Identified! MA - Berkley, Female skeletal remains, 25-35, Oct'08 - Carolyn Moore

Wisteria Vine

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It's not Debbie Melo or Jennifer Fay - anyone know of other missing women in the Taunton - Berkley, MA area?



Berkley, MA - November 14, 2008 - For nearly two weeks, investigators quietly tried to identify the skeletal remains of a woman discovered near railroad tracks in town, hoping to bring closure to a family somewhere in the region.
They compared the remains with information in several high-profile missing persons cases — including Taunton mother Debbie Melo, who went missing in Weymouth in 2000 after an argument with her husband, and two New Bedford women who went missing in 1988 and are believed victims of a serial killer.
None were a match.
Now, authorities are hoping someone will recognize the description of the dead woman.
“If there is anyone out there who may know who she may be, we want them to come forward,” said Gregg Miliote, spokesman for Bristol County District Attorney C. Samuel Sutter.
Investigators concealed the Oct. 29 discovery of the bones initially, in case the victim was one of the high-profile missing persons — and suspected murder — cases.
The state medical examiner and an archeologist examined the remains and determined the victim was a white woman, between 25 and 35 years old. She had a metal plate in her arm.
Experts were not able to pinpoint the time of her death, only saying it was sometime between three and 20 years ago.
Miliote said authorities are now turning to experts who will try to reconstruct what they believe her face may have looked like in another attempt to identify her. That, however, will take weeks.
The remains were found off Plain Street in Berkley on Wednesday, Oct. 29, at 2:45 p.m. by a property owner, about 500 feet from the railroad tracks.
“He was clearing brush in the wooded back of his five-acre property when he noticed what appeared to be a human skull several feet away from where he was working,” Miliote said.
The skull and other bones were later found at the scene. A state police dog trained to find bodies was also called to the scene.
The woman is one of more than 1,400 unidentified dead entered into the National Crime Information Center missing persons database each year.
Dorothy MacLean, whose daughter Jennifer Fay went missing in Brockton 19 years ago today, said she — like most families of the missing —has mixed feelings every time remains are discovered.
“It is like, do you want it to be Jennifer or do you want to think she is still alive,” MacLean said. “That is what I go through. I want to believe she is alive, I don’t want her to be dead, but I would like to have some closure at the same time.”
Her daughter was ruled out by investigators as the person found in Berkley.
MacLean, formerly of Rockland, said families agonize for years, not knowing what happened to their missing loved ones.
“It is awful,” she said. “Every time they find remains somewhere, I have to prepare myself that it could possibly be my daughter.”
 
What about Patricia Minassian?

Patricia Minassian
Missing since July 1, 1996 from Bourne, Barnstable County, Massachusetts
Classification: Endangered Missing



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Vital Statistics

Age at Time of Disappearance: 37 years old
Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 5'2"; 120 lbs.
Distinguishing Characteristics: White female. Brown, shoulder length hair; green eyes.
Clothing: Black pants and grey sweat shirt.
Medical: Minassian had been experiencing episodes of depression since a car accident two-and-a-half years previously in which she suffered head and back injuries. She had spent a week in a psychiatric hospital two times in the previous year.
AKA: Tricia


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Circumstances of Disappearance
Minassian was last seen by relatives in Bourne on June 30, 1996.
She and her family were vacationing on Cape Cod when she drove off in a Red 1994 Mercury Villager MA Reg# 667-ZIS, and left a 15-page letter stating the family would be better off without her.
The minivan she was driving was found in a Wellfleet restaurant parking lot where she and her husband had gone on their first date 18 years ago.
Mr. Minassian told The Cape Cod Times that his wife, an occupational therapist, indicated in the letter that she needed her own space and was unhappy with the way she had been feeling, but did not mention suicide.
Police have turned up no new leads in the case and dive teams and helicopters that searched the ocean off the Cape Cod National Seashore have found no trace of her.


http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/1564dfma.html

Bourne & Berkley aren't terribly far from one another, and the age is very close. The metal plate may also be related to injuries from the car accident that Patricia was involved in. Just thinking out loud
 
Another possibility, and perhaps more likely is Carolyn Moore from Taunton.

