CANADA Canada - Anne Abraham, 19, Ramah Bay, Labrador, 6 Aug 1976

http://siarchives.si.edu/collections/siris_sic_1348

Anne Hilda Abraham disappears in the area of Ramah Bay, Labrador, while on an archeological-geological expedition led by Curator William W. Fitzhugh of the National Museum of Natural History, Department of Anthropology. Abraham reportedly became separated from a companion and was never found.

Also posted this in the Jane Britton thread, not sure if these missing women cases are related or not, but including just in case...

http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?189878-MA-Jane-Britton-22-Harvard-student-1969
MA - Jane Britton, 22, Harvard student, 1969


http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/nl-inuit-mmiw-1.3512896

A shocking number was revealed at meeting in St. John's Wednesday: more than 100 indigenous women and girls are estimated to have been murdered or gone missing in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Click to expand...

Anne Abraham's parents were convinced of foul play. They were they apparently unaware of the Jane Britton murder 6-1/2 years earlier. Mr. & Mrs. Abraham attempted an unsuccessful litigation against the Smithsonian to try to prevent other such tragedies However the Smithsonian was protected by a government regulations clause stating that even volunteers are employees and that the government agencies could not be held legally responsible for injury or death.

I would recommend any individuals who have knowledge of relevant disappearances and/or unsolved murders of geologists/archaeologists or their relatives or individuals that were near archaeological digs be posted on both the Jane Britton and Anne Abraham sites. I believe that authorities in both the US and Canada are aware of the WS information. I am cross-posting this on both Jane and Anne threads so it does not get stuck in jurisdictional silos.

Are her folks still living?

Kaeru said:

Anne Abraham's parents were convinced of foul play. They were they apparently unaware of the Jane Britton murder 6-1/2 years earlier. Mr. & Mrs. Abraham attempted an unsuccessful litigation against the Smithsonian to try to prevent other such tragedies However the Smithsonian was protected by a government regulations clause stating that even volunteers are employees and that the government agencies could not be held legally responsible for injury or death.

I would recommend any individuals who have knowledge of relevant disappearances and/or unsolved murders of geologists/archaeologists or their relatives or individuals that were near archaeological digs be posted on both the Jane Britton and Anne Abraham sites. I believe that authorities in both the US and Canada are aware of the WS information. I am cross-posting this on both Jane and Anne threads so it does not get stuck in jurisdictional silos.

Click to expand...

Can you shed some light as to why they were convinced of foul play?

https://news.google.com/newspapers?...AIBAJ&sjid=gP8MAAAAIBAJ&pg=1843,1743179&hl=en

https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/23073384/

The, search for Anne Abraham, Ihe 19-year-pld student who disappeared Aug. 5 during an archaeological expedition in northern. Labrador, has been called off. "The best conjecture is that she was lost In the cliff area along the northern shore and must have slipped and fell in the water," her brother, Edward, 27, said in a telephone interview. "The water there Is 1 at the freezing point, with icebergs . . . If she'd fallen in, she couldn't have lived long, even with her knowledge of scuba and swimming." Edward had flown to the area shortly after he received the news about his sister. He said he left Ihe site atyng Ramah Bay on Friday and got home late .Saturday night. He said he and two Mentis, including Anne's boyfriend, Slephan Loring, were Ihe only people doing an extensive land search. Bui he said he felt that all Ihe land which could not be seen from the airhad been covered. , ' The Royal Canadian Mounted Police and- the Air Sea Rescue Squad had sent in helicopters. But their efforts and the land search failed lo turn up anything more concrete than a few footprints near the last place she was seen. Attempts to explore'caves known lo the 'Eskimos near the 2.000-foot mountain Miss Abraham was last seen trying lo circumvent also proved fruitless. "The caves diiin't turn out to be the type we had visualized and so 1 believe that now police feel there is nothing they can do bul close out Ihe case," said Hilda Abraham, Ihe mother of the George Washington University sophomore. . , This was Miss Abraham's sixth summer as part of a Smithsonian Institute archaeological research team. She was 14 when she went on her first archeologieal expedition. Her brother, who is now a Harvard medical student, accompanied her on that trip. "My son said he could see what Anne was doing, %1 Mrs. Abraham said. "It is a place untouched since prehistoric limes, with a strange kind of beauty despite all its horror and remoteness. He.said he could feel her excitement'aboul what "she was working on."

Click to expand...

