Search ended, Florida family remains hopeful
A Florida family is grateful that Pennsylvania State Police and the Tampa police are still taking the search for their missing family member seriously 30 years after the girl’s disappearance.
All day Thursday and for two hours Friday searchers using dogs trained to sniff out cadavers searched a two-acre site near Gilchrist and Rankin Airshaft roads in North Union Township looking for the site where a former Fayette County woman said she saw a neighbor bury a large plastic bag when she was 10 years old.
“We’re really appreciative that the Tampa police department went up there and continued the search for us,” said Nancy Tunstall, the aunt of Jennifer Marteliz, the girl who disappeared while walking home from school in Tampa Nov. 15, 1982.
The possible Pennsylvania connection only came to light recently when Anna Cummings, formerly of Fayette County, contacted Tampa police and said she had a neighbor 30 years ago who also had a home in Tampa. Cummings told police the man, Steve Visnosky, had a large brown car, similar to one described near the scene of Marteliz’s disappearance.
Cummings said she saw the man carry a large plastic bag from the trunk of his car and the next day saw a knee-deep hole in the woods near his property had been filled in.
Visnosky died in 1992, and his land is now owned by others. Search warrants were issued for six properties that are wooded or open fields.
Pennsylvania State Trooper Joseph Christy said the search was called off Friday morning when the cadaver dog made no further indications of any grave on the site.
“Additionally, the search of the wooded area along the tree line by the individuals on the scene was negative. Since the time of the possible burial, a gas line was put in along the tree line where the grave site was said to be. Furthermore, the wooded area was also logged with the use of a logging skidder, which caused a lot of damage to the surface soil,” Christy said in a news release.
“It was not a lack of credibility or bad conditions for the dogs; they just weren’t indicating anything,” Christy said in an interview.
Christy said a future search of the area, possibly next spring, has not been ruled out. Tampa police agreed.
“We are still pursuing the Pa. lead through our investigative measures,” Tampa Police information officer Andrea Davis stated in an e-mail.
“Veteran detectives from the Major Crimes Bureau are currently working with the Pennsylvania State Police to thoroughly investigate this lead. This is an active investigative lead and information will be made available at the appropriate time,” Davis stated.
“Detectives from the Tampa Police Department have briefed the family. Thirty years ago, this case not only changed the lives of Jennifer’s family, it was a sad day for our community. Our detectives have never stopped working to bring this family closure, some sense of peace and answers about what happened to Jennifer.”
Marteliz’s cousin, Tunstall’s daughter Nicole Novak, said she only has stories about the missing girl, no real memories of her own.
“My life was changed because of it. I was almost four years old when she was kidnapped. My family tells me how I was her little baby that she took care of,” Novak said.
“In the event they do find something, it’s going to be hell on us until they do the DNA testing.”
Tunstall said this week’s search near Uniontown is the first time the family had ever heard of a possible Pennsylvania connection or the name Steve Visnosky, even though Visnosky lived four or five blocks from Marteliz when she disappeared.
“He’s totally out of the realm of anything we thought happened. My sister wrote a book and I did a movie, and none of this matches up except the car. In our hearts, we really believe she’s alive,” Tunstall said.