More than forty years after twenty-three-year-old Rose Marie Gayhart went missing in Lee County, Cape Coral police have released new information related to her disappearance.
In 1985, Gayhart was reported missing by her parents who lived in Dansville, New York. She was last known to be living and working in the Cape Coral/North Ft Myers area at that time.
In May of 2024, human remains were discovered by kayakers in a canal in northeast Cape Coral.
In May of 2026, the Cape Coral Police Department Violent Crimes Unit received confirmation that the remains belonged to Gayhart. The identification was confirmed with the assistance of the District 21 Medical Examiner’s Office.
Her death remains an open homicide investigation.
The Livingston County Sheriff’s Office in New York played an integral role and secured the familial DNA used to confirm the identity of the remains.
The area where the remains were located was excavated with the assistance of the Cape Coral Department of Public Works, Lee County Sheriff’s Office, Broward County Sheriff’s Office, and the District 21 Medical Examiner’s Office.
“For more than forty years, Rose Marie Gayhart’s family has carried the weight of not knowing what happened to her. While this identification brings long-awaited answers, it also strengthens our resolve. No matter how much time passes, even after four decades, our investigations do not stop, and our pursuit of justice does not end," Cape Coral Police Chief Anthony Sizemore said. "This is now considered an active homicide investigation, and we are committed to following every lead. We are deeply grateful to our law enforcement partners and the Medical Examiner’s Office for helping us reach this point, and we ask anyone with information to come forward so we can help bring accountability and closure to this case and to the family.”
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