CAPE CORAL, Fla. (WSVN) \u2013 Over 40 years after Rose Gayhart vanished without a trace in Coral Springs, Florida investigators are searching for new clues after identifying her remains.<\/p>\n
Investigators were left with many questions in 2013 while trying to determine her status after Gayhart vanished in 1985.<\/p>\n
\u201cIs it possible that she went off the grid? It\u2019s possible. Is it possible she died? Yes,\u201d said Matt Walsh, a former special agent for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.<\/p>\n
After tireless searching, her case went cold, but Florida Crimestoppers reopened it in 2013 and learned more about her relationship.<\/p>\n
A combination of, she has some issues, domestic issues, possibly being pregnant, and two independent witnesses seeing her hanging out with a white male in a red pickup truck,\u201d said Walsh.<\/p>\n
In 2013, investigators thought there was a chance she was still alive.<\/p>\n
However, Cape Coral police recently confirmed that Gayhart was deceased, after a teenager found her skull while kayaking in a canal in 2024.<\/p>\n
\u201cProbably about that big and that wide. It had no jaw, had the teeth in the upper part of the mouth.\u201d said the teen.<\/p>\n
Officers said they learned the skull belonged to Gayhart in May.<\/p>\n
Police were seen searching the area for days to find more evidence.<\/p>\n
Other locals in Cape Coral shared their thoughts on the case.<\/p>\n
\u201cit blows my mind that after 40 years they still have some sort of DNA evidence left,\u201d said John Dortch, a Cape Coral local.<\/p>\n
Some like Ashley LaRosa had no clue that the search was connected to a 40-year-old cold case.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell it doesn\u2019t make me feel better cause it is not solved yet, but I would definitely like to get this person behind bars for sure. Get justice for her and her family.\u201d said LaRosa.<\/p>\n
Police say this is now an open homicide investigation.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.<\/p>\n
\tJoin our Newsletter for the latest news right to your inbox<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CAPE CORAL, Fla. (WSVN) \u2013 Over 40 years after Rose Gayhart vanished without a trace in Coral Springs,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":352150,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210],"class_list":["post-352149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352149","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=352149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352149\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/352150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}