Rachel Karin Hurley Murder Timeline

October 14, 1975

• Rachel Karin Hurley was born in Englewood, New Jersey. She was the daughter of Dan and Andrea Hurley and had an older sister, Erika. Source

1984

• Dan and Andrea Hurley moved with their daughters, Erika and Rachel, to Jupiter, Florida. Dan joined the English Department at Forest Hill High School and also coached student athletics. Source

1989-1990 School Year

• Rachel was an eighth-grade student at Jupiter Middle School. People who knew her described her as fiercely independent and a leader among her friends. Rachel loved softball and the beach and was approaching the transition to high school. Source

Earlier in the Day

• Rachel spent the day with four friends, two girls and two boys, in the Jupiter Inlet area. The group went out on a boat despite windy weather. The conditions reportedly meant fewer people were on the beach than might ordinarily be expected on a Saturday. Source
• Rachel had plans later that afternoon with her mother, Andrea. They were supposed to go door-to-door selling tickets for a pancake breakfast fundraiser connected with Rachel’s middle-school softball program. Source

2:45 p.m.

• While still with her friends, Rachel realized how late it was and became concerned because she was supposed to meet Andrea at approximately 3:00 p.m. at Carlin Park, roughly a mile south of DuBois Park. Source
• The group returned to shore and docked at DuBois Park. Rachel and her two female friends, Erin and Maddie, began heading toward Carlin Park. Source
• Erin and Maddie stopped to use a restroom. Rachel, already worried about being late, did not wait. She ran ahead alone toward Carlin Park. Source
• This became the last confirmed sighting of Rachel alive by her friends. She had approximately a mile to travel before reaching the location where Andrea was waiting. Source

3:00 p.m.

• Andrea Hurley was waiting near Carlin Park, but Rachel did not arrive. Because Rachel was normally dependable, especially with softball commitments, Andrea became increasingly concerned. Source
• Andrea initially considered whether there had been a misunderstanding about the pickup location. She searched the area and eventually encountered Erin and Maddie. Source
• The girls told Andrea that Rachel was not with them. They said Rachel had left them roughly half an hour earlier to meet her mother at Carlin Park. Source
• Andrea then returned to the Hurley family’s Jupiter home in case Rachel had obtained another ride and gone home. Rachel was not there. Source
• Andrea returned to the park. Rachel’s family, friends, and other community members began retracing her route and searching for her. Source

5:00 p.m.

• After Rachel had been missing for approximately two hours, the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office was notified. A major law-enforcement search began. Source
• More than 100 law-enforcement personnel ultimately participated. The search included officers on foot, eight mounted deputies, three K-9 units, two boats and a helicopter, along with Rachel’s family, friends and civilian volunteers. Source
• Personnel from the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office and Jupiter Police Department searched the beach, parking areas, nearby parks and the thick wooded vegetation running alongside the shoreline. Source
• Searchers faced an especially difficult environment. The vegetation was dense, and portions of the wooded area contained evidence of transient camps. Investigators therefore encountered large amounts of unrelated debris while trying to identify potential evidence. Source

8:15 p.m.

• A civilian volunteer searching the wooded area discovered Rachel’s body in dense vegetation in Carlin Park, just east of a path leading south from DuBois Park. The location was close to the route Rachel could have used while hurrying toward her mother. Source
• The volunteer who found Rachel reportedly had a daughter who knew her. Rachel was partially unclothed and had visible injuries. The man covered her while waiting for law enforcement to arrive. Source
• Investigators secured the wooded area and began processing it as a homicide scene. Source

March 17, 1990

• Investigators searched the vegetation surrounding Rachel’s body for clothing, hairs, and other potential physical evidence. A hairbrush containing hair similar in color to Rachel’s was among the items located in the area. Numerous discarded cigarette butts were also present. Source
• Investigators initially considered the cigarette butts potentially significant. However, the man who discovered Rachel acknowledged that he had smoked repeatedly while waiting for authorities after finding her, complicating the evidentiary value of cigarettes at the scene. Source
• Rachel’s autopsy determined that she had been sexually assaulted and killed by asphyxiation. Later accounts have described the killing as strangulation or smothering. Investigators have continued to describe physical evidence from the assault as important to the cold-case investigation. Source

