FL FL - Colleen Orsborn, 15, Daytona Beach, 19 March 1984

[FifthEssence]

post from 2008 by Suzanne:
I believe They have DNA on this Jane Doe now.Does any one know if the family have DNA in CODIS for Colleen.I do feel these two should be checked with thier DNA for a possible match.Has anyone called in recently about this possible match?
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post from yesterday 2/2/2011
They just told me this Jane Doe is not my sister.But I thought this Jane Doe could possibly be Colleen Orsborn.Did the family of Colleen put her or their DNA in CODIS to check for a match with this Jane Doe.

suzanne

Greetings everyone-- I'm a writer @ the Daytona Beach News-Journal. Appreciate this site and everyone's work here. I wanted to bump this thread and mention that I put in a request to see if Colleen has been ruled out in the case of the girl found by Lake Buena Vista. I did get a response, but nothing in the way of an answer. Will keep you posted. My e-mail is andrew.gant at news-jrnl.com.

Not sure if anyone noticed this, WEBSLEUTHS is noted in the article (thanks to WS participant/news writer-AndrewGant) :

http://www.wftv.com/news/26716598/detail.html
The Daytona Beach News-Journal contacted Garavaglia in mid-January after a user on the online forum Websleuths.com pointed out similarities between Colleen's case and the unidentified girl. The girl's description, listed in the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, resembled Colleen in several ways.


p.s.:SUZANNE, prayers go out to you and your family as you continue the search for your sister.

 

[CarlK90245]

She had been ruled out, but there has been a DNA link found.
http://www.news-journalonline.com/news/local/east-volusia/2011/02/02/dr-g-matches-missing-daytona-teens-dna.html

Websleuths thread for Colleen

Colleen Emily Orsborn
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/o/orsborn_colleen.html

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I was looking for possibles for 30UFFL, and came across Colleen. This seems like such an obvious match on nearly all data points.

I looked around in WS and found that this case has already been discussed on Colleen Orsborn's page in the Missing but Not Forgotten forum.

FL FL - Colleen Orsborn, 15, Daytona Beach, 1984 - Websleuths Crime Sleuthing Community


But from what is posted in Colleen's forum, nobody can get anyone at DoeNet or in LE to say whether she has been ruled out or not. She is not listed in NamUs as a rule-out for this UID.

Since there was no thread for this UID in the Unidentified forum, I am starting one, and starting a discussion of Colleen as a possible. Maybe someone here knows whether Colleen has ever been ruled-out.

If so, then we can get on to looking for other possibles.

Wow! That doesn't speak well for the Orlando ME that they summarily ruled her out based on no evidence of a healed arm fracture, and she remained UID for 26 years.

My suspicion was correct that something was wrong with this. I can think of a couple of other Florida cases that look like slam dunks but have been officially ruled out.

 

[CarlK90245]

http://www.news-journalonline.com/n...2/dr-g-matches-missing-daytona-teens-dna.html

The match came in March 2010, six years after newcomer Garavaglia sent DNA from all the agency's unidentified bodies to a national database. A mitochondrial DNA sample -- the type inherited from the maternal side -- matched samples taken from two of Colleen's sisters.

When, despite the match, the case still wasn't moving by December, Garavaglia asked the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to look into it.

...

The Daytona Beach News-Journal contacted Garavaglia in mid-January after a user on the online forum Websleuths.com pointed out similarities between Colleen's case and the unidentified girl. The girl's description, listed in the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, resembled Colleen in several ways.

From Colleen's Thread in the Missing but Not Forgotten forum:

Greetings everyone-- I'm a writer @ the Daytona Beach News-Journal. Appreciate this site and everyone's work here. I wanted to bump this thread and mention that I put in a request to see if Colleen has been ruled out in the case of the girl found by Lake Buena Vista. I did get a response, but nothing in the way of an answer. Will keep you posted. My e-mail is andrew.gant at news-jrnl.com.

 

[webrocket]

nice going Carl. encouraging to see that some in the media actually check into Websleuths from time to time.

 

[tatertot]

Rest in Peace, Colleen. It's good to know that you have your name back and your family knows where you are, but sorry to hear justice couldn't be served since Wilder is already dead. I sincerely hope whoever wrote the fake confession note sees these news articles and is full of remorse for all the pain he or she caused Colleen's family.

Thanks to WS'ers Carl and Shadowangel for questioning the previous rule-out and to reporter Andrew Gant for bringing this case to LE again.

As a reference for investigating future cases, should we assume that if an broken bone injury happened when someone was young (Colleen was only in eighth grade) then there's a possibility it could have healed so well it wouldn't show up in x-rays?

 

[webrocket]

As a reference for investigating future cases, should we assume that if an broken bone injury happened when someone was young (Colleen was only in eighth grade) then there's a possibility it could have healed so well it wouldn't show up in x-rays?

there is a more basic problem, IMO. try locating x-rays that were taken in someone's youth. I realize that they had Colleen's X-rays but they probably showed the acute fracture and its subsequent fusion.

I am not sure what the laws are in the various states, but who knows how long they are kept? so you could have a fracture in youth which completely heals and x-rays can't be found. so they compare a normal appearing bone to a family history of prior fracture to same bone and someone decides that there is no evidence of fracture on the UID.

 

[webrocket]

I can think of a couple of other Florida cases that look like slam dunks but have been officially ruled out.

Why don't you compile a list of cases you think are slam dunks and send them to Andrew Gant at the Daytona Beach News-Journal? may as well use the connection we found here.

 

[Reannan]

Nice work CarlK and anyone else who researched this case! I am glad her family has some answers.

