DE DE - Tina Kemp, 14, Felton, 3 Feb 1979

[carbuff]

Is that an actual postportem pic of Caledonia Jane Doe? Do you have any info on her? Im not familiar with Caledonia?:waitasec:

I'm sorry, I would have sworn I included the pointer to the WS thread for Cali: http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23127

It's not a postmortem photo; it's a reconstruction Carl did from the postmortem photo.

 

[Satch]

Why would she have been helping hang laundry outdoors to dry in early February, the day before a severe snowstorm? I use a clothesline here in PA but by this time of year you have to hang them in the basement instead or use your dryer. Unless Delaware was having unseasonably warm weather one day before the snowstorm, those clothes would have frozen on the line.

Agree with the above points. Laundry outside the day before a storm seems very strange.

Satch

 

[Rle7]

bumping...

missing 32 years now.

 

[rpipergirl]

Help me out those with better detailed memories than myself.....

Aren't there other missing girls that have ties to horses and horse trainers and the such?

I'll go look around, but I bet someone can just pop the names out in mere minutes here..........

Unsolved murder: Amy Mihaljevic A person at her riding lessons was/is one of the suspects mentioned in the book.

 

[carbuff]

Agree with the above points. Laundry outside the day before a storm seems very strange.

Satch

As somebody who used to hang out a lot of laundry -- the day before the storm the weather is often beautiful. The storm itself pulls up warm air from the south. Not to mention that if you know a storm is coming, you might rush the laundry to get it done before the storm gets there, because it's going to be a couple of days after before you'll have a chance to hang the clothes outside. So that part doesn't strike me odd at all.

 

[Claudette]

As somebody who used to hang out a lot of laundry -- the day before the storm the weather is often beautiful. The storm itself pulls up warm air from the south. Not to mention that if you know a storm is coming, you might rush the laundry to get it done before the storm gets there, because it's going to be a couple of days after before you'll have a chance to hang the clothes outside. So that part doesn't strike me odd at all.

Eh....sorry but I have to disagree. Before spring and summer storms yes, but in January it still would be at or below freezing even if the sun is out. I don't know that hanging clothing out below 50 degrees makes any sense or if it would even dry in a day if it was in the 40s.

 

[carbuff]

Eh....sorry but I have to disagree. Before spring and summer storms yes, but in January it still would be at or below freezing even if the sun is out. I don't know that hanging clothing out below 50 degrees makes any sense or if it would even dry in a day if it was in the 40s.

We certainly used to hang it out in those conditions, and we weren't the only ones.

It's lots of fun bringing in frozen laundry. It's like bringing in an armful of boards. But it does dry some.

 

[Richard]

In May 1979, William Joseph Parker was tried and convicted of the murder of Elizabeth Archard, age 13.

Although Parker has been up for parole numerous times, he was still in the Maryland Prison system as of 2010.

Elizabeth was visiting a horse riding ring when she was abducted.

It is said that Tina Faye Kemp, in neighboring Delaware also liked to visit riding rings and tracks. I wonder if the two cases might be linked? Perhaps her abductor had previously met her at a horse farm, or perhaps she went to one the day she disappeared.

Both girls were about the same age. Perhaps other similarities existed as well.

Delaware authorities might be interested in speaking with Mr. Parker.

See the following thread in Websleuths Cold Cases section:

Elizabeth Archard, 13, Murdered 28 Aug 1978, Prince Georges County, MD - Websleuths Crime Sleuthing Community

LINK:

http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=44331&highlight=Elizabeth+Archard

 

[Deeds]

I know the heights don't match but drawn picture looks very much like Tina's photo off the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children site. Also the body for the UID had been in lime (a mixture of calcium oxide, calcium carbonate and calcium hydroxide) for up to 6 Months and was in a state of decomposition and putrefaction when recovered which could mean the that some of the descriptions are off.

