[Florida Files] Beverly McGowan: Killed By Her Roommate

The Discovery

On July 19, 1990, a couple was exploring near a canal in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, when they made a horrifying discovery.

Inside a large green trash bag floating in the water was the dismembered body of a woman. Her head and hands had been removed.

The man who found the body immediately shielded his young companion from seeing the gruesome image. They left the scene and called 911 from a nearby store.

The Investigation Begins

St. Lucie County Sheriff's detectives arrived at the scene and began piecing together what had happened.

The man who reported the body said he had been to that same spot two nights earlier, and the body wasn't there. Investigators believed the woman had been killed and dismembered somewhere else, then callously discarded in the canal, most likely from a vehicle.

The woman was dressed in jeans and a pink flowered shirt. Her identity was a mystery with no head or hands.

All that was left on her body was a small yellow rose tattoo on her ankle.

An autopsy concluded that the woman had been killed when her throat was slit. The killer then cut her head off at the jaw and removed her hands to conceal her identity. The dismemberments were done crudely with a machete.

Identifying the Victim

Police turned to the public for help. They revealed that the woman was 25 to 35 years old, about 5'5" and 150 pounds, with brown hair and a small rose tattoo.

A few days later, a man named Steve contacted police. He believed the body was his sister, Beverly McGowan. When Steve heard about the yellow rose ankle tattoo, he just knew it was Beverly.

Steve had been trying to find his sister after he and two of Beverly's closest friends received strange handwritten letters from her stating that she was unhappy with her life and was going to take a trip.

Who Was Beverly?

Beverly McGowan was a 34-year-old Philadelphia native living in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. She worked at a local branch of Glendale Federal Bank and was considered a workaholic by those who knew her.

Beverly was quiet and kept to herself. She had moved to Fort Lauderdale in 1980 and had taken various bookkeeping jobs over the years.

Beverly was a trusted, hardworking woman who never imagined the danger she was in.

The Killer: Elaine Parent

The investigation led to Elaine Parent, a 48-year-old con artist and identity thief.

Elaine had a pattern of befriending women, stealing their identities, and manipulating them for financial gain. But with Beverly, Elaine's crimes escalated to murder.

After killing Beverly, Elaine fled to London on July 23, 1990, using a stolen identity. She boarded a flight from Miami to London under the alias "Sylvia," a real person whose identity Elaine had stolen.

Elaine was so brazen that she had stolen multiple identities, including one from a woman named Charlotte, whom she met in an Orlando bar. Elaine used numerology as a ruse to get Charlotte's personal information, writing down her social security number on a cocktail napkin.

The Pursuit

Elaine Parent became one of the most wanted criminals in Florida. Her pattern of identity theft, manipulation, and murder made her extremely dangerous.

The investigation into Elaine's crimes revealed a web of stolen identities, international travel, and a complete disregard for human life.

Beverly McGowan was a quiet, hardworking woman whose trust was betrayed in the most horrific way. She deserved better. Her story is a reminder of the dangers of identity theft and the evil that some people are capable of.

Beverly McGowan

[00:00:00] Hey guys, and welcome to the Moms and Mysteries podcast, a True Crime podcast featuring myself, Mandy, and my dear friend Melissa. Hi, Melissa. Hi, Mandy. How are you? I'm doing fine. How are you, Melissa? I mean, so good. Um, I've enjoyed the last, oh gosh, why does it always go to the weather? I've enjoyed the last, like, coolest days.

It's been so nice. It has been really, really nice. I don't wanna brag because I know. You know, but you know what? Whatever I'm get, I live in Florida. I live in Florida for a reason. And that reason is because we often have very nice weather and that [00:01:00] is one thing that I can say is absolutely true about Florida.

We have wonderful weather. So yeah, it's been, um, really nice here the last few days, like sunny and beautiful. My ideal weather truly, it's been like in the sixties and just breezy and. Wonderful. You just wanna be outside. It's just gorgeous and yeah, everything's outside right now. Yeah. I love everything outside love.

I do. I truly do. Me too. Me too. Yeah, it's been really nice. Uh, my kids have been playing soccer. We started soccer. Yeah. So it's been really nice to have that kind of really nice weather for them in the evenings to go out there, like you said, because come like summertime in like three months, there's not gonna be any enjoyment in being outside.

In the evenings or any other time? Oh no, it's terrible. That's where outside sports are tough. Yeah. When my daughter briefly wanted to play softball, I'm like, really? That's mm-hmm. Outside and that means I have to sit out there. So we'll stick with inside for now. But that's exciting. And you said they have their first game tonight?

They do, yeah. It is really exciting. So they didn't have a game the first two weeks and now they have their [00:02:00] first game tonight. They're really excited. I'm really excited. I. Feel terrible to say this and admit this, but my kids have never really been enrolled in any like organized sport or activity and not because I like wouldn't let them just because.

They never really wanted to or expressed interest. Yeah. Until recently and then I felt bad 'cause I'm like, oh crap. Like I don't know if you can just jump into a sport when you're 14 and 11. I know. And like some of these kids have been, right. Exactly. Yeah. So yeah, I was really thankful to find just like a developmental program that had groups for like all ages.

So it didn't really matter if you had any knowledge of soccer or not. Oh, that's good. Um, so yeah, so it's kind of like starting from. Ground zero. But yeah, they both are enjoying it and hopefully they will be able to move. They would like to like go to the competitive team next year, so I'm like, Hey. Oh, nice.

Have at it. Yeah, like, yeah, get out there and kick ball.

I went to um, my nephew's game a couple weeks ago [00:03:00] and he's like really good. He just is like one of those kids. His dad loves soccer, like everybody in their family loves soccer, so he's just like inclined to it. But man, soccer sometimes. You're like, can someone score one point? Yeah. And you don't want the time you go to the bathroom to be when that one point is made.

So, but it is exciting. It can be really exciting. So it'll be fun. And of course when your kid's playing, it's like always exciting. Of course. Yes. So we'll get into the story this week. I know we talked a little bit off the mics about how we're always saying that some of these stories are. So crazy and the, you know, wildest story we've heard in a while, and maybe it is just a coincidence that we've just had some back to back really, really just stories with wild details in them.

But this is another story that you're just kind of like, what? Like how did this happen? In the time that it happened, and this is like post 2000. So the fact that the story even really happened and has as much to it is kind of mind blowing to me. Yeah, [00:04:00] so identity theft is unfortunately a very common occurrence.

