TX TX - Houston, WhtFem 20-30, 92UFTX, crude tattoos on hands, clothes, plaid skirt in purse, Mar'83

The Doe Network:
Case File 92UFTX http://doenetwork.org/cases/92uftx.html
NamUs UP Case 4590 https://identifyus.org/cases/4590


Sketch of Victim

# Unidentified White Female Located on March 1, 1983 in Houston, Harris County, Texas.
# Cause of death was injury due to a vehicle / pedestrian accident.
# The victim died the same day that she was located.

Vital Statistics

* Estimated age: 22-28 years old
* Approximate Height and Weight: 5'6-5'7" ; 126 lbs.
* Distinguishing Characteristics: Possibly Hispanic or Asian. Black hair approximately 5" long; brown eyes.
* Clothing: She was wearing a green, short-sleeved, pullover shirt; blue jeans; green socks; a pink bra and white tennis shoes. (no sizes available) Beige purse with comb and miscellaneous papers; plaid shirt inside of purse.
* Tattoos: Small "C" tattoo on right shoulder; Cross tattoo with dots around it on outside of right arm near wrist; the letter "P" tattoo with dots around it on left arm near wrist; The letter "N" or "Z" tattoo on the web of the left thumb; dots tattooed on fingers.
* Fingerprints: Available.
* Other: Her first name may possibly be "Mary."


Sketch of victim's tattoos

Case History
The victim was located on 7500 Katy Freeway in Houston, TX.

I spotted this a few weeks and put it on a tentative possibles list. I was just looking over my tentative possibles list, and decided that this one might be worth a closer look.

Tamera Ellen McCurry
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/m/mccurry_tamera.html



The vital stats are spot-on, and they have very similar facial shapes - especially the chins.

There is no mention that she had tattoos at the time of her disappearance, but there is enough of a time lag that the tattoos could have been made during the interim.

There is also the issue about a possible pregnancy. But (1) that apparantly is unconfirmed, (2) she could have had an abortion, or (3) the UID may have indicated prior childbirth and NamUs and DoeNet may have neglected to mention it.

Also, she is not listed as Hispanic or Asian, but her appearance is such that it is difficult to pin-down her ethnicity. The name suggests that she is Irish, but she appears to have a mix of other ethnicities as well.

I spoke with Tara Eason of TX DPS about this possible match. She said that Tamera has been submitted before, but the submission has never been confirmed or ruled-out. Her notes only say that there is no DNA on the UID.

I asked her to transfer me to Melanie Schramm (who is the analyst in charge of the UID). The call went to voicemail, and I hung up with out leaving a message. I will try calling her at some other time, rather than play phone-tag.

This may be one of those cases that they are unable to confirm due to lack of identifiers (or the right identifiers)

From the UID's NamUs page (and DoeNet), it appears that the only identifiers that they have on this UID is fingerprints.

I wonder why they think her first name could be Mary?

I spoke with Melanie Schramm regarding whether or not she ever received a rule-out on Tamera McCurry with regard to this UID. She says that she sent Tamera's dental info to the MedEx office, but they never replied back. She is presuming that Tamera is ruled-out, but she has no confirmation of that.

She says that the City of Houston has been taking advantage of Federal grants available for exhumation of old Does for DNA testing, and she will suggest that they do so with this one.

I also submitted Diane J. Cannon as a possible match based on Charley Project's description of a "tattoo across the fingers of her left hand". The Jane Doe has several tattoos on both arms, as well as her left arm, hand, and fingers. That isn't real solid correspondence, but perhaps (1) she got additional tattoos after her DLC, or (2) all of her tattoos were not mentioned in Charley.



http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/c/cannon_diane.html

there are no rule-outs listed on Namus. Carl, did you ever hear back from your submission of Diane J. Cannon?

webrocket said:

there are no rule-outs listed on Namus. Carl, did you ever hear back from your submission of Diane J. Cannon?

Click to expand...

No, I have not.

Tamera is now officially ruled out.

Here's my reconstruction for Jane Doe UP4590 (92UFTX).

Nancy Jason? Height, weight, and age match and she was a known hitchhiker. (Although it does sound like someone in her religious sect harmed her and she didn't leave on her own.)
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/3142dfmd.html

sidneyia said:

Nancy Jason? Height, weight, and age match and she was a known hitchhiker. (Although it does sound like someone in her religious sect harmed her and she didn't leave on her own.)
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/3142dfmd.html

Click to expand...

Nancy appears to have a smaller nose. There doesn't seem to be much of a resemblance between her and the UID IMO.

wintermute said:

Nancy appears to have a smaller nose. There doesn't seem to be much of a resemblance between her and the UID IMO.

Click to expand...