March 18, 1990

• 7:00 a.m. State Attorney’s Office investigator Mike Waites arrived at Carlin Park. The crime-scene expert was waiting for him, and deputies had remained at the scene throughout the night. Rachel’s body had already been removed. Waites and investigators began examining the scene piece by piece and collecting anything that might potentially be related to the homicide. Source
• Mike Waites and Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office Detective Robert Weakley became the first detectives assigned to Rachel’s murder investigation. Source
• Law enforcement continued searching an approximately eight-mile area surrounding the crime scene and Rachel’s route in an effort to locate additional evidence and identify witnesses. Source
• Detectives began interviewing Rachel’s friends and others who had been around DuBois Park, Jupiter Inlet, and Carlin Park on March 17. The friends who had been boating with Rachel cooperated with investigators and later provided DNA samples that helped eliminate them as suspects. Source

March 19, 1990

• Investigators learned that at least one teenager had noticed a shirtless man wearing jeans and construction-style boots in the area. The witness also recalled what appeared to be scratches on the man’s chest. Source
• Another person in the area reportedly described seeing someone generally consistent with that description. Investigators were never able to establish publicly that the sightings involved the same man or that the unidentified man was connected to Rachel’s murder. Source
• Investigators described the unidentified man as being in his mid-30s, approximately 6 feet 2 inches to 6 feet 5 inches tall, 140 to 160 pounds, with a thin or “wiry” build, prominent cheekbones, dirty blond shoulder-length hair and a beard. He was reportedly shirtless and wearing blue jeans and construction boots.
• Because a baseball game had been taking place nearby, investigators sought home-video recordings made by parents with camcorders. Authorities hoped footage might have captured Rachel, an unidentified person, or activity near the wooded area. Recordings were turned over, but investigators found no footage that advanced the case. Source
• Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Lt. Pat McCutcheon said investigators wanted to question other transients who had been staying in the area to determine whether they had seen the man. Deputies reported that the transients who had been living there had disappeared by Monday. Source
• Investigators continued searching the Carlin Park woods for physical evidence. Sgt. William Hess was among the investigators combing the area for clues on March 19.
• Authorities released a composite sketch of the unidentified man to the public as investigators attempted to identify and locate him. Source
• The investigation established a more precise description of where the body was found. Rachel’s body had been discovered at 8:15 p.m. on March 17 in a clearing surrounded by thick underbrush, just east of a path leading south from the beach toward Carlin Park’s north parking lot. Source
• The medical examiner’s preliminary findings determined that Rachel died from asphyxiation. Authorities also reported that she had been sexually assaulted.
• Investigators continued treating the unidentified transient as a significant suspect while searching the wooded area, interviewing witnesses and attempting to identify people who had been living in the transient camps surrounding Carlin Park. Source

March 21, 1990

• Rachel’s funeral service was scheduled for 11:00 a.m. Wednesday at the First Church of Christ, 1475 Indian Creek Parkway. Visitation was scheduled at Aycock Funeral Home, 1112 Military Trail, from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. and 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. Source
• Unidentified Transient Suspect: The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office conducted a large-scale manhunt along approximately eight miles of coastline and wooded areas, searching from the northern Palm Beach County line south to Palm Beach Inlet for the unidentified man wanted for questioning in Rachel Hurley’s murder. More than 75 deputies participated, searching on horseback, by helicopter, by boat and on foot. Source
• Investigators interviewed more than 50 people, many of them transients living in makeshift camps in wooded areas bordering beaches in northern Palm Beach County. Sheriff’s spokesman Bob Ferrell said the daylong search produced substantial information but did not locate the suspect. Source
• The suspect was still described as a man in his 30s with dirty blond hair and a beard. Witnesses reported seeing him walking out of the woods near where Rachel’s body was found at Carlin Park. Witnesses said he was shirtless and had scratches on his back. Source
• During the manhunt, deputies encountered numerous men who closely resembled the suspect description. Deputies arrested one man while he was hitchhiking near Pratt Whitney after learning he was wanted on an outstanding warrant for an open-container violation. Source
• Sheriff’s spokesman Bob Ferrell said the arrested man had many similarities to the person investigators were seeking, but authorities did not believe he was Rachel’s murder suspect. Source
• Martin County detectives agreed to send the arrested man’s fingerprints to Palm Beach County investigators so they could confirm that he was not the unidentified suspect.  Source
• Despite the extensive search, investigators had not located or identified the unidentified transient suspect by the end of the day. Source

