CANADA Canada - Saskatoon, WhtFem 498UFSK, early 1900s murder victim, Jun'06

Dorothy Arnold was the first case that came to my mind but that would have been quite a distance and I think train would have been the only practical way to cover it at that time.

Of course if the woman was a tourist, she could have been from any place in the world.

Why don't we have an estimate of the woman's weight? The size of the clothing should be a good gage.

The perpetrator would have to be at least 115 now so solving in the traditional sense has passed.
 
She could have been the perp's mistress. Why would the perp leave his clothes with her body?
 
She could have been the perp's mistress. Why would the perp leave his clothes with her body?

I would think that maybe the perp left his clothes there because they were bloody from the murder and/or from sawing her arm off.
 
Other than the arm being uniquely identifying, it could also be the case that the killer originally planned to dismember the body, got as far as that arm, and then realise it would take too long and decided to hide the body in the well instead...
 
How sad to think that so much time has past that her family will never see justice for her. :(
 
and then realise it would take too long and decided to hide the body in the well instead...

Or they realised it was too revolting a task, or they realised they didn't have the physical capacity to finish the task.
 
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As for the possibility of her being identified I agree that it would be hard but not impossible. People might still wonder what happened to a relative who went to America and was never heard from again or their great aunt who just disappeared or something like that. That was how I found this forum, my grandfather's brother disappeared in Alaska around this time and I have grown up hearing stories about "uncle Alfred" who disappeared and it was being on maternity leave and trying to see if it is possible to find more information than the family already had that made me find missing and unidentified sites and this forum. Someone else might do the same thing as I did.
 
Would rigor mortis be such that, if she was killed elsewhere and it set in, her outstretched arm had to be sawed off for her to fit in the well? Long shot but it came to mind. Doesn't get us anywhere identifying her though.
 
Would rigor mortis be such that, if she was killed elsewhere and it set in, her outstretched arm had to be sawed off for her to fit in the well? Long shot but it came to mind. Doesn't get us anywhere identifying her though.

Rigor mortis only lasts for a short time, although I don't know those times off the top of my head. It isn't permanent though.
 
I have recently done a blog posting about a photograph, from Saskatoon, of a couple (recently married, I'd assume) which dates to the period of the woman's death, and the woman bears a resemblance to the reconstructions. Sadly, thus far the identities of the people in the photo are a mystery, also. However, it still remains possible there are links between the photo, the victim, and possibly even an infamous Canadian criminal, who also remains unidentified. I'd like to get access to some facial recognition software that could connect the photo (or rule it out) as being part of these cases. Am open to ideas! I tried to upload the photo to this post, but some some reason it would not load. The link to my blog posting with the photo is here: http://pickersjournal.blogspot.ca/2015/01/lost-family-memento-or-clue-to-crime.html
 
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Welcome to Websleuths, PrairieInvestigator and thank-you for your post. Our Jane died abt. 1914 based on her wardrobe and other factors, while this photo appears to have been taken in the 1920's. My great-grandmother was married in 1929 and had a nearly identical hairstyle in her wedding photo, so IMHO I don't know that it's her, but I do see a resemblance to the reconstruction. Maybe the woman in the photo is a relative of Jane's??
 
What are the other factors you are relying on for the 1914 date? The conclusion made is that the well had been already abandoned at the time of her death, which sets the date after 1914. Also, prior to WW1, black was considered a colour of death & mourning, so women avoided wearing black. However, fashion during and after WW1 brought black into play as a fashionable colour, thus would not be unusual to then be worn by a classy, in-fashion woman. Her dress's hemline seems a little too high for 1914, also. Add that she may have been wearing clothing that was not newly purchased that year, so may not have been an accurate depiction of "current fashion" at the time. However, I think that line of thought may be entirely moot! :) I have been wondering, and now am quite doubtful that the clothing shown on "The Doe Network" is the actual clothing she was found in. Considering the conditions in which her remains were found, it is nearly impossible that those were the very garments she was wearing. Clothing from that period does not survive well in those sorts of conditions. I have had clothing that was stored in far better conditions and were in nowhere near as nice condition. The photo of the clothing seems to be in a museum setting, also. Seeing the actual garments, method of manufacture, fabrics, potential maker's tags, and other features would certainly make things much easier. The "necklace" shown is a locket, so there would most certainly have been a photograph, lock of hair, or even a folded up letter, newspaper clipping, souvenir, trinket and/or other evidence to be found inside. It also likely has markings, in the least a makers mark, and if it is gold, it will have hallmarks indicating the purity of gold, and if European, the date and area where it was manufactured. If American, we should be able to date it relatively accurately, also.