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/255ufok.html - UID
https://identifyus.org/cases/4897

http://www.missingkids.com/missingk...NCMC&seqNum=1&caseLang=en_US&searchLang=en_US - Tina

 

[Thewop356]

I am now 36 and living in Newark, DE but I was living in Canterbury,DE in 1979 (which is just a mile or so away from Felton). I was 4 years old but I remember the snowstorm the day after Tina Faye Kemp disappeared so vividly because it was up to my chest and I could barely walk in it outside. I also started Kindergarten at Lake Forest Elemetary (I think it was actually called Lake Forest West Elementary which is in the Federica/Felton area) the following year in September 1980 and I can even remember my teacher Mrs. Caldwell talking to us about the girl who went missing and how we should avoid strangers and what to do when approached by a stranger. The reason this missing girl has stuck with me is because the summer after I got out of Kindergarten was when Adam Walsh was kidnapped and the following year a TV movie was made about Adam. I remember watching it and being so scared because he was the same age as I was. Yesterday as a complete coincidence I ran into her name when I was googling the actor Tina Fey and it brought back a lot of memories. After reading these posts I started to look into this and I noticed that Henry Lee Lucas originally admitted to killing 6 girls in Delaware druing his writings in a Texas prison (though not confirmed by officials) and after seeing that I researched further and found out that in an investigation that Vic Feazell did, he confirmed that Henry Lee Lucas was in Rising Sun, MD (which is relatively close to Felton, DE only a few miles away) on February 9, 1979. That was less than a week after Tina Faye Kemp went missing on February 3, 1979. I know I am probably reaching, but I can't shake the fact that the Adam Walsh case was a constant reminder to me of Tina Faye Kemp all these years and that I may have actually have lived so close to (or even seen) the killer of Adam Walsh shortly before he was murdered and more importantly that these 2 dissapearances could be linked to the same individual (it was also not confirmed that Otis Toole was with Henry Lee Lucas while he was in Rising Sun, Md but it is certainly a possibility since they were seen together all the time during this timeframe). I am sure law enforcement officials have already put that together, but if someone can verify that they have ruled out Henry Lee Lucas and/or Ottis Toole I would greatly appreciate it. The link to the Vic Feazell report is here - http://www.vicfeazell.com/html/Confirmed Travel Movements Of Henry Lee Lucas.PDF

 

[Thewop356]

After looking into this a little more I actually found the sworn statements of Henry Lee Lucas' family and friends of his whereabouts during his residence in Maryland. He actually resided in Port Deposit, MD (which is closer than Rising Sun, MD to Felton) and other areas close to Port Deposit, MD from December 5, 1975 until the beginning of February 1979 (Tina went missing on February 3, 1979). Also Almeda Kiser who is Henry's half-sister swore in her summary interview with MD State Police that Henry stole a truck from her husband Wade Kiser in February (which was found a few months later in FLA) after she confronted him about finding blood in her grandaughter's panties. I wonder if Henry left in such a rush because if she went to the authorities about the molestation that they might start connecting the dots. I am not saying they are connected, but WOW what a coincidence. I hope that the authorities in DE put this together and ruled him out as a suspect. I did gather enough evidence that shows Ottis Toole was in FLA on the night of Tina's disappearence, but Henry was mostly certainly still in the area and could have easily been involved with Tina's abduction. If anyone knows that the DE State Police ruled him out please let me know. I can not find anything that even that says they suspected anyone at all in Tina's disappearance.

 

[Richard]

Great comments and discussion on this case and its time frame.

Most biographies on Henry Lee Lucas indicate that he was finally parolled from the Michigan Prison system in 1975 or 76 and that he first headed for the Pennsylvania/Maryland/Delaware area soon afterward.

Lucas and O'Toole were dirtbags of the first magnitude and certainly capable of abducting and murdering children. They first met in 1976 according to most accounts.

A big problem with trying to connect Lucas with any specific murder is the fact that he moved around so much as a drifter and he tended to lie a LOT in his so called confessions. He would claim up to 600 murders and then recant.

There is one interesting case in the Websleuths section on Unidentified victims in which an older unidentified woman was found in Delaware and was thought to have been brought by Lucas from Michigan to Delaware where he killed her.

Lucas did indeed have connections in the area of Felton, Delaware. So, it is possible that he had something to do with her disappearance. But, I do not know of any official connections with Tina Faye's case - or if he was ever considered a suspect.

 

[Thewop356]

