CA CA - Daly City, WhtFem 25-30, UP9938, forced OD, strangled, Jan'87

The Doe Network
Case File: 439UFCA http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/439ufca.html
NamUs Case Number: UP 9938 https://identifyus.org/en/cases/9938


Sketch of 439ufca


Unidentified Female
Date of Discovery: January 11, 1987
Location of Discovery: Daly City, San Mateo County, California
Estimated Date of Death: Same day
State of Remains: Recognizable face
Cause of Death: Homicide by forced overdose and strangulation

Physical Description
** Listed information is approximate

Estimated Age: 25-30
Race: White
Gender: Female
Height: 5'2" to 5'4"
Weight: 95-105 lbs.
Hair Color: Straight, dark brown hair with seborrhea (dandruff).
Eye Color: Brown

Distinguishing Marks/Features: Appendectomy scar (2 inches long). Evidence of childbirth. Smoker. Hands worn from some kind of hard work. Possible cataract in her right eye. Underarms and legs were unshaven.

Dentals: Available. No fillings or other devices noted. Tooth #16 impacted or unerupted. Dental chart
Fingerprints: Available. Fingerprint card
DNA: nucDNA available.
Clothing & Personal Items
Clothing: Gray Windy Weather jacket with hood and fleece lining, Eyes Stopper blue jeans, blue velour sweater, New York gray pullover, hooded lavender sweatshirt, blue underwear, pair of brown socks, pair of black socks, pair of white socks, and a pair of brown lace-up shoes that were fairly expensive. Clothing was in the size 6 range.

Jewelry: None.

Additional Personal Items: A partially labeled prescription container bearing the name "Long's Drug" in Concord. A matchbook from Vern's, a local restaurant. Two packs of Winston cigarettes, one of which was a new pack.

Case History

Children discovered the fully dressed remains of a young female, possibly a transient, in the bushes in front of 198 Bruno Street in Daly City. She had been apparently forced to take on overdose of prescription drugs and then strangled.

The autopsy identified the prescription drugs as imipramine and desimpramine - anti-depressants often used to relieve agitated psychotic symptoms. There was no evidence that she was a habitual drug user.

There was no evidence of sexual assault. She did not have identification or a house key on her.

Earlier she was seen buying a pack of cigarettes at Vern's Diner on Mission Street in Daly City. Some people across the street were having a garage sale and they saw her fighting with a male, but did not intervene.

When investigators interviewed people from Vern's and other businesses and residences in the area, no one recognized her.

Her fingerprints were sent to law enforcement agencies throughout the country, but received no hits.

There's a link to a forward view postmortem in her DoeNet casefile (439UFCA)

WARNING - POSTMORTEM PHOTO AT LINK
Click Here to see POSTMORTEM PHOTO


There is another quarter-view in her NamUs Casefile.

WARNING - POSTMORTEM PHOTO AT LINK
Click Here to see POSTMORTEM PHOTO

She looks very much different in the two photos. I think the quarter-view gives a better idea of how she might have looked in life, and it gives a better idea of her unusually shaped nose, so that is what I based my reconstruction on.

The partial label on the Rx bottle contained no trace of her name OR the drug name?? So I guess it's pretty far fetched to think that Longs could pull records from back then. I'm from the area -Concord isn't a huge city and we only had Longs and Thrifty drug stores until maybe the early-mid 90's.

As always, excellent work on the recon, Carl.

A forced drug OD is very unusual. Apparently it was suspected in this case due to bruising of the face and a split lip. The two medications used, both tricyclic antidepressants, were commonly used before the advent of SSRIs (eg, Prozac, Zoloft). A main concern with tricyclic antidepressants is cardiotoxicity from overdose.

I have never seen tricyclics used to "relieve agitated psychotic symptoms." Even back then there were much more effective medications used for agitation or psychosis. Their primary indication was for depressed mood. I would think it very unusual for a person to have access to both medications, because they are in the same class and would never be used together (due to concerns about toxicity). A prudent psychiatrist might even ask for the old meds if a Rx was changed due to side effects or lack of mood improvement, especially if there was any risk of suicidality.

Symptoms of toxicity start to show up in about 2 hours so I wonder what was happening during the span of time after she had ingested the drugs. I'm guessing she had no idea what was about to go down. I wonder how high the levels were or what the stomach contents showed. What else besides facial injuries made LE suspect that this was a forced OD? Witnesses? Overall very strange.

annemc2 said:

What else besides facial injuries made LE suspect that this was a forced OD? Witnesses? Overall very strange.

Click to expand...

I agree, Annemc. It's a really odd situation for a homicide. I have been sitting here pondering what has led authorities to speculate it was a forced overdose. Yes, the lip injuries could have been caused by forcing pills into someone's mouth, but they could have been inflicted by the assailant during strangulation, especially if she was struggling. If it was determined to be a forced overdose due to witness testimony, ugh. That just gives me the shudders. I'd hope that someone would intervene if they saw someone being forced to ingest drugs.