There's millions of cases that are reported each year around the world, and with the modern day move to kind of digitizing all of our personal information, identity theft really has become even more of a significant concern, not just. For US citizens, but also for businesses and governments. It's kind of been drilled into our heads that we need to be taking all these proactive measures to safeguard our personal information, and we need to be regularly monitoring our financial accounts.

It's even like a running joke now that companies are, you know, websites will ask you to create this new and unique, never before used password, basically every other time that you log in. Yeah. Melissa, we go through this nonstop with like some of the things that we have to log into for the podcast and.

We just keep changing these passwords and like adding like new numbers and like new things to them because it's like every single time. But really these things are designed to keep our identities and our personal information safe nowadays. Identity theft mostly is [00:05:00] a virtual thing and we rarely hear about this.

Old fashioned style imposter who you know actually takes on this stolen identity and uses it to wreak havoc around the world. In many cases, the identity being stolen nowadays is that of a minor child, which sad to say, or people who have already passed away, meaning nobody is typically getting physically hurt in the process of having their identity stolen.

But in the story we're talking about this week, victims of identity theft and victims of murder become one and the same. The story began to unfold on July 19th, 1990 when an ordinary fishing trip in St. Lucie County, Florida took a harrowing turn just after 7:00 PM at a canal off of State Road. 68, a man and his 16-year-old niece stumbled upon a scene straight out of a horror movie.

The lifeless body of a young woman was lying face up, sprawled across the edge of the canal with the ankles crossed. The woman's hands and head had been severed and her [00:06:00] abdomen was split open. The body was showing early signs of decomposition, and when this man realized what he was seeing, he pushed his knees out of the way to shield her from having to see such a gruesome image and having that etch into her memory from, yeah, so the two of them left and headed to a nearby frontier food store on Orange Avenue and dialed 9 1 1.

St. Lucie County Sheriff's detectives descended upon the scene and began to piece together what may have happened. The man who had reported the body told officers that he had been to that same spot two nights earlier, and the body wasn't there. Investigators believed that the woman had been killed and dismembered somewhere else, and then callously discarded in the canal, most likely from a vehicle.

The woman was dressed in jeans and a pink flowered shirt, but her identity was a mystery with no head or hands. All that was left on the woman's body was a small yellow rose tattoo on her ankle. [00:07:00] An autopsy concluded that the woman had been killed when her throat was slit, and then the killer cut her head off at the jaw and removed her hands to conceal her identity.

These dismemberments were done in a really crude fashion, basically meaning this person had, it's not like they had a medical bra background or anything to know how to cut something like this up. They believe it was done with a machete and just kind of. Done really erratically in an effort to identify the remains police turn to the public for help.

They revealed that the woman they found was 25 to 35 years old, about five foot five and 150 pounds, and that she had brown hair. They also disclosed that she had a small rose tattoo. The woman from the canal went unidentified until a few days later when a man named Steve contacted police on July 21st to say that he had learned about the discovery of a headless, headless woman found in the canal on July 19th, and he believed it was his [00:08:00] sister Beverly McGowan.

Steve's coworker had actually been the one to see the news report and he told Steve about it. When Steve heard that the body they found had a yellow rose ankle tattoo, he just knew it was Beverly. Steve had actually been trying to find his sister after he and two of Beverly's closest friends received strange handwritten letters from her stating that she was unhappy with her life and that she was going to take a trip.

In 19 90, 30 4-year-old Philadelphia, native Beverly McGowan was living in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. She was working in a number of capacities at a local branch of Glendale Federal Bank. After growing up with two older siblings named Steve and Jane, Beverly was now living a quiet life where she kept to herself and worked so much that those who knew her actually considered her a workaholic.

Since she moved to Fort Lauderdale in 1980, Beverly took a few bookkeeping jobs, but even though she was always a great employee, she just didn't find those jobs very challenging, and she often became very bored at work, [00:09:00] at the bank she was working at. Beverly, was quiet and really kept to herself. She never called in sick or showed up late, and she had only taken two sick days in her entire time working there.

She was the type of person who would take overtime if it was available. It was a huge dream of Beverly's to own her own home, and she worked tirelessly to make that happen for herself. In September of 1989, she bought herself a condo in Pompano Beach and moved in with her two cats named Keaton and Zeba.

I love those names are fun cats. Me? Yeah. She loved taking care of her cats and her house plants and really just living a very quiet life. Even her neighbors said that she was very friendly, but she did keep to herself. Unfortunately, Beverly wasn't able to afford the condo on her own, so she put out some classified listings looking for a roommate.

This ended up being a really frustrating experience because everybody that she moved into the condo ended up not paying their share of the bills, and she had to deal [00:10:00] with finding new roommates multiple times. I personally had been through the experience of looking for roommates to share an apartment with me, and it was.

Probably one of the least enjoyable things I've ever had to do. I was in college and I ended up with a roommate who just had a lot going on. Remember, I've told you a little bit about her story? Yeah, and it did get to a point where I just had to like move out before the lease was over or anything because it was so bad.

So I just feel for Beverly having to go through this over and over again and try to get somebody in there, especially when you're somebody who really just keeps to yourself. Yeah, probably doesn't necessarily want to share your space with someone, so that just sounds like a really frustrating time for her.

By early July, 1990, Beverly was still searching for the perfect roommate, so she placed an ad in the Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel. According to the ad, Beverly was offering to share her two bed, two bath condo, and the ad did state that she had two cats and that the rent was [00:11:00] $290 plus half the utilities.

Several prospective roommates did respond to the ad, but a woman named Alice is the one that stood out to Beverly and they met for the first time around July 13th. Beverly told the people in her life a lot about Alice. She said she was a successful woman in her late thirties or early forties, who was from England.

Alice was very attractive and had nice things. She told Beverly. She worked for IBM and had been transferred to the Fort Lauderdale office. But some potential red flags arose early on when Alice covertly began collecting Beverly's personal information under the guise of numerology. So. You probably know what numerology is, but if you don't, in really the very simplest of terms, it's a study of numbers and how they influence your life.

The belief is that numbers have a far deeper meaning than just their numerical value and that they can offer insight on things like your life purpose and even future events. So Alice said that she was really [00:12:00] into numerology and she asked Beverly to share a few numbers so Alice would be able to tell whether or not they'd be compatible as roommates.