March 22, 1990

• Information released on Unidentified Transient Suspect: The search for the unidentified man suspected in Rachel Hurley’s murder expanded approximately 40 miles north into St. Lucie County. Contemporary reporting described the operation as the largest manhunt ever launched in Palm Beach County at the time. Source
• Law enforcement agencies had received dozens of possible sightings of the suspect. Investigators were reviewing reports in Fort Pierce and unincorporated areas of St. Lucie County, particularly along U.S. 1, Interstate 95 and A1A, based on the possibility that the man had fled north from Jupiter. Source
• St. Lucie County Sheriff’s detectives received about four or five calls per day and investigated between 10 and 15 leads that week. Many involved reports of hitchhikers seen along U.S. 1, Interstate 95 and A1A. Investigators checked the sightings but had not located the suspect. Source
• Fort Pierce Lead: A Fort Pierce woman contacted police and reported that she knew a man who matched the suspect’s description and had known him before Rachel’s murder. Detective Mike Price interviewed the woman and forwarded the information to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office for investigation.
• Detectives investigated a man seen hitchhiking on Interstate 95 near Okeechobee Boulevard. Although he matched much of the physical description, investigators did not believe he was the suspect because he lacked what they considered a key identifying feature, the scratch marks on the shoulder reported by a witness. Source
• Investigators refined the description of the unidentified suspect as a white man in his mid-30s, about 6 feet tall, with a thin build, short blond hair, a thick beard, a tan complexion, a small patch of hair on his chest, and scratch marks on his right shoulder. He reportedly wore dirty blue jeans and construction boots and carried a blue T-shirt. Source
• The original witness was described as a young boy in Carlin Park who reported seeing the suspect walking away from the area where Rachel’s body was later discovered. The reported scratches remained an important identifying characteristic. Source
• The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office reported being flooded with possible sightings from Belle Glade to Vero Beach and Boca Raton as publicity surrounding the suspect description spread throughout South Florida. Source

March-April 1990

• At least five detectives were assigned to Rachel’s murder, and a task force was established to investigate the case. Within about a month, investigators received more than 1,000 calls with information or possible tips. Source
• Attention also focused on transient camps in the wooded areas near the beach. Local officials believed Rachel’s killer might have been among people living in or frequenting those areas, although no evidence established that a homeless person committed the murder. Source

April 5, 1990

• Jupiter officials approved funding for additional police officers as part of an effort to remove transient encampments from the beach area following Rachel’s murder. The theory that Rachel had been attacked by a transient remained only an investigative possibility and was never proven. Source

Spring 1990

• Investigators examined Billy Fagan, then 17, who was described as a casual acquaintance of Rachel. Fagan attracted law-enforcement attention after allegations of sexual misconduct were made against him by several girls. Source

April 7, 1990

• In the weeks following Rachel Hurley’s murder, Palm Beach County approved spending $50,000 to clear brush from Carlin Park after a petition containing approximately 17,000 signatures was submitted to the County Commission. Source
• A second petition drive was later launched to stop the clearing of brush and trees at Carlin Park. Jupiter resident Mary Thompson said some people who had signed the original petition now believed the clearing had gone too far and regretted supporting it. She said residents had understood that the park would be cleaned up, not extensively bulldozed. Source
• The clearing was directly connected to public safety concerns following Rachel’s murder in the park. Source

May 1, 1990

• Billy Fagan: Palm Beach County Sheriff’s detectives released statements detailing 17 charges involving 11 girls and one boy against 17-year-old Billy Fagan. The allegations included 10 counts of lewd assault, four counts of sexual battery, one battery, one robbery and one assault. The allegations were separate from Rachel Hurley’s murder investigation. Source
• The investigation into Fagan’s alleged offenses developed while detectives were interviewing students at Jupiter Middle School and Jupiter High School following Rachel’s March 17 murder. The father of one girl said his daughter had never mentioned Fagan until detectives began questioning students after Rachel was killed. Although several girls did not come forward until late April, the alleged incidents dated back to May 1989. Source
• Rachel Hurley Investigation: Detectives publicly confirmed that they wanted to interview Fagan in Rachel’s murder case but had not yet done so. Rachel and Fagan were both described as teenagers who frequented Carlin Park with other young people. Source
• Investigators learned that several unrelated allegations against Fagan involved the same general area connected to Rachel’s case. Four girls alleged Fagan had fondled them at Carlin Park, and two others alleged incidents at Jupiter Beach Park. All six alleged that Fagan removed their bikini tops, and five said he subsequently touched their breasts. Source
• Fagan’s defense attorney, Richard Lubin, argued that the unrelated charges were receiving extensive publicity because detectives wanted to question Fagan about Rachel’s murder. Lubin publicly challenged investigators to disclose whether they had evidence connecting Fagan to Rachel’s homicide. Source
• Sheriff’s spokesman Bob Ferrell declined to publicly discuss what evidence, if any, investigators had connecting Fagan to Rachel’s murder. At this stage, Fagan had not been charged with Rachel’s homicide, and detectives had not yet completed the interview they wanted to conduct with him. Source

