SC SC - Elizabeth Crawford, 36, Simpsonville, SC, July 1986

tifflee

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This case caught my eye because of this forum discussion. It seemed so sad that not only was the Sheriff's Office unaware of her case and had to be sent her missing poster, but people in her own town did not know she was missing. I did not find her profile on NamUs.

_________________________________________________

Doe Network Case File: http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/517dfsc.html
Charley Project Profile: http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/c/crawford_elizabeth.html

The Doe Network:
Case File 517DFSC


crawford_elizabeth.jpg
crawford_elizabeth2.jpg
crawford_elizabeth_ap.jpg

Left and Center: Crawford circa 1986; Right: Age-Progression

Elizabeth Noleeka Crawford
Missing since July 16, 1986 from Simpsonville, Greenville County, South Carolina.
Classification: Endangered Missing

Vital Statistics

* Date Of Birth: January 11, 1952
* Age at Time of Disappearance: 34 years old
* Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 5'3; 125 lbs.
* Distinguishing Characteristics: White female. Brown hair which was frosted blonde at the time of her disappearance.
* Marks, Scars: Scar on the abdomen from a hysterectomy operation; 2 moles on left side of the face
* Nickname: Libby
* Dentals: She has a dark front tooth.

Circumstances of Disappearance
On the evening of July 16, 1986 Ms. Elizabeth Crawford received a telephone call at her home at 108 Cherrywood Mobile Home Park in Simpsonville, SC. After receiving this phone call, Ms. Crawford told her son she was going to a friend's house and would be back soon. Ms. Crawford never arrived at the friends house. This was at 22.30 and she has not been seen since.

The Simpsonville Police Department have witnesses who state they saw Ms. Crawford two days after the disappearance in the company of a white male outside the Ingles in Simpsonville.

On July 19, 1986, Ms. Crawford's 1978 Chevrolet Malibu, 2 door was found abandoned in Fountain Inn on Georgia Street in front of Wilson Sporting Goods, five miles from her home.

Investigators
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:
Simpsonville Police Department
G R Bobo
864-967-9536

NCIC Number:
M-687663832
Please refer to this number when contacting any agency with information regarding this case.

Source Information:
Greenville County Sheriff's Office
_________________________________________________

According to the Help Find the Missing thread mentioned above, "Libby" worked at the Beattie plant before she vanished. I searched for what the Beattie plant is and found this:

Woodside Mills Inc: Beattie Plant
Place page
700 North Woods Drive
Fountain Inn, SC 29644-9789
(864) 862-3557

It looks like they are a textile mill.

Another threads where Elizabeth's name or Doe network profile are mentioned on this site are:

SC-VA-Female 20-35 found Chesterfield Co VA 1986 (with possible match?) - Websleuths Crime Sleuthing Community

LA LA - Faye Aline Self, 26, Armistead, 30 March 1983 - Websleuths Crime Sleuthing Community

SC-Remains Found - Websleuths Crime Sleuthing Community


I could not find any articles with her name plus Simpsonville under Google News archives.

 
Doe Network mentioned the trailer park Elizabeth lived in and that her car was found abandoned in Fountain Inn. I decided to map her home, her car location, and her work location.

Her car was abandoned in front of Wilson's Sporting Goods which came up online with an address of 206 Georgia St, Fountain Inn, SC 29644.

Her workplace was apparently (per another forum's thread)
Woodside Mills Inc: Beattie Plant, 700 North Woods Drive, Fountain Inn, SC 29644.

Her residence was the trickiest to find. Cherrywood Mobile Home Park in Simpsonville comes up in online searches mainly in re-postings of the Doe Network profile on Elizabeth's disappearance. I did find an old county tract map from 1990 which shows it adjacent to some new development. According to Google Maps satellite view, a trailer park is still next to the new subdivision, but the label seems to be Pinewood Mobile Home Park (change of ownership?). I used the upper cross streets shown in the tract map for a general mapping of where her home was.

The three locations mapped out with her general residence area as Location A, her workplace as Location B, and where her car was found as Location C. The URL won't embed properly as an interactive graphic, so here is the saved link to Google Maps.

_________________________________________________

There is a listing for a "Jones, Elizabeth Noleeka" on a publicly viewable family tree on genealogy.com. I am not sure if I am allowed to post the link, but in any case, it was helpful in confirming that this mention of a "Libby Crawford" in a relative's obituary from 2002 is the same person. I suppose it is not surprising given the length of time that has passed, but her family believes she is deceased.
 