Sounds innocent enough, but Alice didn't even care to see this condo in their first meeting. She was really more concerned with finding out Beverly's numbers to see if the two of them would be a good fit. So Alice asked Beverly for her birthday and social security number in order to confirm this, which Beverly freely provided.

Later when Beverly mentioned that she had done this to her loved ones, they were really taken aback because Beverly had always been the skeptical type and she was very cautious in general. Nobody would ever think she would've shared this kind of personal information with a stranger, and they were rightfully concerned, but I totally get how.

Mm-hmm. That seems so innocent because we're talking about a different thing If, if she just said, what's your social security number? She'd never do it Right. But like this other guys of like, let's see if this will work out for us. I can see how somebody could get taken. Yeah. It makes me think about like some of the phone scams where like [00:13:00] the, the catch is like to initially kind of like catch you off guard.

Like I had gotten one that was like, oh, we, this is a sheriff's deputy, there's a warrant out for your arrest. And I'm like, hold on. What? And then they started asking me for like. More information about myself, like where like to confirm my address and like things like that. And thankfully my husband was nearby and was like.

Uh, who is that? Like, don't give them any information. I was like, you know what, you're so right. But like, it's kind of like that where like they get you Yeah. Thinking about one thing and then you're not thinking clearly about the next few things that they're asking you for. Totally. It's, it's so easy to do.

Like everyone thinks they would never do it, but that's really just not true. Also, her family. Begged Beverly to get a background check on Alice before she actually moved in, but Beverly said no. She said she trusted her gut instinct about people and said she felt really comfortable with Alice moving in.

Meanwhile, Beverly was actually very excited about Alice. On July 16th, she told a coworker that [00:14:00] Alice had called and offered to give her her a free case of vodka. Alice said that IBM was giving it to her, but she didn't drink, so she asked if Beverly would be interested instead. Beverly seemed really happy and upbeat when she talked about Alice, and she genuinely seemed excited to have her as a roommate.

On July 18th, Beverly called in sick to work, which her coworkers thought was possibly due to being hungover. After all, Alice had bought this case of vodka, so they thought. Maybe Beverly indulged a bit too much and needed to rest, but when she didn't show up the following day either her coworkers started to worry and we still have more to get into after.

One quick break to hear word from this week's sponsors. Before the break, we were talking about a young woman named Beverly McGowan, who was living in South Florida, and she had recently purchased herself a condo and was looking for a roommate to share that condo with, and that's when she met a woman named Alice.

And she was very excited for Alice to move in and for the two of [00:15:00] them to. Develop a friendship and to hopefully work really well as roommates. Now, Alice had a little bit of a different way of going about things. She was into numerology and she asked Beverly for a bunch of her personal information so that she could confirm that they would be great together as roommates and.

We were just getting into how Beverly had freely given, um, a lot of this information to Alice and her family was very concerned about it. However, just a few days after this Alice person came into the picture, Beverly called in sick to work and she was never seen again On July 20th, Beverly's sister Jane received a letter in the mail that was postmarked on July 18th and had been sent from Miami.

This letter was from Beverly, and she was explaining that she was just very unhappy with her life and that she was going on a trip, although she didn't say where she was going or who she was planning on traveling with. Keep in mind, this is all happening very soon after she's been telling everyone how [00:16:00] excited she is about this new roommate that she's having.

So to get these letters saying that she's so unhappy with her life, that she's just up and leaving on this Yeah. Trip. Definitely sent, you know, out red flags to her sister Beverly didn't give any specific details and she didn't make any threat or hint at thoughts of self harm, but still, as I said, this letter was very, very strange.

Beverly's brother and two of her close friends also received a handwritten letter from her, and they each had different contents, but all of them said that Beverly was going to be traveling for a while in hopes of getting her life together so that she could be happier when she returned. One letter written to a friend.

Read, hi Mike. I just had to say goodbye to you too. I'm taking off for a while. Do you believe it? But I'll be back. Hope I can track you down. When I do, I'm off to improve me and my life. What else can I tell you? This will make my life ever so much better. I'll try to keep in touch while traveling. 'cause I do want to see you again when I get back.

So for now, adios, [00:17:00] Bev. All of these letters were postmarked from the same day, which was July 18th, and they were all sent from Miami, and all of them appeared to have been written in a hurry. Beverly even used the wrong zip code on the letters, which delayed the delivery of them. In addition to sending letters to her loved ones, the Glendale Federal Bank, where she worked.

Also received a letter from Beverly talking about how she was quitting her job and going on this trip. This is the woman who has only missed two days in the entire time she's worked there. Doesn't call in sick, doesn't, you know, is very professional. Would never leave her job hanging like that, right?

Again, for them to receive a letter like, Hey, I'm quitting, and just leaving. That seemed very, very out of character for Beverly. Her mortgage company got a similar letter alleging that she was selling her condo and giving them permission to just dispose of the contents, which isn't anyone gonna wanna look into that.

That's a little. Well, and for your condo to be like, [00:18:00] I'm, or you know, like your mortgage company, like, I'm leaving. I don't, I mean, she's written letters to family and stuff. Wouldn't you think? She'd say, come get whatever you want. Right. Blah, blah, blah. But to tell your mortgage company, Hey, I'm leaving. Do you want this stuff?

No. Sounds a little odd. Yeah. So it was later learned that someone also requested for Beverly's mail to stop being delivered. After these bizarre letters were received, Beverly's friends and family were very concerned about her. Her brother and sister asked some of Beverly's friends to meet them at her condo so they could all see what was going on.

But when nobody answered the door, the group of Beverly's loved ones decided to break in. They noticed that her work clothes from the day before were strewn on the floor in a trail, which was typical for Beverly. There were also dirty dishes in the sink and a full casserole and a six pack of Pepsi in the fridge.

And this was pretty common for Beverly to have a casserole. She would make one every week, and then she would cut it up and take it with her for work every day. So it didn't really make much [00:19:00] sense why she would've. Made this casserole if she's planning on getting outta dodge and other things around the apartment, pointed to something being wrong as well.

Beverly's cats were nowhere to be found and their food and water dishes were stuffed into the trash can. Their cat carrier was also missing. And several of Beverly's things were missing too. Things like her telephone, her address, book, her camera, some of her clothes and some of her cosmetics. But strangely, her suitcases were all left behind.