I havent done this as extensively as most of the users here have but I am appauled (seriously) at what I have found out about in the last few weeks while investigating this disappearance. I am trying to find more info about Henry Lee Lucas' whereabouts during Tina's disappearance and I cannot believe how many convicted serial killers were within a 75 mile radius of Felton, DE in February of 1979. I also just found a transcription of a phone call between Henry Lee Lucas and Ottis Toole that was arranged by law enforcement where they must have talked for 30 minutes and never mentioned any one particular place except Delaware. Henry Lee Lucas when addressing Ottis Toole says "We may end up in a situation like you had um up in uh Delaware by that lake I mean canal close to Maryland where they got out on you" (he was obviously referring to the C&D canal for sure) and yet I do not find one single instance in where law enforcement from DE talked to or investigated Henry Lee Lucas even though he lived within miles of the state for years, worked for Air Base Carpet Mart in New Castle DE and claimed to have killed 6 people in DE. I even found a report that Henry Lee Lucas abandoned a vehicle that was recovered by DE law enforcement and still nothing of Henry's alleged involvement of anyone in DE besides the woman found in Townsend DE in 1977. I even found that on 7-12-81 DE law enforcement ran a NCIC inquiry on Ottis Toole and did the same on 7-19-81 for Henry Lee Lucas for minor traffic violations, so they know that both were for sure in the state but never questioned either one about Tina or any other cases in DE that I know of or can find.I know he was a serial liar too, but come on this guy was for sure one of the worst murderers ever and they are ALL liars. Anyway...I am really disturbed by how many people who were convicted post February 1979 as serial rapist and killers that lived within 75 miles of Tina's residence during the time of her disappearance. I have compiled a list of possible people who I think could be linked with Lucas topping the list, but certainly you have to look at Mike Debardeleban (another very strong candidate who should have been interviewed if he wasnt), John Brennan Crutchley, and even Fred Coffey but many more.

 

[Richard]

...I am really disturbed by how many people who were convicted post February 1979 as serial rapist and killers that lived within 75 miles of Tina's residence during the time of her disappearance. I have compiled a list of possible people who I think could be linked with Lucas topping the list, but certainly you have to look at Mike Debardeleban (another very strong candidate who should have been interviewed if he wasnt), John Brennan Crutchley, and even Fred Coffey but many more.

You might look at the thread on "Possible Suspects" in the Missing Lyon Sisters featured case. There were quite a few dirtbags in the area of Wheaton, Maryland in 1975, and many of them were still around in 1979 and could be possible suspects in Tina's disappearance as well.

 

[Thewop356]

I have made some brief contacts with Delaware authorities about Tina Faye Kemp's disappearence but have not gained much more info than I already knew. I have looked into Henry Lee Lucas and have many interesting facts that make him a very good suspect in Tina's disappearance, but more recently I have been focusing on Mike Debardeleben. Felton was a very small but tight community in the late 70s and early 80s, everyone knew everyone and mostly all of the women participated in community programs. Because of how small Felton and surrounding towns were and how much the residents knew about each other, it would amost be a certainty that she was abducted by an outsider cruising through town. Mike Debardeleben used to cruise around and pick up girls by impersonating a police officer. This would be a perfect tactic to use on a 15 year old girl to get her to come quietly and get her out of the area without much fuss. Mike Debardeleben was even convicted of using this method to kidnap and rape a teenager in Delaware just 5 months before Tina Faye Kemp went missing ( in September 1978) and again just south of Delaware in Maryland just few months after Tina went missing (in summer of 1979). Now in those 2 cases he wasn't convicted until the mid 1980s after he was caught by the Secret Service for counterfitting, but when they caught him they found out that he was one of the worst serial rapists/killers ever caught. They found 2 storage lockers with thousands of photos of women he sexually abused, bloody panties, all sorts of police equipment, and even audio tapes of some of the rapes. This was the evidence that led to his conviction on the 2 rape cases I was speaking of just before and after Tina's disappearance. After reading about his convictions and trials, I found that he was a strong suspect in so many other murder and rape cases but the other juristictions just did not want to pursue justice because he had already been sentenced to over 350 years and would not be eligible for parole until he was over 100 years old. The Secret Service (who found all the evidence in the storage lockers while looking for counterfit money) still has all those photos and evidence and I would love to know if Delaware authorities went through all those photos looking for any evidence of Tina Faye Kemp since they found evidence of other girls he raped and/or released in Delaware so close to Tina's disappearance in those photos and audio tapes. Maybe they did find evidence and since they decided not to prosecute him because of the amount of time and money it would cost, they just decided that they knew who did it but there was nothing they could do just like the other juristictions did in cases he was suspected in. The only thing is... that according to the Delaware State Police they do not have any strong suspects in Tina's disappearance. I find it hard to believe since DE is such a small state and that she has been missing for so long that they do not even have a strong suspect in her disappearance. I feel so sad for Tina Faye Kemp and her family because she is the only child from our community (and pretty much our entire State) to ever disappear seemingly without a trace and nobody has any answers for that and it doesn't seem like anyone will solve this. Sadly I understand that so many children have went missing over the years and never been found but this one was so close to home that it bothers me that there is hardly any info about her disappearance. I will continue to pray that the authorities in Delaware one day find her remains or at least solve this crime for her family.