The Jane Doe has what I would describe as an "Aztec" nose. (i.e., flat and broad with a dorsal lump, broad at the bottom, downward pointing at the tip)

Excellent recon, Carl.

The pm photo used to be on her NamUs casefile, but they took it down. Fortunately, I saved it.

Did a little digging and thought I'd post a couple PMs.

Beatrice Villela - missing Sept. 28th, 1980 - San Antonio, Texas
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/v/villela_beatrice.html

Karen Dean Evan - missing May 1980 - Anchorage, Alaska
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/e/evan_karen.html

Darlene Ann Webb - missing Jan. 22nd, 1983 - Daytona Beach, Florida
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/w/webb_darlene.html

I tried to ignore distance for the most part and go for similar looking girls, though I noted the height and weight are off on Karen and Beatrice and there's no mention of tattoos, but they seemed interesting regardless.

This post is my first contribution to this wonderful community, so I am a complete amateur and much less experienced than most of the awesome posters here, but I'm trying my best.

This woman died very close to where I grew up (and am currently living, for a couple weeks). If you are familiar with Houston, you know the city has a loop that tends to separate people who live "close to the city" and people who live "far from the city." The site of this woman's accident is just outside the loop. If you've driven on I-10 (which is the same as Katy Freeway) through Houston in the last ten years or so, the exact location is pretty much in front of Awty International School, about a mile east of the Ikea. The area is (and has been for decades before this woman passed away) a very middle class, suburban area consisting of families with parents -- mainly fathers -- who worked downtown. I was not born until eight years after this woman passed away, but my mother and my grandmother both lived in the exact same area at the time; if anyone has any questions about the area at the time, I would be happy to ask them and they would gladly answer.

When looking through missing persons reports, there were two women who stuck out to me. Both of them had definite discrepancies, but I just want this woman to regain her identity.
Debra Kay Manial, who went missing from Dobbins, California in December 1982. The fact that she disappeared on an outing with her friends makes me skeptical, but she seems to fit the description of this Jane Doe.
Constance Ann Streif, who disappeared from Harker Heights, Texas in October of 1982. Harker Heights is a couple of miles north of San Antonio (so currently about 3 1/2 hours driving from where Jane Doe died) and if she was making her way east, it could have taken her a couple of months to reach Houston, during which she could have lost weight, changing her appearance a little.

The other thing that struck me about this woman was her tattoos. The crude nature of them reminded me of tattoos that I used to see in high school (which, of course, was twenty after this Jane Doe passed away and I know that this is a concept that originated many decades before I was born) where bored teenagers would take needles or other sharp instruments and poke/cut themselves then rub ink from the pen into the wounds so it would heal in a tattoo-ish image.

This is a lot of speculation on my part, but I hope I can contribute in some small way to the identification of this young woman. I will say a prayer for her every time I pass by the location of her accident; she deserves to rest in peace.

Tattoos were not common on women in 1983 in the US- and hers are unusual. They may hold the key to where she was from, imo.

About the school: The Awty School was founded in 1956 as a pre-school. The incorporation of an Upper School in 1975 changed the school into a college preparatory school which merged with the French School of Houston and became The Awty International School in 1984.

The academic program of the school prepares students for the French Baccalauréat or the IB, and offers an American diploma. All students take a second language - English, French or Spanish. There are native-language programs in English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Arabic, and Dutch.

The nationalities of the student body are composed of 40% American and 30% French with the remaining 30% representing over 50 other nationalities. Graduates attend universities in the U.S., Canada, Latin America, the Middle East, Asia and Europe.
( of course, that reflects the student population at time written )

http://www.awty.org/page.cfm?p=273

Indian boarding school tattoos among female American Indian students (1960s--1970s): Phoenix Indian School, Santa Rosa Boarding School, Fort Wingate Boarding School

Indian school tattoos; dot & stick technique .: http://books.google.com/books?id=E3...page&q=dots around an Initial tattoo&f=false


I believe we may be looking for someone who attended one of these type schools, or lived on a reservation at one time. I posted the two below as outside chances.

https://www.findthemissing.org/en/cases/6423/17/



Sophia Moreno

Burn Scar on left leg/ Tattoo on left hand between thumb and 1st finger "AH"/ Tattoo on right hand of a cross/ Birth mark on upper right leg

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/m/moreno_sophia.html

Linda Louise Jackson
The date missing is past the date of UID death- however,
The missing person (MP) disappeared at the peak of the Green River murders. She was not reported missing by any known associate. Missing report taken after she could not be found by investigators seeking her as a witness and family confirmed no contact in over 10 years.

UID's hair is only 5 inches long; height/hair color & length matches:

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/j/jackson_linda.html

https://www.findthemissing.org/en/cases/14016/0/