DE DE - Kent Co., WhtFem 708UFDE, 40-60, in woods, upper denture, Jul'97

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CarlK90245

CarlK90245

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The Doe Network:
Case File 708UFDE

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/708ufde.html

708UFDE.jpg
708UFDE3.jpg


Reconstruction of Victim

Unidentified White Female

* The victim was discovered on July 20, 1997 in Camden, Kent County, Delaware
* Estimated Date of Death: Over 3 months prior
* Cause of Death: Multiple blunt force injuries to the skull
* Skeletal Remains

Vital Statistics

* Estimated age: 40-55 years old
* Approximate Height and Weight: 5'3-5'8"; 120 lbs.
* Distinguishing Characteristics: Brown hair. Skeletal pathology of the distal, right radius and ulna noted. Evidence of healing. Individual probably had broken right wrist quite some time before death. Also evidence of healing of 5th right metacarpal. Possibly suffered from arthritic knees.
* Jewelry: Black wrist watch. Large blue hair clip found in hair.
* Dentals: Available. The victim wore an upper denture. When the remains were recovered, the left canine tooth was missing from the denture.

Case History
The victim was located in a wooded area, at Del. 10 at Mahans Corner Road, east of Sandtown, 6 miles Southwest of Camden, Wyoming, DE.
Blunt force trauma was found on the left side of the skull.

Investigators

If you have any information about this case please contact:
Delaware Office of the Chief Medical Examiner
Hal Brown
302-577-3421

You may remain anonymous when submitting information.

Agency Case Number:
K97-363

Source Information:
UDRS
The News Journal
 
How is this for a possible match?

Janeth Ann Rowe
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/r/rowe_janeth.html

rowe_janeth.jpg
708UFDE3.jpg


Strengths

  • DLC is 02-Mar-97 (less than 5 months before UID discovery) - Consistent with "over 3 months" timeframe for UID.
  • She does have an "unspecified leg ailment" to correspond to the "arthritic knees" in UID description.
  • Her age (50) is within range.
  • Her height (5'4") is within range.
  • Her facial appearance is similar to drawing.
  • Her hometown of Herndon VA is 110 miles from location of UID discovery.

Weaknesses
  • She is much heavier (170 lbs) than the estimated weight of the victim (120 lbs)
  • There is no mention of dentures.
  • There is no mention of arm bone or wrist injuries.

Here is the NamUs record for Janeth Rowe. No Dental information is available to confirm or contradict the info on dentures, and nothing in physical / medical to shed light on whether or not she had previous arm or wrist injuries.

https://www.findthemissing.org/cases/1193/2/
 
it seems pretty close. Whoever reported her missing may have not known to say if she had fractured her wrist before. Failing to mention dentures is a big things but maybe it was just an omitted detail. Close enough to report it.
 
Perhaps the estimated weight of the UID might be off. It says the remains were skeletal.
 
I called this in to Hal Brown of the Delaware Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. I got a very cordial and enthusiastic response.

He said that just within the last two weeks he submitted the skeletal samples on this case and several others to a company called Bode Laboratories in Lorton Virginia.

http://www.bodetech.com/

Bode has received a federal grant to do DNA testing on these cases, and he is taking full advantage of the availability of a DNA lab that is an alternative to the University of North Texas. This is a great development because UNT charges a fee for their work which many localities are unable to afford. They also don't have the backlog that UNT has.

He also indicated that they are currently working on a new facial reconstruction on this UID.

He asked for my e-mail address and will keep me posted on any developments in regard to this case. The State of Delaware has 17 UID cases that he is working on, and he appreciates any assistance that any of we websleuthers are willing to provide. He is happy to receive and review any cases, and says that even if it turns out to be a no-match, the excluded names are put on record for future reference.
 
Good find, Carl. The reconstruction looks like the face of a considerably heavier woman than 120 lbs.

And it's good that Delaware is being so active about this. Looks like a good area to invest some sleuthing energy.
 
I spoke with Hal Brown regarding this case and another. He says that they are having difficulties getting a reference sample for Janeth Rowe, and it may be due to a lack of enthusiastic cooperation from her her family members.

He will continue to work on getting something that he can compare, and to get the DNA work on the UID completed.
 
CarlK90245 said:
I spoke with Hal Brown regarding this case and another. He says that they are having difficulties getting a reference sample for Janeth Rowe, and it may be due to a lack of enthusiastic cooperation from her her family members.

He will continue to work on getting something that he can compare, and to get the DNA work on the UID completed.
Click to expand...

Huh. I hope the lack of cooperation isn't a reflection of what happened to her!

