On October 26, 1978, the Pershing County Sheriff’s Office received information that a reporting party discovered a garment bag containing human remains in a remote area near Scossa Road, approximately 13 miles west of Imlay, Nevada.
Officers with the Pershing County Sheriff’s Office responded and located the human remains. A variety of evidentiary items were collected at the scene to include the garment bag which contained women's clothing.
The human remains were sent to the Washoe Medical Center for examination in October of 1978. An autopsy revealed the victim to be a Caucasian female approximately 40 years of age or greater. Due to the remains being heavily decayed, a cause of death could not be determined.
No identifying information for the female remains was located during the investigation. In May of 1979, the Pershing County Sheriff’s Office requested the assistance of the Nevada State Police - Investigation Division. Detectives conducted an investigation through multiple channels in an attempt to identify the individual, to include media releases requesting information from the public, following up on numerous tips, submitting dental records for comparison purposes, working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation to obtain identifying information from the articles of clothing, completing a facial reconstruction, and obtaining a mitochondrial DNA profile from the female remains.
The case was entered into the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs), However, the investigation did not result in establishing a significant lead.
In March of 2022 the Investigation Division and NamUs enlisted the assistance of Othram, an American company specializing in forensic genealogy, to perform advanced forensic DNA testing of the female remains and a genealogy search. As a result of this new technology, several new investigative leads were developed, resulting in the female remains being identified as Florence Charleston of Cleveland, Ohio. Subsequent investigation revealed that Charleston had moved to Portland, Oregon sometime in the early 1970’s and family members lost contact with her by 1978.
The investigation into Charleston’s death is still ongoing. Anyone with information on this case is asked to contact the Nevada State Police - Investigation Division at (775) 684-7456.