What is up with this case on NAMUS (Case No. FA00-338)??? It says a "white female" was found on 8/3/2000 in Abbeville, SC. She weighed 115 lbs and was 63 inches tall - pretty close to Elizabeth Crawford, and about an hour away from Simpsonville, SC. That is literally all of the information available! I am thinking I should at least email the person named in NAMUS as being in charge??? The NAMUS case is too vague. Here is a link:

https://identifyus.org/cases/605

With so little information, it would be impossible to rule Elizabeth Crawford out!
 
Reannan: Do you think that is the same case as this one? http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/112ufsc.html

Same date of discovery, both in South Carolina although different counties (Abbeville versus Darlington which is about three hours apart), same height, the weight in NamUs is in the middle of the Doe Network profile, and both white females.

If you search NamUs for the date of August 3, 2003, only the case you linked shows up. The Darlington one is not a search result.

Confusing, I agree!
 
Gosh, Tifflee - I don't know!! I think I will email the guy in charge of the NAMUS case just to get things straight. That would be great for all of the UID's involved. I will keep you posted on what I hear.
 
I spent the last few hours trying to find news articles of any sort on this case or other disappearances/crimes in the Simpsonville, SC area. No articles found on the actual case and no crime articles jumped out. I did find this posting on Topix from July 12, 2009 by someone claiming to be Libby Crawford's sister which I found very sad. It sounds like her family has put in a lot of effort to find her and run into many walls over the years:

The link to this article is gone......I would have liked to have read it.... My interest.. My sister who also lived in Simpsonville has been missing since July 16, 1986........ 23 years now. When we called the SPD and went to their office to file a missing person's report on Friday, 7-18-1986.....There was this one particular female officer there who said to my face....'Aww, she's probably off partying somewhere.......she'll be back on Monday." She is now with the solicitor's office, the last I heard. Well......my sister didn't show up that Monday.......and hasn't shown up now in 23 years. I got the impression that these people (SPD) just didn't take it seriously at all even with our insistence that she, my sister, just would not take off and leave without SOMEONE........knowing it. For the following year I poured through my sister's personal telephone books, diaries..looking for names, telephone numbers....anything........and would start calling people before the sun rose and way into the night ........asking for ANY kind of information. I gave the SPD all the notes that I had collected. I DID their legwork.......
There was one particular officer, Sgt. Morosco, who I really believed he care...and wanted to help. He has sinced retired but I will never forget how kind and nice he was. He was taken off my sister's case by the 'then' captain?..... He (the then captain) was the most rude and arrogant person...and even threatened me at one time while I was trying to have a telephone conversation with him..... Thank goodness.....he is long gone....and I hope that I will never have any more contact with him in my search for my sister or anything else for that matter.
It took several years for someone to finally have my sister's case classified as maybe foul play indicated. Her case now is on many Missing Person's web sites.
BUT.........had it been taken more serious at the time we reported to the SPD about her being missing......... MAYBE...JUST MAYBE......she would be here today.........or at least we would know something. Anything. There is no closure for me....and I will not ever stop looking for my sister.
 
I thought it couldn't hurt to email Lt. Bobo (the contact listed on Doe Network for Libby's case) to see if Simpsonville Police Department could add her case to NamUs. He replied after two days that her case was added today. I cannot find it on NamUs yet, but maybe there is a lag time between when cases are entered versus go live? In any case, I will keep checking and will post the NamUs link here - or follow up with Lt. Bobo if I still cannot find it after a few weeks.

Also, because Dr. Love was kind enough to coordinate with UNT for the DNA comparison between Libby and a Jane Doe found in Houston (TX TX - Wht Fem with frosted hair - Houston, Feb 1990 - Websleuths Crime Sleuthing Community), I emailed to ask if that means UNT automatically submitted Libby's DNA to CODIS. She replied that she will check and that if I cannot enter her case into NamUs, she will contact the NamUs person assigned to that state.

I would rather authorities with access to case details enter Libby's case into NamUs since I imagine they have pertinent information to add beyond what I can read online.
Still, good progress, I think! I really appreciate the help provided thus far.
 
NamUs update! Elizabeth Crawford's profile is up: https://www.findthemissing.org/cases/8120/0/.

I don't know who entered it, but it certainly helps that Dr. Love offered to follow-up, I think. It is odd that the "Date entered" shows as "September 07, 2010" since I have been trying to have her case entered by authorities or professional staff for several weeks now. In any case, I am glad it is up!
 
Some new as well as conflicting details on this case from Elizabeth Crawford's NamUs and Doe Network profiles.

New details on clothing
Per NamUs, Libby's clothing at the time of her disappearance was a white tank top, shorts, sandals, and a purse of unknown make.