The hairstyle in the recreation, if accurate, was common in the teens. It was called "A bob". By the 1920s styles changed. But, hair being what it is, and possibly the reason your great-grandmother had that style, some people stuck with older styles even when they were no longer in style, and, Canada was also a little behind as far as fashion and hairstyles used by the general public on the prairies. So, hairstyle, nor clothing can be a definite indication of date, other than giving us a starting point as to when it came into style....which was WW1..so at least 1914, but likely a year or more later.

A much clearer picture of the locket would help, IF that is even the actual chain and locket. have you seen anywhere online that shows better photos? I have contacted the Saskatoon Police's Historic Crimes unit with the photo, my interest in the case, etc, but I have not heard back from them as of yet.
 
Delurking to add 2 cents about Jane Doe's hairstyle. Yes it is a bob, but I believe this particular hairstyle was referred to as a "Marcel wave"- the look was achieved with heavy tongs heated over a gas burner. The tongs were the forerunner of curling irons. Supereasy to burn the client's hair before electric curling irons were invented in 1924, according to the link.

The marcel wave look was extremely popular between 1920-1930. (BBM) The hairstyles of the 1910s were longer and flowing-sort of a more controlled Gibson girl look. The second link below goes year by year through hairstyles of the 1910s.

Link: http://www.1920-30.com/fashion/hairstyles/marcel-wave.html

http://lphouse.com/1910s.htm
 
I do think the reconstruction's hair style, (IF based on the victim's hair style when found, if it could be determined) would set the period in the late teens early 20s.

As for her arm being removed, I suspect that the killers original plan was to dispose of the remains in pieces by some other method. However they simply abandoned the task due to a lack of time, energy and/or lack of "intestinal fortitude" to carry our their initial plan of dismemberment, all of which has been mentioned by others on this thread. Being that the building on the site was vacant, and the "small town" nature of the area at the time (and all the prying eyes that would have entailed), the killer probably had intentions to finish their work in the privacy the vacant building would offer. The building was on site and vacant from 1919 to 1927 (or so), and that, to me, seems the likely location for the killer to work in. There seems to be no indication whether the well was located in the building or outside the building. If inside, at at ground level access, it would be the obvious choice for quickly disposing of the body, and if the well was dug from the basement level, it would offer even more privacy (if the building had an excavated basement at all). Lots of other details are missing that would d certainly help reconstruct the possible scenarios.
 
I find it pathetic that investigators would rule Dorothy Arnold out based on:

"Why she would come to Saskatoon for a gown in 1910, I don't know," he said.

Nobody said she would have come to Saskatoon to buy a gown. She obviously wasn't truthful with her parents, so who knows why she left.

Dorothy's mother was from Montreal, so there is a Canadian connection.

The deceased woman in the well had an 18K chain that appeared to be missing a pendant of some sort. Also, they said it is possible the chain was made in Montreal (where Dorothy's mother was from). Dorothy was known to have pawned some of her jewelry and she may have pawned the pendant if it was valuable. (I have a massive gold locket with a family crest on it and it would be worth a lot more than the chain).
 
interesting to note ,The woman was found wrapped in a burlap sack with a saw cut near her left shoulder. Her 5-foot-1 frame was stuffed into a wooden barrel and tossed into the well.
is it possible that the person who did this had travelled there besides train as transportation.
 
Considering the conditions in which her remains were found, it is nearly impossible that those were the very garments she was wearing. Clothing from that period does not survive well in those sorts of conditions.

What sort of conditions do you mean? The reports say that most of the body was under water or a mixture of water and petrol. Archaeologically speaking, fragile organic materials such as textiles and leather survive in only a handful of conditions - complete aridity (eg Egypt), waterlogging (eg Jorvik) or freezing (eg the Siberian tundra).
 
The womans arm was sawed of and she was covered in a burlap bag and stuffed in a barrell .. barrell great way to transport a body , she may have been killed somewhere else and transported there. i still believe she a match for dorothy arnold there clothes are identical, and would have been around that time frame
 

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