I Would Find a Girl Walking by Diana Montané, Kathy Kelly Page A

According to the girls, Ramona had quarreled with her boyfriend, William Meadows, when she found him with other girls in his room. She had gotten quite upset and left, they stated.
    The girls added that they had seen the couple arguing heatedly in the lobby of the hotel that evening, and one of them even implied that Meadows might know more about her disappearance than he was letting on.
    Ramona was one of nine children, and she had a twin brother, Ray Neal, who was stationed with the U.S. Marines in San Diego, California. Investigators ran a background check concerning Ramona’s habits and associates. From all of this information, they gathered that she was a normal teenager. She did well in school and she liked to sew, and she was a lifelong friend and then childhood sweetheart of William Meadows. Mr. and Mrs. Neal said that, to their knowledge, their daughter had never dated any other boy and that Meadows had never dated any other girl. That sheltered life and having one and only one sweetheart must have added to her anger over the other women she found in Meadows’s room. Ramona’s personal information was verified later by interviewing numerous fellow students and acquaintances of both her and William Meadows.
    For his part, William Meadows provided the police with approximately thirty-two names and telephone numbers of people who could verify his whereabouts and at least an additional ten people who could verify the time element during the day of May 28, the subsequent evening, and May 29, to the morning of May 30. To further prove his truthfulness, Meadows also said he would take a polygraph test in the state of Florida.
    By all witnesses’ accounts, Ramona Neal had definitely been seen heading toward the picnic area on Ocean Avenue in Daytona Beach at approximately 3:00 p.m. on May 29, 1976. She was also reported to have been seen by two other people at 6:00 p.m. and again at 8:00 p.m. The last person to be contacted supposedly saw Ramona in the elevator at the Holiday Inn Boardwalk at midnight, on May 29. The Boardwalk was a popular spot for young people, with its seaside restaurants, hot dog stands, and a Ferris wheel.
    It was weeks later before there was a break in the case. On June 15, Kenneth Gordon, a student, reported finding what appeared to be a body. Investigator Deputy Sergeant Arthur Dees was called to the scene.
    Gordon stated that he was traveling on Old Dixie Highway when his motorcycle ran out of gas, and he began to push it down the road until he got to a gas station.
    Approximately four-tenths of a mile north on National Gardens Road and Old Dixie Highway, Gordon noticed something in a ditch on the west side of the road. He believed it to be a dead animal until he inspected it more closely and found that it appeared to be a deceased female. He then pushed his motorcycle to the Texaco station at Interstate 95 and U.S. 1 and notified the sheriff’s office.
    Sergeant Dees took pictures of the crime scene. The body appeared to be that of a Caucasian female, lying approximately ten to fifteen feet down an embankment with her head in a southeasterly direction. An attempt had been made to cover the body with natural growth obtained from the immediate area.
    Before the body was removed, Sheriff’s Captain Howard McBride contacted Dees with the likely name of the victim. She fit the description of a young woman reported missing to Daytona Beach Police: Ramona Neal.
    Meanwhile, authorities in Daytona Beach scrambled to obtain medical records. By 8:00 p.m. on June 16, 1976, the medical records as well as dental charts had arrived from Forest Park. There was no doubt the body was that of Cheryl Ramona Neal.
    Ramona had been wearing a two-piece blue and white polka-dot bikini. The halter top was secured in the back and tightly fastened. The bathing suit appeared not to have been disturbed. 13
    On June 19, 1976, a thorough ground search was conducted in the area where the victim was found. Members of the