Executive Case Summary: The Disappearance & Presumptive Death of Sara Gail Ebersole
Investigator / Reporting By: Dustin Reed Terry
Subject: Sara Gail Ebersole (DOB: 03/14/1996 | Disappeared: March 2–3, 2023)
Jurisdiction: Marion County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO Case #23-71) / Alachua County Line
Status: Presumed Deceased (Judicial Docket Entry: October 13, 2025) | Active Homicide/Missing Person Investigation
1. Executive Overview & Critical Update
On October 13, 2025, an official judicial determination of presumptive death was entered on the Marion County court docket regarding 26-year-old Sara Gail Ebersole, who vanished in the early morning hours of March 3, 2023.
Because Florida’s general statutory presumption for unexplained absence typically requires five years (F.S. § 733.209), an accelerated ruling at the 2.5-year mark indicates direct evidentiary proffers of mortal peril or unreleased law enforcement affidavits establishing that survival was impossible. TheColdCases.com has submitted formal public records requests to unseal and review the underlying petitions, exhibits, and judicial findings to determine what evidentiary threshold was met.
Accompanying this briefing is our field video dispatch documenting the physical corridor of Sara’s final movements—from Café Risqué off Interstate 75 south along U.S. 441 into Reddick, terminating at the Circle K convenience store where she was last captured on public surveillance.
2. Timeline of Final Known Movements
Date & Time Location Event / Evidence Description
March 2, 2023 ~7:00 PM Café Risqué (I-75 Exit 374, Micanopy)Sara clocks out of her shift; seeks a ride back to Gainesville.
March 2, 2023 7:50 PM Mobile Communication Texts sister Michelle Tullis: “Tell my nieces and nephews I love them.”
March 2, 2023 ~10:00 PM Circle K (17980 N. Hwy 441, Reddick)Arrives at gas station; surveillance captures her entering a dark full-size pickup truck with two unidentified males.
March 2, 2023 10:11 PM Circle K Apron Sends final outbound text to sister: “Getting into a random truck with some cowboys... hope they take me for a ride.”
March 2, 2023 Late Night Secluded Residential Parcel (Reddick)Dropped off at a gathering attended by multiple individuals, including James Robinson, James Schaller, and Teesha McDermitt.
March 3, 2023 ~2:40 AM Reddick Property (Digital)Sara’s mobile device undergoes a deliberate, complete factory data wipe/reset.
March 3, 2023 3:00–5:00 AM Reddick Property Witnesses state Sara departed the residence in a blue sedan driven by acquaintance Tyrone Morman. Last physical sighting.
December 2023 Wooded Tracts (Off Hwy 318 / Hwy 441) MCSO conducts multi-day forensic excavation using K-9 cadaver units and heavy equipment; no remains recovered.
May 2024 Marion CountyWitness/party attendee James Robinson dies of a drug overdose.
October 13, 2025 Marion County CourthouseFormal presumptive death determination entered on the official legal docket.
3. Key Persons of Interest & Material Witnesses
Tyrone Morman (Person of Interest): Identified by MCSO as the primary person of interest. Known to have operated the blue sedan that Sara reportedly entered between 3:00 AM and 5:00 AM on March 3, 2023. Arrested and convicted of misdemeanor obstruction after falsely claiming his cell phone was lost/destroyed; detectives recovered the functional device via search warrant. Refused further substantive cooperation.
James Robinson (Witness - Deceased): Present at the Reddick residence during the late-night hours. Died of a documented overdose in May 2024 prior to trial testimony.
James Schaller & Teesha McDermitt (Material Witnesses): Confirmed attendees at the Reddick property during the party timeframe; questioned by detectives regarding timeline discrepancies and the factory reset of Sara’s handset.
4. Forensic & Physical Profile
Physical Identifiers: Female, 5’2”, approximately 115–120 lbs, dirty blonde hair, blue eyes.
Distinctive Markings: “Kokopelli” (flute player) tattoo on her hip; various smaller tattoos on arms/torso.
Last Seen Wearing: White sequined tank top, dark skirt, casual footwear.
Digital Footprint: All cellular activity, cloud synchronization, and social network logins ceased immediately following the 2:40 AM factory reset on March 3, 2023. Zero banking or credit activity post-disappearance.
