ricard, Carmen Owens, Brandon Tyree McCullough & The I-70 Serial Killer

This book has recently been updated and now has 40 cases for you to read!

Follow me on Rumble:

Youtube has started restricting my videos because of their true crime content. This hinders my channel’s monetization, sure, but more importantly it makes it hard to get these stories the publicity they need. Please consider following me on Rumble to help avoid these issues and to raise awareness about these unsolved cases.

Follow Me

If you enjoy this content don’t forget to sign up for Synova’s Weekly True Crime Newsletter. You will receive exclusive content directly in your inbox. As a gift for joining you will also receive the Grim Justice e-book free.

September 4, 2024 0

“Shocking Crime in Ottumwa: John Hill Brutally Murdered in Local Laundromat”

It’s been almost 49 years since John Hill was slaughtered in his own laundromat in Ottumwa, Iowa.

On the wee hours of November 22nd, 1976, John was viciously attacked in his own business. Police found his body at 5:06 a.m. lying face down in a small room of the laundromat. He had been stabbed repeatedly and shot. He had fought hard and the scene was quite a bloodbath.

A .25 caliber pistol was near his right hand and five rounds had been fired from it. They found five bullet holes near the front door, but only four shell casings. Did he hit one of his attackers?

Two words were written in blood, the word “older”, and either “black” or “lack.” Was this written as a clue from the victim? Was it written as a taunt to the police? We may never know.

Early reports said his pockets had been turned out and they think he had been robbed of several hundred dollars. Was all of this a robbery, or was it staged by the perpetrators to throw off the police?

Two suspects appeared early on, but all the police had was circumstantial evidence and without any hard evidence arrests could not be made.

If you have any information, please contact:

Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation – (515) 725-6010 – Email: dciinfo@dps.state.ia.us

Or the Ottumwa Police Department – (641) 684-5555

Synova’s Video on this Case:

Follow me on Rumble:

Follow Me

If you enjoy this content don’t forget to sign up for The Racketeer, Synova’s Weekly True Crime Newsletter. You will receive exclusive content directly in your inbox. As a gift for joining you will also receive the Grim Justice e-book free.

Each week Synova highlights obscure cold cases on her blog as a victim’s advocate. She never charges for her services. If you’d like to help support Synova in this worthy cause please check out the affiliate links below. By purchasing one of her books or using these links, you will be supporting Synova’s work on cold cases and will ensure her ability to continue to give a voice to the victim’s family. Thank you.

Buy Book

Shattered: Behind Every Story Is A Shattered Life (Synova’s Case Files Series)

May 18, 2024 0

The Overshadowed Child Abduction Case of Alexis Patterson

The case of Alexis Patterson was just getting the kind of publicity it needed when the nation’s attention was diverted to the abduction of Elizabeth Smart. While the power of media can help solve cases, it can also destroy others. What happened to beautiful little Alexis Patterson on the morning of 05/03/2002?

She was a bright-eyed 1st grader walking to the Hi-Mount Public School four houses down the street from her home. It was May 3, 2002, and the child would be out of school for the summer break soon.

Unfortunately, she wouldn’t be enjoying the upcoming summer activities. Fellow students reported seeing her in the playground before school, but she never made it to class and hasn’t been seen since. Seventeen years have passed, and sweet Alexis still hasn’t returned. Who snatched her? Where is she now? Did she actually make it to school that day?

Alexis Patterson was walked to school by her stepdad, LaRon Bourgeois and was seen by other kids in the playground. Everyone assumed she would be in class. She had a perfect attendance record, but it would be broken on this fateful day in May. When she didn’t return home from school, her family reported her missing.

Within 24-hours of the call, the Milwaukee P.D. set up a mobile command unit in a nearby park. It would stay there for the next five weeks, while the entire community searched for the girl. A month later Elizabeth Smart was found alive, and I’m sure the news gave Ayanna Patterson hope that her daughter would be found as well. While the news found many other missing girls, her daughter’s name was never among them.

Three months later the authorities received a tip that she might be in the Milwaukee River near Estabrook Park. They had already checked the area but rechecked the place just in case. She wasn’t found. Many new leads poured into the case files, but not one of them lead to anything.

In 2009, the case was sent to Milwaukee’s Cold Case Unit. Everyone hoped this would heat up the case and bring in some new information, but it remained cold. Fast forward a grueling 14 years and the authorities had been all over the country chasing leads in this case. One lead seemed promising in 2016.

A man from Ohio called in claiming he thought his ex-wife was the missing child. She couldn’t remember anything before the age of ten, she had no photos of her childhood, she couldn’t remember how she ended up in Ohio, and she had several of the characteristics of Alexis Patterson. As usual, the police keep a few details private to help determine the truth in these cases. When this woman had a physical characteristic that wasn’t publicly known, the police made a trip to Ohio to get a DNA sample.

