Found Deceased CA - Jo Anne Burmer, 25, Nevada City, 27 Feb 1973
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I recently spoke to an old friend who knew Joanne (and introduced me to her in 1970). She confirmed my memory of Joanne's disappearance. Yup, she was going to confront the married BF who lived not far away from Colfax (where she lived) in Nevada City (both towns are in Placer County). Joanne got a ride over to Nevada City and was dropped off in front of married BF's cabin, so she wasn't sloshing through the snow. From there, she vanished. The townsfolk (these are both old mining towns, later logging) said she vanished into thin area, but only later was the BF identified as a POI. The case went cold because there was no evidence Joanne had been there, even though a poster here said her backpack was found in his house. I know the BF's name was Robert (same name as her son) because Joanne talked about him non-stop. I lived in Sacramento at the time and used to motor up to Colfax to visit a former college roommate occasionally. Everyone knew everyone because it was a very small, old-time town dating back to the Gold Rush and silver mines.
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JusticeWillBeServed
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Is the boyfriend she was going to visit still alive?
Lavender Moon
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I'd like to know this, too
Gardener1850
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Jo Anne's Doe Network page was recently updated (not sure what changed): http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/960dfca.html
Gardener1850
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Jo Anne's NAMUS: https://www.findthemissing.org/en/cases/27532/
Was last seen in Nevada City, California on February 27, 1973. She disappeared while trying to hike through the snow to a friend's cabin. She has never been heard from again. She was reported missing by her friends in Colfax, California, where she resided, on March 8, 1973 with whom she had left her three year-old son with them.
Savemecastiel
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Bumping
Gardener1850
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Al Ka
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Skull Fragment Found In Nevada County Identified As Woman Who Went Missing In 1973
Human remains that were discovered in Nevada County in 1993 have finally been identified.
In August of this year, the Nevada County Sheriff’s Office was notified of a DNA match made between the 1993 remains case and Joanne Dolly Burmer, a person reported missing in Nevada County in 1973.
The sheriff’s office said Burmer was 25 years old when she was reported missing on March 8, 1973. Burmer’s friends told deputies they dropped her off at Highway 20 and Excelsior Point Road to go snowshoeing to an acquaintance’s residence three miles away on Feb. 27, 1973. More than a week later, she was reported missing.
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Twenty years later, on May 30, 1993, the sheriff’s office said a man found what he believed was part of a human skull while he was firewood cutting off Chalk Bluff Road, not far from where Burmer was reported missing.
---
In 2003, a retired cold case investigator for the sheriff’s department collected DNA samples from Burmer’s relatives and uploaded the profiles to the FBI database. No matches were found, and it wasn’t until 2017 that the department learned the skull cap had never been submitted for DNA testing.
Skull Fragment Found In Nevada County Identified As Woman Who Went Missing In 1973
Human remains that were discovered in Nevada County in 1993 have finally been identified.
In August of this year, the Nevada County Sheriff’s Office was notified of a DNA match made between the 1993 remains case and Joanne Dolly Burmer, a person reported missing in Nevada County in 1973.
The sheriff’s office said Burmer was 25 years old when she was reported missing on March 8, 1973. Burmer’s friends told deputies they dropped her off at Highway 20 and Excelsior Point Road to go snowshoeing to an acquaintance’s residence three miles away on Feb. 27, 1973. More than a week later, she was reported missing.
---
Twenty years later, on May 30, 1993, the sheriff’s office said a man found what he believed was part of a human skull while he was firewood cutting off Chalk Bluff Road, not far from where Burmer was reported missing.
---
In 2003, a retired cold case investigator for the sheriff’s department collected DNA samples from Burmer’s relatives and uploaded the profiles to the FBI database. No matches were found, and it wasn’t until 2017 that the department learned the skull cap had never been submitted for DNA testing.
Skull Fragment Found In Nevada County Identified As Woman Who Went Missing In 1973
Al Ka
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Skull fragment found above Nevada City linked to woman declared missing in 1973
Philip Desmet has only one clear memory of his birth mother.
