Melissa Jo Sermons, aged 26, disappeared on May 3, 1992, from Lakeland, Florida. She was heavily involved in rodeo culture and worked with horses. On the evening of her disappearance, she attended a rodeo in Dade City with her boyfriend, 31-year-old Elwin Lawrence "Larry" Costine Jr. After the rodeo, they went to breakfast with a friend and later returned to Costine’s trailer around 4:15 a.m.
Sermons never made it back to her own residence and was reported missing when both she and Costine failed to show up for work the next day.
Two days later, on May 5, 1992, Costine was found shot to death in his trailer. His body was discovered nude, and he had been shot multiple times in the head and back. Despite some of his possessions missing, there was no sign of a struggle. There were no traces of Sermons in the home, and she has not been seen since. Initially, there were unconfirmed sightings of her at truck stops in various states, but authorities did not find these reports credible.
In 2013, investigators named Danny Cerezo, Sermons' ex-boyfriend, as a suspect in both Costine’s murder and her disappearance. Cerezo had maintained contact with her family after their breakup in April 1992 and expressed interest in her relationships. Sermons had informed him just before her disappearance that she was dating Costine and no longer wanted to see him. Despite some physical evidence reportedly linking Cerezo to the crime, no charges have been filed in either case, leaving both Sermons’ disappearance and Costine’s murder unsolved.Last Seen: May 3, 1992
