Classmate helps ID woman 23 years later
ORLANDO (AP) – Kristy Henderson always wondered what happened to her childhood best friend. She knew Serena Harmon’s husband had a violent temper and was plagued by fears that something terrible had happened to the girl.
Henderson did a quick search on the Internet and was stunned to find an artist’s sketch of Serena’s face. Authorities were trying to identify the teen who was hit by a truck and killed in an accident near Orlando 23 years ago.
Henderson e-mailed investigators two months ago, bringing to end a decades old mystery with no DNA and little other evidence.
When a brown-haired teenager was hit by a truck on Interstate 4 on Aug. 12, 1986, she left behind a coin purse with $1.20 and slips of paper scrawled with phone numbers. Written on the purse was a name: Serena Balint.
For years authorities searched records, but never found her. The 17-year-old girl had a friend who lived under the Interstate, but even he didn’t know her last name.
In the 1980s, it was difficult to connect an unidentified body to a missing person. Internet databases didn’t exist, and unless her name was entered into a national law-enforcement database, the chances of identifying Serena were slim, said FDLE Special Agent Daniel Warren.
But the medical examiner’s office kept an autopsy photo of the crash victim and made forensic sketches just in case.
It was enough for a match 23 years later when a curious Henderson tried to find Serena.
“Oh my gosh, when I saw that picture, I knew it was her,” Henderson said.
The last time Henderson had seen her childhood friend, Serena was running down a main in their small Wyoming home town, toward the motel where she lived with her husband.
Serena was always a free spirit. As girls, the two would often hitch rides with strangers. Serena would sometimes disappear for days, but would always return home for birthdays or holidays.
She never told Henderson how the met her husband, a much older divorced man. Henderson says she’d seen him hit Serena. Serena took his last name, Balint, making it more difficult for authorities to identify her.
Family members say Serena eventually left her husband and seemingly disappeared without a trace.
According to a medical examiner’s report, Serena spent the last few days of her life living with a veteran she had just met in his car and at rest stops in central Florida.
Serena’s half-sister, Doretta Finley, said tried everything to find the girl – a detective, an Internet ad and a psychic. She heard nothing for two decades.
Knowing Serena’s fate has brought relief, she said. She worried for decades that Serena died violently.
“The things we imagined could have happened to her – the abuse, other things,” Finley said.