BROWARD COUNTY, Fla. — More than four decades after a Decatur woman vanished, her family knows what happened to her.
In May 1983, Sheila Ann Nichols disappeared. In September of the same year, a truck driver in Broward County, Florida found a skeleton in the Everglades on the side of Hwy. 27.
It would take until 43 years later for those remains to be identified as Nichols.
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Investigators spent years looking for a killer, searching for tips and sharing a model that was created of what she could have looked like to identify, but they were unsuccessful and the case went cold.
Eventually, DNA testing from a grant from the Missing and Unidentified Human Remains Program administered through the U.S. Department of Justice helped investigators Nichols’ father as a potential match.
They have since been able to confirm the remains found in 1983 belong to Nichols, but they have not caught her killer.
“It’s unspeakable how somebody could dispose of this young lady with such disregard,” BSO Cold Case Homicide Unit Detective Andrew Gianino said. “It’s just heart-wrenching.”
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Details on how she died have not been released.
Around the same time as her disappearance, her sister, Virginia Gail Nichols, also vanished. Investigators were able to located Virginia Gail Nichols alive and well and help reunite her with her family.
Investigators hope that sharing her name and photo will help lead to someone who knows what happened to her in south Florida or Decatur to come forward.
Anyone with information that could assist investigators should called Crime Stoppers at 954-493-8477.
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