There was also a small handgun and some bullets that Beverly had for protection, and they were also found to be missing. Lastly, all of Beverly's personal documents were gone. This included her birth certificate, passport driver's license, bank books, and credit cards. So after discovering all this, Beverly's siblings looked into her bank account and found that all but $5 have been drained from her account over the previous three days.

Jane and Steve, which again are her brother and [00:20:00] sister, had Beverly's credit cards shut off in hopes that it would make Beverly come back or at least reach out to someone so they would know she was okay. Later that same day, Beverly's sister Jane went to the Pompano Beach Police Department and reported her missing.

She gave them a description of Beverly, including that she had two tattoos. One was a yellow rose on her ankle, and the other was Thumper. The little bunny from the movie Bam bait that was on her stomach. Officers released a description and asked other police departments to be on the lookout for her.

While the Pompano Beach Police Department started looking into what was going on in Beverly's life and where she was planning to travel to, they spoke to her friends, family, and employer, and eventually learned about Beverly's new roommate Alice. A closer look into Beverly's finances showed that whoever had her debit card had withdrawn cash from an ATM, but unfortunately that camera at the ATM was not working, so they weren't able to get an image of the person that made that transaction.

It was also revealed that [00:21:00] on the same day, Beverly called into work, which was July 18th, that was just two days earlier, an attractive blonde woman had used Beverly's credit cards to buy clothes at a Ventura mall in Miami. Then on July 20th, the same day that police are actually looking into all of this Beverly's card was used again to reserve a rental car at Heathrow Airport in London.

The woman that used the card was described as having dark eyes, wearing heavy makeup, and she had a slight British accent. She was also wearing an obviously fake dark colored wig. As investigators started to look more into Alice, they realized that Alice had actually just dropped off the face of the earth less than a week after she met Beverly.

Furthermore, IBM had no record of any employees from England even working for them. A search of Beverly's condo turned up, no fingerprints, no hairs or fibers, and everything they did find was confirmed to have belonged to Beverly. But they [00:22:00] did find a pad of paper that had indentations in it from being written on investigators deciphered some of the indentations in the paper, which read.

I decided to turn myself in. You will feel the repercussions. I guarantee it. After your treatment and abandonment of me, I have no remorse in tearing down what in truth I created anyway. You will however, have advanced warning give me back my life. What a cryptic letter. I mean, yeah. And the police reading this have to be like what?

Like what does this mean? Like this is like Yeah. Just so out there on July 21st, Beverly's brother Steve spent six hours driving up and down the parking lot roads of the Miami International Airport looking for Beverly's car, which of course would be there if she had taken off on some trip, but he never found anything there.

Beverly's car, which was a red Volkswagen Fox, actually was discovered later that same day by someone else at the Days Inn that was near the airport. [00:23:00] At around 1130 that night, Steve got a call from a coworker who told him that she had just seen the news report that St. Lucie County police had found the body of a woman in a canal, and that the body had a yellow rose tattoo on her ankle.

And that is when Steve knew that the worst had really happened and that his sister was dead. When officers learned that Beverly could be the unidentified woman from the canal, the medical examiner tried to figure out how to make this comparison. The woman from the canal had been dismembered and her head was cut off at the jaw, but there were still a handful of teeth that remained in the jaw.

These teeth were compared to Beverly's dental records and soon it was concluded that the victim from the canal was in fact, Beverly McGowan. Police determined that Beverly's abdomen had been sliced open to remove that thumper tattoo on her stomach, but the killer either forgot or just didn't know about the rose tattoo on her ankle, which actually became a key clue in identifying her.[00:24:00] 

Police continued to look into Beverly's finances in hopes that something would lead them to the person who killed her. They found out that someone who was described as being an unattractive woman with a Cleopatra style wig, or possibly even a man dressed as a woman, had tried to pick up a rental car in London using Beverly's id.

Beverly's credit card was used to pay for an additional gasoline deposit, but by that time it had been shut off, and when the clerk told the person that this card wasn't working, they ended up paying for the rental car, which was a blue rover in cash. Three days later, a woman called the rental car agency and asked to extend the contract on the Blue Rover.

When the agent asked the woman where she was, the caller was her talking to someone named Sam and asking where they were. Based on this information, investigators thought maybe Sam could be this man dressed as a woman that was trying to get the rental car in London. On July 31st, the rover was found broken down about three miles [00:25:00] from the Heathrow airport, and that's when police lost the trail on their suspect.

Or suspects at this point. It was believed that whoever killed Beverly had also stolen her identity. They took her birth certificate, passport, credit cards, and other documents to use Beverly's identity to flee the country possibly to Britain. St. Lucie Police immediately notified Scotland Yard officials, who began by looking at the surveillance footage from the mall.

They thought the person who used Beverly's credit card was Lori Biac. She also went by Bambi. She was a woman who escaped from a Wisconsin prison just four days before Beverly was found murdered. Lori Binek was a convicted murderer, and we actually covered her case in a two-part series that we called The Murder of Christine Schultz, and that was back in April of 2021.

A really fascinating story with so many details, but St. Lucie police weren't convinced it was her and they would end up being right. Lori's case was [00:26:00] actually featured on America's Most Wanted, which led to her and her fiance being captured in Canada and taken back to Wisconsin. When Lori arrived back in the States, St.

Lucie Police wanted to question her just to rule out the possibility that she could be involved in Beverly's murder, and by October 19th. They did just that. Lori was confirmed to have been in Canada at the time of Beverly's murder, so of course she couldn't be the one behind it. And this means that investigators are back at Square one.

Crime Stoppers ended up offering a $1,000 reward for information in Beverly's murder, but the next several months were incredibly slow and there wasn't a lot of new information uncovered. In April of 1991, investigators in St. Lucie were calling Beverly's murder the most bizarre and mysterious case they had ever handled.

There was no crime scene, no motive, and no weapon, and Beverly's head and hands were never found. Beverly's friends and family told police, they thought her new roommate Alice, was the [00:27:00] killer, and they worried that she would kill again. In May, the story of Beverly's murder was filmed for Unsolved Mysteries and Police announced around that same time that they also believed Alice was in on Beverly's murder.

They specifically thought that Alice was part of a duo, and that whoever this Sam person was also had something to do with it and had been using Beverly's credit cards and Id. One week after filming a task force consisting of three detectives, two state attorneys, an agent from the FDLE and three Pompano Beach detectives was formed to work on the case.

