Missing Woman Declared Dead 1 Year Later: Bradenton Police

BRADENTON, FL — A Bradenton woman reported missing and endangered on Jan. 31, 2024, was declared dead by a Manatee County probate judge, according to a Bradenton Police Department news release.

The body of Catherine Stirm, 67, hasn’t been found.

Detectives with the Manatee Homicide Investigative Unit believe Scott Stirm, Catherine's brother, had knowledge of her death, and that she was likely dismembered and disposed of in an unknown location.

Scott Stirm, 64, died by suicide on February 1, 2024, police said.

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Catherine’s coworkers at a home healthcare company requested a welfare check on the missing woman, who lived in Manatee County, last year. She last spoke to them on Jan. 22, 2024, and failed to report to work the next day, police said. Her employer made multiple attempts to contact her.

Her brother provided police with changing reasons for her absence from work, first telling them that she was hospitalized with COVID-19 and later that she traveled to Michigan.

A woman claiming to be Catherine called a coworker on Jan. 29, 2024, but the employee immediately recognized it wasn’t her and ended the call, police said.

Manatee County deputies conducted welfare checks at Catherine’s home in the Fountain Lakes Condominium complex on Jan. 29 and 30, 2024. She wasn’t home and her car wasn’t in the parking lot. Her vehicle was found Jan. 30, 2024, parked outside of Scott’s residence at the Sawgrass Cove Apartment Complex in Bradenton.

During the investigation, Catherine was seen on a door camera entering her brother’s apartment on Jan. 22, 2024. She was never seen leaving, police said.

After that, the camera recorded Scott struggling to carry and drag large, heavy-duty bags out of his apartment, investigators said.

On Jan. 31, 2024, he was also recorded moving personal belongings from his apartment.

After a search warrant was executed at his apartment on Feb. 1, 2024, crime scene investigators recovered a hand saw, a power saw and cleaning products.

During the execution of another search warrant at the Manatee County landfill that same day, detectives found a knife, hatchet and bloody clothing in a bag that also contained Scott’s mail.

That night, detectives located Scott’s vehicle at the Days Inn at 6320 Windmere Road in Brooksville.

He was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in his room, police said.

Evidence recovered from the room, which was registered to Scott, included several handguns, ammunition, financial documents and Catherine’s driver’s license.

While multiple items were tested for his sister’s DNA, his attempts to destroy the evidence caused the DNA tests to be inconclusive, police said.

Although Catherine is presumed deceased, her case remains open. Anyone with information regarding Catherine or Scott Stirm is asked to contact Detective Jeff Beckley at 941-932-9356 or jeff.beckley@bradentonpd.com.