Cherylstein Orelia Cherry was 16 when her body was found in a wooded area of Ybor City on August 21, 1977. The African American teenager from Thonotosassa had dropped out of school and was known to frequent local bars. Investigators determined she had been strangled and raped.

Her death was absorbed into a larger investigation into a series of Tampa Bay area murders between 1971 and 1978 often linked to a suspected perpetrator dubbed the Gulf Killer. That broader probe assembled a special unit of officers from three counties and examined connections among victims; many were tied to the Dale Mabry Strip, though Cherylstein had no known links to those clubs. Methods varied across cases, prompting theories that more than one offender could be involved.

No one was ever specifically arrested, charged, or convicted for Cherylstein’s murder, and her case remains unsolved. Did anyone who knew Cherylstein or saw her in the Tampa area in August 1977 come forward with information?