SC SC - Yemassee - Cotton Hall Road - BlkFem 347UFSC, 30-35, May'95 - *GRAPHIC*

[Aphra]

This case has always haunted me and it seems like it could be solvable. Her DNA is in CODIS, though, so maybe not. Maybe she's never been reported missing.

From the Doe Network:
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/347ufsc.html

• Discovered on May 24, 1995 in Yemassee, Beaufort County, South Carolina.
• She was a victim of homicide, strangulation
• Estimated time of death is 12 to 24 hours prior to discovery.

• Estimated age: 30 - 35 years old
• Approximate Height and Weight: 5'4"; 120 lbs.
• Distinguishing Characteristics: Possibly Hispanic or Biracial. Curly dark Brown hair colored red; brown eyes. No tattoos. She had manicured nails and was well-groomed. She had pierced ears. There were no additional identifiers present.
• Scars/Marks: She had thyroid, full hysterectomy surgery and Cesarean birth delivery.
• Clothing: a pair of underwear
• Dentals: Not Available
• DNA: Available in CODIS.

The victim was located in a ditch, on Cotton Hall Road near the Yemassee line. She was found by a state transportation department employee who was mowing grass along Cotton Hall Road, off Old Sheldon Road.
It is believed that the unknown suspect murdered the victim in another location and successfully identifying the victim may bring quick focus on a suspect. It is believed she was killed in a location that is about 12 hours driving time from Beaufort County. She laid on her back for at least the first 12 hours after her death. The body was found lying face down.
There was no evidence of sexual assault.

[CarlK90245]

I've spent quite a bit of time trying to find a match for this Jane Doe as well. The postmortem photos are very clear. She had a distinctive look, and she should be easily recognizable if she was listed as an MP.

One thing that puzzles me is why are they so sure that she was being transported for the full 12 hours that she was on her back. Why couldn't she have been laying on her back in the location that she was murdered while her murderer (perhaps a spouse or boyfriend) decided what to do with her body?

Assuming that they are right about the 12-hour drive, that could place her murder just about anywhere between New York and Miami, or as far west as the Mississippi River.

She looks to be a cross between black and hispanic. My thinking (pure speculation) is that she was a Caribbean immigrant who was living in South Florida, and her only contacts in the U.S. were her murderer (i.e., husband or boyfriend) and her child (who was too young to remember her).

Lilawattie Buerattan looks like a real long shot (with the help of a lot of imagination), but she would need an entirely new hairdo, a neck scar (which isn't apparent), a child (which is not mentioned) and a few other unlikely things. Nobody else missing in 1994 or 1995 even comes close.

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/...ilawattie.html

[Lady Stardust]

Originally Posted by CarlK90245

I've spent quite a bit of time trying to find a match for this Jane Doe as well. The postmortem photos are very clear. She had a distinctive look, and she should be easily recognizable if she was listed as an MP.

Is it possible to post the post-mortem photos?

[Debbie Miller]

Originally Posted by CarlK90245

One thing that puzzles me is why are they so sure that she was being transported for the full 12 hours that she was on her back. Why couldn't she have been laying on her back in the location that she was murdered while her murderer (perhaps a spouse or boyfriend) decided what to do with her body?

I am not sure how they tell this particular clue, I wonder if the ME could explain it?

[MBLover]

Originally Posted by Debbie Miller

I am not sure how they tell this particular clue, I wonder if the ME could explain it?

How they know they transported her I have no idea

But the laying on the back for 12 hours...

When you die - after a certain period of time, your blood begins to seep out of your blood vessels and 'drains' to the position you are in. So if she was on her back...the backside of her would show the pooling of blood.

[CarlK90245]

Originally Posted by Lady Stardust

Is it possible to post the post-mortem photos?

Here are the post mortem photos.

Cotton Hall Jane1.JPG Cotton Hall Jane2.JPG

Originally Posted by MBLover

... But the laying on the back for 12 hours...

When you die - after a certain period of time, your blood begins to seep out of your blood vessels and 'drains' to the position you are in. So if she was on her back...the backside of her would show the pooling of blood.

The technical term for that is "lividity". The blood in a dead body flows to the lowest part in the body. When a body is moved into a different position after a period of lying in place, the discoloration of the skin from lividity remains in the previous low areas. You can see a little of it in her nose, where some of the blood ran back to her nose after she was dumped face down.

