It was a tear-filled Sunday afternoon as family and friends of Misti Whitfield gathered at McCall Park to celebrate her life Nov. 1. Whitfield had been missing for over a year. Her body was found Oct. 24, near where she was last seen around Nautical Marine, in Tampa.
“Obviously, this chapter is closed,” Mel Ardelean, Misti’s stepfather, said. “The mission to find Misti is a mission accomplished. But there is a part B, unfortunately. It’s a bitter part, bittersweet situation we have going here; that there’s somebody still out there, people, individuals. We’re not sure. But we have to get to the bottom of what happened to Misti.”
Whitfield’s oldest daughter and uncle spoke at the gathering. Attendees signed a guestbook and were encouraged to share their stories of her at a party at Cuzzins, a bar owned by the Ardeleans just a block away.
