Gainesville family still searching for answers after son goes missing near Everglades

A Gainesville family is still searching for answers after their 30-year-old son went missing in August 2023 and his car was found days later near the Florida Everglades.

Dennis Henry Pinner, 30, was last seen in Gainesville on Aug. 7, according to his mother, Mary Anne Pinner, who reported him missing at about 10 a.m. that same day.

Mary Anne said her husband, also named Dennis, realized her son and his car were gone that Monday at about 6 a.m. when he went to let the dog out of their southwest Gainesville home.

"We were a little surprised by it, but not completely surprised," she said, noting that her son sometimes liked to work out early in the morning. She also said her son didn't have any obligations that morning as he had abruptly quit his job in Lake City the week before.

She notified the Alachua County Sheriff's Office (ACSO) of his disappearance at about 10 a.m. after she returned home from running some errands.

"That's when I really said, 'Something's wrong,' " she said.

Cold case: 35 years later, mother of Tiffany Sessions hopeful that daughter's remains will be found

Mary Anne said her son, a graduate of Buchholz High School and Florida State University, suffers from mental illness and had a "psychotic episode" in 2019. She believes Dennis may have been in a "delusional state" when he disappeared.

The day after her son's disappearance, Mary Anne checked credit card transactions and found several made that Monday between 2 and 7 p.m. at the Miccosukee Service Plaza on Interstate 75, near the north end of the Florida Everglades. She immediately contacted the sheriff's office, who contacted the Miccosukee Police Department. Video from the service plaza confirmed Dennis was there.

An officer with the Miccosukee department discovered the vehicle the next day on a gravel road about a quarter-mile from the service plaza. The only things in the vehicle, according to Dennis' mother, were a backpack filled with food and drinks, and his cellphone, which was dead.

"The only things that weren't in the car were him, his car keys and his wallet," Mary Anne said.

Aerial and ground searches by Miccosukee officers and deputies from the Broward County Sheriff's Office turned up no leads. Mary Anne said scuba divers and dogs also were brought in to help search the area.

"None of that revealed him in that area," she said, fighting back tears.

She said police found no signs of a struggle in the vehicle, and that it was towed to a nearby impound lot on Aug. 10. She said Miccosukee police were told by someone at ACSO not to process the vehicle for evidence.

ACSO spokesperson Art Forgey, who said Wednesday that the case remains open, said he didn't see anything in the report about officials asking that the vehicle not be processed.

"That would surprise me," he said.

The Pinners drove down to South Florida with their son Kevin on Aug. 11 to retrieve the car and drive it back to Gainesville. Upon return, Mary Anne said she contacted ACSO about processing the car for evidence.

" 'No, we can't process it, it's contaminated ... You drove it,' " she recalled being told.

Forgey said that also wasn't mentioned in the report, but confirmed that that would have likely been the case.

"That would typically be correct," he said of declining to process the car. "If the car has been, so to speak, contaminated by someone else, the value of anything that would be gained would be diminished."

The latest update in the case came in January, when Dennis' phone was unlocked and his Google location history revealed that he left Gainesville at about 3:25 a.m. that Monday and arrived in South Florida at about 6:30 a.m.

"He drove almost 300 miles at a very rapid speed," his mother said.

Law enforcement, according to Mary Anne, believe Dennis may have committed suicide due to his mental illness. The family, however, believes there was foul play involved. Mary Anne said she thinks her son is more than likely dead.

"It's a mother's feeling. I felt his presence in the beginning — I don't feel his presence really anymore," she said. "I just feel as though the way that the car was left, the fact that he hasn't contacted us, that doesn't bode well.

"My logical brain says he's probably not alive. My hopeful heart has an alternative scenario, where he went out on I-75, put out his thumb, a female trucker who likes him and thinks he's a great guy let him in the cab and he's driving the countryside. That helps me sleep at night to think that he is still alive."

Dennis Pinner was last seen wearing gray pants and black Nike shoes with white soles. He has a tattoo of an eagle on his left forearm and a tattoo of a coy fish on his left bicep. He also has tattoos on both of his thighs.

A call Wednesday afternoon to the Miccosukee Police Department regarding the case had not yet been returned by Thursday morning. Anyone with information about the case is asked to call ACSO at 352-955-1818.

This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Gainesville man still missing after car found near Florida Everglades