The conditions in the area where she was lost do support the idea of accident rather than anything more sinister (unless anyone has other information to the contrary). The following was a comment left in 2007 by one of the helicopter pilots involved in the search, at http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/magazine/so07/reverberations.asp.

" We were told that a Smithsonian archaeologist had gone missing. We used the two helicopters to search the Ramah Bay area, to no avail. The wind was so strong, I wouldn't have been flying if there hadn't been a life at risk. At one place I landed, my airspeed indicator was still showing gusts to 60 miles per hour. This trip pushed my flying skill to the limit. Until your article, I never knew the name of the missing archaeologist. I have always regretted that we could not find Anne Abraham.

On this and other trips to the area, I did not see any polar bears from the air. I give more credence to the theory that she may have slipped and fallen. One morning, we woke to find about a centimetre of ice coating the entire helicopter. This was the middle of summer. As Kobalenko says, northern Labrador is not an area without hazards for the traveller."

Bumping for Anne. Possibly connected to this case:

http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?189878-MA-Jane-Britton-22-Harvard-student-1969

It was 8 days since the Ramah team was dropped off and Fitzhugh's base camp had not heard from them. RMG [Dr. G] was the only person with Anne at Ramah Bay and he did not follow communications protocol.

Excerpts from the 104-page Report to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution: Abraham Internal Review Panel, dated March 8, 1977.

Part I – Sequence of Events, Page 7:
From Dr. G’s point of view, setting up the radio, except in an emergency, was of a lower priority than their field work. Viewed in that light, his actions in this regard are understandable. However, at September Harbor the perspective was different. Dr. Fitzhugh had only to ways of knowing how his teams in the field were faring: regular radio communication to let him know that the team was able to man the radio, and emergency calls. He viewed the silence from Ramah as ominous.

Part II – Conclusions Regarding Ms. Abraham’s Disappearance, Page 6:
Convinced that the Spillsbury-Tindell radio were an effective and reliable means of intermediate range communication, Fitzhugh obtained funds at the Smithsonian for the purchase of three such radios for his Labrador project; these he had with him in 1976. Previous arrangements regarding frequencies remain in effect.

Fitzhugh’s party had two broadcasting times each day, 7:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. Field parties were expected to check in with the home camp at those times.

Appendix 15: Communications, Page 9:
Communications:

• A control center with two-way radio is assumed.
• Reports to control center should be made frequently, at least once a day if possible.
• Lapses of as many as three days without a report from a camp will be taken as presumptive evidence of trouble, and a site visit will be started.
• Inform control center of any plans to be away from camp longer than normal. Include as much information on destination and route as possible.

Formalities to be observed during radio communication are detailed elsewhere. Such formalities are rigorously controlled by governmental authorities.

------NOTE: see also many comments since 2014 on the Jane Britton thread about Anne's case and RMG.-----

A repost..
Wonder if this murdered woman, can now, in any way be linked to Anne and Jane ?
http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1...um=web_primary&utm_campaign=recommend_sidebar


Widow Killed Near Radcliffe Dorm; Police Cite Britton Case Similarities
February 7, 1969

A 50-year-old Cambridge widow was found bludgeoned to death in her apartment at 41 Linnaean St. yesterday morning, a quarter-mile from the scene of the unsolved murder of Harvard graduate student Jane Britton '67, 23, a month ago.

The body of Mrs. Ada Bean was found on her bed by her employer and the janitor of the apartment building, James Edwards.

Police said last night that they had found no suspects but an investigation is being undertaken under the direction of Cambridge Detective Lt. John Norton.

The circumstances surrounding the two deaths are remarkably similar. Police said Mrs. Bean was discovered with her night clothes pulled up around her shoulders and a blanket over her head, which had been bashed in with a blunt, heavy instrument. Miss Britton was also found with her head covered.

Police speculate that in both cases the victim was asleep at the time of the murder, and that the killer was well known to the victim. Both women lived alone

Click to expand...

The woman reportedly at one time worked as a research secretary at Harvard and in a similar capacity for other concerns in the Boston area.

Click to expand...

From what I can tell, Anne Abraham, a 19 year old student aid, who had been working with the Smithsonian every summer since she was 14, was working on a geological/ archeological "dig" in Northern Labrador. It was directed by Dr. Fitzhugh.

Anne was assisting a Harvard grad student who has been referred to as RMG. Anne and RMG were put down at Ramah Bay which is in the fat north or Labrador 120 miles north of the "base camp" where Dr Fitzhugh was posted. RMG was expected to set up the radio he was given, but he did not set it up and did not make the expected daily radio contacts with September Harbor.