Sue Doe Nimm said:

I agree, Annemc. It's a really odd situation for a homicide. I have been sitting here pondering what has led authorities to speculate it was a forced overdose. Yes, the lip injuries could have been caused by forcing pills into someone's mouth, but they could have been inflicted by the assailant during strangulation, especially if she was struggling. If it was determined to be a forced overdose due to witness testimony, ugh. That just gives me the shudders. I'd hope that someone would intervene if they saw someone being forced to ingest drugs.

Click to expand...

I assume that she had a large amount of pills in her stomach, so it would have either been a case of forced overdose or suicide. Because she was also strangled, that would have ruled out suicide IMO.
It seems like overkill; why force someone to overdose if you're going to strangle them immediately afterwards?

So did the people across the street give a description of the man she was arguing with to the police? Was she found across the street from the people having the garage sale that witnessed the argument? Did police go to the drug store and look at all the records of prescriptions to possibly see if she had been there? What kind of tests were done on the prescription bottle to see what residue was inside? If she had given birth to a child and had an appendectomy then there are hospital records somewhere on her. What happened to her body? Where is she buried?

HIPAA Laws prevent the police from just going into a hospital or pharmacy and getting lists of people who've had a specific procedure or have been prescribed a specific medication.

LE has to have a warrant to get that information, and to get it they have to have the name of the person about whom the info is sought.

Of course, they don't know her name, so a warrant would never be approved.

I can't believe how much her PM pics look like Danielyelle Jolene White. They are obviously not the same person because the UID was found in 87 and White didn't go missing until 2004 but if I didn't know that, I would for sure be calling in a match as they look identical.

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/w/white_danielyelle.html

Here's my reconstruction of her frontal view PM photo, and a revision of the side-view:

Judy Ann Gary

http://doenetwork.org/cases/1537dfla.html

Love143 said:

Judy Ann Gary

http://doenetwork.org/cases/1537dfla.html

Click to expand...

Looks promising

bump.

Such a distinct look and great recon. Seems solvable.

Love143 said:

Judy Ann Gary

http://doenetwork.org/cases/1537dfla.html

Click to expand...

Namus lists 64 ruleouts; Ms. Gary's name is not on the list.

I could find practically nothing about Ms. Gary. The article here has no additional information: http://identifyla.lsu.edu/profile.php?id=170 There's a short entry in Porchlight with nothing more than the basic entry.

No height or weight information or anything. What there is matches: she's in the age range and had a child.

She does seem to have a similar nose and her hairline and hairstyle are similar.

carbuff said:

Namus lists 64 ruleouts; Ms. Gary's name is not on the list.

I could find practically nothing about Ms. Gary. The article here has no additional information: http://identifyla.lsu.edu/profile.php?id=170 There's a short entry in Porchlight with nothing more than the basic entry.

No height or weight information or anything. What there is matches: she's in the age range and had a child.

She does seem to have a similar nose and her hairline and hairstyle are similar.

Click to expand...

I definitely see the resemblance between Ms. Gary and Jane Doe. I agree that her hairline and nose are similar. Too bad there isn't more information about Ms. Gary.

wannabeasupersleuth said:

The partial label on the Rx bottle contained no trace of her name OR the drug name?? So I guess it's pretty far fetched to think that Longs could pull records from back then. I'm from the area -Concord isn't a huge city and we only had Longs and Thrifty drug stores until maybe the early-mid 90's.

Click to expand...

Longs doesn't exist anymore. They were bought out by CVS in 2008. (After Longs bought out Bill's in the early 90s.)

In regards to this Jane Doe, I was wondering if anyone has considered Christina R. Smith?
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/s/smith_christina.html

Christina R. Smith disappeared in 1984 from Venice, CA, so it might be a stretch, but she was 5'3" (Jane Doe was between 5'2" - 5'4"), and had brown hair and brown eyes. She was 19 when she disappeared, so she would have been 22 in Jan 1987 (Jane Doe's age was estimated between 25 - 30).

However, there aren't many details in Christina Smith's case. It is not mentioned whether she had any scars, was a smoker, or had a child. There are similarities between her and Jane Doe, but it's difficult to determine the shape of her nose from the one picture that's provided.

What are your thoughts?

I'm new to WS, so I apologize if I make any mistakes. Please let me know.

could this be her? Kathleen Kelly. a girl missing from PA in year 1981. they look similar:
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/k/kelly_kathleen.html

To me, she looked like a recent immigrant from an eastern European country given her physical characteristics, plus viewing the morgue photos. Fresh DNA analysis would be beneficial.

Her clothing told me she had been living on the streets for a while as she was layering, consistent with the time of the year she was found (January of 1987).

The brush she was found seems to have disappeared with time and progress. Map: https://goo.gl/maps/3XlsM

Hello everyone,

I submitted Christina Smith a while back and looks like she's been ruled out as this UID.
https://identifyus.org/en/cases/9938

I will keep looking. Hopefully she can be identified soon!