[carbuff]

Originally Posted by CarlK90245

<snipped>
One thing that puzzles me is why are they so sure that she was being transported for the full 12 hours that she was on her back. Why couldn't she have been laying on her back in the location that she was murdered while her murderer (perhaps a spouse or boyfriend) decided what to do with her body?

If she had been lying on her back, was then moved to a car, and then dumped, wouldn't the blood show in different places?

[Aphra]

I live about an hour from where she was found. Old Sheldon Road is very close to I-95, less than five miles, and there's a historic landmark near there (Old Sheldon Church) that attracts some traffic. So I guess she was from way north or way south of there (and not, say, from the Midwest). But like you guys, I wonder why they think she was transported and didn't just, say, lie on her back for 12 hours postmortem?

So just brainstorming:

1. She's obviously not been reported missing. Why?
2. I think one of the keys to her identity lies in the scars (hysterectomy, C-section, thyroid? those are pretty distinctive). How old are they? Was there anything about these scars that could lead you to believe she was from a certain area (you know how dental work is done differently from place to place, maybe medical stuff is too).
3. Why would someone take the trouble to dump her there? Pretty obscure place, really, unless you know about Old Sheldon Church. But it IS practically halfway between Miami and New York (Florence, two hours north, is the more conventionally accepted halfway point). I wonder if it had something to do with drugs? And I wonder if a toxicology report was done and what it said, if anything.

[tyry14]

She looks at peace, poor thing.

[CarlK90245]

Originally Posted by carbuff

If she had been lying on her back, was then moved to a car, and then dumped, wouldn't the blood show in different places?

If she was transported in a car, one would think that she would not have been lying flat, unless the car was a van or truck. But you are right. A person lying in place for a period of time, then transported for a period of time, and then dumped would probably show three lividity patterns.

[Aphra]

You may be on to something with Lila Buerattan, Carl. Normally I would say the circumstances just don't match, but:

1. She was found just minutes away from I-95.
2. Buerattan and her nephew lived in a community where the closest interstate is I-95.
3. The guy accused of kidnapping them, Hari Gobin, was stopped in Richmond Hills, Georgia several days after Lila and her nephew were last seen--near I-95.

Is it possible--I hate making this suggestion, since it's gross--but is it possible that Gobin could have killed Lila, kept her body somewhere (by refrigerating it or something), and then dumped her later? That's really the only plausible explanation for the year between the kidnapping and the body being found, other than them being held captive for a long time. Otherwise...the JD must be somebody else.

At any rate, I wonder if authorities have already ruled her out.

[CarlK90245]

Originally Posted by Aphra

Is it possible--I hate making this suggestion, since it's gross--but is it possible that Gobin could have killed Lila, kept her body somewhere (by refrigerating it or something), and then dumped her later? That's really the only plausible explanation for the year between the kidnapping and the body being found, other than them being held captive for a long time. Otherwise...the JD must be somebody else.

I kind of doubt that the freezer scenario would be realistic. I think that the M.E.'s would figure that out if it did happen.

I was thinking more in terms of a kidnap for ransom that never was followed through. She comes from a well-to-do family from Guyana. However, I doubt that she would be seeing a hairstylist under such circumstances.

[carbuff]

I thought that in the morgue photos she looked clearly African/Caribbean/mixed race, so I included African-American and Hispanic women as well as dark Caucasians. Most of them were very sketchy on the details and only a couple have NAMUS listings.

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/...uren_edna.html -- she's a bit too old, but what little you can see in the photos doesn't look 45.

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/...s_johanna.html -- how would she look with her hair left curly and henna'd?

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/...ce_shelli.html -- seems like the right style but is a larger woman? Also a bit young.

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/...iams_mary.html -- something about the face...

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/...nt_tracie.html -- this woman has relatives in Virginia, worked as a prostitute, had children though no mention of surgery/C-section

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/...raechelle.html -- this woman is too young and too tall, but her face is similar and she has a vague disappearance date in Kansas, which would be a bit over 12 hours away

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/s/scheer_lisa.html -- I thought she had a certain facial similarity, though she disappeared a year before

[CarlK90245]

Edna VanBuren - missed my screen due to age, but I do see some resemblance in the vague photo
Johanna Sims - A little too tall, and her nostrils have more flare.
Shelly Prince - I stopped for a moment on that one, but kept going because she was too heavy, too tall, and has a tougher, more urban look.
Mary Williams - Her hair couldn't grow that much in less than 1 year. No mention that Jane Doe has extensions.
Tracie Vicent - I don't see a resemblance - pure caucasion.
Raechelle Wilson- Some features match, but she is Persian. No apparent black or hispanic ethnicity.
Lisa Scheer - I don't see a resemblance - pure caucasion. She reminds me of Paulette Jaster.

