The Sumter County Sheriff's Office has finally identified Little Miss Lake Panasoffkee, the young woman whose body was found, with a belt around her neck, floating under an Interstate 75 bridge in February 1971.
Officials say her estranged husband, who died in 2015, is "a person of interest" but said there isn’t enough evidence to label him a “suspect.”
Sheriff Patrick Breeden announced the findings at a press conference Wednesday.
“This case has been a mystery in Sumter County for almost 55 years,” he said. “Today, Little Miss Lake Panasoffkee finally has a name. She has been identified as Maureen L. Minor Rowan, also known to her friends and family as Cookie.”
She was a 21-year-old mother of two young children. She was born in Maine but lived in Tampa and was estranged from her husband, Charles Emery Rowan Sr.
The Sheriff's Office had worked through the years, using poor-quality fingerprints and genetic information, which may have been corrupted by the embalming process. But generations of detectives could not identify her or even begin to find her killer.
That's until Oct. 1 of his year, when the department's new latent prints examiner used their new IDEMIA Storm fingerprint system and got a match.
It was from a 1970 arrest in Hillsborough County for worthless checks that hadn't been added to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s fingerprint database until 2013.
Breeden said the case is “a powerful reminder of why we never give up. To Cookie's family, Cookie has never been forgotten. I hope this gets you closer to finding the closure you need and helps provide some answers that you never had.”
In a statement released by the Sheriff’s Office, Rowan's family thanked the agency, saying "our family can begin to heal."
The investigation into Cookie Rowan’s death is ongoing. The Sheriff’s Office is asking anyone with information to contact them through a tip line by calling (352) 569-1915, by email at sumtertips@sumtercountysheriff.org or, to remain anonymous, through their crimeline at (800)-423-TIPS (8477).
Timeline
The Sheriff’s Office provided a timeline of their investigation, presented here with only minor edits:
1971 – Initial discovery and investigation
February 19, 1971: Unidentified remains discovered near Lake Panasoffkee, Florida.
Immediate actions:
- Forensic Autopsy
- Fliers with composite sketches created and distributed nationwide
- Letters sent to all U.S. sheriff’s offices seeking identification of the victim
The initial investigation was limited by forensic technology available at the time.
1986 – Exhumation and new forensic techniques
Remains were exhumed to leverage advances in forensic science.
Forensic efforts include:
- Forensic anthropology (skeletal analysis for age, stature, ancestry, trauma)
- Dental comparison
- Facial reconstruction
- Early DNA testing
1992 – “Little Miss Lake Panasoffkee” case aired on Unsolved Mysteries (10/14/92)
2006 – Fingerprints for unidentified body sent to FBI
The victim’s fingerprints were sent to the FBI in attempt to identify the victim by comparing the fingerprints to the national database.
2013 – Fingerprints for victim sent to FBI from previous arrest
We now know that the victim’s fingerprints from an arrest in 1970 were uploaded by Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office and sent to the FBI. This was unknown and only discovered after her identification was made using IDEMIA’s Storm ABIS.
2018 to current date – continued efforts to identify the victim
- After genealogy was used to identify the Golden State Killer in California, attempts to create a genealogy profile through DNA were made.
- Numerous labs with various capabilities were consulted to no avail.
- Latent fingerprint analysis greatly improved with automated systems and high-resolution techniques.
- More detailed analysis of victim’s medical history and physical characteristics to aid in identification.
February 2025 – STORM Fingerprint System went live and operational
Sumter County Sheriff’s Office acquired Storm ABIS (Automated Biometric Identification System), a system owned by IDEMIA to provide enhanced fingerprint identification and analysis to law enforcement agencies.
October 2025
- Detectives had a persistent instinct to further pursue latent print examination.
- Detectives collaborated with the Sheriff’s Office’s new latent print examiner and discussed comparisons for the prints.
- Latent print examiner submitted prints through IDEMIA Storm System, which resulted in a positive identification of the victim as Maureen L. Minor Rowan (“Cookie”) (DOB: 3/21/49).
- Once the positive identification was made, it was confirmed that Maureen Minor Rowan (“Cookie”) had never been reported to law enforcement as a missing person.
