HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — Billboards in the Tampa Bay area flash sobering statistics about cases in Florida that have gone cold.
"Only 57% of murders were solved in Florida in 2021, "... "There are 17,500 unsolved murders in Florida since 1980,"... and "Almost 40 out of every 100 murders in Florida since 1980 went unsolved," according to statistics from the FBI's Uniform Crime Report.
Above the blur of traffic, the billboards beg someone to come forward, serving as a reminder: Someone, somewhere, knows something.
The group behind the billboards — Project: Cold Case, a Jacksonville-based nonprofit working to raise awareness about unsolved homicides. And behind each of those numbers highlighted on the billboards is a family needing support. Families like the Moriartys.
"Everything feels like it happened yesterday"
Nearly 12 years ago, Brenden Moriarty's little sister, 38-year-old Kelly, went missing. She and her girlfriend, 61-year-old Doris 'Pat' Carter, have never been found. Two days after Christmas in 2011, Kelly's severed leg washed ashore in St. Petersburg. But there's been no trace of Pat. And no arrests.
“Everything feels like it happened yesterday. They say time heals all wounds. Not for something like this," Brenden told the ABC Action News I-Team. "I remember that particular Thanksgiving, Kelly told us she wasn’t able to come because she was going to spend Thanksgiving with Pat."
Then, Grace said, she thought she'd see her daughter for Christmas.
"But she didn’t show up," Grace said. "It never occurred to me there was anything wrong. Never.”
That perception changed as time went on. Grace called her daughter a few times after the holiday, but she never answered.
Then, the battery on her phone died. After the final attempt to call Kelly, "Mom at that point was pretty confident something was wrong," Brenden said.
Around that time, Brenden found out his sister was behind on her rent, which wasn't normal for her. And when he went to her apartment in Bradenton, he described it as a "time capsule." "The Christmas tree was up. The Christmas presents were still under the tree unwrapped," he said.
The Moriarty family contacted the Bradenton Police Department to file a missing person report. Two months later, the medical examiner in Pinellas County confirmed a leg that had washed ashore in St. Pete belonged to Kelly.
“These are the stones that I pick up at the beach where Kelly’s leg washed up," Grace showed the I-Team, standing beside her dresser in her bedroom.
Each stone has a date written on it, marking the nearly 12 years that have passed.
"I call it Kelly's grave," Grace said. "It's the only place I have to go."
Though Kelly's leg was found in St. Pete and she lived in Bradenton, the last place she and Pat were seen was at Pat's home in Plant City on Dec. 16, 2011, so the Hillsborough Sheriff's Office took over the case. Days after the pair were last seen, Kelly's car was found abandoned on Rd. 62 in Manatee County.
Father turned investigator
"As far as closure, we will never have closure," Kelly's father, Bud, told ABC Action News in 2013.
“He was determined. Determined to find out what happened," Grace told the I-Team.
“He literally wrote a letter a day, every day, from the day he learned of her death, to someone," Brenden said. "Right from the president of the United States down to the local municipal judge, you know, just asking for help.”
The I-Team obtained a letter Bud wrote to a Hillsborough County judge in 2015. In the letter, he said with no results, "It has been a living hell" for his family and that he was doing the best he could to help law enforcement solve the case.
"We will never let this case go," he wrote.
Bud died four years ago. And despite multiple calls to HCSO, Grace never got a callback, she said. Until the I-Team became involved.
Fresh eyes on the case
The I-Team requested incident reports connected to Kelly and Pat's disappearance and received a 17-page document totally blacked out. The reason, HCSO said, was it was an active investigation.
Following Kelly and Pat's disappearance, suspicion fell on Pat's daughter and son-in-law, who lived in her home.
“We learned that there was an eviction order the day before both Kelly and Pat went missing," Brenden told the I-Team.
Pat had filed a "complaint for unlawful detainer" in Hillsborough County, meaning a judge was ordering her daughter Stacy Muralt and her husband to move out. The home sits on a little over an acre. Pat's name is still listed as the owner. And Stacy continues to live in the house.
