Cold case detectives ask for help identifying woman found in Palm Beach County canal in 1980

More than 40 years after an unidentified woman was found dead in the Hillsboro Canal in southern Palm Beach County, cold case detectives are still trying to find out who she is.

The Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office says the woman was a murder victim and had been floating in the canal near the Loxahatchee Refuge west of U.S. 441 for several days before she was found on June 23, 1980. Decomposition made her unidentifiable when police found her, according to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System.

An artist’s rendering of a woman found dead in the Hillsboro Canal in June 1980. The victim’s body had decomposed for several days before police found her, making her unrecognizable. (Courtesy of the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System)

The Sheriff’s Office says the victim was a young Hispanic woman between the ages of 19 to mid-20s, a little over 5 feet tall and about 120 pounds.

On Tuesday, PBSO detectives re-released a composite image showing what she might have looked like at the time of her death.

The Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office is asking anyone with information to contact Detective John Cogburn at 561-688-4063 or cogburnj@pbso.org.