5. Investigative Objectives & FOIA Target Points (TheColdCases.com)
Unseal October 13, 2025 Court Records: Secure full docket pleadings, petitioner identities, witness affidavits, and judge’s findings of fact regarding the presumptive death ruling.
Triangulate Morman Telematics & Cellular Data: Review public records relating to cell tower pings, route tracking, and recovered forensic data extracted from Morman’s seized phone.
Dec. 2023 Excavation Documentation: Obtain supplemental search warrant returns, soil testing reports, and operational summaries from the specialized dig off Highway 318.
6. Public Tip Line & Reward Notice
Reward: $35,000 for verified information solving the disappearance or locating remains.
Law Enforcement Contact: Marion County Sheriff’s Office — Major Crimes Division: (352) 732-9111
Anonymous Tips: Crime Stoppers of Marion County: (352) 368-STOP (7867) | Reference: MCSO Case #23-71
Editor’s Note & Investigation Dispatch
Field Footage Available: Readers and listeners can now view our accompanying investigative on-site video dispatch embedded below, tracking the physical corridor of Sara Gail Ebersole’s final confirmed movements—tracing the route south from Café Risqué along Interstate 75 and U.S. 441 into Reddick, down to the fluorescent parking apron of the Circle K where surveillance cameras caught her final public steps.
The Docket and the Clock
In the legal architecture of missing person investigations, paperwork rarely bleeds. It does not shudder like a cell tower pinging into the pine scrub, and it does not capture the hollow silence left behind in a home where a child waits for a mother who never returns. Yet, buried inside the formal dockets of Marion County, Florida, rests a sterile line entry dated October 13, 2025: a recorded presumptive death determination.
To the state, a presumptive death finding is a matter of administrative and civil consequence. It shifts jurisdictions, adjusts trusts, settles estates, and clears statutory thresholds for individuals who have vanished under circumstances pointing toward catastrophe. But to those watching the case of Sara Gail Ebersole, who vanished off the map on the boundary line between Alachua and Marion counties in March 2023, the entry on the docket landed like a seismic shock wave.
Someone stepped into court to make that determination formal. Someone filed the pleadings, signed the affirmations, and laid out the legal rationale that Sara is no longer among the living.
Here at TheColdCases.com, we are not taking that line entry at face value. Our investigative team has filed extensive public records requests to unseal, retrieve, and review every page of that October 13, 2025 proceeding. We want to know precisely who initiated the filing, what sworn evidentiary proffers were introduced to convince the court, what law enforcement affidavits accompanied the petition, and what conclusive forensic or circumstantial milestones the state claims to have reached.
Until those records are in our hands and unredacted, the docket entry is an open wound. It marks an official acknowledgment of what everyone close to this corridor feared, but it leaves the core question untouched: What happened to Sara Ebersole between the neon edge of Café Risqué and the quiet darkness of rural Marion County?
The Neon Corridor — Café Risqué to Micanopy
To understand how Sara disappeared, you have to drive the terrain. It is a stretch of North Central Florida where the suburban sprawl of university-dominated Gainesville quickly gives way to moss-draped live oaks, limestone sinkholes, long unlit pastures, and high-speed highway corridors.
The last afternoon of normal life for 26-year-old Sara Ebersole was Thursday, March 2, 2023. Sara, the mother of a daughter who was then just weeks away from her fifth birthday, worked shifts along Interstate 75 at Café Risqué. The adult entertainment venue sits prominently near Exit 374 in Micanopy, flanked by billboards that have towered over travelers for decades. It is a waypoint where long-haul truckers, commuters, locals, and transients intersect at all hours of the evening.
Around 7:00 PM that night, Sara clocked out of her shift. Like countless hospitality and service workers operating without personal transportation, she was seeking a ride home. She placed a call to her older sister, Michelle Tullis. Michelle was unable to make the drive down from Gainesville right then; Sara, described by her sister as an easygoing, trusting spirit who always looked on the bright side, replied that it was completely fine.
Fifty minutes later, at 7:50 PM, Sara’s phone lit up Michelle’s screen again with a text message: Tell my nieces and nephews I love them. It was an affectionate, tender sign-off that did not immediately trigger alarm bells, but in hindsight, it stands as the final emotional anchor of her evening.