He’s standing at a window, crying as he watches her leave. He even remembers the color of the pickup: red and white, with two stripes.
“I remember being at the window crying, because I wanted to go with her … She was waving and hopping into the truck,” he said.
That was the last time Philip — then known as Bobby — saw her.
It was Feb. 27, 1973. Joanne Dolly Burmer drove away with some friends, who dropped her off at Excelsior Point Road on Highway 20.
Burmer planned to snowshoe in to see her on-again, off-again boyfriend, Robert Brownlee, who some believed was Desmet’s father. Brownlee was staying in a trailer some three miles down the road, working for PG&E to keep its canals clear.
Nine days later, Burmer had not come back, so her friends finally made a call to the Nevada County Sheriff’s Office.
---
Flash forward 20 years. Chuck Millar, armed with a permit and a U.S. Forest Service map, was scouting for a good place to harvest some wood. He turned onto Chalk Bluff Road and veered left down a dirt road that paralleled the highway. Then something caught his eye — what turned out to be the top of a skull, poking out of some banked-up dirt.
---
A family mystery
Over the years, Desmet said, he has discovered things about his mother after relatives showed up — including a half-brother he didn’t know existed.
After Burmer disappeared, her son was placed in foster care. His grandmother, Ruth Schroll, wanted to adopt him but at the time was deemed too old. “Bobby” was adopted by a couple in Penryn and renamed “Philip.” His new family was open about the adoption and allowed him plenty of contact with Schroll and his uncles, he said.
But his grandmother rarely volunteered anything about Joanne, Desmet said.
“I would ask questions, but she just wanted me to move on,” he said. “I would get bits and pieces — that my mother loved me, that she was trying to do the best she could. … She had wanted to be a nurse. She played pool.”
Desmet had been told for years that his mother was dead.
“I asked my grandmother why I couldn’t remember her funeral,” he recalled. “She started crying.”
Desmet was finally told that Joanne had disappeared and that no one knew what happened to her.
---
“My mom was a hippie,” he said, adding that she had been living in a Quonset hut just outside Colfax, bouncing between there and Reno, and had worked for a while at a local bar. At some point, Joanne married a man named Robert Burmer, but then became involved in a tempestuous relationship with Brownlee.
“(Brownlee) was a womanizer, apparently,” Desmet said. “My understanding is, she was the other woman, and she was going up there to deliver an ultimatum (to him).”
---
Clues from the past
When Desmet was 22, his mother’s half-brother tracked him down, but did not have much to add to the mystery of what happened to Joanne. As he came to discover, Joanne was adopted and so was his grandmother, which made it nearly impossible to track down other relatives.
---
“The people who were involved were all gone,” he said, adding that Brownlee died in 1999.
Then, eight years ago, a half-brother of Desmet’s turned up, who had been given up for adoption when Joanne was 18.
Eric Erickson, who was born in Reno, might have been Burmer’s son, Desmet said. He had hired an investigator to track down possible relatives; the two men now keep in regular contact.
---
The skull fragment belonged to Burmer. It showed no evidence of any trauma, Jakobs said — just weathering, staining and some chew marks. A researcher had determined it had not been buried, and was just resting top-up on the ground for some period of time.
Burmer’s missing persons case will remain open, because there has been only a partial recovery of her remains. That way, Jakobs explained, her DNA will remain active in the national database.
Skull fragment found above Nevada City linked to woman declared missing in 1973
Philip Desmet has only one clear memory of his birth mother.
He’s standing at a window, crying as he watches her leave. He even remembers the color of the pickup: red and white, with two stripes.
“I remember being at the window crying, because I wanted to go with her … She was waving and hopping into the truck,” he said.
That was the last time Philip — then known as Bobby — saw her.
It was Feb. 27, 1973. Joanne Dolly Burmer drove away with some friends, who dropped her off at Excelsior Point Road on Highway 20.
Burmer planned to snowshoe in to see her on-again, off-again boyfriend, Robert Brownlee, who some believed was Desmet’s father. Brownlee was staying in a trailer some three miles down the road, working for PG&E to keep its canals clear.