While everyone in the Wisconsin community waited and hoped, the DNA test came back negative. It was not Alexis Patterson. The mother put on a brave face for the cameras and said she would never give up, but it was apparent she was struggling with the new information. She had so desperately hoped that this woman was her child, and now that hope was gone.

Every year the community leaders show their support for this family by re-tracing the route Alexis took to school that day in 2002. The solemn assembly walks the four blocks down a shady sidewalk to the school. There they place a wreath in honor of the missing child. No one in this community has forgotten the bright-eyed baby girl.

If you Google Alexis Patterson, you will find yearly updates on her story, but they all say the same thing. There haven’t been any new developments in this case in the last three years; at least none that the police are sharing publicly. I did find one YouTube video of Sheriff David Clark. He has been working this case from the beginning, and he made a startling confession. He doesn’t believe Alexis ever made it to school and that her mother’s now ex-husband knows what happened to the little girl. Of course, LaRon vehemently denied this from his jail cell. Yes, you read that right, LaRon Bourgeois was jailed for dealing drugs and weapons charges both before and again after the disappearance of Alexis Patterson.

In 2009, The Milwaukee News reported that LaRon Bourgeois had failed his polygraph test. The police weren’t releasing the questions that he failed. This makes me think he failed some questions about an unrelated topic. If he had failed the questions about Alexis, I’m sure he would have been arrested. Maybe? Who knows. The sheriff still thinks he knows more than he’s saying, but they obviously don’t have enough evidence for an arrest. Meanwhile, this poor mother is trying to continue living despite not knowing the truth.

Alexis’ biological father, Kenya Campbell was no Prince Charming either. He was reportedly in jail at the time of her disappearance. Records show he was released on the 6th, but later scrutiny showed he might have been released two days beforehand. If this is true, then maybe he could have taken the little girl. The only problem with this is where did he put her and where has she been for all of these years?

We hear about children being abducted by family members in the news all the time. If this were the case, she would have turned up.

In December 2013 Campbell was arrested for brutally beating his new 8- month-old baby daughter. If you have any information on this case, please contact the Milwaukee Police Department at (414) 278-4788.

Watch Video

Follow me on Rumble:

Follow Me

Shattered: Behind Every Story Is A Shattered Life (Synova’s Case Files Series)

Buy Book

You can forget about boring coffee when you try Bones Coffee!

Get Coffee!

April 15, 2024 2

The Haunting Disappearance of Randy Brosius

Photo courtesy of The Charley Project

He agreed to be the pawn in a drug sting after his mother received threatening calls over the Christmas holidays. Unfortunately, drug stings don’t always turn out like they do in the movies, and Randy’s brothers watched in horror as the car sped away out of the reach of law enforcement. 49 years later and the family still doesn’t know what happened to Randy Brosius.

Randall B. Brosius, 22, had a rocky past that involved drugs, but he was getting his life together by the Christmas holiday in 1976. Christmas cheer was in the air, the shopping season was in full swing, and everything was bliss. That’s what Christmas is supposed to be, anyway. During the festivities, the Brosius family was being terrorized by an unknown blackmailer.

Randy’s mother received a demand for $500, saying that Randy was involved in a big drug deal. The blackmailer threatened to cut Randy up in pieces and send him to her if she didn’t pay. Terror-stricken, the poor mother, found the money and tried to deliver it to the dropzone in Williamstown, Pennsylvania. She had one hour to get there. Although she made it well within the allotted time, the blackmailer never arrived.

After all of this, Randall went to the police for help. He agreed to a “meet up” with the police waiting in the shadows. His brother and father were there, as well. He had nothing to fear. Unfortunately, things don’t always go as planned, and somehow by some terrible twist of fate, Randy was taken.

The newspaper accounts make it sound so innocent. They claim Randy was last seen in a car driving away from Mace’s Fountain Blue Motel with two men. Richard Green, 31, and Kenneth H. Lenker, 25. In reality, that was the last time his family or the police ever saw him. The two men were later found in Florida and questioned, but no arrests were ever made.

What happened to Randy Brosius?

A John Doe was found in Hewett, TX, on April 3, 1978. The twenty-something male had been shot in the back of the head and dumped in a culvert. His height and weight closely match that of Randy. The clothing wasn’t a match to what Randy was last seen wearing, but we’re talking 15 months later.

The man’s flamboyant clothes are what lead investigators to call him Disco Dan. Unfortunately, the Hewett police department only had two officers, and the John Doe case went cold rather quickly.

The family wonders if this could be their long lost Randy. There’s a possibility since one of the men he was last seen with ended up in Texas. At the time of his disappearance, Randy had long shoulder-length brown hair and a mustache. He was around 5′ 7,” and his weight was approximately 140 lbs. All of these things closely match Disco Dan.

I noticed when comparing the two photos; the nose seems really similar to me. Who knows. We will have to wait for the DNA results. I’ll keep you posted. In the meantime, if you know anything about the disappearance of Randall Brosius or the John Doe known as Disco Dan, please call in a tip. These families need answers.