The Reddick Circle K and the Disappearing Trail
How Sara traveled south from Café Risqué across county lines into Reddick remains one of the investigation’s initial puzzle pieces. But by roughly 10:00 PM, she had arrived at the Circle K convenience store located at 17980 North Highway 441 in Reddick.
When we brought our cameras to that Circle K, the geography spoke louder than a satellite map ever could. Sitting at the intersection of Highway 441 and rural county roads, the gas station serves as an island of harsh white canopy light amidst miles of pitch-black rural highway. It is where travelers stop for fuel before vanishing into the interior wooded tracts of Marion County.
Store surveillance cameras captured Sara on the property. She was wearing a white tank top with sequin details and a dark skirt. The surveillance recorded her approaching and willingly climbing into a dark, full-sized black pickup truck occupied by two unknown men.
At 10:11 PM, Sara tapped out her final outgoing text message to Michelle. The message had a reckless, breezy undertone that still haunts those who read it: she told her sister she was “getting into a random truck with some cowboys” and hoped they would take her for a ride.
That 10:11 PM dispatch was the last direct communication anyone in Sara’s family ever received from her device.
The Wooded Property and the Midnight Hours
Deputies with the Marion County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) eventually pieced together what happened in the immediate aftermath of that Circle K departure. The black pickup truck took Sara to a secluded, heavily wooded residential parcel in the Reddick area.
According to investigative summaries and missing-person bulletins released by MCSO, Sara was dropped off at the property, where a social gathering was underway. Investigators identified multiple individuals present during the late evening of March 2 and into the early morning of March 3, including James Robinson, James Schaller, and Teesha McDermitt.
Witnesses on scene confirmed that Sara spent hours at the location. But as midnight turned into the early hours of Friday, March 3, the atmosphere on the property shifted.
Digital forensics extracted from Sara’s iCloud later showed normal incoming and outgoing data, cellular connectivity, and device activity through the middle of the night. Then, at approximately 2:40 AM, Sara’s phone suddenly went dark—not through battery failure, but through an abrupt, complete manual factory reset and data wipe.
Shortly after that wipe, between 3:00 AM and 5:00 AM, a blue sedan—identified in various records as a Hyundai—arrived or prepared to leave the property. The car was operated by Tyrone Morman, an acquaintance who had arrived at the residence. Witness accounts collected by detectives stated that Sara left the wooded compound in that blue vehicle with Morman.
She was never seen alive again.
The Obstruction, the Person of Interest, and the Excavations
When Sara failed to return home or check in on her daughter, the alarms were raised. Her roommate officially reported her disappearance. Soon, Marion County detectives began interviewing anyone connected to the gathering on the Reddick property.
Almost immediately, the investigation hit walls of resistance. Detectives zeroed in on Tyrone Morman, identifying him as the sole official person of interest in Sara’s disappearance. When questioned by investigators regarding his whereabouts and his interactions with Sara on the night of March 2–3, Morman allegedly provided false statements.
When detectives asked to inspect his mobile phone to verify movements and cross-check cell-site location data against Sara’s wiped handset, Morman claimed that his phone had been broken and discarded. That statement unraveled quickly. Law enforcement secured a search warrant, seized the phone, and found it intact and fully operational. Morman was arrested and charged with providing false information to law enforcement and misdemeanor obstruction.
Yet, possessing the phone and securing a misdemeanor conviction did not unlock the ultimate truth. MCSO officials acknowledged publicly that Morman refused to cooperate further with investigators, declining to explain where the blue sedan traveled after pulling out onto the dark asphalt of Highway 441 in the pre-dawn mist of March 3.
The frustration around the case boiled over in the winter of 2023. Acting on forensic tips, Marion County Search and Rescue deployed cadaver K-9 teams to rural tracts near U.S. 441 north of Highway 318. In December 2023, crime scene tape went up, and heavy excavators were brought into the wooded properties. Forensics technicians scraped dirt for days. The community held its breath, awaiting an announcement.
The dig yielded no human remains. The earth was smoothed back over, the yellow tape came down, and Sara Gail Ebersole remained officially missing.
The On-the-Ground Perspective
Standing at the locations where a person was last seen changes the scope of an investigation. In our video walk-through, we began at the perimeter of Café Risqué off I-75. It is an environment where people arrive and leave anonymously, tucked right against the interstate exit ramp. If you do not have a car, you are trapped between a high-speed arterial and dense woods.