I can find no information on what research they were undertaking nor have found any information about the events leading up to Anne's disappearance. At some point RMP contacted Dr Fitzhugh and reported Anne missing. A search was initiated but she was never found. It is believed that she fell from some cliffs on the north side of Ramah Bay and went into the water which would have been extremely cold and would probably kill her before she could be out. I could not tell if she was assigned to go to that area or if it just considered the most treacherous spot in the area.

The terrain is low lying tundra with barren mountains to the west. There is no roads, landmarks or human habitation anywhere near so it would not be that difficult to get lost if she strayed from the coastline. What is not know is what account of the situation RMG gave.

While there are inherent risks in sending a 19 year old woman out into the wilderness with an older male, it seems like the greater risk would come with allowing anyone to go alone into wilderness when there was no way to track them if they became lost or injured. I suspect scientists in the field display more bravado than a business with employees might permit but a mishap like this, even if standard safety procedures were not followed and radio contact not maintained, this still appears to be nothing more than an accident.

One poster has alleged that Anne's parents "we're convinced of foul play" but no quotes or other evidence was provided. A lawsuit against the Smithsonian could have been based on negligence rather than foul play.

This incident came to the attention of WS because RMG may have been a grad student in Harvard's Archeology Dept at the time Jane Britton. This is compelling evidence of anything. He was not identified as ever being a suspect or even having any links to Jane. I can not ascertain that he ever knew her or even lived in Cambridge at the time of her death. At this point, it seems contrary to the policies of WS to go suggesting that he is, in anyway. A murder suspect.

If more information is known about the Ramah Bay incident, we might be able to settle that issue at least.

http://naturalhistory.si.edu/arctic/html/Labrador/labrador.swf
Videos at right, the one with boat describes some of the research undertaken there.

http://mapcarta.com/24578092

August 6, 2016 is the 40th anniversary of Anne Abraham's death. There is a strong suspicion by many people that it was not an accident. Help us solve this case.

Here's a logsheet of references to Anne's case on the Jane Britton thread. RMG may have connections to both these cases and also a third case of Ada Bean near Harvard. For the actual posts go to “MA - Jane Britton, 22 Harvard student, 7 Jan 1969”, a Thread started 11/2/12 by MAcoldcase.

www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?189878-MA-Jane-Britton-22-Harvard-student-7-Jan-1969

Post# Date Poster’s alias topic/issue
#598 8/14/14 Scrutin-eyes Anne, RMG connection
#600 8/14/14 DonMitchell RMG, Smithsonian article
#604 8/15/14 Scrutin-eyes Mad Mike @ Stony Brook
#607 8/16/14 Scrutin-eyes RMG selling artifacts
#608 8/16/14 Scrutin-eyes connect cases of Jane & Anne
#615 8/16/14 Pink Panther same suspicion of RMG
#618 8/16/14 Pink Panther Anne’s family search
#620 8/16/14 Dotr refer to VIDOCQ Society?
#623 8/16/14 DonMitchell RMG at Harvard
#624 8/16/14 Pink Panther RMG was in Cambridge1969
#625 8/17/14 Pink Panther Anne’s sister to Labrador in 2006
#629 8/18/14 Scrutin-eyes RMG was enrolled, probably knew Jane
#632 8/19/14 Scrutin-eyes RMG was there, knew Jane
#637 8/19/14 Ausgirl Anne & Jane murders connected
#640 8/19/14 PinkPanther Anne citation
#641 8/19/14 PinkPanther Torngat articles
#642 8/19/14 PinkPanther Hilda’s Creek
#644 8/20/14 Scrutin-eyes RMG violating NAGPRA 1990 laws
#645 8/20/14 Scrutin-eyes RMG trigger
#648 8/20/14 DonMitchell RMG calls FBI on Miller
#649 8/20/14 Ausgirl Anne – protocol for field teams
#650 8/21/14 Scrutin-eyes RMG an ex-marine and Anne
#653 8/29/14 Hoosgirl Helicopter pilot searched for Anne
#654 9/2/14 MAcoldcase RMG suspicion from start (began Jane thread)
#655 9/2/14 Ausgirl RMG and Jane
#656 9/2/14 Ausgirl Radio tribute for Anne
#657 9/2/14 Rhino-Esq RMG’s temper
#658 9/2/14 Dotr Anne’s handwriting in final journal?
#660 9/3/14 PinkPanther Wish Anne’s sister would join.
#661 9/5/14 Scrutin-eyes Anne’s find, RMG’s temper
#668 9/11/14 DonMitchell RMG unethical
#670 9/16/14 Scrutin-eyes RMG’s rage and poss multiple murders
#672 9/16/14 Ausgirl RMG premeditated?

