Ethel Shannon McCarson walked off the Greyhound bus, sat in the grass outside the station and had a brief conversation with a woman.

After about five minutes, McCarson, 42, got up and walked away. It was the last time she was seen alive. Two days later, April 6, 2016, her dismembered body was found off Old Winter Garden Road and North Cottage Hill Road.

Orange County Sheriff’s detectives spoke about her case on the two-year anniversary of her death in hopes of receiving tips leading to an arrest.

“These cases aren’t cases we forget,” said Detective Scott Lowen. “These are cases we always revisit and see what we can work. With this case in particular we’ve gone all the way back to the beginning and we’re going through every bit of evidence we have, anything that we know and trying to re-follow any possible leads.”

McCarson’s homicide has been difficult to solve because she was a transient, he said.

She would travel up and down the East Coast, spending lots of time in her native Georgia and Panama City, Lowen said.

“She didn’t use credit cards, she didn’t use social media, she would just not be seen,” he said. “She would come into town, stay a short time, get a Greyhound ticket and go somewhere else.”

On her way to Orlando, detectives traced a call she made to her mother from the Greyhound bus station in Ocala. Detectives went through hours of surveillance video at the Orlando station on John Young Parkway and spotted her.

She was wearing a light-colored sleeveless shirt, a scarf around her neck, and a bag slung across her chest. Her blonde hair was pulled back into a bun.

McCarson walked outside and sat down where she had the conversation with the woman. She walked off the property and a white vehicle drove in her direction.

Lowen said they’d like to talk to both the woman and the owner of the white vehicle, though they don’t believe the people had anything to do with the homicide.

Detectives believe she was killed somewhere else and dumped either the evening of April 4 or the morning of April 5.

A passerby spotted her body around 2:30 p.m. April 6. The medical examiner determined her cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head.

McCarson grew up in Georgia and obtained her pilot license at 19. She was studying to become an airplane mechanic when, at 21, she had a mental breakdown, her family said.

She was a paranoid schizophrenic, and her life was never the same, family said.

Lowen said she had a good relationship with her family and he hopes having the case out in the public again will revive some memories.

“What were hoping to do is receive some calls ... to generate some information,” he said.

Anyone with information is asked to call Crimeline at 407-423-8477.

dharris@orlandosentinel.com, 407-420-5471 or @DavidHarrisOS

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect the correct investigative agency.