From there, we drove south, tracing the old pavement of U.S. 441 down into Reddick. At night, this highway has virtually no ambient lighting. Once you turn off onto the graded dirt roads that lead back into the Marion County properties, you are in total pitch blackness.
At the Circle K at 17980 N. Highway 441, the feeling is suffocatingly specific. The gas pumps hum under the white LED canopy. It takes fewer than twenty seconds to walk from the glass doors of the store to the edge of the parking lot where vehicles idle. In those twenty seconds on March 2, 2023, Sara made a decision to step into a truck.
Watching the surveillance stills and standing in that exact footprint brings home the horrifying speed with which someone can slip through the cracks of a rural corridor. A five-minute drive in any direction leads into thousands of acres of private timberland, sinkholes, limestone quarries, and deep swamp.
Uncovering the October 13, 2025 Determination
Which brings the investigation back to the courthouse floor, and the mysterious entry dated October 13, 2025.
In Florida, under Chapter 733 of the Florida Statutes, a presumptive death hearing requires rigorous burden of proof. It requires establishing that the missing individual was exposed to a specific peril of death, or that an exhaustive, diligent search conducted over statutory periods has produced no trace of life, leading to the inescapable legal presumption that the individual is deceased.
The date of October 13, 2025 stands out sharply:
The Timing: It arrived two and a half years after Sara’s disappearance—prior to Florida’s traditional five-year general presumption period for unexplained absences, indicating that the filing likely relied upon direct evidence of mortal peril or specific law enforcement affidavits detailing why survival was deemed impossible.
The Parties: Who petitioned the court? Was it filed by family seeking guardianship or estate closure for her minor daughter? Or was it initiated in connection with pending state actions?
The Evidence: What sealed or unsealed exhibits were laid out before the bench? Were there cell tower triangulation records from Tyrone Morman’s recovered phone that placed his vehicle in areas incompatible with life? Were there forensic findings from the December 2023 digs that were never made public to avoid compromising a homicide indictment?
TheColdCases.com is currently pursuing the full document docket from that October 13, 2025 proceeding. We are fighting to get our hands on the petitions, the judicial findings of fact, the transcripts of the testimony, and the underlying affidavits.
A presumptive death ruling cannot be allowed to act as a quiet exit ramp for a criminal case. Declaring a victim legally dead on a ledger without identifying, charging, and prosecuting those responsible for that death is not justice; it is merely bookkeeping.
The Broken Silence
In the months and years since Sara vanished, her sister Michelle has refused to let the case go cold. Through initiatives like “Toss Shells for Sara”—painting her sister’s name and hashtag on coastal seashells sent around the world—she has fought to keep the public’s eyes open. A private reward for information leading to Sara’s whereabouts climbed to $35,000. Protests, roadside vigils, and billboards have periodically dotted Marion County, demanding accountability from law enforcement and from the people who were at that house on March 3, 2023.
Yet, the silence among the key players has remained obstinate. James Robinson, one of the men present at the gathering where Sara was dropped off, died of a drug overdose in May 2024, closing off another potential avenue of direct testimony. Others who were there have scattered, declined interviews, or hidden behind retained counsel.
The community knows what MCSO detectives have publicly intimated for years: people who were at that Reddick home know exactly what happened between the moment Sara’s phone was wiped at 2:40 AM and the sun rising over Marion County.
Sara Gail Ebersole was 5 feet 2 inches tall, weighed barely 115 pounds, had dirty blonde hair, blue eyes, and bore a distinctive Kokopelli flute-player tattoo on her hip. She was someone’s sister, someone’s mother, someone’s daughter. She did not simply dissolve into the night air outside the Circle K.
The October 13, 2025 docket entry declared Sara presumed dead on paper. Our investigation will not stop until we hold those court documents in the light—and until the people who put her in that condition face a jury in a court of law.
Research was done by The Case File Desk and is a regular consultant for TheColdCases.com
If you have any information regarding the disappearance of Sara Gail Ebersole, or the movements of vehicles and individuals associated with the Reddick property on March 2–3, 2023, contact the Marion County Sheriff’s Office at (352) 732-9111, or submit an anonymous tip to Crime Stoppers of Marion County at (352) 368-STOP (7867), referencing case #23-71.