And this was actually the first time St. Lucie police had ever created a task force over one single homicide. But the case was just so out there and so complicated that they really needed a full on team to help solve it. They anticipated that they would get hundreds of tips after the unsolved mystery segment aired, which was scheduled for the fall of that year.

And so this new task force hoped to have 75% of their work done by the time the show [00:28:00] aired. So hopefully when the tips started coming in, it was just a very quick path to being able to solve this crime. When the show did air in November, the public was able to see sketches of the people who had used Beverly's credit card, and over 500 tips came in.

Sadly, none of these tips led to a big break in the case. The unsolved mystery segment was aired again in May of 1992 in hopes that it would generate more tips, but at this point, the case was actually pretty cold and there were no new updates for several years, and we have more to get into after one last break to hear a word from this week's sponsor.

So before the break, we found out that they've convened an entire task force looking for answers into who killed Beverly McGowan. And at this point, police feel like they have a lot of work already figured out. This story is on Unsolved Mysteries and they're hoping to get leads. They're getting leads, but really nothing's come of it just yet.[00:29:00] 

In January of 1996, police working on Beverly's case got a surprising call from the US Department of State. They explained that back on July 23rd, 1990, a flight from Miami to London was carrying a passenger who was actually using an alias. The woman who boarded the plane boarded so under the name of Sylvia, but the real person was at the time, a 48-year-old named Elaine parent.

Of course, this interested the investigators in Florida because they had long suspected that Beverly's killer had fled to London that very day she was killed. A little digging showed that Sylvia was indeed a real person, but they weren't able to track her down. They continued looking into the alias and found out that Sylvia or whoever was using her name flew from London to LA in October of 1990, and then rented a car, but of course she didn't rent the car under the name Sylvia.

For that, she used the name Charlotte. Like Sylvia Charlotte was [00:30:00] a real person, and this time they were able to track her down to find out more about what was going on. What they found out was that Sylvia, AKA, Elaine had actually stolen Charlotte's identity back in the late eighties. So according to Charlotte, she meets Elaine in a bar in Orlando, and at the time she meets Elaine, she has short, straight red hair.

Charlotte tells officers that she herself is kind of a loner, and she was a jeans and t-shirt kind of person, and said that a flashy dresser like Elaine wouldn't normally grab her attention, but for whatever reason, Charlotte became enamored with Elaine. Eventually Elaine started talking about numerology and asked Charlotte for her birthday, and Charlotte doesn't know anything about numerology and although she was normally guarded to who she talked to, she readily turned over her personal information to Elaine during that conversation.

Elaine actually was so brazen. She wrote down Charlotte's important numbers, like her [00:31:00] social security number on a cocktail napkin at the bar. Okay. I feel like I could fall for the numerology thing, but even with that I would be like, don't you have a special like. Numerology notebook or something like, I don't know if I would be okay, like if I saw them writing my information down on a napkin.

Well, at that point, okay, so if you are a very introverted person and you're worried or whatever, I don't know at that point if I would be able to say, Hey, I want that back. Right? Or like, this isn't like, at that point I'm like, well, I've already done this and now I'm screwed, and maybe this'll be fine, and, but like, I would be so embarrassed at that point or like.

I wouldn't know what to do. So Charlotte isn't here from Elaine again for a while after that night. But one day she did get a call from Elaine saying that her brother had her committed to a mental hospital after their aunt passed away and her brother was trying to secure all of their inheritance for himself.

And so. Charlotte has no way of knowing this, but Elaine's an only child, so the whole brother thing, it's a lie [00:32:00] right there. And Elaine kept up the charade with the brother story, and a month later she showed up at Charlotte's house at 3:00 AM and when she shows up, she's wearing a glued on mustache, which she said was her disguise so she could escape from the hospital.

They're like, yeah, there's a lane. Oh, there's a lane with a mustache. That's not gonna work. But Elaine cries and she pleads with Charlotte to give her her birth certificate so she could use it to get an ID and hide from her brother. This is so interesting to me, right? Because again, I might fall for this, right?

I'm like, this person's like crying, telling me they're trying to escape and like they need, their safety is like important or something I'm sure have my birth certificate, but like I know it's wild that she's like outright saying like, give me your birth certificate. Like, and not just like she's given up on trying to be sneaky at this point.

She's like. Just hand over your, like, that's not fair. She had a mustache on so's true. She, she's still being a little sneaky, but you can see how like in that like [00:33:00] adrenaline hearing this story that like, you're like, oh, okay. You know, maybe everybody wouldn't fall for it. But definitely some people I could see accidentally doing that.

So Charlotte eventually gives in, she hands over her birth certificate and weeks later Elaine actually mailed her birth certificate back. As well as an apology for keeping it so long, which is wild. And that was the last time Charlotte ever heard from Elaine. Yeah. That is super crazy. Even for someone who's stealing your identity, like to think that they would mail it back to you like, I'm done with this now.

That's the part where I really like, I don't need your identity anymore. Yeah. Wow. Just absolutely. Just wild. Wild. Yeah. Mm-hmm. So investigators were desperate to find Elaine, but of course she was nowhere to be found. They were still sure that they were on the right track with thinking that Elaine had something to do with Beverly's murder, though, so they continued to look for her.

They found out that Elaine was originally from the Bronx. She was born on August 4th, 1942, and [00:34:00] raised as an only child. In the seventies, she moved to Miami and worked as a real estate agent while simultaneously becoming an expert con artist. Elaine's typical Mo was to befriend someone and then con and steal from them.

She was known to wear disguises, including even dressing like a man sometimes, and she was somewhat of a chameleon who could just change her identity at the drop of a hat. She had a list of aliases that she used, but police weren't able to find all of the people, the real people behind those names, which ended up being pretty concerning because they don't know if these are fake names or if these are real people who right, have potentially been hurt or murdered by Elaine.

It was also learned that Elaine would go to cemeteries and find grave markers for people who are around her own age, and then she would take the steps to steal their identities. She also had no problem stealing identities from people that she met in person while assuming other people's identities. As you would expect, Elaine often committed crimes.[00:35:00] 

Elaine went on the run in 1985 after she became the suspect in the theft of 30 to $40,000 worth of jewelry that was stolen from an elderly woman that she actually knew in Lauderdale by the sea. When that happened, and it came out that they were looking for her in connection with this, she ran away to England and got a job at a telecommunications company, and she started having a relationship with a woman who's only known as a witness X.

