January 19, 2026 | By: Lorelys Rea 

This story is part of a collaborative project between Project: Cold Case and the University of North Florida’s Applied Journalism class.

Teryl Orcutt was a fashionista. She loved makeup and wore stylish outfits.

“She would not check the mail without putting her makeup on first,” said her sister, Cheryl Turner. “If she was alive now, she would be like one of the modern people, wearing the current styles.”

The fashion moments ended 36 years ago when Teryl never came home from her boyfriend’s house. Her body was found off Lee Road in Middleburg, Florida, a week after she had been reported missing. Her murder has never been solved.

Teryl was born on February 19, 1963, in Kentucky. She was two months premature. Growing up, she turned into a beautiful person; her sister Cheryl took care of her when she was a baby. “When they brought her home, I was 10 years old,” said Cheryl. “That was my baby. I changed her diapers, she slept in my bedroom, and I took care of her.”

Teryl lived in Germany with her family for three years when she was a kid. She liked to play basketball at the AYA Army Youth Activity Center, where her mom used to coach. Teryl went to high school in North Carolina. She was an A-B honor roll student and an art student. Teryl liked all the subjects in school, but mathematics had her heart. After high school, she decided to go to the University of North Carolina to study business.

Teryl loved to travel; she was the person who would just get in the car and go everywhere. It is a similarity that she shares with her sister. She was open to eating any kind of food; she would eat everything. According to her sister Cheryl, she could eat anything and wouldn’t get fat. She was around 98 pounds. Teryl would be into sushi right now, her sister said.

Teryl was a sociable person – she liked everybody. She liked to have fun as a teenager and often would call her sister to pick her up at school with her friend to skip class. They would go shopping and to the beach, which she loved. It was a secret between sisters, hoping not to get caught by their parents. She always had her nails and hair done, and she often spent her Saturdays watching TV with her mom. Later, she would go out with a friend or someone she was dating to dance. She loved to dance.

At the age of 20, Teryl married. It was a memorable ceremony with all the family. Her sister keeps her wedding dress in her closet. A few years later, she got a divorce because her then-husband wanted to move to Washington state, but she refused since she did not want to leave her mom. She wanted to have a lot of kids, but never got the chance.

After graduating from college, she worked at a bank in Jacksonville as the vice president at just 26 years old, and according to Cheryl, she hoped to soon become the first female president of the bank in the city.

She was living with her mom in Middleburg, Florida, before the time of the murder. Teryl was looking to find her own apartment, to have her own space. She never told her mom; it was another secret between Teryl and her sisters. After nights out, Teryl would usually come back home before the newspaper arrived at 5 a.m. She would leave it at the kitchen bar for her mom. It was a sign that Teryl was back home.

On January 21, 1990, Teryl left her boyfriend’s house in Jacksonville and headed for her Middleburg home. But she never made it.

A man was on his way home from work when he saw Teryl’s car on the side of the road in Middleburg. Her car was found with the engine running, and her belongings still inside, including her purse. The vehicle was found on the side of Lee Road.

Her sister Cheryl says Teryl had apparently taken a different route; she usually went I-295 to 103^rd Street, then south on CR-217, instead of CR-218. It was a dark road, and Teryl usually avoided dark roads. She had been afraid of the dark since an incident several years earlier, when her sister Cheryl was driving her little brother and Teryl to a friend’s house. A woman jumped inside the van in the middle of the road. The woman held a knife to Cheryl’s throat, demanding help finding her kids. Later on, they got away. The woman had been high on drugs.

Teryl’s body was found a week after her car was discovered, on January 28, 1990. She was found less than four miles off Lee Road. She had two stab wounds to the chest and a broken clavicle and had been found 50 feet into the tree line; her body was dumped, not hidden. Teryl was 26 years old when she died. Her birthday was less than a month away.

“When the Sheriff and Captain from the sheriff’s department walked in, we knew, and I hit the ground,” Cheryl said. “I sucked it up, then I went into the big daughter that had to take care of everybody.”

The sheriff’s department had a few people of interest, but there weren’t any specific suspects. Police believe it was someone familiar with the area. It has been over three and a half decades, and no murderer has been identified.

The murder affected Cheryl in so many ways. After Teryl’s murder, their mom became distant. The grief hits Cheryl every time a Christmas movie comes up on TV. “I don’t cope at all with my grief,” she said.

Christmas was Teryl’s favorite holiday, and her last one was special. It was the 1989 historic snowfall in Northeast Florida. It was also the last interaction Cheryl had with her sister Teryl.

“It was a memorable Christmas with all the snow,” said Cheryl. “We tied trash can lids to a car and started sledding.”

Cheryl remembers her little sister all the time: she thinks of her laugh and her personality, and she misses being with her. She remembers their last interaction as a special moment since it was the last time the whole family was together for Christmas. Cheryl remembers her sister as a person who always liked to be in style; she liked to dress up and do her makeup.

“I miss her, I miss my family. When her birthday and the day she came up missing comes, I do not want to talk to anybody. I don’t want to do anything, just leave me alone,” said Cheryl with tears in her eyes.

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Anyone with information concerning Teryl Orcutt’s unsolved homicide is asked to call the Clay County Sheriff’s Office at (904) 264-6512. To remain anonymous and possibly be eligible for a reward, call First Coast Crime Stoppers at (866) 845-8477.

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