I was thinking that the kind of injuries the UID has are the kind you might get with prior abuse, so maybe that's why it wasn't mentioned...
 
carbuff said:
Huh. I hope the lack of cooperation isn't a reflection of what happened to her!

I was thinking that the kind of injuries the UID has are the kind you might get with prior abuse, so maybe that's why it wasn't mentioned...
Click to expand...

I was thinking the same thing, but I carefully worded my earlier comment to avoid any libelous accusations.
 
I just received an update on the Janeth Rowe submission:

From: Brown Hal (DHSS) [mailto:Hal.Brown@state.de.us]
Sent: Wednesday, March 31, 2010 9:56 AM
Subject: Potential match (or exclusion) between Virginia case NamUs MP # 1193 Janeth Rowe and Delaware unidentified remains case NamUs UP #2262

Carl,

Just an FYI --I am still working on this potential match (which you alerted me to).

The Herndon VA police have been excellent to work with.

Although the file said no DNA or Dental in existence, I called and talked to the detectives; they do have dental and may already have DNA.

So, we are marching forward! I will keep you posted!

Thanks, -Hal
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hal G. Brown, Deputy Director
Delaware Office of the Chief Medical Examiner
Forensic Sciences Laboratory
200 South Adams St., Wilmington, DE 19801
Phone: (302)577-3420 ext. 206
E-mail: (W) hal.brown@state.de.us
FAX: (302)622-4442
Click to expand...
 
Another update from Hal Brown. They have received x-rays from Herndon VA late last night, and their forensic ondontologist can now work with them to establish dental coding.

Also, Herndon LE is checking for the existence of living biological family members from whom to obtain reference samples, and also checking to see if there are any DNA reference samples that already exist, but were not entered in CODIS.

Looks like we should be getting an answer on this one soon.
 
Just spoke with Hal Brown. Janeth Rowe was excluded as a match to this UID based on dentition.

He went out of his way though to thank me for my efforts and to encourage me to keep up the efforts.

He said that he is very active in trying to get his colleagues to participate in the NamUs system. He also spoke in some detail about the need for improvements to NamUs. He wrote a letter to NamUs administrators regarding the need for quality control. He said that on this case, someone went in and listed Tiffany Sessions as an exclusion and he has no idea who entered it, or if there was a scientific basis for the exclusion, or if it was just someone saying "this doesn't look like her."

Incidentally, IMO, nobody in their right mind would look at this case and think that Tiffany Sessions was a possible match.

He also said that for every single Delaware case, he has had to have his odontologist go into NCIC and NamUs and correct the dental information. Every single one had previously been entered incorrectly. Also, he has found numerous instances where people remain listed as missing, even though their cases were solved years ago.

This is just another case in point on why you can't treat information as gospel regardless of the source.
 
I found this person at Namus, Debra Horgan. she was from New Mexico and disappeared late April 1997.

not sure how she would have gotten to Delaware and the namus profile does not say much about her teeth.

facial features are not that far off and the height, weight and hair are in the ballpark.

https://www.findthemissing.org/cases/8332/1/

hope the link comes through. I've had trouble with some Namus links for some reason.
 
Donjeta said:
Perhaps the estimated weight of the UID might be off. It says the remains were skeletal.
Click to expand...

That is a good question. I've always wondered how they came up with weight when all that was found was skeltal remains. If anyone knows the answer to this question please share it.
 
webrocket said:
I found this person at Namus, Debra Horgan. she was from New Mexico and disappeared late April 1997.

not sure how she would have gotten to Delaware and the namus profile does not say much about her teeth.

facial features are not that far off and the height, weight and hair are in the ballpark.

https://www.findthemissing.org/cases/8332/1/

hope the link comes through. I've had trouble with some Namus links for some reason.
Click to expand...

Debra Horgan's mother has a blog up regarding her daughter if you'd like to take a look. Information (not dental) listed there is NOT found on Namus and paints a little background picture of what may have happened. (The music and her mothers words made me tear up honestly)

http://bettymjoyner.tripod.com/acandleisburning/
 
She does look close, but I would think the missing persons report would mention the dental appliance (a bridge, it looks like) and the broken wrist.
 
I wonder sometimes if the discrepancy in whether previous fractures are disclosed is simply because of the age at which the fracture occurred?

For example, in this case the victim had a wrist fracture. Suppose that it happened in early childhood- a fall from roller skates or a bicycle - you might barely remember it, and it is possible that your spouse/kids/younger siblings never even knew about it.

Thus, it might not get reported as critical information on the missing person's report.
 
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