Identified! TX - Greenville, Skeletal Remains, off Interstate 30, Feb'15 - Ilona Vance

PastTense

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Greenville police and University of North Texas researchers are trying to determine the identity of human skeletal remains discovered this morning on a road off Interstate 30.

Police say someone discovered the remains around 8 this morning scattered “over a large area” in a field along the 1400 block E. Joe Ramsey Blvd. For now, at least, it doesn’t appear the person was the victim of foul play. But it’s clearly too soon to tell: The remains were sent to the University of North Texas’ Forensic Services Unit, where an autopsy will be conducted while investigators try to learn the person’s identity.
http://thescoopblog.dallasnews.com/...d-human-skeletal-remains-found-in-field.html/
 
I am curious what more experienced sleuthers think about cases like this? We do not even know the sex of this person yet. How does the media treat such cases? If the cause and manner of death can be determined, will this affect how will this person's family be notified. Is the media likely to pursue a case like this, even if the cause is murder and not some other sad mishap? I was shocked to find out how many dead bodies are discovered before they drop from the news as if they never existed.
 
If the remains are identified and there's no suspicion of homicide, it's pretty common for there to be no followup. The family will be notified and maybe there will be an obituary notice in that person's town. If it's a suicide, often there's not even that much. The family wants to keep things quiet, and that's their legal right.
 
I always think of Brandon Lawson on these Texas threads. Or I get my hopes up.
 
I am curious what more experienced sleuthers think about cases like this? We do not even know the sex of this person yet. How does the media treat such cases? If the cause and manner of death can be determined, will this affect how will this person's family be notified. Is the media likely to pursue a case like this, even if the cause is murder and not some other sad mishap? I was shocked to find out how many dead bodies are discovered before they drop from the news as if they never existed.
It depends on the tidbits LE are feeding the media. If the media suspects it could lead to a bigger story...they will keep it updated, but if not...it is dropped. Sad to say, but dead homeless people do not make the news unless it is due to a horrific murder or other headline. There are many found bodies/remains and we never hear another word after the initial report.
 
It depends on the tidbits LE are feeding the media. If the media suspects it could lead to a bigger story...they will keep it updated, but if not...it is dropped. Sad to say, but dead homeless people do not make the news unless it is due to a horrific murder or other headline. There are many found bodies/remains and we never hear another word after the initial report.

Dying in those circumstances, that that happens to people is horrific to me. It is also sad that their family members may wonder for years when that happens, continuing to hope, without any closure.
 
I found something strange while searching around the 'net for anything else about the victim (Ilona Janet Vance).

I take it that Ilona is not a very common name. The only other time I can remember hearing it is the name of a movie character (Countess Bathory's girlfriend/slave in Daughters of Darkness).

Depending on where you are, I suppose, Vance is a fairly common last name. Or at least not a rare one. There's a Vanceburg in my state (KY).

That said, I don't think that "Ilona Vance" (the combination) would be a very common name. But one of the things that turned up was a movie from 1956 (Accused of Murder) with a character called "Ilona Vance." I wondered if she could have been named after the character until I noted that the movie was made six years after her birth.

But it appears that it was her official name (not a pseudonym she could have chosen from the movie/book) per OkieG's link.
 
I think I found a photo of her...

https://farke.wordpress.com/2009/10/12/houstons-homeless/

If you scroll down, there's a b&w photo of a woman sitting on a bench with this caption: "Ilona Vance is from Eastern Europe. She has been homeless for several years. All of her belongings are beneath the bench."

Greenville, TX where the remains were found is about 4.5 hrs away from Houston where this photo was taken in 2009. The article about the identification does say "The evidence was reported to possibly belong to an individual one document listed as homeless and ill, while other evidence indicated the owner of the debris traveled to Greenville via bus several months ago.

Sad. RIP, Ilona.
 
That's very sad.

re: the name -- there's an author named Ilona Andrews. I don't know whether that's her real name or a pen name. No bearing on this poor woman's case though.
 
Ilona is a common Central/Eastern European name, so you don't see that name in the states often.

She possibly may had her name americansed (or commonly misspelled as) when she arrived in the states, as well.
 
Ilona is a common Central/Eastern European name, so you don't see that name in the states often.

It's a name especially found in Hungary, and given this woman's birth year I'd say it's very likely that she and her parents were refugees from Hungary following the 1956 uprising. Many Hungarians escaped to western Europe in the wake of the uprising, so it's very possible that some then made their way to the US.
 

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