Nine days later, Burmer had not come back, so her friends finally made a call to the Nevada County Sheriff’s Office.
---
Flash forward 20 years. Chuck Millar, armed with a permit and a U.S. Forest Service map, was scouting for a good place to harvest some wood. He turned onto Chalk Bluff Road and veered left down a dirt road that paralleled the highway. Then something caught his eye — what turned out to be the top of a skull, poking out of some banked-up dirt.
---
A family mystery
Over the years, Desmet said, he has discovered things about his mother after relatives showed up — including a half-brother he didn’t know existed.
After Burmer disappeared, her son was placed in foster care. His grandmother, Ruth Schroll, wanted to adopt him but at the time was deemed too old. “Bobby” was adopted by a couple in Penryn and renamed “Philip.” His new family was open about the adoption and allowed him plenty of contact with Schroll and his uncles, he said.
But his grandmother rarely volunteered anything about Joanne, Desmet said.
“I would ask questions, but she just wanted me to move on,” he said. “I would get bits and pieces — that my mother loved me, that she was trying to do the best she could. … She had wanted to be a nurse. She played pool.”
Desmet had been told for years that his mother was dead.
“I asked my grandmother why I couldn’t remember her funeral,” he recalled. “She started crying.”
Desmet was finally told that Joanne had disappeared and that no one knew what happened to her.
---
“My mom was a hippie,” he said, adding that she had been living in a Quonset hut just outside Colfax, bouncing between there and Reno, and had worked for a while at a local bar. At some point, Joanne married a man named Robert Burmer, but then became involved in a tempestuous relationship with Brownlee.
“(Brownlee) was a womanizer, apparently,” Desmet said. “My understanding is, she was the other woman, and she was going up there to deliver an ultimatum (to him).”
---
Clues from the past
When Desmet was 22, his mother’s half-brother tracked him down, but did not have much to add to the mystery of what happened to Joanne. As he came to discover, Joanne was adopted and so was his grandmother, which made it nearly impossible to track down other relatives.
---
“The people who were involved were all gone,” he said, adding that Brownlee died in 1999.
Then, eight years ago, a half-brother of Desmet’s turned up, who had been given up for adoption when Joanne was 18.
Eric Erickson, who was born in Reno, might have been Burmer’s son, Desmet said. He had hired an investigator to track down possible relatives; the two men now keep in regular contact.
---
The skull fragment belonged to Burmer. It showed no evidence of any trauma, Jakobs said — just weathering, staining and some chew marks. A researcher had determined it had not been buried, and was just resting top-up on the ground for some period of time.
Burmer’s missing persons case will remain open, because there has been only a partial recovery of her remains. That way, Jakobs explained, her DNA will remain active in the national database.
Skull fragment found above Nevada City linked to woman declared missing in 1973
Al Ka
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A timeline
Feb. 27, 1973: Friend Ron Inman drops Joanne Dolly Burmer off Highway 20 at Excelsior Point Road. She is last seen snowshoeing down the road to visit her boyfriend.
March 8, 1973: Inman and Burmer’s mother, Ruth Schroll, report her missing. Inman tells investigators Brownlee and Joanne had frequent fights, sometimes violent. Brownlee, however, denies fighting with Joanne, telling detectives they had a “very fine” relationship but admitting to having slapped her once. Brownlee says Joanne visited him Feb. 14 and left the next day. He drove to Colfax Feb. 24 to bring her snowshoes, and invited her to come out Feb. 27. That visit is confirmed by other witnesses. Detectives search Brownlee’s trailer and the surrounding area and find nothing.
May 1973: Brownlee passes a polygraph test.
June 1973: A more extensive search of the area shows no sign of Burmer, although some items possibly belonging to her are found nearby.
Sept. 1973: A private investigator hired by Schroll concludes Joanne has run off but is still alive. Schroll responds with a scathing letter in which she writes, “Never have I got so little for so much.” The missing persons case has grown cold.