From there, she began collecting new identities, and this is around the time that she is thought to have befriended a 39-year-old woman named Sylvia. Less than a year later, Elaine applied for a passport in Sylvia's name and went on to assume Sylvia's identity, which she continued to use for the next five years.

During this time, Elaine continued going back and forth to America, including during 1990 when Beverly was murdered. It is interesting, she kept going back and forth. 'cause I think once you. Got yourself an identity, you'd stay [00:36:00] still for a little bit. Right? But to keep doing that, it seems like you're bringing more suspicion on yourself.

But you see this when, when people get really comfortable in doing these things, and it sounds like she had like no issue stealing identity, so why does she care? She was like, I'll just go back and get a new identity and then no one will find me. You know? It's been working for me all this time. So true. I feel like the more people get away with, like the more brazen they become.

Yeah. Yeah, so people who knew Elaine were able to provide investigators with samples of her handwriting, which they were able to match to the indentations in that notebook they found at Beverly's apartment. This definitely placed Elaine there before Beverly was found dead. So a reminder of what these indentations said, detectives were able to decipher the indentations in the paper, which read, quote, I decide to turn myself in.

You will feel the repercussions. I guarantee it after your treatment and abandonment of me, I have no remorse and tearing down what in truth I created Anyway. You [00:37:00] will however, have advanced warning. And then in all caps, give me back my life. Police were able to determine that this note was written to witness X.

According to unsolved mysteries. Police were also able to connect Elaine to forensic evidence that was found in Beverly's car using that same Sylvia alias. Elaine flew back to London on July 23rd and continued her relationship with Witness X, but that didn't last very long. When things between them ended, Elaine sent Witness XA note written with letters that were cut from a newspaper.

This letter was actually a death threat, and soon after the breakup, Elaine posted a series of personal listings in the Lonely Hearts column where she described herself as a gourmet cook who loved fine wine and quote, the proud owner of a fine collection of copper cookware and quote, I really look for that in a partner.

I mean, it sounds like something that you would put on your love is blind application. Yeah. To be quite honest, it's not great. And then [00:38:00] that would be like the quote that they put on your little slide that, uh, for Instagram whenever they're announcing the show. Absolutely. You'd be like, I have to watch this 'cause I need to know more about this person.

Totally. Okay. We have, love is blind on the brain, clearly. Yes, we do. Mm-hmm. In October of 1990, Elaine flew from London to LA using Sylvia's Alias, and then rented a car under the name Charlotte, but police couldn't verify her whereabouts after that until she resurfaced again in May of 1991 in Miami, she was sat there for driving an overdue rental car with a stolen plate.

And at this time, police were suspicious because she actually had the ID for Elaine, Charlotte and Sylvia on her, which big red flag I would feel like, for sure. Beyond suspicious. There's no reason you would have three people's, no, um, IDs on you. So she was arrested, but that was for failing to return the car.

But she was able to post bond a few days later. So next, Elaine was tracked in Mexico where she was running a restaurant. [00:39:00] Years later, she's back in Florida. This time she's claiming to be from South Africa and saying she has no money in 1992. This is incredibly wild to me. She uses. Another alias to file a civil negligent suit against the state after she slipped and injured herself in a restaurant.

She actually won this lawsuit, but it's unknown exactly how much she was awarded in damages. Um, the police won't really confirm any of this information. Probably a little embarrassing to say, yes, we did pay out. A person with a fake identity, you know? Yeah. I just, yeah, I would love to know how that happened.

I would love to know how that happened. Brazen with a capital beat and be like, absolutely. You know what? I want people to look into my life, look into everything I'm saying, investigate me to make sure I'm telling the truth for this money. That's just like right in their faces though, you know? Just like, here I am with a fake identity and you're like giving me money for this lawsuit.

And I also would be [00:40:00] curious to know like how was she injured? Was she really even that injured? Like what exactly was the details? You know, were the details of that whole thing That's very no telling. Crazy. So in 1994, Elaine was spotted in Nashville working as a clerk at a Sears store, and this was the last time she was seen.

In December of 1999, police announced they thought they had figured out who Beverly's mysterious new roommate named Alice was. They announced that it was actually Elaine parent, who was a longtime con artist that had stolen many identities over the years. They didn't call her a suspect at the time, but they did say that they believed she and another person, possibly named Sam were involved in a news conference.

Police told the public about Elaine and asked for anyone with more information to contact them. They handed out photos and detailed some of her aliases. According to police, Elaine was a white woman five seven and about 140 pounds with blue eyes, [00:41:00] even though the police were sure Elaine was behind Beverly's murder.

Beverly's brother Steve just had such a hard time coming to terms with it, and he really just could not understand why Elaine would want to con Beverly, who lived in this modest $45,000 condo. You know, she didn't drive a fancy car. Her car was only worth about $8,000. She dressed very conservatively. She didn't have a lot of money.

Just doesn't seem like the likely target for a con artist. Yeah. 'cause she didn't have a lot to give. So tons of tips about Elaine started coming in, including some about how she had scammed various people out of money, but unfortunately they really still didn't get any tips that were helpful at actually bringing Elaine in.

So the investigation continued. In 1998, Elaine sent the police in Florida an oil painting of herself again, just really teasing them right in their face and it said, best wishes your [00:42:00] chameleon. Uh, typed on the back. So she sends them an oil painting portrait of herself with a nice little That's wild.

Yeah. That's how BGK got caught. He was like, sent letters years and years later and they're like, great. Now we can identify you. Right. Yeah. So it's wild she did this. Yeah. And, and hearing stuff like this, it reminds me of like. Not even real life, like, more like a CSI type thing that you would see on TV where like the criminal is mailing things to the police.

Mm-hmm. It's wild to think that people actually do that, because like you said, it's almost like you, you, I don't know, you wanna get caught. Do you wanna get caught or is it like you just actually think you're not going to? Yeah, I feel like there's probably a rush from like, you know, staying on the run and everything and then knowing that you're messing with them.

There's gotta be, there has to be a psychological reason there for sure. So in February, 1999, Beverly's murder and information about the search for Elaine were featured on America's Most Wanted and the World's Most Wanted, but there still were not [00:43:00] many updates after that. These segments about Beverly and Elaine were re-air several times.