http://www.theyaremissed.org/ncma/gallery/ncmaprofile_all.php?A200401976S

Classification: Endangered Missing Adult
Date of Birth: 1978-05-08
Date Missing: 2004-08-23
From City/State: Taunton, MA
Missing From (Country): USA
Age at Time of Disappearance: 26
Gender: Female
Race: White
Height: 66 inches
Weight: 135 pounds
Hair Color: Brown
Eye Color: Hazel
Complexion: Light
Identifying Characteristics: Scar approximately 3" long on back of right shoulder, surgical scar approximately 4" to 5" on right side of middle back, brown mole on right side of forehead, tattoo of "Garfield cat" on upper outer right thigh, tattoo of the initials "G.H." on outside of right ankle, tattoo of the initial "D" on outside of left ankle, pierced ears, previously fractured right forearm, scar on middle of forehead, scar on right forearm.
Clothing: Possibly wearing "Tommy Hilfiger" or "Guess" blue jeans, white "Hanes" socks, black and gray "Addidas" or "Nike" athletic shoes, and gray with green sweatshirt.
Circumstances of Disappearance: Unknown. Carolyn was last seen between 10:00pm and 2:00am in the vicinity of Winthrop St. and Cohannet St. in Tauton, MA. She has a medical condition

Her profile states she had a previously facture right forearm, perhaps this correlates to the metal plate?
 
Someone on the Brockton Enterprise website mentioned a mom who went missing many years ago in Berkley, but they didn't list her name. I thought the remains might be Carolyn Moore, too, but this other woman might be a better fit. I just don't know who that person was talking about and the original post that mentioned her name is gone.
 
There are atleast 4 others mising in Massachusetts when I looked on the NCMA
 
Do we know when this victim was killed? The metal plate I would think would lead to easier identification.
 
Do we know when this victim was killed? The metal plate I would think would lead to easier identification.

They estimate 3-20 yrs exposure for the remains. That is quite a window, I too think the metal plate will be key in getting her identified. I am leaning toward Carolyn Moore and expect we will be hearing more about potential identification in the coming weeks.
 
I think Carolyn Moore is a good fit also, but have they been able to determine which arm the metal plate was in - the right or left? can they determine that with bones?
 
there has been no further mention of this story in any of the local newspapers. i would think that there would have been something....
 
since it's been out there awhile, I'm sure it's been put in the cold case files and on the back burner now. Mass. only recently re-opened it's Cold Case police dept. - I was surprised to learn that they didn't have the funding to support one for a long time!
 
They've just announced an ID on this case: Carolyn Moore. Sad for the family, but glad it's over for them.

They also found another skeleton in a cranberry bog a few towns over - no word on who that skeleton belongs to.

Police ID skeleton found in Berkley as Taunton woman


By Maureen Boyle
ENTERPRISE STAFF WRITER
Posted Apr 06, 2009 @ 01:19 AM
Last update Apr 06, 2009 @ 09:15 AM
BERKLEY —
The search for Carolyn Moore is finally over.

Skeletal remains found in November 2008 in Berkley were positively identified through DNA as the missing 28-year-old Taunton woman.

State Police Capt. Steve O’Reilly, head of the state police assigned to the Bristol County district attorney’s office, said Sunday that investigators were initially able to track a surgical plate from the remains to Morton Hospital and Medical Center, then to surgery done on Moore a number of years ago.

But investigators weren’t able to get a positive confirmation that the remains were Moore’s until last week, when the FBI provided DNA test results to the Bristol County District Attorney’s office, O’Reilly said.

Moore, who had a history of drug abuse, went missing Aug. 23, 2004, in Taunton. The woman’s jacket was found at the time in bushes beside a Winthrop Street restaurant days after she went missing.

Her family was notified earlier that the remains might be Moore, but had been cautioned a positive identification couldn’t’ be made until DNA test results were done.

Initially, investigators didn’t believe the remains were Moore’s because dental records which were available didn’t provide a positive match. However, after authorities traced the surgical plate and then sent evidence to the FBI for DNA testing, investigators learned the remains were that of Moore.

O’Reilly said authorities are now trying to retrace Moore’s last steps to learn how she wound up dead in Berkley, a rural town next to Taunton, and who she may have been with at the time.

Moore had been living on the streets when she went missing and her family was trying to get her committed to a drug rehabilitation center. Her mother, who once lived in Middleboro, now lives in Plymouth.

At the time, police and search dogs combed parts of the city, including spots downtown where the mother of tow had been known to hang out. Parts of the rivers in the city had also been checked by divers.

Her photo was also posed on national missing persons Web site, including the National Center for Missing Adults.

She was one of about 500,000 missing adults in the country, according to the FBI.
 

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