GUILTY IL - Chicago, Female body in cardboard box, Jan'07 - Marlaina Reed

Thanks everyone for your warm welcome and all of your input already!!

About the "race": With the sketch, I never narrowed my search to "White" or "Caucasian"; it always appeared to me she might be mixed, so I just never wanted to miss her. With the clay bust, she does like more "White" though, but still.

I cannot stay online at the moment, but just wanted to thank you for taking the time to read and post!!

Clemy
 
Regarding the "race" classification, many people of mixed descent Native American/Caucasian Spanish/Caucasion, etc are classified as white/caucasian even if they have characteristics that make them appear none white. Also many Spanish people who are lighter are also classified as Caucasians. I am of mixed descent myself; Native American/Spanish Irish/and random European Caucasian and am classified as "white" even though my eyes are more almond shaped and i have more defined cheekbones. So the classification can potentially throw people off and limit them to looking at one race.
 
My skin is very white, but I have high cheek bones, almond shaped eyes and very curly hair. So I wouldnt rule out Caucasion based ont hat at all.
 
If she were a runaway, she could have taken the braces off herself. She could have broken the wires and pulled them off, leaving the glue. It's a possibility.
 
When I had braces, every once in a while one of them would fall off, and I had that awful cement left on the teeth until I could get in and get the bracket put back on. Maybe this girl is a runaway and some of the braces had fallen off, and she was not able to get to a dentist to put them back.

The knee brace does have me scratching my head though.
 
Chicago is my hometown. I like working on cases in the Chicagoland area because of this. I saw this story last night on AMW and it really saddens me.

I had a few thoughts that I had to share. First off, WHERE on the Northwest side of Chicago was she found? The Northwest side of Chicago is HUGE, so to narrow down where she was found would be an excellent help.

Secondly, she appears to be half-Hispanic or has some Native American in her blood. Especially in her eyes and high cheekbones. I didn't see a race on the Doe Network profile but AMW says Caucasian, but I'm not so sure considering the cheekbones. I could be wrong; it's just my observation.

Next, they say her teeth still had the glue from braces being on them. Seems like the murdered removed them post-mortem. Probably to avoid any possibility of a serial number or identifying info being on the braces?

Just the fact that she even had braces on leads me to believe she was possibly younger than 24, I would think in the 16-19 age range (19's a bit old to still have braces, but you never know). And if she was that young, why isn't a parent or family member stepping forward to report someone that matches her description missing?

That's about all I have right now. I'll check back in a few. I'm really really interested in knowing the EXACT location (or at least neighborhood) in which she was found!

I'm 39 and go to college where most of the people are much younger than me. There is a girl I know who is 20 and she has braces. I commented on it once and she told me that she has had them for about 6 years and I said that was a long time. She said that once she got them on her family was not able to keep up the payments so it was taking her a long time to wear them. So, I assume, had this girl fallen on similar circumstances that she could still be wearing them as a young adult, further, she might have tried to take them off herself.
 
I too am a Chi town, and burbs native.
Can anyone find any newslinks for this girl? I recall seeing her posted on Doenetwork, but have never seen any local news media.
 
Regarding the knee brace, they showed a sketch of the girl on AMW and of the knee brace type on her in the drawing. I've often seen athletes, that still play sports, wearing those during games. It's just that soft type that fits over the entire knee, allows for mobility and has a hole on the top of the actual knee cap. The brace almost looked like what volleyball players wear for knee pads, but sans the padded part on the front. And that gets me thinking...volleyball players, at least the female ones I've known, always seem to have knee issues. But in general, I'd think she must have been active in a sport at some time to be wearing that or maybe in a car accident or something...just some thoughts.
 
Sure sounds possible to me !!

Barb

I agree! I cut and pasted both pics into a doc and they look very much alike. The eyebrows, facial structure and mouth all look similar. Would like to know if Shannon every had braces.

 
Regarding the "race" classification, many people of mixed descent Native American/Caucasian Spanish/Caucasion, etc are classified as white/caucasian even if they have characteristics that make them appear none white. Also many Spanish people who are lighter are also classified as Caucasians. I am of mixed descent myself; Native American/Spanish Irish/and random European Caucasian and am classified as "white" even though my eyes are more almond shaped and i have more defined cheekbones. So the classification can potentially throw people off and limit them to looking at one race.

Just to clear some things up:

SPANISH people are from SPAIN and are classified as "white/caucasian".

HISPANIC people are from hispanic countries in Latin America and some Caribbean Islands (Puerto Rico, Cuba, etc.) and are classified as "hispanic."

And I agree, limiting the search to a particular race can throw people off and limit them to looking at one particular race. That's why I'm looking for "white/caucasian," "white/hispanic," "native American," "biracial," and "other" classifications in my searches.
 
If she were a runaway, she could have taken the braces off herself. She could have broken the wires and pulled them off, leaving the glue. It's a possibility.

All I have to say to that is YEOWCH!!!!!!
 
Regarding the knee brace, they showed a sketch of the girl on AMW and of the knee brace type on her in the drawing. I've often seen athletes, that still play sports, wearing those during games. It's just that soft type that fits over the entire knee, allows for mobility and has a hole on the top of the actual knee cap. The brace almost looked like what volleyball players wear for knee pads, but sans the padded part on the front. And that gets me thinking...volleyball players, at least the female ones I've known, always seem to have knee issues. But in general, I'd think she must have been active in a sport at some time to be wearing that or maybe in a car accident or something...just some thoughts.

I thought the same thing about the knee brace. Maybe she's a volleyball player or avid runner. Or maybe she just twisted her knee...
 
I agree! I cut and pasted both pics into a doc and they look very much alike. The eyebrows, facial structure and mouth all look similar. Would like to know if Shannon every had braces.

I contacted Shannon's myspace with the information and have yet to hear from them. I'll let you know when/if I hear back from them on this case.

I'll be off pretty much the rest of the day (making Christmas cookies this afternoon and Christmas dinner tonight since my kiddo will be with her father for dinner tomorrow). I'll try to hop on later (I'm splitting my time between the Stacy Peterson case and this UID, who, by the way, maybe we should give her a name???).

Merry Christmas! :)
 
I sent the link from doe network to the owners of her missing myspace site. We can see what they think, I guess.
 
LOL, dee, well hopefully they sign in soon! Wouldn't it be great, although really sad, if you found her match?
 
I too am a Chi town, and burbs native.
Can anyone find any newslinks for this girl? I recall seeing her posted on Doenetwork, but have never seen any local news media.


Hi,
I've found only ONE piece of news on the topic so far:
http://www.officer.com/online/article.jsp?siteSection=1&id=36773


For the two (I think?) of you from Chicago, the article mentions that she was found in Northwest Side in the 1600 block of North Francisco Avenue. What can you tell us about the area?


Clemy
 
It would be nice to know where the friend of Shannon's lived in Chicago. Very odd link possibility here.

Clemy, I'm so glad you brought this to our attention. I hope together we can find her home.
 
Reading the race discussion on this thread just goes to remind us all that race is a social construct. It's so important to keep an open mind!
 

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