Conflicting
Where her car was found:

  • Per Doe Network, "On July 19, 1986, Ms. Crawford's 1978 Chevrolet Malibu, 2 door was found abandoned in Fountain Inn on Georgia Street in front of Wilson Sporting Goods, five miles from her home."
  • Per NamUs, "Left home to go to a friends home and never arrived. Her car found at a manufacturing plant six miles away."
  • Might this "manufacturing plant" be the Beattie plant she apparently worked at?
The date she was reporting missing vs. the date she went missing:

  • Per Doe Network: She has been missing since July 16, 1986.
  • Per NamUs: She was reporting missing / last known alive (LKA) July 19, 1986.
  • Doe Network does say "The Simpsonville Police Department have witnesses who state they saw Ms. Crawford two days after the disappearance in the company of a white male outside the Ingles in Simpsonville." However, that would still put her Doe Network LKA date as July 18, 1986. I wonder if the NamUs date is based off of the witness reports and how reliable the witness sighting is considered.
  • Per the supposed posting by Libby's sister posted previously, she went missing July 16, 1986 and was reported missing by family on July 18, 1986.
Her LE contact is Lt. George Bobo of the Simpsonville Police Department and her case number there is S86-19649. Her NamUs case manager is Ms. Ruff at the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED).

 
One more note on Libby's height and weight on NamUs. They are both entered as ranges which should widen the net of potential UID matches.

Height: 62.0 to 66.0 inches (5 ft. 2 inches to 5 ft. 6 inches)
Weight: 120.0 to 130.0 pounds

Doe Network has her as 5'3 and 125 lbs.
 
I came across this genealogy page for Libby: http://www.geni.com/people/Elizabeth-Libby-Crawford/5427750767880058940.

It refers to her name as Elizabeth Noleka Thompson-Crawford (Jones) and identifies her two children and ex-husband, parents, and siblings. It puts one son at 17 and the other at 15 at the time of her disappearance.

There is also a photograph that I have not yet seen on her other profiles:

Libby_Jones_Thompson_medium.jpg
 
Per NamUs, DNA status is: "Sample submitted - Tests complete."

Again, thank you to Dr. Love of the Harris County Medical Examiner's for jumpstarting that process.

Also, according to NamUs, the LE contact has changed. It is now Inv. Arthur Owens of the Simpsonville Police Department.
 
After finding this thread via Google, I am a bit daunted by the fact that it took these volunteers between May 2006 to January 2010 to finally get a comparison done between a UID and Libby Crawford's case.

However, at least I can add here that Libby Crawford was ruled out as a match to this Jane Doe:

http://www.doenetwork.org/hot/hotcase139.html
https://identifyus.org/cases/6642

Libby Crawford is not listed as a rule-out on NamUs, though.

Tifflee,

Do you know how they came to rule out Elizabeth not being the Chesterfield VA UID? The time when Elizabeth went missing is close, the hysterectomy, the sandy color hair and height between the two... all are close.

I saw Elizabeth's Doe Network profile, then decided to she if she had been entered in NamUs. I of then tried to match her up with any UID's and thought the Chesterfield VA UID was a good match, only to come on here to find out she has already been ruled out!!
 
@chaddylex: Sorry, just saw this post! I re-read the thread I linked and it looks like one of the posters got this reply from LE:

Thank you for your efforts with Porchlight Missing and Unidentified. We have been in contact with Simpsonville PD in South Carolina regarding Elizabeth Crawford who was reported missing in 1986. We have ruled out Ms. Crawford as a possible match with our 1986 unidentified female remains. The decision to rule out Ms. Crawford is based on the fact that she had no tattoos and a surgical scare inconsistent with our unidentified female remains.

Thanks again for your efforts,

Capt. Terry Patterson
Chesterfield County Police Dept.
Criminal Investigations Division
(804) 318-8451
 
Just an update for this thread regarding Elizabeth Crawford -
I submitted yesterday a UID case on NamUs which I thought may match Elizabeth Crawford
.
The UID case NamUs:
https://identifyus.org/cases/5966

Elizabeth Crawford NamUs:
https://www.findthemissing.org/en/cases/8120/4?current_page=case_information

I have placed the comparison photo below (for future reference).
At this time the Regional Manager Pamela Reed has responded by email: Sat 6th July 2013
Thank you for your suggestion. Searching DNA profiles have not produced a match, but I will do some additional checking.

If any further news is forthcoming, I will post it here.
Additional thread mentioning UID & Elizabeth Crawford on websleuths:
NC NC - Hubert - WhtFem 564UFNC, 20-30, Found by Raccoon Hunters, Dec'91 - Websleuths Crime Sleuthing Community

Just to Note: Elizabeth's Header Profile location and contact details on NamUs has been corrected and updated/changed as of yesterday.
 

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  • ELIZABETH CRAWFORD PARKING LOT 206 GEORGIA ST FOUNTAIN INN SC.jpg
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