Nearly 25 years after the body of a woman who'd been brutally raped and murdered was found in a grassy area of southwest Broward, authorities have discovered her identity and believe they're close to solving the mystery of what happened to her.
The gruesome discovery was made in December 1998, when a boater on a weekend outing found the body dumped near a boat ramp off U.S. 27, Broward Sheriff's Office officials said in a news release Thursday.
Her cause of death was determined to be strangulation.
Despite an investigation, the woman's identity remained a mystery for more than two decades and she was known only as Jane Doe.
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But Broward Sheriff's Office cold case homicide detectives went to work and using DNA analysis and other methods discovered Jane Doe was Eileen Truppner, a mother of two who'd left her native Puerto Rico and moved to South Florida.
Using the DNA, detectives found Truppner's family. Det. Zack Scott had to break the news to her sister, Nancy Truppner.
"The upside is you're able to give them some answers. The downside is you have to tell them 'listen, she was the victim of a murder,'" Scott said. "It's certainly not the outcome that they wanted."
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Nancy Truppner said she lived in anguish for years not knowing what happened to her sister.
"I said, 'Did you find her?' because I didn't know that she was dead, I thought she was alive, I was happy. But when he started talking and said what happened to her, the story changes," Nancy Truppner said. "The way she died, when she was a kind person. She was so good, and she died the way she died. She did not deserve that."
Scott said now detectives are working to figure out who killed Eileen Truppner. He said they have good leads and a potential suspect, but are still trying to connect some dots.
He wants to speak with anyone who knew or crossed paths with Eileen Truppner between August 1998 and when her murder occurred in December 1998.
"What we're missing are small pieces of the puzzle as far as the timeline is concerned," Scott said.
A reward of up to $5,000 is being offered in the case. Anyone who might have information is asked to contact Scott at 954-321-4214.
