Identified! MI - Monroe Co., BlkFem UP8502, 14-15, in 55-gal drum, Feb'92 - Carla Tucker

NamUs UP # 8502 https://identifyus.org/en/cases/8502

Unidentified Black Female
Found February 12, 1992 in Ash Township, Monroe County Michigan.

Vital Stats

Condition

Clothing and Accessories

Circumstances of death

Identifiers

This girl is a new addition to NamUs, and fits the description of this Jane Doe pretty closely:

Bina Emery

https://www.findthemissing.org/en/cases/24632/0




Aside from the timeframe being longer than the estimate, everything else is consistent.

She does sound very close. With the description of "scant" body hair, it sounds like the UID might be at the lower end of the age estimate.

It's odd that NamUs notes the transportation ticket was still good for a nickel but didn't mention a date stamped on it. IIRC paper tickets were stamped with the date of use and it doesn't seem likely the girl would have been carrying it loose in her pocket (there's no mention of a wallet) for very long if she hadn't either used it very recently or planned to use it again.

Given the relatively close proximity to where Bina's disappearance occurred, I'm surprised that she hasn't been considered as a possible match. All the pertinent information meshes well enough. I say call it in, Carl.

I e-mailed Lori Bruski. She says that they have a few cases, including this one, on their radar. They are still in the process of getting the identifiers together, and when they do, they will compare all of their possibles.

CarlK90245 said:

This girl is a new addition to NamUs, and fits the description of this Jane Doe pretty closely:

Bina Emery

https://www.findthemissing.org/en/cases/24632/0

Aside from the timeframe being longer than the estimate, everything else is consistent.

___

__Bina Emery__​

__Jane Doe UP8502__​

Comparison
Race:

Black​

Black​

Match
Age:

14​

12-16​

Within Range
Height:

57 to 60 inches​

58 inches​

Within Range
Hair Color:

Black​

Black​

Match
Eye Color:

Brown​

Brown​

Match
Date LKA/Discovery Date

23-Feb-1988​

12-Feb-1992 (10 Mo. Est. PM Interval)​

4 years
Loc LKA/Discovery Loc

Detroit​

Ash Twp.​

15-30 Miles

Click to expand...

Jane Doe UP8502 is not Bina Emery.

She has been matched by DNA to UP11995. (i.e., A black female 15-20 years old recovered in the Detroit River in the southwest side of the city on July 22, 1988).

This decedent (UP8502) has also been identified.



She is Carla Tucker



http://www.detroitnews.com/story/ne...issing-persons-cases-detroit-solved/25615019/

a bit confused, as per article, carla tucker went missing in 1979 but was not found til 1992 and ID'ed just recently? somehow i thought she went missing in 1992
i am glad they have their names back but so much hope and dreams snuffed away...only 14 both girls

pukasonqo2 said:

a bit confused, as per article, carla tucker went missing in 1979 but was not found til 1992 and ID'ed just recently? somehow i thought she went missing in 1992
i am glad they have their names back but so much hope and dreams snuffed away...only 14 both girls

Click to expand...

Tucker, whose death was determined to be homicide, was last seen by a family member walking to the grocery store in 1979. A missing persons report was filed, but she had not been seen since.

Her family, however, never stopped searching. In August 2014, Tucker’s family approached members of the new Missing Persons Coordination Unit, which was successful in getting the case re-reported to the Detroit Police Department who in turn helped by submitting family reference DNA from Tucker’s biological relatives.

Meanwhile, the Monroe County Sheriff’s Department was interested in solving a 1992 unidentified remains case in which a young female’s body was found encased in a 55-gallon drum that came to a Carleton landfill from Detroit.

Detectives submitted DNA samples from the body, which had been kept in evidence and the University of North Texas’ Human Identification Lab processed the DNA samples from both Tucker’s relatives and the unidentified body.

In February, the two samples were linked together identifying Tucker as the female found in Carleton.

http://www.livingstondaily.com/story/news/crime/2015/04/13/dna-remains/25721417/

This part is what confuses me about the case:

Condition
Body Parts Inventory: All Parts Recovered
Body Condition: Not recognizable - Decomposing/putrefaction
Probable Year of Death: 1991 to 1992
Estimated Postmortem Interval: 10 Months

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Carla Tucker went missing in 1979. That is the year I was born, so it's easy for me to time things with her. I would've been 12 at the time the body was found.

There's no way I could imagine someone being dead for a dozen-years being mistaken for having been dead for less than ONE year. Unless the concrete dried "just right" to seal out all air/water and she were miraculously preserved.

I know that DNA "proved" that fact, it's just strange...

In 1979, Carla Tucker, 14, left home to go to the grocery store in Detroit and never returned.

“Carla was your typical teenager. She loved music and loved to cook. She brought so much joy to our household,” Wilson said.

Carla’s body was discovered 13 years ago in a 55-gallon drum encased in concrete by workers in a Carleton landfill. But it wasn’t until this year that it was finally identified.

Last August, after seeing a newscast about unclaimed bodies, Wilson and her youngest daughter decided to give DNA samples through the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System.