The I-Team left her a voicemail for Stacy, and then, one Saturday in late August, went to her home.
Stacy stood outside and spoke with the I-Team for nearly half an hour. But she didn't agree to show her face on camera. She said she did not do anything to Kelly and doesn't know who did. "I didn't have anything to do with that," she said.
Like the Moriarty family, she has felt forgotten, she said, with no phone call from HCSO in years. Then, within the last couple of months, after the I-Team began asking the sheriff's office questions about the case, two people from the cold case unit visited Stacy at her home.
“I am happy, and I’m glad that there’s two new people on the case. I’m glad that it’s open. It should have already been reopened a long time ago," she said. "I like that there’s fresh eyes on it.”
"We have not forgot"
HCSO told the I-Team, under its new cold case unit, that they have not named anyone as a suspect or person of interest in the case.
For months, we requested an interview with the detective who had been the lead investigator when the case began or anyone currently in the cold case unit.
"If we have to take them away from their desk to do an interview like this, then it only takes away their time to be able to solve these cases," HCSO spokesperson Amanda Granit, the only person granted an interview, told the I-Team.
Granit said they have not stopped working on the case.
“We have not forgot about your loved one," was her message to the Moriarty family. "I can tell you that I stopped by the cold case unit today, and it was sitting on the desk of one of our detectives."
HCSO told the I-Team they tested evidence in 2014 and 2016 with negative results. Seven years ago, HCSO presented the case to the International Homicide Investigators Association and the Vidocq Society, which provides pro bono expert assistance to law enforcement to solve cold case homicides. HCSO also contacted the FBI. In 2017, St. Pete Police again searched in the bay. And in 2021, HCSO resubmitted DNA evidence. Still, there were no matches.
Project: Cold Case
The I-Team informed the Moriartys of the efforts HCSO had made to solve the case. Grace said she didn't know all of those steps were taken.
That's why when she didn't hear HCSO, she contacted Project: Cold Case, hoping to bring more attention to her daughter's murder.
“I never expected to hear, but I was so happy to hear," Grace said when she got a call back from the group. "Something may come of it.”
Brenden called it a "spark of life."
"Any time we have an opportunity to shed light on our sister’s case, again, our hope is that it generates some type of information or lead that may lead to an arrest and a conviction," Brenden said.
Kelly is one of 55 Florida victims featured on 52 cards that Project: Cold Case just released in its 2nd edition of playing cards. The goal isn't a game. It's about raising awareness and bringing attention to unsolved murders.
“Project: Cold Case was founded with the very simple approach — that we wanted families to know their loved one was not forgotten and that somebody else cared. So I’m not an investigator, I don’t have law enforcement experience, but what I do have is I’ve experienced this, Project: Cold Case Founder and Executive Director Ryan Backmann said.
"My father was murdered," he said. "So I’ve lived it, and I’ve recognized those voids in services. I’ve seen where the families are left behind. And I’ve seen where the communication is lacking,"
The I-Team traveled to Orlando to meet Backmann at the National Missing & Unidentified Persons Conference in May.
"They’re all important," Backmann said, showing the I-Team the cards.
Project: Cold Case isn't the first group to put together card decks with the purpose of raising awareness about cold cases, but what's different is they're bringing those cards decks out from behind bars and into other communities.
“They always put them in prisons. In hopes that inmates would see them and come forward with information," Backmann said.
Project: Cold Case started putting them in businesses.
"We put them in the oil change place while people were sitting there waiting for their car to get an oil change, so they could look through the cards," Backmann said. "Tattoo parlors, breweries, distilleries, you know, places where people congregate and where they’re looking for something to grab their attention for a few minutes."
The nonprofit's online database has more than 1,000 victims.
“We have had over 50 cases that have been featured on our website that have resulted in an arrest or a resolution," Backmann said.
Brenden hopes his sister's case will be next.
"Hopefully, all it will take is one person, you know, with the right information, and then the case could be completely open again," he said.
The Moriarty family is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.
If you know anything, please call the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office at 813-247-8200 or to leave an anonymous tip, the number for Crime Stoppers is 1-800-873-TIPS.