Police were worried that if they didn't catch up to Elaine soon she would kill again. And they also worried that there was a possibility she could already be responsible for undiscovered murders. One detective had said, you know, the brutality of Beverly's murder, that's not something you see really with someone who's never done anything like that before.

So that really led him to believe that whoever did it was capable of doing it again, or at the very least had done it, you know, before. But also, while they never even found where it happened, that had to be such a horrific scene for it to have taken place for them to never know where it was and to not have found all of her remains.

You know, they never did find the dismembered remains. So that's another thing. It's like, what did Elaine do with these things and that the police were never able to find them. Mind blowing. Yeah. On April 6th, 2002, at about 9:00 PM Eastern Standard [00:44:00] Time, America's Most Wanted aired another segment on Beverly's murder and the search free lane.

About one hour later, Panama City Police were notified by America's Most Wanted that a tip had come in, that Elaine was living near St. Andrews Bay, which was an affluent, historic neighborhood. Authorities went to the house with a plan to say that they had received a nine one one call from the address and wanted to make sure everything was okay.

A woman wearing silky beige pajamas came out and handed officers a military ID in the name of Darlene. And this picture showed a woman with bleach, blonde hair, and thick glasses, nothing like this woman that answered the door and the pictures of Elaine that they had downloaded from the internet. They actually thought they had the wrong woman at first, but they asked to speak with her anyway.

The woman agreed to talk to officers, but she said she needed to change into something more suitable, so she goes into her bedroom and she never comes back out. When officers knocked on the door, they heard [00:45:00] a gunshot from the other side. The woman had shot herself in the chest and died before detectives could ask her any questions.

The woman was later identified as a LA parent through her fingerprints. She had been renting a room in the house since August. At this time, police realized they had actually questioned Elaine before over a year earlier, based on a tip they'd gotten after an earlier airing of the America's Most wanted segment officers had actually found her with an elderly man leaving a restaurant, but they let her go because she looked nothing like the TV photo.

Wow. I mean truly a chameleon if if officers like even the last time, they're like, I don't, I don't even think it's her. This isn't her. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's wild. Police comb through all of Elaine's belongings just trying to find any evidence that would link her to Beverly's murder or to any other crimes.

They found books about applying stage makeup and books about learning French as well as a notebook with information including [00:46:00] social security numbers and credit card numbers that belong to a man that lived nearby. They also found a male disguise in her room, interestingly. Interestingly, Elaine had a, a fake FBI most wanted poster, which she had made herself and printed out, and it did have her legitimate passport photo on it, but it had the name Antonia Rise Ormond.

And it said that she was wanted for murdering a government official in a Washington DC hotel room. So this is all just like a fake wanted poster with like a fake crime and a fake name. And, but her photo, so weird. So weird. And like, I can't think of any reason. I mean, you kind of say Here why? But it doesn't make sense to me.

Yeah. So the police. Later told the media that they felt that she had just made all this up and was just using this as an intimidation factor on someone else. Like she was like, Hey, look, see, here's my most wanted poster. So, you know, then I carry it around [00:47:00] with me, right? So, you know, I'm not lying about this.

'cause here's the thing, I don't know. I don't know. To me it doesn't. I, I don't know. It's a weird, like, unless you were threatening somebody and you were like, look, I've done it before. I'll do it again. Right? Yeah. Kind of thing. Yeah. Super strange. So, either way, at this point, the police were convinced that Elaine had been the one to murder.

Beverly. They also thought it was possible that there was no second person and that she never had an accomplice since she was known to dress as a man on occasion. So that could explain why some of the descriptions of people who were using, you know, these stolen credit cards. Kind of like they said, it looked like either somebody wearing right, a disguise or, you know, she was definitely dressed, uh, in a way that was confusing.

So unfortunately since Elaine did complete suicide, she was never able to be held accountable for Beverly's murder or for any of her past crimes. And it remains unknown to this day whether or not she had any other victims. And that is probably this. [00:48:00] Like most unsettling thing about this story. Yeah, there's a lot, you know, here.

It's absolutely just horrific what happened to Beverly. I feel so bad for her family. I did watch a little documentary where, uh, her brother was, you know, talking and just really, really awful and sad to just, like he said, there was, you know, you wish so much that the families could have answers, but like in this case, he was saying like, why, like, why my sister, she didn't have anything like what was right.

You know, why did. Why was she targeted and some of the people that she had scammed were alive. So then why, why? Why did it happen this way this time? Right. And did it happen to other people this way? Just the fact that she was like easily using different aliases on her trip across America. Wild. Yeah. Like she had to be getting these from somewhere and Yeah.

It's, oh, it's like haunting really, that it's really able to do all this. Yeah. And who knows what else she did. We have no idea. Yeah, [00:49:00] that's true. Wow. What a story, Melissa. Yeah. That was the story for this week. Um, we can turn the page and chat about Love is Blind just for a minute. I feel like I just don't have that much to say.

This week I was very upset because. What I really wanna see apparently isn't coming out until next week. So, two thumbs down. Well, true. I know exactly what scene you're talking about, but I still thought we got a pretty good, uh, we did, yeah. A pretty good one. So I would say, uh, just going through the couples that are engaged, Johnny and Amy.

Fine. They're, they're gonna figure the stuff out, right? Fine. Yeah, they're fine. I think they're just fine. We got to see during these episodes, the meeting of the families, and I really did think that his family was really cool and sweet, and they seemed to think that she was a good person for him. And I felt like just watching them all interacting, like it looked like they seemed comfortable, like they seemed like they.

Belong together. Yeah. So I feel like, I think they'll be able to figure things out. They're fine. But like, you know, we've said in the past like, they're boring in like in the best way. Right in in good way. Like, you're boring, [00:50:00] you're too boring to be on this like drama show. Right. Let's, we'll go up in less boringness, um, clay and ad still, I think we're not sure about them.

I think we're gonna end up really liking Clay by the end. I feel like it's turning a little bit, we're still seeing some not so great things about him, but I feel like by the end we'll be like, oh. That can't be the same person it was or whatever. I feel like we're getting that kind of an edit. 'cause I like him more than I did in the beginning.