May 30, 1993: Charles Millar finds a skull fragment off Chalk Bluff Road and turns it over to authorities. The skull cap is sent to Chico State but DNA testing is not yet a possibility and no link is made to Burmer’s disappearance.
2002: A cold case investigator collects DNA samples from several of Burmer’s relatives in an effort to identify human remains in a different case. No match is made but the DNA samples remain in the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System.
Aug. 2017: During a records review, the skull fragment is retrieved from Chico and sent to the California Department of Justice’s DNA laboratory to extract a DNA sample.
Aug. 2019: A DNA match is made between the skull fragment and Burmer.
Skull fragment found above Nevada City linked to woman declared missing in 1973
Feb. 27, 1973: Friend Ron Inman drops Joanne Dolly Burmer off Highway 20 at Excelsior Point Road. She is last seen snowshoeing down the road to visit her boyfriend.
March 8, 1973: Inman and Burmer’s mother, Ruth Schroll, report her missing. Inman tells investigators Brownlee and Joanne had frequent fights, sometimes violent. Brownlee, however, denies fighting with Joanne, telling detectives they had a “very fine” relationship but admitting to having slapped her once. Brownlee says Joanne visited him Feb. 14 and left the next day. He drove to Colfax Feb. 24 to bring her snowshoes, and invited her to come out Feb. 27. That visit is confirmed by other witnesses. Detectives search Brownlee’s trailer and the surrounding area and find nothing.
May 1973: Brownlee passes a polygraph test.
June 1973: A more extensive search of the area shows no sign of Burmer, although some items possibly belonging to her are found nearby.
Sept. 1973: A private investigator hired by Schroll concludes Joanne has run off but is still alive. Schroll responds with a scathing letter in which she writes, “Never have I got so little for so much.” The missing persons case has grown cold.
May 30, 1993: Charles Millar finds a skull fragment off Chalk Bluff Road and turns it over to authorities. The skull cap is sent to Chico State but DNA testing is not yet a possibility and no link is made to Burmer’s disappearance.
2002: A cold case investigator collects DNA samples from several of Burmer’s relatives in an effort to identify human remains in a different case. No match is made but the DNA samples remain in the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System.
Aug. 2017: During a records review, the skull fragment is retrieved from Chico and sent to the California Department of Justice’s DNA laboratory to extract a DNA sample.
Aug. 2019: A DNA match is made between the skull fragment and Burmer.
Skull fragment found above Nevada City linked to woman declared missing in 1973
BlackCloud
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And now another killer must be caught... 
RIP
RIP
imstilla.grandma
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The skull fragment remained at a Chico State anthropology lab from 1993 until sheriff’s personnel reached out to the university after the August 2017 records review, at which point it was finally retrieved, as reported by The Union newspaper in Grass Valley.
A retired cold-case investigator working for the Nevada County Sheriff’s Office also took reference DNA samples from Burmer’s relatives in late 2002 and early 2003, uploading them to FBI’s Combined DNA Index System (CODIS). Those profiles did not produce a match with an existing unidentified human remains case in that database.
https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/article235422002.html
A retired cold-case investigator working for the Nevada County Sheriff’s Office also took reference DNA samples from Burmer’s relatives in late 2002 and early 2003, uploading them to FBI’s Combined DNA Index System (CODIS). Those profiles did not produce a match with an existing unidentified human remains case in that database.
https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/article235422002.html
Blurgle
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Not likely. If she was murdered by the "oh no, we never fought; I just slapped her around a bit" boyfriend, he can't be caught; he's been dead these twenty years.And now another killer must be caught...
RIP
I would not however be surprised if she was killed by a hungry mountain lion. End of February is the time for it.
Mrs. Badcrumble
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Couldn't find a Jane Doe/UID thread for her here on WS, but her NamUs link as a Jane Doe is still up.
The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)
The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)
jaejae
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Here is another report about this case:
State announces possible DNA match in 1973 cold-case disappearance of Joanne Burmer
State announces possible DNA match in 1973 cold-case disappearance of Joanne Burmer
Bit of hope
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Finally. Rest in peace Ms. Burmer. My sincere condolences to her sons.