On October 10, 1973, 27-year-old Valorie Lowman’s skeletal remains were discovered in a pit near an orange grove 1/4 mile east of Lake Hendry on Garfield Road near Homeland. She had been bound, strangled, and thrown into the pit. Lowman had been missing since August 1973, when her 1973 Chevy Nova was located, out of gas, approximately 10 miles away at the City of Bartow’s baseball field on North Broadway in Bartow.

Anyone with information about this case is encouraged to contact the Polk County Sheriff’s Office Homicide Unit at (863) 298-6379, or send an email to coldcase@polksheriff.org.