Trans woman identified in 1988 Florida cold case, cops say. ‘Got her identity back’
The body of a victim found along a highway in the late 80s was finally identified as a transgender woman almost 40 years later, Florida cops say.
The body of Pamela Leigh Walton was found about 30 feet off the side of a county road in “a rural, heavily wooded area” in Clermont on Sept. 25, 1988, the Lake County Sheriff’s Office said in a March 10 post on Facebook.
Walton had been dead for about two to four weeks at the time, the agency said. It took until 2015 to determine she was transgender.
“The victim was wearing a skirt and had breast implants,” the agency said, “and there is evidence she may have been taking female hormone injections.”
The agency doesn’t have information about other gender-affirming care Walton may have been receiving at the time, but knew she “was, at the very least, transitioning from male to female.”
The case was evaluated by the DNA Doe Project, a nonprofit organization that investigates genetic genealogy to identify unidentified remains, the agency said.
“After years of difficult work, the genealogists were able to identify possible relatives of ‘Julie Doe,’ who were then contacted by the Lake County Sheriff’s Office,” the agency said. “After additional information was obtained, the relatives submitted their DNA for comparison. These comparisons identified ‘Julie Doe’ as Pamela Leigh Walton.”
Walton was born in Kentucky, officials said. She was put up for adoption and named Lee Allen Walton once she was adopted, then at some point in her adult life changed her first and middle names but kept her last name.
Officials aren’t sure how Walton ended up in Florida or the manner in which she died, and the agency is seeking “information regarding the circumstances of the death.”
Several people celebrated that she “finally got her identity back” and that her family could finally get some closure all these years later.
“Somebody who knew her can have some closure if they’re still alive,” one person said. “Some friends who knew her will think of her. Wish we could also find who did it but that’s also good closure.”
“So glad she can rest at peace with her name,” another person said. “I hope justice is served, but at least she has her name.”
Clermont is about a 30-mile drive west from Orlando.
This story was originally published March 11, 2025 at 4:00 PM with the headline "Trans woman identified in 1988 Florida cold case, cops say. ‘Got her identity back’."
