Andrea Gail Parsons

Left and Center: Andrea circa, 1993

Right: Age Progressed to age 28

Vital Statistics at Time of Disappearance

Missing Since: July 11, 1993

Missing From: Port Salerno, Orange County, Florida

Classification: Non-Family Abduction

Date Of Birth: May 12, 1983

Age: 10 years old

Height and Weight: 4’11” and 80 pounds

Distinguishing Characteristics: Caucasian Female, Brown hair, Hazel eyes, Andrea has pierced ears

Clothing/Jewelry Description: A dark colored shirt, blue jeans shorts, and clear plastic “Jelly” sandals

NCMEC Number: 781548

Details of Disappearance

Andrea was last seen in Port Salerno, Florida on July 11th 1993. Her mother, Linda Parsons, left the house with Andrea in the morning and dropped her off at the gates of the B&A Flea Market located on U.S 1. While at the market, Andrea helped a nineteen year old friend, Cheri Tate, lift boxes. Tate ran a booth where she sold clothing, jewelry, as well as assorted household items.

Tate said she was close with Andrea and that she was always helpful with various things at the booth. Andrea was described as being happy and didn’t seem unusual that day. In fact, the highlight of her day was when she noticed a woman walking three pitbull puppies and she apparently begged to cuddle one. She also bought a gold plated unicorn necklace and automobile air freshener from the market.

Linda picked Andrea up from the flea market at approximately 2:40 pm and she surprised her mother with the gifts she purchased. They then went home where they carved a watermelon in the backyard. Andrea then went to her bedroom to take a nap while her mother got ready for her night shift at Winn-Dixie, a deli she worked at.

When Linda began out the front door, Andrea rushed to the driveway where she opened the door to the family’s white station wagon. After her mother got in the car, Andrea gave her a goodbye kiss and she left. Andrea went inside the trailer home due to the hot weather outside. Her mothers boyfriend, Pat Daniels, was watching the colored television.

At some point, Andrea left the home with her roller skates and went to a neighbors residence to skate with a three year old girl, Latonia Jones. They skated for five minutes before Latonia’s mother, Jennifer, called her inside. She said it was too hot out that day for them to be skating that long. She returned to her own home where Daniels was still watching television.

He stated that he was watching a nature program show and that Andrea seemed to be bored and uninterested in it. She asked permission at 5:30 pm to go to the neighborhood grocery store and then to a friends home. He said she could do both and she left the home at approximately 5:45 pm according to her neighbors.

Andrea stopped at the Jones house and asked if Latonia could accompany her to the store. Jennifer said no and she later said she felt Andrea was too young to have her daughter go with her. While walking along Commerce Avenue, Andrea waved to her mothers co-worker, Mary Timmerman. She then apparently cut across the parking lot of Port Salerno Grocery. This store was dubbed by locals as “Bucky’s.”

While at the store, Andrea purchased two bags of potato chips and some penny candy which she paid for using change that Daniels had given her before she left. A cashier, Sue Solomon, recalled that it was odd for Andrea to be there alone. She was usually accompanied by her older sister, Nikki, but she was visiting relatives in Tampa, Florida at the time of Andrea’s disappearance.

Andrea left the store and was seen walking at 6:00 pm. She apparently waved to a couple that she knew. Andrea never arrived to her friends house and was never seen or heard from again. Daniels told police he became worried about Andrea after it started to become dark and she hadn’t returned. The family did not have a telephone and Daniels didn’t have access to a car so he began scouring the area on foot for her.

Linda left work at exactly 10:10 pm and came home to find Andrea missing. She too was hysterical and worried and got into her car and began looking for her daughter. She stopped people along the street and went to the homes of Andrea’s friends but found no evidence of her daughters whereabouts. Linda called the police at 11:06 pm after she was unable to locate her daughter.

