NJ NJ - Carolyn Majane, 15, Moorestown, 22 Aug 1975

mere

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On an August evening in 1975 fifteen year old Carolyn Majane left her home to meet some friends at a nearby store. It was summer and there was not a whole lot to do in the affluent town of Moorestown N.J. Her father wanted her to stay in that Friday night, because there had been an altercation the night before in the small downtown area and some other teens ended up in the emergency room. Carolyn had recently moved from Bethesda, Maryland to what had seemed liked a perfect little town. Carolyn and her friends would often meet up at the WaWa on Main Street, if they did not have a date that evening. That night Carolyn heard of a party and wanted to go. Carolyn was never seen again alive.



It was not until ten years after she vanished that her remains surfaced during the construction of Timbercrest housing development, just a couple miles away from where she disappeared. Children in the neighborhood found her while playing. Sadly in New Jersey during the 1970s teenage girls who were missing were presumed runaways. No investigation ever took place during the ten years Carolyn was missing. Her parents hoped she had run away, but knew she was dead from the night she did not return home.



Carolyn's remains were skeletal when they were found; this would cause difficulties in determining a cause of death. Again, sadly her cause of death was only listed as suspicious. Carolyn did not bury herself in the woods. This was no accident. Somebody put her there.



Thirty years later Carolyn, who was an avid swimmer with beautiful long blonde hair has not received justice. Her murder remains unsolved. Someone knows what happened on the night of August 22, 1975.
 
I originally posted Carolyn as a possible connection to the disappearance to the Lyons' sisters. Though it is possible, I am not sure that it is connected. Carolyn was most likely murdered by someone she was acquainted with. You never know though. I guess it is best to keep an open mind.
 
What was determined during the autopsey on Carolyn's remains? Was the actual cause of death reported? What was the depth and manner of burial? What jewlry or clothing was found/missing?

It is possible that her death was connected to the disappearance of the Lyon Sisters, and to the disappearances and deaths of other young girls in the region, but as you mention, there are no definite links through evidence at this time. I feel that the July 1975 abduction and murder of Kathy Beatty, age 14 (of Aspen Hill, MD) is very similar in circumstances to Carolyn's case. It may be through Kathy's case that Carolyn's case might be connected to several other similar cases.
 
Her remains were found in a fresh mound of dirt, dug up while building a house. Children in the neighborhood were sliding down the piles of dirt when they found her skull. Most of her remains were found, which makes me believe that she was buried. Ten years of being exposed to the elements would surly have scattered and destroyed her remains. A sea shell necklace was found. I do not have any information in regards to if clothing was found. The cause of death could not be determined because their was no hyoid bone. This would determine if strangulation took place. Donna Fontana a Forensic Anthropologist performed an examination but could not find a cause of death.
 
On Tuesday, August 22nd it will have been 31 years since Carolyn Majane vanished.
 
I did not know Carolyn. They found her remains while building my house.
 
Bump…The anniversary of her disappearance is approaching. More information is on the Sheila and Katherine Lyon thread.
 
I did not know Carolyn. They found her remains while building my house.


Oh Wow!! I'm sure she rarely leaves your mind!! Thanks for bringing her and her story here. So many cold cases are being solved.

My guess is, there are plenty of folks out there who hung out with her and that crowd that could tell exactly what happened. Maybe some are willing to talk now!!
 
I bet her friends did have more information than they gave to LE. They may have been afraid to tell the truth back then. I doubt the case will ever be looked at again by LE because her cause of death was only listed as suspicious.
 
I bet her friends did have more information than they gave to LE. They may have been afraid to tell the truth back then. I doubt the case will ever be looked at again by LE because her cause of death was only listed as suspicious.

Sadly, she lived and died in that era when all missing teens were just thought to be wild and misbehaving somewhere and they would all come home some day.
 
Oh Wow!! I'm sure she rarely leaves your mind!! Thanks for bringing her and her story here. So many cold cases are being solved.

My guess is, there are plenty of folks out there who hung out with her and that crowd that could tell exactly what happened. Maybe some are willing to talk now!!

I think that the only way this case can be solved is if some of her old friends speak up. I am sure her friends have some information that would be important, I think when you are a kid you are afraid to share certain things. I would bet if her crowd was re-questioned today there would be new information. It could solve this sad case.
 
Philadelphia Inquirer

Philadelphia Inquirer, The (PA)

January 12, 1986 [SIZE=+1]GRIM TIDINGS FOR PARENTS OF MISSING GIRL, THE LONG VIGIL ENDS[/SIZE]
Author: Edward Power, Inquirer Staff Writer Edition: FINAL
Section: LOCAL
Page: B01
Index Terms:
MISSING PERSON NJ FOUND Estimated printed pages: 7 Article Text: Nighttime in Moorestown, Aug. 22, 1975, and Diane Pearson, then 17, has just come home from her summer job. She grabs her parents' car keys and rushes back out, missing by minutes a telephone call from one of her best friends, Carolyn Majane, 15. "I know some people said she was uptown," Pearson recalls today. "We heard she was walking down Main Street with some younger girls." In another Moorestown home, Susan Norwood, also then 17, has decided to stay in rather than meet up with her best friend, who had telephoned earlier. That friend was Carolyn Majane. "I think there was a lot more they could have done," Norwood recalled. ''I don't know much about police procedure, but I think at the time they said, 'Listen, we can't do anything right now. We don't have enough men.' They just didn't seem too concerned." On that same summer night at around 9 p.m., Elizabeth Majane drives two of her children to meet friends at a nea! rby store, then returns home to her husband, John. One of those children is her only daughter, Carolyn. "She wanted to go downtown," John Majane recalled. "I didn't want her to go. There had been an altercation in town the night before. Some kids had ended up in the emergency room." "I think maybe we had a false sense of security," Elizabeth Majane said, ''a sense that it was a safe, wonderful little town and nothing ever happened there." But something did happen to Carolyn Majane.

<modsnip>

http://articles.philly.com/1986-01-12/news/26053082_1_returns-home-friend-forensic-dentist
 
It has been mentioned in other threads that there was a series of young girls disappearing in Maryland and Pennsylvania throughout the spring and summer of 1975.

A possible suspect in those disappearances and in the murder of another young Maryland girl, Kathy Lynn Beatty, age 14 - was a man named Fred Howard Coffey, Jr.

Coffey had been convicted of raping a 13 year old girl in Virginia Beach in 1974 and of "contributing to the delinquency of a minor" with a 15 year old girl in Norfolk, VA in October 1975. He worked for Vitro Laboratories in Wheaton, MD from April 1975 until he suddenly left in late July 1975 immediately following the attack on Kathy Beatty.

By a coincidence Caroline Majane was from the same place as Kathy, prior to moving to New Jersey. Was Coffey in New Jersey on 22 August 1975?
 
I don't understand why her friends never came forward. She was last seen with friends on Main Street. Did they not see where she was going and who with? This really seems like a slack investigation.
 
I don't understand why her friends never came forward. She was last seen with friends on Main Street. Did they not see where she was going and who with? This really seems like a slack investigation.

This was true in the case of Kathy Lynn Beatty. No one seemed to want to cooperate with police in the investigation. Kids would admit to having seen her at one time or another, but would not say that they were "with" her.
 
I bet with both of these cases friends would talk now. Since they are all grown. I know with the Beatty case it has had some recent media attention. I doubt that Carolyn's case has been relooked at. I wish there was a way to get LE to look again.
 

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