Authorities seek clues to identify human skull

Missing person cases are reviewed after a girl makes the find near the Hernando-Citrus line.

By JAMIE MALERNEE

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 24, 2000

Sheriff's deputies sifted through pounds of dried pine needles, leaves and brush Tuesday after a 10-year-old girl discovered a human skull in the woods of Royal Highlands.

No other bones have been found in the area, which is just a few feet south of Palmdale Road near the Hernando-Citrus county line. The site also is near where serial killer Robert Dale Henderson dumped the bodies of three hitchhikers he picked up near Panama City in 1982. All of those bodies were recovered.

The skull, which is missing all teeth and the lower jaw bone, has been sent to the Medical Examiner's Office in Leesburg for identification.

"The initial indication is that it is male because of the size," Hernando sheriff's Maj. Richard Nugent said.

The skull is damaged on the right side, although authorities said they did not know whether the trauma resulted from a blow to the head near the time of death or from post-mortem damage inflicted by wild animals. Because no other bones were found in the surrounding area, officials suspect that the skull may have been dragged from the rest of the body.

"You got all sorts of critters out here -- foxes, coyotes, bears, dogs," Nugent said. "Animals could drag it for a mile."

The skull was discovered Monday afternoon when Elizabeth Lemoine of Hernando Beach asked her parents who were driving down Commercial Way to pull off to the side of the road so she could relieve herself. When the girl went into the woods, she saw the skull and called her mother.

The mother, Barbara Lemoine, was not sure whether the skull was human, so she took it home and called deputies. Authorities brought the family back to the woods and had them show where the skull had been. Officials said the moving of the skull, which they estimated had been in the area for at least a year, did not hinder the investigation.

Authorities have cleared a 50-square-foot area around the spot and plan to send prison crews to search more outlying land.

Law enforcement officials in Hernando and Citrus counties will review all missing person and possible homicide cases to see whether the skull is a match.

Citrus County sheriff's spokeswoman Gail Tierney said her agency is reviewing one missing person case in particular but would not elaborate, except to say it was a man.

"I wouldn't want to put out false hope," she said.

Citrus authorities are still searching for Steven Michael Day, 45, an Ozello truck driver who has been missing since April 25. Officials have not said foul play was suspected in his disappearance, but friends said he was taking medication for depression.

Hernando County sheriff's spokeswoman Deanna Dammer said her agency has four missing person cases that will be reviewed, including that of Charlie Hope, who parked his pickup truck in front of his Hernando Beach real estate office in 1982 and vanished. Carrie Leonard, a 21-year-old who in May 1997 left her home, also remains missing, as is Sandra Rymer, who disappeared in 1977, and Evelyn Mackey, who has been missing since 1982.

Brooksville Police Capt. Terry Chapman said his department has one homicide case in which the body has not been found. In 1994, Donna Sumners, 23, was last seen arguing with her husband, Monroe Sumners, in their second-floor residence at the Candleglow apartment complex in Brooksville. Her husband later committed suicide.

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