Police and investigators searched the neighborhood but found no trace of Andrea. They did question Linda and Daniels. He was initially considered a suspect in Andrea’s disappearance and investigators looked inside the trunk of the dark Blue Chevy they drove when they moved to Florida for Andrea. Daniels recalled how the agents who questioned him tried to get a reaction out of him by toughening up what they said.

They threatened to have the state take his daughter, Nikki, away from them. Daniels was an unemployed construction worker and he had a few run-ins with the law before Andrea’s disappearance. He did serve prison time for auto theft in 1991 in Nebraska. By 1993, Daniels was attempting to get his life back together since he had reconciled with Linda. He thought of Andrea as his own daughter and she even called him “Daddy”.

Daniels and Linda were quickly cleared as suspects in the case and investigators believe something more sinister might have happened to Andrea during the evening she disappeared. Her disappearance caused a massive search that went beyond her neighborhood area. Highly trained scent dogs were used to sniff through thickly wooded lots and along the surfaces of drainage ponds.

Divers, helicopters, and infrared sensors were used to search areas of land and water but they never located any trace of Andrea’s whereabouts. Searchers mainly concentrated on an area located just north of Parsons residence. The area was said to include an industrial park, a condominium complex which was under construction, as well as extensive stretches of woods and fielded areas.

They also searched the railroad tracks near Dixie Highway as well as Mosquito Creek and Manatee Pocket. None of these searches ever yielded any clues as to where Andrea could be. Investigators believe Andrea was probably abducted by someone she didn’t know. Her disappearance is classified as a non-family abduction.

On July 15th, a local man named Claude Davis went to the police station and told investigators that he witnessed Andrea’s alleged abduction. Davis claimed that he saw four to five men driving in a battered Oldsmobile follow Andrea as she walked home from the store. The car apparently stopped along a wooded lot approximately 25 yards away from her home.

Davis described a 200 pound man get out of the backseat of the car and forcibly grabbed Andrea before pulling her into the vehicle. The vehicle allegedly drove away with Andrea in the backseat. He claimed that Andrea did not struggle or scream at her supposed abductor(s) but rather just looked surprised when she was grabbed. Investigators searched for the car but were unable to locate it.

The car is described as a 1970s or early 1980s Oldsmobile with a beige or light gold body and a black top. The cars right front fender was dented and it’s headlamps apparently didn’t match. The men in the car were deceived as being Hispanic. Investigators hoped the public would help in identifying the alleged perpetrators but nothing ever came in. They kept the tip private from the news media for a week at the request of Davis.

For months, investigators had no leads as to who took Andrea but they were certain she was the victim of a stranger abduction. Then on November 16th 1993, Davis told investigators he had a dream in which Andrea was killed by an accidental fall from a trash bin. He allegedly said he put her body in another bin at Phipps Park. Investigators took the “dream” as a confession to Andrea’s death.

They charged Davis with false imprisonment in relation to Andrea’s presumed abduction and murder and had his bail set at $250,000. Davis lived across the street from Parsons in 1993 but he did not know Andrea before her disappearance. They began searching Davis’s home and van two days after the charges were brought against him.

Investigators began searching the Martin County Landfill in December of 1993. They were looking for Andrea’s body at the time but after extensive searching, they found nothing. That same month, a detective at his bail reduction hearing testified that Davis told a neighbor about abducting and killing Andrea. On April 14th 1994, Davis was released from Martin County Jail after pleading no contest to molesting a 14 year old girl.

Davis was actually sentenced 9 years in prison in 1999 for violating his parole by contacting his victim. Davis would go on the claim that his story about Andrea’s accidental death was untrue and that the account regarding the several men taking her was true. In fact the porch of his residence was burnt down in April of 1994 and he claimed that the person responsible for Andrea’s disappearance did it. He has refused to take a lie detector test in the case.

On May 25th 1994, a judge dismissed the charge of false imprisonment due to lack of evidence and because prosecutors failed to to take Davis to trial within the time that was permitted by Florida’s Speedy Trial Law. After this, Davis could no longer be charged or touched in the case. He was always considered the primary suspect for almost two decades.