#741 1/14/16 HerBrother Boyd Britton join thread
#752 2/14/16 Kaeru Red ochre, Jane & Anne
#753 2/14/16 DonMitchell Many people discussed earlier
#755 2/22/16 PinkPanther Anne & Hilda’s Creek
#756 2/24/16 Kaeru Hilda’s Creek
#761 3/7/16 PinkPanther RMG & other in article
#767 4/17/16 Dotr Helicoptor Pilot Mike Ash
#768 4/18/16 Scriptgirl Why Anne on Jane Britton thread?
#769 4/18/16 DonMitchell Because…
#770 4/19/16 Hedwig Other archaeology related murders/accidents?
#771 4/19/16 December Should Anne have own thread?
#772 4/19/16 Kaeru Anne was skilled climber
#775 4/20/16 Dotr **separate Anne Thread started**
#779 4/23/16 PinkPanther contact authorities about Anne’s case?
#781 4/23/16 PinkPanther archaeologists in common with Jane & Anne
#785 4/24/16 Kaeru Anne’s parents
#786 4/24/16 Meade shushed up?

Also see earlier on the Jane Britton thread the discussion of red ochre and ritual murder. That is another possible connection to Anne's case.

#5 12/5/12 Pink Panther Red Ochre rites in Britton’s murder
#7 12/8/12 MAcoldcase “100’s of students” interviewed
#16 12/13/12 Pink Panther Red Ochre
#17 12/14/12 MAcoldcase Ada Bean murder connection?
#18 12/14/12 Pink Panther “ “
#19 12/16/12 Pink Panther Ritual stone bludgeoned Britton
#21-23 12/16/12 Pink Panther “ “
#27 12/16/12 Pink Panther Britton over 40 years – open case
#28 12/19/12 Pink Panther rush job on interviewing students
#32 12/19/12 Pink Panther rush -- archaeology students leaving for digs
#40 12/24/12 Ausgirl jealous archaeology dig team? Possible weapon?
#65 12/28/12 Robin Hood Red Ochre rites
#123 1/4/13 MAcoldcase students interviewed? Bean connection?
#182 8/14/13 Justice4Jane stone not missing. Globe 7/20/75 article.
#223 11/22/13 HankB New England & Red Ochre rtiual.

Wow, thanks for the organization Kaeru, glad the posts of mine relating to Anne, were not the only ones you followed with a question ? mark beside it, lol!

Not related to this case, but perhaps of some interest.fwiw

[h=1]A cold case

[/h]

• Meredith Wadman*

See all authors and affiliations

Science 13 Oct 2017:
Vol. 358, Issue 6360, pp. 162-165
DOI: 10.1126/science.358.6360.162

Click to expand...

http://science.sciencemag.org/content/358/6360/162.full

* Editor's note: This article includes crude language and disturbing details.

Click to expand...

Years ago, two women allege, their team leader sexually harassed them in Antarctica. Now they are taking action.


Boston University is investigating sexual harassment complaints made against a prominent Antarctic geologist by two of his former graduate students. The women allege that David Marchant, then an assistant professor, harassed them during different research expeditions starting 2 decades ago, while they were isolated in small groups in the Antarctic. In supporting documents and interviews, several other women report similar treatment from Marchant in that period.

Click to expand...

Bumping for Anne as we approach the 44th anniversary of her disappearance

Sadly, the list is long.
Oct 06, 2017
Murdered and missing women and girls of Newfoundland and Labrador remembered | The Telegram
''ANNE HILDA ABRAHAM — Aug. 5, 1976, age 19, Ramah Bay, Labrador.''

It seems that all the inferences contained within the Jane Britton thread, that somehow this case and that case were linked via RMG, were completely wrong. The Britton case is now solved and the truth turned out to be much more mundane - a serial sex offender called Michael Sumpter.

This may be a useful lesson in not stretching comparisons too far on very little of relevance. Whilst this is a disturbing case (not least in the sheer negligence of RMG in failing to maintain radio contact), all the evidence continues to point to accident in an environment with heavy ice build up and 60mph winds in summer.

Bump. I am here from the Britton case which has been solved. I'd love to see that happening with Anne.

Article from Smithsonian Magazine about Anne's disappearance/death