TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) – Authorities have identified a transgender woman who was found dead alongside a Florida highway more than 30 years ago.
Pamela Lee Walton’s body was found on September 25, 1988, about 30 feet from 474 County Road, Clermont, according to the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.
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In 2015, DNA testing revealed that the body belongs to the person assigned a man at birth. There was evidence that the bodies found along the highway were wearing skirts, had breast augmentation operative rooms and could have been taking female hormone replacement therapy.
The prosecutor’s office helped the DNA Jane Doe Project identify a woman decades after her death. With the help of genealogists, the sheriff’s office contacted relatives who may have submitted their own DNA for the test.
They learn that Walton was born as a man in Kentucky and was set up for adoption. She changed her name to Pamela Lee Walton as an adult.
The Sheriff’s Office said it is unclear how Walton ended in Florida.
Her body was abandoned in a heavily wooded area in the countryside for up to a month after her death. The Sheriff’s Office is still working to determine her cause of death.
