Remains ID'd, found in 1982 in Loxahatchee near serial killer Christopher Wilder's property
One of the most diabolical killers in history roamed Florida and Palm Beach County in the 1970s and '80s before he ended it all in a cross-country killing spree that took nine lives.
Race car driver and wealthy business owner Christopher Wilder of Boynton Beach went on a seven-week rampage in 1984, abducting 12 women, most from shopping malls posing as a fashion photographer and promising to help them establish a modeling career.
He had come to South Florida in 1969, escaping as the top suspect from Australian authorities about the rape and killings of two 15-year-old girls on a Sydney beach. In Palm Beach County, authorities arrested him on rape charges, but he was acquitted in 1977. Then he was arrested again 1980 on the same charges but got a deal that put him on probation.
More: Hulu to air show on Christopher Wilder of Boynton Beach who killed 9 in a nationwide rampage
Wilder is suspected in other disappearances and killings from Florida, including two women whose remains were found near property he owned in Loxahatchee. The remains of one wasnn't identified until 2024.
Here are some other crimes that law enforcement believe he may have committed.
Wilder owned several acres of property in Loxahatchee, including one off F Road, close to where the remains of two women have been found.
Nearby skeletal remains were discovered in a green nylon bag on May 29, 1982, in the 300 block of F Road north of Southern Boulevard. The remains were not identified until 2013 when the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office looked at dental records, finding they belonged to 17-year-old Tina Marie Beebe.
Beebe was last seen on Jan. 20, 1981, in Fort Myers, when she told her sister that a man had offered her a job as a model. The sheriff's office believes Beebe was killed.
With Beebe's remains were a digital watch and earrings of U.S. pennies minted in 1979.
In another Loxahatchee case, a real estate agent inspecting land nearby on Dec. 19, 1982, found the decomposed remains of a female dispersed through thick bush in woods 140 yards north of Okeechobee Boulevard off F Road. She had been shot in the head.
In August 2024, authorities identified the remains through DNA and genetic genealogy as those of 37-year-old Leona Jean Keller, known as "jewelry mom" because of the pieces found with her body, according to a news release from Othram, a company that does that kind of work.
The jewelry included a white metal "Benrus" brand wristwatch, two diamond rings, one white metal diamond pinky ring and a 10 karat ladies yellow metal cocktail ring with four baguette diamonds. Also found was a necklace with yellow metal mariner's anchor pendant.
Keller hailed from Philadelphia but married her husband in Broward County in 1976, Florida marriage records show.
Shari Lynne Ball, 20, of Boca Raton told relatives that she was leaving to pursue a modeling career. She called a friend two days later from a truck stop in Ashland, Virginia, then went missing on June 17, 1983.
A hunter found her decomposed body in Shelby, New York, on Oct. 29, 1983, but she wasn't identified until 2014. A cold-case investigator said her slaying was consistent with 'Wilder's method of operations.'
About 35 miles away, a body had been discovered four years earlier in Caledonia, New York, on Nov. 10, 1979. The teen was found shortly after her death but wasn't identified until 2015 as Tammy Jo Alexander, 16, who had vanished from Brooksville, Florida, in 1979.
She had been wearing an Auto Sports Products jacket, a brand Wilder had been fond of. The .38-caliber bullet found beneath her could be used in .357-caliber revolvers, like one that Wilder used to kill himself.
Mary Opitz, 17, went missing in Fort Myers on Jan. 16, 1981. She was last seen leaving the Edison Mall on her way to the parking lot.
Opitz was shopping with her mother and brother. She told them she was tired and was heading back to the car. When her mother went back, Mary's bag of pretzels and other bags were found on top of the trunk, but there was no Mary.
She was last seen wearing two gold bracelets, a gold necklace with a charm. She had braces on her teeth, which she had expected to have removed in weeks.
Another girl who resembled Opitz, 18-year-old Mary Elizabeth Hare, disappeared about a month later on Feb. 11, 1981, from the same parking area near the Woolworth's. Hare had come to pick up her mother, who worked at the mall, but they never met up. The Edison Community College student had picked up her mother there several times before.
Hare's green Buick was found at the mall, doors unlocked and keys missing.
Hare's body was found in June 1981 in a remote, undeveloped area of Lehigh Acres.
The last time Tammy Lynn Leppert, 18, of Rockledge was seen was on July 6, 1983, while she argued with a male friend. The friend was never considered a suspect in her disappearance.
But Wilder at one point was. Her mother sued him before he died in Concord, New Hampshire, on April 13, 1984, but dropped the suit afterward. Linda Curtis claimed Leppert, once a contestant in more than 300 beauty pageants, had met Wilder on the set of the movie "Spring Break" in Fort Lauderdale. The aspiring actress and model had a short appearance in the movie "Scarface," according to imdb.com.
Curtis said he traveled to Brevard County in an attempt to convince Leppert to let him photograph her. Police were not able to link her to Wilder.
Holly Baltz is investigations editor at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at hbaltz@pbpost.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Serial killer Christopher Wilder suspected in unsolved Florida deaths
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