Her Name Is Laura

Laura left no goodbye. She left no trace — seemingly vanishing into thin air in America’s oldest city. What she left behind is a case full of unanswered questions and a family still waiting for someone to ask them out loud.

Laura Lynn Bryant was 44 years old at the time of her disappearance, listed as September 19, 2022 by both The Charley Project and NamUs while the SJSO has consistently referenced December 2022. She was 5 feet 4 inches tall, weighed 100 pounds, had brown hair and green eyes. By all accounts, she was well-liked with a close circle of friends and family. Beth Elrod, her sister, described her as having a “very bubbly, very shiny personality, was always just happy.”

The Disappearance

Mentioned above, the dates vary across sources complicating the case. There is a discrepancy of roughly three months. This discrepancy has of yet not been publicly addressed. She vanished sometime between September and December 2022.

Laura was living in St. Augustine, Florida at the time of her disappearance with a friend. The friend died (presently unidentified and cause of death unknown) around the time of Laura’s disappearance. Per Beth Elrod, the friend’s death — most particularly the funeral — was what triggered the family’s alarm as Laura didn’t show for the funeral.

The Discovery

Crescent Beach, April 10, 1985. Construction workers building a new beach walkover discovered human remains buried in a shallow grave. The victim, buried for years, was a white female estimated to have been between 30 and 50 years old at the time of death. Her death was ruled a homicide. For almost 40 years she was just one among many Jane Does.

The Face Without a Name

In 2011, the victim’s skull and mandible were sent to the Florida Institute for Forensic Anthropology and Applied Science at the University of South Florida. There, forensic experts were able to produce a facial reconstruction. While new leads are said to have surfaced, she would not get her name back for another 13 years.

In 2022, SJSO detectives attended training on cold case homicides in which forensic genetic genealogy was presented. They brought their newfound knowledge back to the Major Crimes Unit (MCU) and, after consulting with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), submitted portions of the remains to Othram, a Texas-based laboratory specializing in advanced DNA techniques. The lab was able to successfully extract a viable DNA profile. This sample was then processed against the consumer-facing genealogy databases, the results of which identified potential relatives.