On November 29th 2012, Martin County police arrested a man named Chester Price and charged with first degree murder and kidnapping of a child under the age of 13 in relation to Andrea’s case. Price was allegedly acquainted with the child at the time of her disappearance and also was good friends with Davis at the time as well.

Accounts vary as to how exactly Andrea ended up in a car with Davis and Price. Some agencies stated that she asked for a ride and got into the car or that she was enticed with a job offer. Others indicate that both men forcibly abducted her and placed her in Davis’s 1978 van. According to Davis’s testimony against Price, he heard a commotion in the back seat between Andrea and Price.

Price allegedly attempted to kiss Andrea and she bit him extremely hard. She also kicked and screamed and fought for her life and her escape from Davis and Price. It’s unknown how exactly she died but authorities believe that Price and Davis either killed her with a tire iron or that Price punched her hard in the head which killed her. Davis claims that this is what happened and that he attempted to revive the child but to no avail.

Davis cooperated completely and went as far as revealing his own role in the kidnapping and murder. He cannot he criminally held accountable for Andrea’s disappearance as it would violate his right to a speedy trial. The state had a 175 day time gap to file formal charges against him during his false imprisonment charge. They did not find any evidence against him at the time and were forced to release him as a result.

Davis claimed that he and Price left Andrea’s body inside the van until a day after her abduction. They allegedly drove Andrea’s body to a remote area near State Road 710 since there was a huge response and search underway for Andrea. He claimed that he dug a hole and placed her body in it. He also apparently covered her with a black garbage bag and a piece of burlap to keep the dirt from going in her face.

He covered her body up and said a prayer. He told investigators about the burial spot but they couldn’t find Andrea’s remains there. Both suspects also claimed her body was buried on Martin Grade but that location was searched to no avail. A man named Billy Phillip Brewer, 38, drove with Price and Davis the day after Andrea went missing as they looked for aluminum cans.

Brewer testified in 2012 that he remembered seeing a large object inside of a black garbage bag. Investigators have been unable to locate Andrea’s remains despite many search efforts. Claude Davis passed away from natural causes on July 2nd 2013. He apparently died in his home and was 76 years old at the time.

Davis’s sudden death was said to have seriously compromised the death case against Chester Price since it solely relied on Davis’s testimony against him. Despite this, Price pleaded not contest to charges of manslaughter and kidnapping of a child under the age of 13. He served approximately three and a half years of a ten year sentence.

After serving his prison term, Price signed an agreement in which he will be involuntarily committed to sexual offender treatment under the Jimmy Ryce Act. Jimmy was abducted from Florida in 1995 and was later found murdered. His case created an act which allows possible re-offenders to be held in treatment. Linda and the victims right organization is attempting to prove that Price and Davis abducted Andrea for their own sexual satisfaction.

At the time of Andrea’s disappearance, she had just finished 4th grade at Port Salerno Elementary School. She was attending summer school to get help for mathematics. The school was within walking distance but her mother always drove her and picked her up every day. Andrea originally lived in Dayton, Ohio and moved to the area in September of 1992.

Andrea has an older half brother who lived in Dayton with his father, Larry Howard, at the time of her abduction. Andrea’s mother met Daniels after she divorced him fifteen years earlier and had Nikki with him before Andrea was born. They separated after Nikkis birth. Linda then married Garland Parsons who was a tugboat member in Texas. He was Andrea’s biological father.

Linda and Garland divorced and he died of a heart attack in 1991. The divorce was finalized shortly after that. Linda reconciled with Daniels and they exchanged letters while he was in prison. They moved to Florida where he lived on and off for years. Linda and Daniels were absolutely devastated over her disappearance.

Andrea’s remains have never been located. Foul play is suspected in her disappearance and some agencies may classify her as endangered missing. Her mother is still alive and hopes to locate Andrea.

Suspect Information: