PBSO TO USE SOCIAL MEDIA TO BRING COLD CASE TO ‘LIFE’
Deputies using Twitter to uncover killer of Jupiter teen 28 years ago.
JUPITER — Rachel Hurley died 28 years ago Saturday, raped and strangled inside Jupiter’s Carlin Park.
But Hurley, whose killer was never caught, will speak vicariously today and Saturday through a social media account created by the Palm Beach County Sheriff ’s Office.
The sheriff ’s office ran a similar campaign last year for Marjorie Christina Luna, an 8-year-old Gre-
enacres girl who disappeared in May 1984. Anthony Rodriguez, PBSO’s social media manager, will tell Hurley’s story, speaking in her voice.
Noting the success of the Christina Luna effort in generating new leads, investigators decided to try a similar approach for Hurley’s anniversary, sheriff’s spokeswoman Teri Barbera said.
“We thought we would approach her anniversary in a different way, in hopes that we could reach people across the nation,” Barbera said. “We feel taking it out of the local area gives us an opportunity (to reach) someone who lived in the area 28 years ago and may have seen something.”
The sheriff ’s office will take a slightly different approach from the Luna social media campaign, Barbera said. In that instance, the office used its Twitter and Facebook accounts to share Luna’s story, speaking in her voice while recreating in real time the events leading up to her disappearance.
This year, to avoid confusion, the sheriff ’s office created a Twitter account — @ rachelhurley90 — that will be shared on the sheriff ’s office’s social media accounts.
Authorities say that on St. Patrick’s Day in 1990, Hurley, 14, was with friends at Jupiter Beach Park, just south of the Jupiter Inlet, when she ran down the beach toward Carlin Park to meet her mother. Hurley cut through a wooded area, then disappeared.
Her beaten body was found under heavy brush later that day. Authorities say she was suffocated.
Hurley’s case is one of the more prominent ones that the sheriff ’s cold-case team is investigating.
It made arrests in seven such cases during 2017, the sheriff ’s office said.
“We’re hoping that someone will go back in their memory and remember something that we need,” Barbera said.