Nearly nine years after Stevencia Barlatier vanished from an Orlando grocery store parking lot, the Hernando County Sheriff's Office says it still needs the public's help to figure out who killed her. Barlatier, who was 21 and pregnant at the time, was last seen on Nov. 25, 2017, and her body later turned up in a remote, wooded stretch of eastern Hernando County, dozens of miles from where she disappeared.
According to the Hernando County Sheriff's Office, detectives are seeking new information about Barlatier's sightings, contacts, activities, associates or travel on or after the day she went missing. The agency says even minor details could prove valuable to investigators still trying to piece together what happened to her. As WFLA reports, Barlatier was a Haitian woman living in the Orlando area, and her last known sighting was 3:30 p.m. on Nov. 25, 2017, at the Publix on East Colonial Drive.
A Disappearance That Crossed County Lines
Barlatier was reported missing by relatives in Collier County shortly after she was last seen in Orlando, the station's report notes. When she disappeared, she was wearing a blue or green top, black leggings and a black hooded jacket, and she was carrying a pink patterned backpack along with a blue garment, possibly a sweater, according to the sheriff's office. At the time, she was in a relationship with a Haitian man and was pregnant with his child, per the same account.
Months after she vanished, Barlatier's body was recovered in a rural area on the east side of Hernando County. Bay News 9 reported that the remote wooded location where she was found was more than 50 miles from where she was last seen alive. The Hernando County Sheriff's Office has classified her death as a homicide, though it has not specified a cause of death.
Case Has Drawn Appeals Before
This is not the first time investigators have gone public asking for help. Bay News 9 covered the case as a cold case back in December 2019, describing it then as the unsolved murder of a pregnant woman whose body was found far from home. The renewed appeal now underway shows the case remains a priority for detectives years later, even as many of the central questions about who was responsible remain unanswered.
The sheriff's office is asking anyone who saw Barlatier, had contact with her, or has information about her activities, associates or travel around the time of her disappearance to come forward. Tips can be submitted anonymously through Hernando County Crime Stoppers online at hernandocountycrimestoppers.com, by calling 1-866-990-TIPS (8477), or through the P3 Tips app, and eligible tipsters may be able to receive a reward of up to $5,000. Anyone with information that could help solve the case can also contact the Hernando County Sheriff's Office directly at (352) 754-6830.
