Christa Leigh Hoyt, an 18-year-old student and part-time records clerk with the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office, was murdered on August 25, 1990, in Gainesville, Florida. Colleagues sent deputies to her apartment when she failed to report for her shift and found her bound, raped, and stabbed to death. The killer decapitated her and placed her head on a shelf facing her body.

Christa was the third victim in a string of attacks on young college students in Gainesville that shared similar methods and staging. Those similarities led investigators to treat the killings as the work of a single perpetrator. The case drew intense local and national attention because of the brutality and theatrical nature of the crime.

Anyone who knew Christa, saw signs of suspicious activity near student housing in late August 1990, or has information about her movements that night is asked to come forward.