The Unsolved: Ocoee PD closes oldest cold case in department history

Retired Ocoee Police Department detective Michelle Grogan stood at the fax machine Thursday Feb. 12, and cried.

After years of diving into the missing persons case of Ernest Manzanares, it was finally over.

Grogan, in collaboration with the Clermont Police Department, was able to bring closure to Manzanares’ daughter, Kristina Cree. Cree was only 2 years old when her father disappeared in 1998. She and her brother lived their lives thinking he left because he didn’t want to be with them.

“They lived with that for almost 38 years,” Grogan said. “They thought he went back to Colorado, but he had been close all this time.”

Manzanares’ case was the oldest missing persons case in the Ocoee Police Department, but all that has changed as the remains found in Clermont’s now Lake Hiawatha Preserve at 450 12th St. in 2009 were confirmed to be Manzanares Friday, Feb. 6. 

A LONG TIME COMING

In 2009, crews with the city of Clermont came across what appeared to be human remains as they were clearing off a newly acquired piece of land for a new park.

Courtesy photo

After discovering teeth, crews contacted the Clermont Police Department, and city and department personnel worked to secure and preserve the scene. The area formerly was a swamp and had been mowed over, Clermont Police Capt. Malcolm Draper said. 

Detectives searched the area, bringing in Lake County Sheriff’s Office to assist with cadaver searches. Detectives also constructed sifters to go through the area. 

The department partnered with the University of Florida and the University of Central Florida to confirm they were looking at human remains. A team of individuals from the two universities assisted in combing the area. 

After an in-depth search, about 27 teeth were discovered, along with bone fragments including a partial part of a cranium and other bones. There also was a pair of Fruit of the Loom underwear, pieces of a blanket and some pants pockets with change minted between 1967 and 1987. 

The Clermont Police Department sent out a teletype to surrounding agencies notifying them of the discovery of human remains in case they had a case that matched. 

Detectives sent the bone fragments for analysis, but it didn’t lead to any information. 

Eventually, the case went cold. 

Until June 2025. 

The break in the case came after the Districts 5 and 24 Medical Examiner’s Office contacted Clermont Police Department to notify detectives within the department of new technology and DNA genealogy analysis, and the Manzanares case fit criteria for a grant the office received to cover the costs of testing the remains. 

The Medical Examiner’s Office sent the remains to Othram, a genetic genealogy company that aids police departments in resolving and solving long-term missing persons cases.

On Dec. 29, 2025, the long awaited results were in. Othram identified the results as Manzanares. 

Clermont Police Department investigators contacted the Ocoee Police Department to notify Grogan and others in the department that after nearly 38 years, Ocoee PD’s oldest cold case had been solved. 

To confirm the remains were Manzanares, Grogan had Cree submit a DNA kit to Othram. 

On Friday, Feb. 6, the results were confirmed as a 100% DNA match, bringing closure to the family who had been waiting for answers since July 1988 when Manzanares left his family’s home one night and never returned. 

“His family has lived for nearly four decades without answers,” Grogan said. “They didn’t know where he was, what happened to him or if they would ever see him again.”

‘YOU KEEP GOING’

When Grogan became a detective in 2013, her interest in cold cases drew her to Manzanares’ case. But like all detectives, she had 100 other new cases she also needed to solve. She did what she could at the time, but it wasn’t until 2022 when she dived into the case again. 

She thought the car was the key to cracking the case. If she found the car, she’d find Manzanares. 

She said all the insurance bureaus only keep records for 10 years, so she kept hitting roadblocks. At the time, Vehicle Identification Numbers only were 14 characters compared to the current 16, and the numbers only were specific to where the cars were made, Grogan said. 

She went through the 30 comparisons of Manzanares who came up in the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System. 

Grogan kept hitting roadblocks, but she persisted. 

“You keep going,” she said. “It’s like peeling an onion.”

In talks with Manzanares’ mother in 2022, Grogan discovered Manzanares learned his family in Ocoee was experiencing domestic violence resulting in him driving his red 1976 Monte Carlo from Colorado to Florida to live with the family. Grogan said he convinced the father to move out and move in with his uncle. 

Later, Manzanares heard his father and uncle, who at the time were members of the 1% motorcycle gang, were planning to sell Manzanares’ sister and niece to the gang. 

He left the house in his Monte Carlo with his keys but not his wallet, jacket or anything else, Grogan said. 

According to his mother, Manzanares had every intention of returning home as he was looking forward to a dental appointment he had scheduled for the next day, but he left the house with plans to confront his father and uncle about selling the then-7-year-old and 8-year-old girls.

“(Manzanares) is the oldest, and he was the protector of the family,” Grogan said. “I also think it should be noted they are Native American. They are of the Navajo tribe.”

But he never returned home, and his car still has yet to be found. 

On July 28, 1988, he was reported missing to the Ocoee Police Department.

Since Manzanares’ disappearance, both his father and uncle have died. The girls his father and uncle allegedly were planning to sell now are living their lives outside the area. 

With the missing persons case closed, the case of what happened to Manzanares is in the hands of the Clermont Police Department. Draper said there aren’t enough human remains to apply other testing to determine the cause of death, but investigators will continue to follow up on any leads that pop up. 

The search for Manzanares’ car will continue, as well.

When Grogan called Cree to notify her of the DNA match results, Grogan said Cree was in a DMV in Texas, and she and her husband went into the parking lot to hear Grogan’s urgent news. 

“I knew it was going to be emotional, so I had our victim’s advocate there with us, and Kristina cried,” Grogan said. “I cried. The victim’s advocate cried. It was just bittersweet, because she always held up hope that her dad would walk into her life, but it also was some kind of answer for the family.”