Human remains found in Florida identified as Dansville woman who went missing in 1985

DANSVILLE, N.Y. — Livingston County Sheriff’s deputies say the remains of a Dansville woman who went missing in 1985 were found in a canal in Florida.

Deputies say they got confirmation from a lab in Texas in May that DNA previously secured from the family members of Rose Gayhart was used to positively identify human remains found in a canal in Cape Coral, Florida.

According to the Cape Coral Police Department, a skull was found by teenage kayakers in 2024 in a canal in northeast Cape Coral. Deputies say the DNA used to help confirm the identity of the remains was obtained by the sheriff’s office in 2007.

Gayhart, who was 23 at the time, went missing on March 21, 1985, deputies say. Cape Coral Police say Gayhart’s parents reported her missing. Police also say she was last known to be living and working in the Cape Coral and North Fort Myers area at that time.

The case remains open with the Cape Coral Police Department in Florida as a homicide case.

Anyone with information is asked to call the sheriff’s office at (585) 243-7100 or the sheriff’s tip line at 844-LCSO-TIP, or contact Investigator James Merrick by email at JamesMerrick@livingstoncountyny.gov.

NBC previously did a Dateline special on her, also talking with her sister about what led up to Gayhart’s disappearance. This is what was reported:

Before Gayhart went missing, her six-month-old baby died, and she also gave up her second baby for adoption.

Gayhart moved to Fort Myers, Florida, with Bob Paddock, who was her boyfriend, and his mother, Dorothy Rittenhouse.

“We shared a bedroom and listened to the same music,” Laurie Travis, Gayhart’s sister, told Dateline. She was 22 years old when her sister went missing. “We were so very close. I miss her so much.”

Travis said Gayhart lived in close quarters with her boyfriend and boyfriend’s mother, mentioning that there might have been tension between the three.

At one point, the letter sharing ended, and it was the last time the sisters communicated.

On March 19, Gayhart’s mom got a letter from Gayhart’s boyfriend’s mom, saying Gayhart had gone missing.

In a Cape Coral police report, a neighbor told police about an argument between Gayhart and her boyfriend on March 17. The neighbor also heard Gayhart mention she was pregnant to her boyfriend, and that he wanted her to get an abortion. The argument ended with Rittenhouse letting Gayhart call her mother before throwing her out of the house and telling her to not come back.

In the letter, Rittenhouse also stated that she had later tried to give Gayhart a bus ticket back to New York, but Gayhart refused to take it. The ticket, which was purchased on March 17, was enclosed in the letter to her mother.

On March 19, Gayhart was hired at a diner. On her third day of work, her boss watched her get into a red pickup truck with an unknown man. She never went to get her paycheck and hasn’t been seen since.

After receiving the letter and not able to reach Gayhart, her parents reported her missing to the Livingston County Sheriff’s Office.

Detective Thomas Kortright, who has been on the case since 2018, told Dateline that Gayhart’s disappearance is a cold case, but as new information comes in, detectives continue to investigate.

For more information on the case and the interview with Gayhart’s sister, visit NBC’s article from 2021 here.

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