 

[pjclover]

Interesting to note that Henry Lee Lucas's abusive father died of hypothermia as a result of collapsing outside drunk during a snowstorm when HLL was a teen. This is reaching, of course, but maybe the impending reports of a bad storm triggered something in him and he killed to commemorate the occasion. It doesn't fit any of the other known and accepted murders, but he did kill his 16 year-old "girlfriend" Becky Powell, so that age group isn't out of his range. There are so many unanswered questions about HLL that it's impossible to know. It was my understanding that in the late 70s, Lucas operated out of the Florida area, but your research proves I must have been mistaken!

I agree with you that it seems odd that a local girl at that time went missing and it was unsolved, just knowing what I do about our small state and its tightly knit communities, especially in the 1970s and especially in the Felton area. Im curious about the link to the horse racing community. I know that there was Brandywine Raceway up in the Wilmington area, and of course Delaware Park. Did Dover Downs offer horse races in 1979? Harrington? Anywhere on the Eastern Shore of MD? There wouldn't have been any horse races in February in our area, unless there is a now-defunct indoor track that I don't know of, but it's possible that she met someone or made a connection at one of those places. If she was indeed a runaway, she may have met someone who traveled the circuit that was able to give her transportation and a means to leave the state.

There are still many Kemps in the Felton area - I have to think that some of them are probably relations. I hope that they're able to find some closure to her disappearance in their lifetime.

 

[Thewop356]

I can't remember if Harringtom was around but I lived in Felton from 1979 to 1982 a I went to Dover Downs races a lot with my dad and Uncle. There were so many riding rings in lower DE and in eastern MD that I can't name them all here, but I looked into a lot of them and seen if any employees or any people who frequented them in 1979 were ever convicted or suspected in abductions of children or teens and there was hardly any. One suspect was looking good (William Joseph Parker) because he was convicted in May of 1979 of abducting and murdering a young teenage girl from a horse riding ring in area close by in Maryland, but I found that he was incarcerated for that crime before Tina Faye Kemp went missing. I personally think the info about frequenting horse tracks has probably thrown off investigators since it seems to be one of the only know facts about her. I think the most important facts are that she disappeared in such a small community that was so tight knit and that it happened the day before a huge snowstorm would have stopped traffic in or out of Felton and surrounding areas for a few days at least. Snow removal back then was not very quick and the roads were still pretty bad when they were plowed. That being said, I really think if she was abducted it had to be by an outsider who got her out of the area of Felton quickly before anyone noticed. I have done extensive research in the last 6 months (which really isn't that long since she has been mising for over 33 years now) and I can only come up with 2 real viable suspects and 2 others who I think may have been involved. Unfortunately anything could have happened, but this really has been bothering me that there is so little info out there about a young girl that went missing from where I live and nobody knows why or who was invloved. I am trying to get someone to look into the evidence that was found in Mike Debardeleben's storage lockers by the Secret Service to see if any of the hundreds of photos of victims or any of the women's jewlery, bloody panties...etc are connected to Tina faye Kemp. If you are from that area and remember anything about her disappeareance I would be happy to discuss this with you in private e-mails. Thanks for the reply

 

[Lavanda Dolce]

Last week while reading about an unidentified female remains, it struck me as how uncanny the unidentified FIRST sketch done a number of years back resembled Tina. What do you think? I submitted and hope they will move forward with ruling her out, or in

The latest image released by the agency Friday is one of three sketches drawn since the woman's body was found. A sketch released in the 1980s depicts a woman with thick eyebrows, wide eyes and heavy bangs. (Read at below link published June 02, 2012 )
Link: http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/news/display.htm?storyID=136512

 

[Thewop356]

Great catch on the drawing similarities!!! Unfortunately a few things make this a very long shot, but still worth checking into. First is that I would find it hard to believe that a 14 year old girl would runaway for 3 years and never once contact her family, friends, or her boyfriend she was close to. Second is that I know for a fact by other UIBs that were thought to be her, that authorities confirmed that up to the time of her disappearence that Tina had not had any serious dental work done at all and according to the girl found in the trunk she had lots done. Thats not saying that Tina could not have had some dental work done after she ran away. If they have her DNA in CODIS they will be able to rule out/in on Tina soon because Tina's family has submitted samples of DNA for her reference. Thanks for the info and I will keep alert on this situation.

 

[susietoms]

https://identifyus.org/en/cases/1342


found this there are similarities