A murder case in the Keys has been solved 29 years later. No charges will be filed.

Florida Keys police said Monday they have solved a 1991 murder case that until now had an unidentified victim known only as Jane Doe.

But the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office says no suspects have been charged in the rape and strangling of 18-year-old Wanda Deann Kirkum, of Hornell, New York.

The killer, Robert Lynn Bradley, 31, has been dead for years. He was killed in Tarrant County, Texas, in April 1992.

Kirkum was never officially reported missing to police, said sheriff’s office spokesman Adam Linhardt, and her parents are dead.

The teen was last seen hitchhiking at 6:30 p.m. on Valentine’s Day 1991 at mile marker 17. Witnesses also saw her hitchhiking earlier at mile marker 15 and mile marker 10 on Big Coppitt Key.

The next day, windsurfers found her body off a dirt road that leads to an area known to locals as the “Horseshoe,” east of Big Pine Key, and west of Bahia Honda Key near mile marker 35.

Kirkum was wearing only a bikini top. Her clothes were nearby.

She had been beaten, raped and strangled, police determined.

The case drew national attention and was featured on the TV show “Unsolved Mysteries.” But police got nowhere when it came to finding a suspect despite “countless hours” poured into the investigation over 29 years, Linhardt said.

“Now, with the victim and suspect identities known, the Monroe Sheriff’s Office is formally considering the ‘Valentine Jane Doe Homicide’ resolved and closed,” Linhardt said.

Sheriff’s Office Major Crimes Unit Detective Vince Weiner and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement worked together using new advanced DNA technology to identify the victim as well as the suspect, Linhardt said.

DNA was collected from the 1991 crime scene in the Keys.

That DNA, as well as DNA from his own homicide scene in Texas, were recently compared at the FDLE crime lab, and police determined them a match for Bradley.

The Texas investigation included evidence that suggested Bradley had lived in Miami in late November 1990.

“I would like to personally thank Major Crimes Unit Detective Vince Weiner and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for their efforts in solving this very serious and tragic crime,” Monroe Sheriff Rick Ramsay said.

Ramsay said, “This case is a testament and shining example of this agency’s commitment to solving crime no matter how old the case and no matter the challenges.”

This story was originally published June 15, 2020 at 5:40 PM.

Gwen Filosa

Miami Herald

Gwen Filosa covers Key West and the Lower Florida Keys for FLKeysNews.com and the Miami Herald and lives in Key West. She was part of the staff at the New Orleans Times-Picayune that in 2005 won two Pulitzer Prizes for coverage of Hurricane Katrina. She graduated from Indiana University.