I do too. Yeah, I do too. I think he actually like legitimately is wanting to get something out of the love is blind experience, which I don't always feel that everybody who goes on the show wants to do it for like. The actual reason behind the show. Sometimes I feel like you very clearly can tell these people just want like the notoriety and like the attention from being on TV and it'll boost their social media following.

But like I don't get that necessarily from him. I feel like he actually does wanna try and take it seriously and you can kind of like see him working through some of his own like personal demons and things that, you know, he's concerned about. So [00:51:00] I. I'm still not sure about them as a couple is what I mean, because I just, I don't know.

Yeah. And I'm also kind of starting to see a side of AD that I don't know that I love. I feel like she gets the ick really easily. Yeah. Well, out of all these men, they should be getting the I quite a bit. That's true. Let's, speaking of ick, let's go to, uh, Jimmy and Chelsea. Um, this is Megan Fox and, uh, Jimmy.

Um, they had a pretty gross fight, which I feel like. She needs, she needs that drama in her life. She needs to push somebody. Course. Sure. Do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me? I don't like how you're showing me you love me. Do you love me? Do you love me? Right. We're fighting and let's make up.

That's what she's doing. Yes. Yes. But the makeup has to include a lot of like fawning over her and apologizing. That's exhausting many times. Yes, I agree. Um, I don't think he's anything special, but I he's not, but then you could call it quits. They need to call it maybe with [00:52:00] other people too, just right across the board.

Just, just, you know, give it a break. Um, okay. We have two more couples. The next one I'm so sad about, but then the more I thought about it, the less sad I was, the more irritated I was. Kenneth and Brittany. I'm very sad that we will not be seeing them go down the aisle. I know and did Okay, here's what I was saying.

I didn't realize it was a breakup when it was happening. I felt like episode, episode of it was like the weirdest breakup ever. Right? Like, and that kind of made me lose a little bit of respect for him because I was like, okay, so hold on. She literally was just sitting there telling him like what she needs and like what things, like, you know what she's feeling and like this is what she needs out of everything.

It wasn't Chelsea saying it and he was like. Okay. We don't see eye to eye. We're like, this is over. Like, I was like, what is happening? What just happened? It was, if you watch, uh, parks and Recreation, there's an episode where Anne is broken up with by this guy Chris, but she doesn't realize it 'cause she's never been broken up with before.

And she just is like, then like [00:53:00] listening to all the things. She's like, oh, oh, I was broken up with, she didn't realize. That's how I felt watching this. Like I'm like, why would you break up with her with this conversation? The conversation was like, I need more affection, right? Is that something you can give me?

And he's like, Nope. Sorry, Tooles. See you later. Gimme a hug. So there's no hate. I'm like, what are talking about? It was so weird. Know it was weird. And like, honestly, I think Brittany is just so sweet and like she is gonna be a sweetheart of a wife. Yeah, one day and like I, I, I'm sure she will find somebody who will be like, more than happy to be in that relationship with her.

I just like, I'm sad that it wasn't. I felt duped by him. Love is blind. Yeah, me too. You know, because it just seemed to change for sure. Um, when he got back. Yeah. And like, and that's fine also, you know, like, I'm not saying totally. Of course it's fine. Like they don't barely even know each other. It wouldn't be that weird to decide like two weeks in that like, you may not, you know, be into this person like you thought you were and that's fine, but like Totally, I just didn't appreciate the way he was going about everything and like his.[00:54:00] 

Head and his phone like the entire time and like mm-hmm. It was just not nice, you know, like even he was, even if he doesn't wanna continue, like he didn't have to like treat her like that. Yeah. I felt like that was a little bit mean. It felt like he was waiting for something for her to say something to be like, Hmm, I don't wanna do this.

Like he, he was just, he had to wait for her to do it. So then he's not the bad guy 'cause she's the one that brought it up kind of thing. Yeah. Okay. Last one. The most drama was the end of the episode with Jeremy j and Laura. Do you remember? I do remember. Oh, yes, I remember. Yes, I remember. Because he went off and met up with his other potential match from the pods, Sarah Ann, and met up with a group, but she happens to be there.

Happened to be there. Yeah. And then didn't go back home to his apartment with Laura instead, stayed out until 5:00 AM. Where we don't know for sure. 'cause he didn't tell us the truth. [00:55:00] He didn't. But Laura did. I'm not her biggest fan, but she did a great job of being like, she did keep talking, keep talking.

Mm-hmm. Keep talking. Mm-hmm. And then everything he said, he is like, I shared my location with you, so why would you, I, of course I'm innocent. I didn't do anything. And then come to find out, the internet has decided that he probably had his Apple watch on and leaves his phone in his car where he said he was.

But his Apple watch tracks him. To where Sarah Ann's house is. So big dummy on that one. But I just love watching Laura just like keep letting him go. Yeah. And then saying actually this. And then Mandy, you sent me something that you found on Reddit, maybe, I don't know. Uh, no him. This is from The Love Is Blind Season six discussion group on Facebook, this massive group, and.

I don't know. 'cause now, right before we started recording, I saw an update from him that he posted on Instagram in response to this. But anyway, I had seen this thing I sent to Melissa that he was engaged and living with like this other woman just who had a kid weeks [00:56:00] before, like the show Love Is Blind started.

Um, and so, yeah, and she had a kid, not his kid, but she had a kid. But the person who posted it was like allegedly like the. Ex-girlfriend's mom, like she was in the group saying like, oh, he, this is my daughter and son. And it was a picture with Jeremy in it. Yeah. And they were like a couple allegedly. Well, I saw on Instagram right before we started recording this, that Jeremy responded to these allegations and accusations and he claims.

That it was no secret that he had been previously engaged and like that relationship had recently broken off. He says that like everyone on the show, the producers, all the fellow contestants, like everyone knew about that. He doesn't know why like it, nothing about it was edited into the show and so it didn't look like that was the case.

I don't know, maybe that's the truth. I really don't know. Could be. He claims that he had like, wasn't living with her when the show was filmed. He also said that he did not. Go on, uh, go Looking to be on Love is Blind. They actually approached him. He sent a [00:57:00] screenshot of a DM from Instagram where they were like a producer had DMD him and said like, we're filming like this week.

Like, do you want to be on the show? Like they gave him like about zero notice and he was like, yeah, sure. Apparently he was like newly single. So I don't know. I wanna reserve my judgment until I know a little more about that situation. It does seem a little weird. Well, I'd to judge. I know. I love.