After more than 20 years, the mysterious death of 34-year-old Susan Perkins remains unsolved after she was kidnapped from a salon in Florida with a friend.
But her family continue to search for the man responsible for Perkins’ death, and say they believe her friend who was also abducted and survived is the key to solving her murder.
On August 31, 2004, Susan went to help a friend tint the windows of a day spa in Altamonte Springs close to her home where she and her two sons lived.
But as they worked, a masked gunman forced the pair of friends to hand over their purses and get into Perkins’ red Ford Focus, according to the Altamonte Springs Police Department.
From there, the suspect made them drive to a Washington Mutual Bank and withdraw money from their accounts at the drive-through ATM.
The gunman, described as a black man of medium build, wearing a green army jacket and armed with a rifle, then forced the women into the trunk of Susan’s car.
Retired detective Bill Nuzzi said that Susan ‘knew about the emergency release in the trunk,’ allowing her to ‘reach up and open it’.
The women managed to leap from the trunk of the car, but Susan hit her head on the pavement as she escaped and was later pronounced dead.
On August 31, 2004, 34-year-old Susan Perkins (pictured) was a victim of a robbery-gone-wrong as she was killed after leaping from the car that snatched her and a friend
Susan’s niece, Holly Perkins (left), said her family is certain there’s more to the story and continue to hold onto hope that justice will be served
Susan had gone to help a friend tint the windows of their day spa close to her home where she and her two sons lived. The salon was based on Maitland Avenue, Altamonte Springs (seen above)
Her car was then found abandoned less than a block from the kidnapping scene after the suspect fled.
Police were left with little to aid their investigation as nearby neighbors and potential witnesses had evacuated or were kept in their houses expectant of an oncoming storm.
‘The cameras didn’t work at the ATM, the lights didn’t work in the parking lot,’ Nuzzi added to MyNews13.
Yet, her niece, Holly Perkins, said her family is certain there’s more to the story and continue to hold onto hope that justice will be served.
‘So while we don’t have answers right now, we’re hoping the public can hear and maybe somebody will see it… just the slightest bit of information,’ Holly told the Daily Mail.
Holly said the Perkins family had a close relationship with Susan’s friend that jumped out of the trunk with her.
‘She was really close friends with my Aunt Susan and my Aunt Sara, so she was very close friends with the family. We all loved [her],’ Holly continued.
But after the incident, they never heard from her again.
Susan’s red Ford Focus was later found abandoned less than a block from the kidnapping scene after the suspect fled
Susan had been helping a friend at a salon when they were kidnapped
Family members speculated that Susan’s friend’s sudden silence indicated something sinister in how Susan met her end.
According to Holly, the second victim of the robbery-gone-wrong was interviewed by police but had very little to offer up.
‘[Police] basically told our family that she didn’t give them any information. She didn’t really know anything,’ Holly said.
‘Basically, it was a black man that had abducted her, and that’s it.’
‘We’re hoping we can bring [her] out of wherever she’s hiding and that she will at least recount the events that happened that night,’ Holly said.
Holly said the family have struggled to move on without knowing who is responsible for Susan’s death.
‘She’s a very beloved person in the family…she was just a very warm, welcoming – I can hear her laugh. She gave me the best hugs, the best advice,’ Holly said.
‘You would think after all this time, I would be relishing in memories of her instead of thinking about the tragic way that her life ended, but it’s just the only thing that I think about and I feel angry.’
Susan’s son, Russ Wiginton (pictured) was 14 when she died
‘She was literally everything. Everything you’d want in a mom and everything you’d want in a best friend,’ Wiginton said of his mother (pictured together)
Susan’s son, Russ Wiginton, was only 14 when the tragedy happened.
‘My mom and I had a really close relationship. She was the one person I always confided in for everything,’ he told MyNews13.
‘She was the one, no matter what I needed to talk about, I wasn’t afraid to talk to my mother.
‘I’m never going to see her smile, I’m never going to hear her laugh … it’s really hard.’
Susan’s younger sister, Sara Wakefield, recalled the close relationship she shared with her sister.
‘We could finish each other’s sentences – our boyfriends would joke, ‘If you date one you better be ready because the other one is going to be around too,’ she told the outlet.
Both Wiginton and Wakefield said, if nothing, they too want to find answers to Susan’s death.
‘Anytime there is a story, there is one-side, there is the other side and there is the middle. We don’t know what that middle is and that is what we need to find out,’ Wiginton said.
Susan’s younger sister, Sara Wakefield (right), said she hopes that their family can find closure through new information
The gunman, described as a black man of medium build, wearing a green army jacket and armed with a rifle, forced the women into the trunk of Susan’s car after robbing them in the drive-thru of a bank
Wakefield added: ‘It gets harder as the years go on. You start to heal and it’s like a wound that just keeps opening.
‘I miss her, every day, every day of my life. I feel that emptiness every day.’
