On October 26, 1970, the body of 36-year-old white female Patrice Finer Newkirk was discovered in the trunk of her green 1970 Pontiac LeMans with a white vinyl top. The vehicle had been found parked at Manor Park, just a few blocks from her residence in Miami, Florida. Her family had reported her missing three days earlier, after she failed to return home and did not contact them. Neighbors recalled seeing her leave her duplex at 1460 NW 52nd Street around 9:30 p.m.
on October 21, accompanied by a tall Black male. That evening, she had told her mother and sister she needed to pick up test papers from Miami-Dade Junior College, although she was not enrolled that semester.
When the trunk was opened by a private detective hired by her mother, a strong odor led to the grim discovery. Patrice Finer Newkirk had been bludgeoned to death with such force that the damage to her skull resembled injuries sustained in a fall from a building. A torn piece of her black, white, and brown horizontally striped dress was tied loosely around her neck, and another piece was tucked beneath it. Her purse, car keys, shoes, and underwear were missing, and the front half of her dress had been ripped away. Blood traces were found in her bedroom, trailing into the bathroom and near the front door, but investigators could not definitively determine the location of the murder.
The case was linked to a string of unsolved homicides attributed to an unidentified serial killer known as the 'Miami Strangler,' who was believed to have murdered at least nine women in the Miami area between 1964 and 1970. All but one of the victims were white females, and the killings shared disturbing similarities: the women were attacked in their homes or nearby, and the deaths involved strangulation, bludgeoning, or smothering. Many of the victims were found with their clothing disheveled or partially removed, and although there was no direct evidence of sexual assault, the positioning of the bodies suggested a sexually motivated pattern.
Investigators questioned a suspect, Calvin Jones Jr., a truck driver with a criminal history who had previously dated Patrice Finer Newkirk. Jones had also been the parking lot attendant who changed the tire of another victim, 38-year-old white female Sylvia Valdez, on the night she was murdered in 1965. Jones had a documented history of assault and theft involving Newkirk, including multiple incidents in 1969 where she accused him of battery and stealing items from her home. Despite these connections and the presence of his fingerprint on a window shade in Newkirk's apartment, Jones was never charged in her murder or any of the other related cases.
The investigation into the Miami Strangler murders remained open, but no arrests were ever made. The killer's identity and motive continue to be a mystery, and the death of 36-year-old white female Patrice Finer Newkirk remains one of Miami's most haunting unsolved crimes.
