{"id":342119,"date":"2026-07-16T12:37:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T12:37:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/342119\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T12:37:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T12:37:14","slug":"human-remains-found-in-broward-43-years-ago-identified","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/342119\/","title":{"rendered":"Human remains found in Broward 43 years ago identified"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 16-year-old girl who disappeared in the summer of 1983. A letter to the Maury Povich show a decade later, pleading for help finding her. A false confession by a man who was not the girl\u2019s killer. And now, the identification of her remains.<\/p>\n

The cold case of Shelia Ann Nichols\u2019 murder has been for Broward Sheriff\u2019s Office Detective Andrew Gianino \u201cone of the most complex cases with various twists\u201d in his career, he said in a newly released episode<\/a> of BSO\u2019s \u201cOpen and Unsolved\u201d series.<\/p>\n

In May 1983, Nichols disappeared from the Decatur, Georgia, area. Four months later and more than 600 miles away, a truck driver in western Broward County discovered skeletal remains off U.S. 27 near the Everglades when he parked his truck and got out to take a break from the drive.<\/p>\n

The remains went unidentified for decades, until recent DNA testing of the bones led detectives to Nichols, the Sheriff\u2019s Office announced Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\"InIn September 1983, a truck driver found skeletal remains off of U.S. 27 in western Broward County near the Everglades. The remains were recently identified as those of Shelia Ann Nichols, who disappeared from the Decatur, Georgia, area in May 1983. (Broward Sheriff’s Office\/Courtesy)<\/p>\n

Through DNA testing of the skeletal remains and matching those results with Nichols\u2019 family tree, investigators found her father, 86-year-old Clyde Nichols, and confirmed a DNA match last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m glad to find out,\u201d Clyde Nichols said in the Sheriff\u2019s Office\u2019s episode about the cold case. \u201cBecause I wondered about that for years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nichols\u2019 cousin Dianne Eubanks told the South Florida Sun Sentinel on Wednesday that she didn\u2019t learn her cousin had disappeared until the Sheriff\u2019s Office called her about a year ago. When Nichols was 5 or 6 years old, Eubanks lost touch with her and Nichols\u2019 mother because they moved to Decatur.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe detective called me because I had did an ancestry DNA and wanted to know if I had a family member missing \u2026 It wasn\u2019t until I started talking to other family members that I realized that it was Shelia who had ran away in 1983,\u201d Eubanks said.<\/p>\n

Eubanks said local police in the Decatur area and in Gwinnett County \u201ctalked to people for a long time after she disappeared,\u201d but she was considered a runaway at the time rather than a missing or endangered person. She said she believes had there been more attention to her cousin\u2019s disappearance earlier on, it may not have taken decades to get answers.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 Had we found out earlier, they might have found her killer,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Detectives believe Nichols was last seen alive at a home on the corner of Parker Avenue and Barberrie Lane in a neighborhood in Decatur, according to the Sheriff\u2019s Office. Gianino said in the BSO episode that they don\u2019t know how she left the area or why.<\/p>\n

Eubanks said she didn\u2019t know either.<\/p>\n

\u201cHer mom and most of her family members are deceased, so not sure why she left \u2026 or how she got to Florida,\u201d Eubanks said.<\/p>\n

Not long before she vanished, Nichols took a bus from Decatur to visit her father in Lawrenceville, Georgia, about 25 miles away, according to Eubanks. Local police visited Clyde Nichols numerous times after his daughter disappeared, \u201cbut he couldn\u2019t really tell them anything because he hadn\u2019t seen her,\u201d Eubanks said.<\/p>\n

Sheila Ann Nichols\u2019 sister Virginia Gail also disappeared from the Decatur area about the same time as Nichols.<\/p>\n

There are conflicting accounts among relatives about whether the sisters left Georgia together, Eubanks told the Sun Sentinel.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that her mom\u2019s family tried numerous ways to find them, but to no avail,\u201d Eubanks said.<\/p>\n

\"SheliaShelia Ann Nichols, left, and her sister Virginia Gail, right, both disappeared from the Decatur, Georgia, area about the same time in 1983, the Broward Sheriff’s Office said. (Broward Sheriff’s Office\/Courtesy)<\/p>\n

However, Gianino was able to find Nichols\u2019 sister during his investigation thanks to a needed \u201cbreak in the case,\u201d he said \u2014 when he received a family letter that was written to Maury Povich in May 1993.<\/p>\n

A maternal aunt of Nichols and her sister wrote to Povich on May 23, 1993, asking if the show could help find them. The aunt gave the sisters\u2019 names, dates of birth and the dates they were last seen in the letter. While they were never featured on the show, the letter helped Gianino to find Virginia Gail.<\/p>\n

\"InIn May 1993, an aunt of Shelia Ann Nichols and Virginia Gail wrote to Maury Povich about her missing nieces. (Broward Sheriff’s Office\/Courtesy)<\/p>\n

Gianino traveled to Georgia in November 2025 to meet with Virginia Gail, and together made \u201ca long-delayed reunification with family,\u201d the Sheriff\u2019s Office said.<\/p>\n

\"SheliaShelia Ann Nichols’ sister Virginia Gail met with Broward Sheriff’s Office Detective Andrew Gianino in November 2025. (Broward Sheriff’s Office\/Courtesy)<\/p>\n

Another twist came within a year of the letter that was sent to Povich, when a man named Ricky Lee Ross claimed to be the killer of a teen girl in 1983 near the same Everglades location where Nichols\u2019 remains were found. He said he believed she was the person whose remains were still unidentified, the Sun Sentinel reported in 1994. When Ross talked\u00a0to BSO detectives, he was serving a 25-year prison sentence for sexual battery, kidnapping and robbery.<\/p>\n

The Sun Sentinel reported in May 1994 that some details in Ross\u2019 account to detectives were credible, but they had not been able to substantiate his story.<\/p>\n

In the Sheriff\u2019s Office\u2019s newly released \u201cOpen and Unsolved\u201d episode, Gianino said his investigation determined Ross could not have been the killer.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 2025, we were able to determine through the various databases that Rick Ross was absolutely in custody at the time Shelia Ann disappeared and the time in which she was recovered. He could not be a suspect in this matter,\u201d Gianino said.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe South Florida Sun Sentinel reported in May 1994 that a man serving a prison sentence had confessed to being the killer of a teenage girl in 1983 near the same location where Nichols’ remains were found. (Newspapers.com)<\/p>\n

Detectives \u201cfirmly believe\u201d they can still find Nichols\u2019 killer, the Sheriff\u2019s Office said in a news release Wednesday announcing the development.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope and pray that they do,\u201d Eubanks told the Sun Sentinel.<\/p>\n

Gianino said in the video he is pursing leads about who Nichols was last with and specifically asked for help from the public in the Georgia area.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we find out who is responsible for her death, that will close the book in my eyes and hopefully give the family some peace,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Anyone with information on Nichols\u2019 disappearance or murder is asked to contact BSO Detective Gianino at 954-321-4376, submit a tip through the SaferWatch app or anonymously contact Broward Crime Stoppers at 954-493-TIPS (8477), online at browardcrimestoppers.org or by dialing **TIPS (8477) from any cellphone.<\/p>\n

A tip that leads to an arrest could be eligible for a reward of up to $5,000.<\/p>\n

Information from the Sun Sentinel archives contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 16-year-old girl who disappeared in the summer of 1983. A letter to the Maury Povich show a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":342120,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[506,112,28,249,251,250,114,115,109],"class_list":["post-342119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-broward-county","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-florida","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news","tag-latest-headlines","tag-news","tag-social"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342119\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/342120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}