Who killed Gayla McNeil? 40 years after body found in canal, DNA test points to an answer

For four decades, the identity of the person who killed Gayla McNeil and dumped her nude body in a canal west of Boynton Beach has eluded investigators.

Now, Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office detectives said they have a "very strong belief" that they know who killed her, thanks to recent DNA testing.

DNA evidence linked McNeil's murder in October 1983 to James Henderson, a West Palm Beach resident described by investigators as a "small-time criminal." Investigators learned Henderson committed suicide in 1987 at age 39.

But they still want to learn more about him, asking anyone who knew Henderson in the early 1980s until the time of his death to come forward.

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"While we will never be able to question him as to the extent of his involvement in this, we have a very strong belief that he is possibly the person who took Gayla's life," Capt. Laurence Poston of the Violent Crimes Division said during a news conference on Tuesday, April 23, at the sheriff's headquarters near West Palm Beach.

Cold-case Detective William Springer, who was one of the original homicide investigators in McNeil's death, said Henderson at one time was married, had a girlfriend, had no children and possibly worked as a mechanic for a company that repaired Florida Power & Light trucks.

"I'm looking for anybody who might shed some light on him, his background, his personality, what he was like," Springer said.

PBSO: Murdered woman may have been hitchhiking to Fort Lauderdale

McNeil's body was found Oct. 21, 1983, in a canal near Acme Dairy Road, west of Florida's Turnpike and south of Boynton Beach Boulevard. She was 30 years old. The medical examiner classified her death as a homicide.

A 1983 Palm Beach Post article stated that McNeil had left Cocoa in Brevard County two days earlier and was believed to be traveling to Fort Lauderdale.

On Oct. 20, 1983, she encountered a Lake Worth police officer who warned her that hitchhiking was illegal, then watched as she walked away, heading south on Dixie Highway. Investigators believe McNeil later accepted a ride from someone.

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Her body was found in the canal. She had been strangled and her throat was cut.

McNeil had been in the canal between 12 and 24 hours when she was found, Poston said. During the initial stages of the investigation, a forensic examination revealed that McNeil likely had been sexually assaulted.

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Investigators were able to obtain DNA evidence from the assault but found no matches when comparing it against a database. For years, the evidence sat in storage until investigators decided to try the forensic genealogy testing done in other cold cases.

The samples were sent to Othram, a lab based in Texas that has worked with the sheriff's office in similar investigations. Poston said Othram's genetic investigation linked the DNA profile to Henderson.

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The lab's work has been credited with helping PBSO identify previously unknown victims in other cold-case investigations. In February, the sheriff's office reported that it was launching a new investigation into a 1987 homicide after genetic testing identified a woman previously known as Jane Doe as Pati Lisa Rust. Rust's remains were found in December of 1987 in a stand of trees about a mile northwest of Acreage Community Park.

In October 2022, the sheriff's office received a $500,000 federal grant to pay for DNA testing in cold cases.

Julius Whigham II is a criminal justice and public safety reporter for The Palm Beach Post. You can reach him at [email protected] and follow him on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, at @JuliusWhigham. Help support our work: Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Cold case: DNA evidence links West Palm man to woman's death in 1983