LEE COUNTY, Fla. — Behind every face and every action, there's a name. The search for those names is where the journey begins.
Fox 4's Executive Reporter Kaitlin Knapp is on a mission to get to know the names we know, and perhaps find the ones we don't, along with the detectives working in the same communities you call home.
In Fox 4's award-winning series "Sunshine Crimes," we are going across Southwest Florida to tell the stories of people waiting for justice.
In this case, two women — two families — have been waiting for justice for 45 years.
WATCH EXECUTIVE REPORTER KAITLIN KNAPP TELL YOU ABOUT THE CASE AND THE LETTER DETECTIVES NEED YOUR HELP CRACKING:
The Edison Mall became the center of not one, but two investigations. The crimes happened less than a month apart.
However, it wasn't just the time and place that led detectives to believe they were connected.
Back in the 80s, Edison Mall was the place to be. People like 17-year-old Mary Opitz would shop, walk around with her family and just hang out.
"She got tired of shopping and told her mother she wanted to go out to the car and rest there," said Capt. James Roncinske with the Lee County Sheriff's Office Cold Case Homicide Unit.
So, while Mary's mom stayed inside the mall, Mary went to their car — a red Chevrolet Camaro.
About 20 minutes later, at 7:30 p.m., Mary's mom walked to the parking lot.
"They don’t see Mary around and they see the packages that she had on the trunk of the Camaro along with the bag of pretzels," Roncinske said. "They look around the parking lot, they go back inside the mall."
Mary's mom started yelling for her, but no one yelled back.
Police got involved that same day — January 16, 1981.
"Law enforcement does go out and interview her friends and other family members to try and determine where she is and what happened to her," Roncinske said.
Roncinske said there were no signs of a struggle, so all they could do was look for Mary, talk to people and find out more about her.
They knew she was 17, lived at home with her mother on College Parkway, worked at a restaurant in North Fort Myers, and graduated from North Fort Myers High School.
She also had brown hair, hazel eyes and braces.
"Just a good girl. She was an attractive girl," Roncinske said. "She was just out living life that day."
It's a day one man has been re-living for decades.
"I stayed up for about three days straight, just going around all her friends, just trying to find out something," said Chris Opitz, Mary's older brother. "I still look."
He was also in the mall the day Mary disappeared.
"She asked me to go to the car and I said, eh, I’m going to stick around and see what’s going on," Opitz said.
Knapp asked him if he thinks about that moment a lot.
"Pretty much, all the time, every time I think about her…if I would’ve went with her when she actually — go outside with her, it might’ve been different," he replied. "It’s all you can do — hope each day would be different."
For weeks, there was no sign of Mary.
"It was a mystery in some ways because it was just like a dead end right there — a dead end," Chris said.
But, 26 days after Mary disappeared, Edison Mall was back in the spotlight.
On February 11, 1981, an 18-year-old girl went to pick up her mom from work.
"The mother gets off shift, she goes outside to the front parking lot in front of where the Woolworth’s store was, sees Mary’s 1973 green Buick LeSabre, but Mary’s not there," Roncinske said.
You read that right — Mary...Mary Hare.
Another girl named Mary had gone missing from the same mall, also at night.
Again, Fort Myers Police and the Lee County Sheriff's Office got involved.
"What did raise red flags is now you have a second young lady who’s 18 years of age, who looks very similar to Ms. Opitz and now she’s gone missing under similar suspicious circumstances," Roncinske said.
Mary Hare also graduated from North Fort Myers High School and had brown hair. Both of them were also from New York.
Roncinske said they had no information suggesting they knew each other, but they might have.
Were they targeted? Was it just a coincidence?
"They [police] conducted surveillance of the mall to see if this person was staking out, looking for another young lady to abduct," Roncinske said.
Roncinske said no one else was taken from the mall, and he said this could be the case because the killer got arrested for another crime, went to jail and that stopped them. Or, they moved. He said they're two likely scenarios.
But nevertheless, as investigators looked for a connection, and searched for both Mary's, the cases went cold.
That is until nearly four months later on May 30, 1981.
"A husband and wife were walking out in rural Lehigh Acres near 46th Street SW and Alva avenue," Roncinske said. "And they find the remains, skeletonized remains of a young lady."
It was here where they found the remains of Mary Hare, and her death was ruled a homicide.
"It indicates that someone had a familiarity with the area. How would you know that this is going to lead to such a rural area," Roncinske said.
Kaitlin Knapp got exclusive access to the evidence they found at the crime scene 45 years ago.
Roncinski showed Knapp a shoe they found at the scene and a portion of a necklace Mary Hare had been wearing when she went missing.
As detectives collected all of that evidence, they wondered if it would also lead them to Mary Opitz.
"A huge search is undertaken in that area in Lehigh Acres," Roncinske said.
Roncinske said investigators believe Mary Hare's killer likely took Mary Opitz and killed her, too.
So, they searched the area by horseback, the air and on the ground.
But, they couldn't find her.
"Not knowing anything is the worse part," Chris Opitz said. "I would rather know if she’s dead or not."
Days later, the case took yet another turn.
Roncinske said police got this anonymous letter.
It said, "The Edison Mall killer is going to strike again on June 13. Someone will die if you do not believe this truth."
Roncinske said they had extra deputies at the mall that day, and said nothing happened.
But, on Aug. 10, they got this letter.
"You’ll find the first victim Mary, referring to Mary Opitz, at Lehigh Acres at the point west of the point," the letter said.
Investigators are still trying to figure out what that means, and who wrote it.
"And that’s one thing that we would ask your viewers. If they grew up in this area, they grew up in Lehigh Acres, does that mean something to them? Do they know where that location is?" Roncinske said. "We’re asking your viewers if they recognize the handwriting of the author of both letters to come forward."
It would mean something to Chris Opitz, to finally have answers.
"I mean, I do miss her. I get up every morning and look at the shrine and either say good morning or love you," Opitz said.
Through that love, Chris said there is hurt. It's a pain you can't fix.
"I miss them times together — that’ll never be replaced for the years missing," Chris said.
Right now, there are no suspects or persons of interest, but Roncinske is hopeful something will crack the case.
"Often times individuals who do things like this, they abuse drugs and alcohol and sometimes when they are under the influence, they may slip and tell somebody what they did," he said. "DNA may prove beneficial when items are resubmitted."
Roncinske said they're going to keep searching for the answer to this question: who killed Mary Opitz and Mary Hare?
"God tells you to forgive people, but when it hits that hard closer to the heart, you get different thoughts in your mind," he said, "Having her with us one way or the other would be nice."
As Chris waits for that moment to come, he does what he can to remember his baby sister.
Years after she went missing, Chris did a charity bike ride for missing children.
"These are the pins that every rider sponsored her name, wore her name on that 100 mile ride [in Utica]," he said. "To ride that bike in the race that one year — it’s a different kind of emotion."
He and other families affected by this type of crime also put a cookbook together. It contains recipes from people that have been impacted by domestic violence and child abuse.
Aside from the shrine of Mary, Chris said he has something else that is a constant reminder of his sister.
He got his dog, Thor, on Jan. 16 — the same day his sister went missing.
As Thor got older, Chris said he noticed a spot on his eye — the same spot Mary had on her eye.
If you know anything about either case, call the Lee County Sheriff's Office, Fort Myers Police or Southwest Florida Crime Stoppers.
