Broward Sheriff’s Office Says Woman Was From Decatur, GA. But Who Killed Her?
A truck driver stumbled onto the remains along the then two-lane roadway in 1983, kicking off a murder mystery that would stretch on for decades. Investigators at the time chased down leads and evidence, even commissioning a facial model of the woman to display publicly in hopes someone would recognize her. But without today’s forensic technology, the case went cold. It took a DNA testing grant from the Missing and Unidentified Human Remains Program, administered by the U.S. Department of Justice, to finally crack it open. BSO’s genetic genealogists combed through mountains of records, online and hard copy, and traced the remains to a young woman who had vanished from Decatur in May 1983. A DNA match to her father last year confirmed it: the victim was Shelia Ann Nichols.
“It’s unspeakable how somebody could dispose of this young lady with such disregard,” said BSO Cold Case Homicide Unit Detective Andrew Gianino. “It’s just heart-wrenching.” The case took a bizarre turn when Gianino discovered that Shelia Ann’s sister, Virginia Gail, also vanished from Decatur around the same time in 1983, raising the possibility investigators were dealing with two homicides rather than one. “This has to be one of the most complex cases with various twists that I’ve ever worked,” Gianino said. That thread led detectives to Virginia Gail — very much alive — reuniting her with family after decades apart. Shelia Ann’s killing, however, remains unsolved.
Detectives are hopeful that publicizing Shelia Ann’s name and image, now featured in the latest episode of BSO’s “Open and Unsolved” cold case series, might jog a memory or loosen a long-held secret in South Florida or back in Decatur. “We need that one phone call,” Gianino said. “It would make all the difference going forward.”…