Detectives ID killer in the 1973 murder of two sisters in the Florida Keys

Monroe County Sheriff’s Office detectives and state investigators identified the man believed to have killed two sisters from New Jersey found dead in the woods in the Florida Keys in 1973.

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Marguerite “Maggie” Jenkins, 18, and her 16-year-old sister Mary Jenkins came to the Keys on vacation in April 1973. On May 3 of that year, a resident found their bodies about 100 feet from U.S. 1 at mile marker 99.5 in Key Largo.

They were badly beaten and had been shot, Monroe County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Adam Linhardt said.

The day before their bodies were discovered, Maggie and Mary last seen hitchhiking in Stock Island, almost 100 miles south of Key Largo, according to the sheriff’s office. Detectives’ investigation at the time yielded no suspects, Linhardt said.

Monroe detectives and Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigators, using DNA databases, believe the man who killed the teens is David Allen Snyder, who died of natural causes in Mountain View, Idaho in 2008 at the age of 57, the sheriff’s office said Wednesday.

“I want to thank the detectives of our Major Crimes Division for their hard work alongside the FDLE in bringing closure to the family of these two victims,” Sheriff Rick Ramsay said in a statement. “This case highlights the importance of our law enforcement partnership with the FDLE and our commitment to solving crimes no matter how long it may take.”

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Snyder lived in Key West at the time of the murders, the sheriff’s office said.

Detectives obtained a blood stain on one of the victim’s underwear in 2018 from which they were able to establish a partial male DNA profile, Linhardt said. But, they were unable to match the sample

Investigators were finally able to identify Snyder by performing genealogy research and family tree-building and matching his DNA with a sample collected from one of his relatives earlier this year, Linhardt said.

According to the Florida Sheriff’s Association, the Jenkins sisters hitchhiked from New Jersey to the Keys because they wanted to experience Spring Break. When they arrived in the island chain, they stayed for a few days with some friends they met in Key West before heading north.

Although their father wired them money so they could return home on a bus, their friends told detectives at the time that the sisters were determined to hitchhike.

After their bodies were found, the friends in Key West were the first to identify them, and their father confirmed the victims were his daughters, according to the Florida Sheriff’s Association.

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This story was originally published September 2, 2026 at 2:43 PM.