“On Feb. 11, 2015, we found Carla. It was a positive hit,” Wilson said. “I froze. After all of this time, I finally knew where she was.”

http://www.detroitnews.com/story/ne...-collect-information-missing-people/27409319/

Reward offered in 36 year old cold case

http://www.fox2detroit.com/news/local-news/60407333-story

She'd be about 50 years old now, but in December of 1978, Carla Tucker of Detroit was a smiling, 14-year-old girl. Her family, had no idea it would be the last Christmas they'd spend with her.

"You not only killed my daughter but you killed my family," said Laverne Wilson, Carla’s mother.

Although it's been 36 years, Carla's family says they still need answers.

"You never stop searching. You never move past this," said Stephanie Tucker-Lwanga, Carla’s sister.

Click to expand...

RIP Carla. :rose:

Up
Can we move this thread to the Cold Case forum?

CARLA TUCKER – 1979 HOMICIDE – DETROIT

Case Information

Name: Carla Tucker
Date: June 1979
Age: 14
Location: Detroit, MI

Carla Tucker was reported missing from Detroit’s east side by her mother on June 19, 1979. She was last seen at her home located on Elmwood at McDougal near Gratiot. Her body was found in a landfill on February 11, 1992.

Carla was later identified by DNA on file. Carla was strangled, sexually assaulted and left in a 55-gallon drum encased in concrete. The landfill is located in New Boston, MI. at 28800 Clark Rd. at Oakville Waltz Rd. Carla was 14 years old.

LINK:

Carla Tucker - 1979 Homicide - Detroit - Michigan Cold Cases

Richard said:

Carla Tucker was reported missing from Detroit’s east side by her mother on June 19, 1979. She was last seen at her home located on Elmwood at McDougal near Gratiot. Her body was found in a landfill on February 11, 1992.

Carla was later identified by DNA on file. Carla was strangled, sexually assaulted and left in a 55-gallon drum encased in concrete. The landfill is located in New Boston, MI. at 28800 Clark Rd. at Oakville Waltz Rd. Carla was 14 years old.

Click to expand...

How do they know her cause of death if her body was found 13 years later? Just curious.

I'm not questioning the identification (obviously, it is correct and undeniable), and in no way am I criticizing law enforcement or whomever put this case on the internet, but I'm really skeptical of some of the demographic information that was listed on the UID's NamUS profile before she was identified as being Carla.
For one, we know that the estimated postmortem interval was very wrong, but I also don't believe for a second that they were able to determine her eye color unless they had access to DNA phenotyping (and based on the fact that Carla was identified five years ago, I don't know how likely that was). It can take as little as one or two days after death for eye color to be impossible to determine due to postmortem changes like corneal clouding. I know that the body was likely well-preserved due to being encased in concrete, but Carla had been deceased for almost thirteen years before her body was finally located.

This all goes to show that none of this is an exact science and that we should take information listed on NamUS profiles with a grain of salt, particularly in the case of decomposed/skeletal UIDs like these. Reminds me of the case of that one former UID (I don't remember his name, but he was identified within the last year) found dismembered in a cave in Idaho. There was still a bit of soft tissue on the remains, which lead investigators to give an estimated postmortem interval of "months". In reality, the person had died something like 50 or 60 years prior, and the location had preserved the remains really well.

DETROIT – When 14-year-old Carla Tucker walked to a convenience store near her Detroit home her family didn’t know it would be the last time they would see her. That was 43 years ago.

“I was looking out the window from where we lived and I watched my sister go into a corner store where I could visibly see her. She came out of the store, she made a left turn and started walking -- and she was out of sight and we never saw her again,” her brother, Horace Tucker, said in 2015.

The last time her family saw Carla Tucker alive was on June 19, 1979. Her remains were discovered 12 years later, but the family wouldn’t know that for another 23 years. They still don’t have closure.

---

'You never stop searching, you never move past this'​

and that’s just what we did. But we wanna live. If you heard of anything, anyone, back then, any stories, you believe were urban legends. If you see it now and you recall how we looked then and remember seeing her in school or high school or stories please don’t be afraid to call Crime Stoppers,” Carla Tucker’s sister, Stephanie Tucker-Lwanga, said in 2015.

Carla Tucker (Crime Stoppers)
Carla Tucker’s body was discovered in the Matlin Road Landfill in a 55-gallon drum that had been encased in concrete. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled. The landfill is located about 30 miles from where Carla Tucker was last seen.

Known only as “Jane Doe,” her remains went unidentified for 23 years.

In August of 2014, her mother and sister submitted DNA after seeing a newscast about unclaimed bodies.

On Feb. 11, 2015, the DNA results came through and Carla Tucker finally regained her name 35 years after she vanished.

“This has been a long, painful, painful journey and I just wanna say that the person’s or the people that killed my daughter - you not only killed my daughter, but you killed my family,” her mother Laverne Wilson said in 2015.

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• June 19, 1979: Carla Tucker, 14, walks to convenience store. Her brother sees her exit the store, take a left and she vanishes.
• Feb. 11, 1992: A body is discovered in a 55-gallon drum encased in concrete in the Matlin Road Landfill, 30 miles away from where Carla Tucker was last seen. The body is unidentified.
• August 2014: Carla Tucker’s mother and sister submit DNA after seeing a newscast about unclaimed bodies.
• Feb. 11, 2015: Carla Tucker’s remains are identified