May 7, 1990

• Contemporary reporting confirmed that Fagan was being investigated in connection with Rachel’s killing. Two of the girls who had accused him of sexual assault told authorities they had been assaulted at Carlin Park, making him a person detectives wanted to investigate in Rachel’s case. He was not charged with Rachel’s murder. Source

May 12, 1990

• Fagan’s attorney, Richard Lubin, maintained that Fagan had an alibi for March 17 and denied that he was responsible for Rachel’s death. Source

June 13, 1990

• DNA testing ultimately excluded Billy Fagan as the source of biological evidence connected with Rachel’s murder. He was cleared of involvement in Rachel’s homicide and was never charged in her death. Source

September 12, 1990

• Fagan’s attorney indicated that his client might cooperate further with investigators if authorities agreed to publicly clear him after the questioning. By this point, forensic evidence had already moved the investigation away from Fagan as Rachel’s killer. Source

October 30, 1990

• The Hurley investigation became part of a broader push by Palm Beach County law enforcement for improved local DNA-testing capabilities. Investigators were experiencing substantial delays in obtaining forensic DNA results from outside laboratories. Source

1994

• Mike Waites transferred to the State Attorney’s Office. Although he left the Sheriff’s Office, he remained involved in Rachel’s investigation until approximately 2003 or 2004. Source

2002

• Robert Weakley, one of the original detectives assigned to Rachel’s homicide investigation, left the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office. Source

2003

• Tami Rowell contacted investigators after seeing Rachel’s friend Sheri Duff discussing the unsolved murder on television. Rowell gave investigators the name of Paul Simon, a man she said had raped her approximately three years after Rachel’s murder. Simon was subsequently among the men investigated in connection with Rachel’s case. Source

2004

• William Springer became sergeant in charge of the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office Cold Case Unit. During the renewed investigation, detectives revisited Billy Fagan, who had been publicly associated with the case in 1990 but was never charged with Rachel’s murder. Cold Case detectives conducted a detailed interview with Fagan, confirmed his alibi, and eliminated him through DNA evidence. Source
• The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office cold-case squad revisited Rachel’s homicide as advances in forensic testing created opportunities to reexamine evidence collected in 1990.
  • DNA obtained from a T-shirt recovered from a burn barrel in the vicinity where Rachel’s body had been found produced a match to a man named Doug Gross. Source
  • The DNA established that the shirt belonged to Gross. Investigators, however, found no evidence establishing that Gross had killed Rachel. He was not charged with her murder. Source

2005

• Investigators identified Douglas Gross through DNA testing of blood on a T-shirt that had been recovered near Rachel’s body. According to Detective William Springer, additional evidence tying Gross to Rachel’s murder was lacking. Prosecutors did not charge Gross in Rachel’s case. Source
• An inmate later told investigators that Douglas Gross had admitted killing Rachel with the help of a friend. Franky Washburn, who frequented Carlin Park and was a friend of Gross, was identified in the 2014 investigation as the person the inmate purportedly referred to. Neither Gross nor Washburn was charged with Rachel’s murder. Source

March 18, 2005

• Gross was publicly identified in reporting concerning the renewed investigation. Although the T-shirt initially appeared potentially significant because of where it had been recovered, investigators could not connect its owner to Rachel’s sexual assault or murder. Source

2013

• Tami Rowell again contacted investigators about Paul Simon after locating another interview with Sheri Duff. Rowell spoke with Detective John Van Houten at the Sheriff’s Office and provided information concerning Simon and her allegations against him. Simon was later eliminated through DNA evidence and was not charged in Rachel’s case. Source

October 2014

• Tami Rowell contacted Detective William Springer after learning that he had taken over Rachel’s case and left him a voicemail. Source

November 2014

• Detective William Springer returned Tami Rowell’s call. Rowell subsequently provided four additional names that she had not previously given investigators. Springer said he intended to locate and interview each person and obtain DNA from anyone whose profile was not already available. Source

December 2014

• Investigators eliminated another unidentified man through DNA testing. Detective William Springer said investigators had by then eliminated 127 males whose DNA did not match physical evidence recovered during the Rachel Hurley investigation. Source:

December 18, 2014

• Detective William Springer confirmed that investigators continued to possess viable physical evidence that he believed likely belonged to Rachel’s killer. He said that if the DNA profile were already in the system, investigators would probably know the person’s identity. Rachel’s homicide remained an active investigation with no arrest. Source:
• Springer said investigators intentionally continued withholding certain details of Rachel’s death so that those facts could be used to evaluate the credibility of a future confession. Rachel’s autopsy records also remained exempt from public disclosure because the homicide investigation was still active. Source
• Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said the Sheriff’s Office had spent extensive time and resources investigating Rachel’s murder and would continue working the case until it was solved. At the time, the Cold Case Unit consisted of a sergeant, two full-time detectives, and part-time Detective William Springer. Source

March 17, 2015

• On the 25th anniversary of Rachel’s murder, Andrea Hurley appeared at a Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office press conference and publicly appealed for information that could finally identify her daughter’s killer. Source

March 17, 2016

• Rachel’s childhood friends Erin Lodeesen and Sheri Duff renewed public appeals for information.
• Investigators said they still had physical evidence from the case and continued to receive about five tips a year. Crime Stoppers increased the reward for information in Rachel’s case to $15,000. Source
• Sheri Duff created and maintained a social-media effort seeking justice for Rachel, encouraging people who had been around Jupiter in 1990 to discuss anything they remembered from the day of the murder. Source

March 17, 2017

• Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office cold-case Detective William Springer publicly discussed the investigation on the 27th anniversary of Rachel’s murder as authorities continued seeking the person responsible. Source

February 2019

• Rachel’s father, Daniel Hurley, died without seeing his daughter’s murder solved. After Rachel’s death in 1990, Dan had transferred from teaching English at Forest Hill High School to the guidance department at Jupiter High School. A memorial scholarship bearing Rachel’s name continued as part of the family’s legacy. Source

March 17, 2019

• The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office marked 29 years since Rachel’s murder and again appealed to the public for information. Detective William Springer produced a mini-documentary reconstructing the events of March 17, 1990. Source
• By this point, investigators had tested the DNA of more than 120 men and eliminated them as Rachel’s killer. Despite decades of interviews, tips and forensic comparisons, no arrest had been made. Source

April 26, 2019

• PBSO launched its cold-case podcast, The Lead. Rachel’s murder was selected for the first episode as investigators attempted to use social media and podcasting to reach people who might remember something from 1990. Source

November 9, 2022

• Rachel’s case was featured by The Deck as the 9 of Hearts, Florida, part of the cold-case playing-card initiative designed to circulate unsolved cases within correctional facilities and encourage new information. Source
• PBSO cold-case investigator William Springer remained involved in Rachel’s case. Investigators continued to seek information from anyone who had been near Jupiter Inlet or Carlin Park on March 17, 1990. Source

• Today marks the 35th anniversary of the tragic murder of 14-year-old Rachel Hurley, a day that changed Palm Beach County forever. Source
• On St. Patrick’s Day 1990, Rachel went out with friends to Jupiter Inlet in Jupiter, Florida, and her family never saw her alive again. We have put together a mini-documentary to share her story, hoping that someone may recall details that can bring justice to her family. She was a fighter, and her spirit lives on. Detective Springer is still leading the investigation; if you have any information, please contact him immediately at (561) 688-4013 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-458-TIPS

March 17, 2026

• Thirty-six years after Rachel’s murder, the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office continued to classify the homicide as unsolved. No person had been arrested or charged with sexually assaulting and killing Rachel. Source
• Rachel would have been 50. Her case remained active with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office Cold Case Unit. Investigators continued to ask anyone with information to contact authorities or Crime Stoppers of Palm Beach County. Source
• More than three decades of investigation had produced hundreds of leads, examinations of multiple persons of interest, and DNA testing that eliminated more than 120 men, but the DNA evidence had not publicly identified Rachel’s killer. Source

• Rachel Karin Hurley’s murder remains unsolved. The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office continues to seek information concerning who sexually assaulted and killed the 14-year-old as she traveled between DuBois Park and Carlin Park on March 17, 1990. Source
• Investigators have never announced an arrest in Rachel’s homicide. Billy Fagan was eliminated through DNA testing, and the later DNA identification of Doug Gross as the owner of a T-shirt recovered near the crime scene did not establish that Gross was involved in the killing. Source
• Anyone with information about Rachel’s murder can contact Crime Stoppers of Palm Beach County at 1-800-458-TIPS (8477).