I normally allow for a two inch discrepancy on height when dealing with decomposed remains, but I was a little more strict on the height because of the good condition of the body. In this instance, I would expect height measurements to be more accurate.

[carbuff]

Thanks for looking. None of them looked like really good possibilities (and I'm not good with faces). I left the Caucasian women in because the ME's report doesn't rule it out -- I tried to picture them with a dark tan from being in the south for a while. That area is not far from Hilton Head. I would think if the UID was Mary Williams, they'd mention the needle tracks. I disagree about the hair -- UID's is only shoulder length and some people's hair grows fast.

I googled on the scar combination and turned up only one missing woman, who isn't a possibility because she disappeared in the sixties. I did, however, learn that a C-section with thyroid removal and complete hysterectomy is a possible combination if she had cervical cancer that was discovered while she was pregnant. Apparently the thyroid can feed a cervical tumor, so they remove it to slow the tumor until the baby is big enough, then perform the c-section and complete hysterectomy.

There's one woman in the Doe network files who might match this description, but she's the wrong size, the wrong age, the wrong coloring, not at all well cared for, and went missing after this body was found.

I'll keep looking.

[Julessleuther]

She looks like Lisa Jameson to me, but Lisa went missing a few years prior...

http://www.theyaremissed.org/ncma/ga...hp?A200402296S

[carbuff]

Originally Posted by Julessleuther

She looks like Lisa Jameson to me, but Lisa went missing a few years prior...

http://www.theyaremissed.org/ncma/ga...hp?A200402296S

I don't think a few years prior is a problem -- she'd still be a bit younger than the UID's age range, but the facial resemblance is strong.

I came up with Linda Grimm, who's been missing even longer: http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/g/grimm_linda.html. But she had a c-section, and was known to be alive quite a bit after "last seen," so it seems possible. Also, her husband was a truck driver.

[CarlK90245]

Lisa Jameson looks alot like Jane Doe.

The only contradictions I see are the two-inch difference in height and that she has four piercings per ear, and Jane Doe only has two per ear. The info on Jane Doe's ear piercings can be found if you click the link at the bottom of the Doe Network page, and then click the link under her postmortem photo to show the poster.

[not_my_kids]

If a body is refridgerated the blood vessels freeze and then burst, it's a dead giveaway. Any ME worth their salt would have nailed that right away.

Jameson looks like a decent possibility. I think the cheekbones and the sharpness of the nose are a little off, but that just might be that it's 5 a.m. and the difference in the angles between photos.
Her eyebrows also don't sit as far up on her forehead as the Does do, IMO.

[Kat]

http://www.islandpacket.com/2010/09/...-unsolved.html

Published Saturday, September 18, 2010

There is a lot of info about this Jane Doe at the link above.

I thought this was interesting:

The closest investigators have come to an identification is a DNA analysis suggesting she was from Latin America, likely the Caribbean, Woods said.

[reasypeasy]

Originally Posted by CarlK90245

If she was transported in a car, one would think that she would not have been lying flat, unless the car was a van or truck. But you are right. A person lying in place for a period of time, then transported for a period of time, and then dumped would probably show three lividity patterns.

Maybe she was put in someone's van almost immediately after death? That would make sense because if she was in a van, possibly with a blanket or tarp over her, then the culprit could be fairly sure she wouldn't be detected while he planned what to do with her.

[reasypeasy]

This one has some similarities.
The match would require the truck driver who saw her in November 1995 to be mistaken or telling lies to cover for someone.

Sybil Ramona Warren
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/158dfnc.html

[webrocket]

I looked at the picture and saw the article about the DNA and I'd have to say that she is probably from one of four countries originally - Cuba (they have a significant Afro-Cuban minority), Dominican Republic, Venezuela or Panama.

I would think, however, that the Cuban community would be more likely to report one of their own missing than some of the others which have higher proportions of illegal immigrants and therefore more likely not to get involved with law enforcement.

[belfastgirl73]

Wow I can definitely see a facial resemblance to Sybil Ramona Warren Reasypeasy! I wonder has she been ruled out?

MOO

[webrocket]

both Sybil and the UID's DNA are in codis so they would have produced a match if they were one in the same.