 

[carbuff]

That would be because of Andrew upthread: Websleuths Crime Sleuthing Community - View Single Post - Found Deceased FL - Colleen Orsborn, 15, Daytona Beach, 19 March 1984

Hope you're still around, Andrew!

Not sure if anyone noticed this, WEBSLEUTHS is noted in the article (thanks to WS participant/news writer-AndrewGant) :

http://www.wftv.com/news/26716598/detail.html
The Daytona Beach News-Journal contacted Garavaglia in mid-January after a user on the online forum Websleuths.com pointed out similarities between Colleen's case and the unidentified girl. The girl's description, listed in the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, resembled Colleen in several ways.


p.s.:SUZANNE, prayers go out to you and your family as you continue the search for your sister.

 

[CarlK90245]

Why don't you compile a list of cases you think are slam dunks and send them to Andrew Gant at the Daytona Beach News-Journal? may as well use the connection we found here.

fftopic:
Here are a few, just off the top of my head:

554UFFL http://doenetwork.org/cases/554uffl.html
Tammy Lynn Leppert http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/l/leppert_tammy.html
(Apparently, she was summarily ruled out based on the presumption that the UID had a gap between 8&9, and TLL did not. However, there is nothing in this UID's DoeNet or NamUs profiles to indicate gapped teeth, but a different young female UID found in a Davie FL canal in 1975 did have a gap between 8&9. - See 295UFFL http://doenetwork.org/cases/295uffl.html - Did they confuse the two UID cases?)

424UFFL http://doenetwork.org/cases/424uffl.html
Peggy Sue Houser http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/h/houser_peggy.html
(Ruled out on dentals, but IDK whether it was a chart comparison or a forensic odontologist's review of actual x-rays. If it was from charts, yes - the dental chart is inconsistent with PSH's dental description. However, one chart or the other could have contained errors. I just can't believe that two woman with such similar and very unusual dentals could not be a match, especially when most everything else lines up so well.)

630UFFL http://doenetwork.org/cases/630uffl.html
Debra Vanessa Townsel http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/t/townsel_debra.html

 

[Ms Suzanne]

Thank you.I talked personally to the Davie police department about a match with 554UFFL.She did not match my sister.DNA is in there to compare us with.If there is a match I'm sure it would have come up.

 

[Ms Suzanne]

I am very interested in knowing if they have DNA on this Jane Doe found.

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/126uffl.html



I'm also interested in any Jane Does found in Florida that has not had DNA done on them yet or thier DNA is not in CODIS.

 

[carbuff]

Suzanne, is there a thread here for your sister that you could point us to? I read through the thread but became confused about which young woman you might be referring to -- though I know you've told me before. :blushing: Are you Tammi Leppert's sister?

 

[Cubby]

Everyone,

Let's please stay on topic. This thread is for the UID which was identified as Colleen. If you have questions or comments on a different UID please find the thread for that UID. If a general discussion thread does not already exist for the UID you have questions on, please start one.

Thank you,

Cubby
~moderator

 

[andrewgant]

That would be because of Andrew upthread: Websleuths Crime Sleuthing Community - View Single Post - Found Deceased FL - Colleen Orsborn, 15, Daytona Beach, 19 March 1984

Hope you're still around, Andrew!

I'm still here... meant to post an update here, but of course a Websleuther was already on it. Thanks for following this. I'm always interested in local cold cases (Daytona Beach, Fla., or anywhere in Volusia and Flagler counties) if anyone has tips...

My e-mail: andrew.gant@news-jrnl.com

 

[Reannan]

I just keep coming back to this thread and reading it again!!! This case is a great example of where things can go wrong with matching missing persons to UID's. It is also a great example of how important it is to keep focused on a case because you never know what little piece of information, and what a new set of eyes can do to help solve the case. I believe Colleen had been mentioned as a possible match for the UID [FONT=&quot]30UFFL a while back by CarlK and Shadowangel (PLEASE someone jump in a fill in the dates for me....) HUGE kudo's also go out to Andrew Gant, the reporter from the [/FONT][FONT=&quot]Daytona Beach News-Journal, and to Dr. "G" - aka Dr. [/FONT][FONT=&quot]Garavaglia!!!! Dr. G. had submitted ALL of the DNA profiles from her UID cases to "a national database" in March of 2010. (Kudo's to the lab people at the national database too!!!). Apparently, Andrew Gant is a great investigative journalist, and reads here at WS's. In August of 2010, CarlK posted that Colleen looked like a match to the UID in terms of "....nearly all data points". Apparently, some magical comibnation of the events listed above resulted in Dr. G insisting that the DNA she had submitted be carefully compared to the national database. And thus we find ourselves here. We know what happened to Colleen, and we have seen the power of the internet and the influence forums like WebSleuths (Kudo's to Tricia and all of YOU for that!!!) can have on cases. Great job to ALL of you - and that includes our members and our lurkers. If it wasn't for someone caring enough to keep searching, we would never be able to match up any UID with a missing person!
[/FONT]

 

[starmushrooms]

I'm still here... meant to post an update here, but of course a Websleuther was already on it. Thanks for following this. I'm always interested in local cold cases (Daytona Beach, Fla., or anywhere in Volusia and Flagler counties) if anyone has tips...

My e-mail: andrew.gant@news-jrnl.com

Hey Andrew, thought I would throw another cold case in here. A South Carolina girl went missing in 1977 from the Boulevard Motel in DeLand, Angela Ramsey.

I posted some info in that thread since it has been a few years since it happened, but it's a good cold case that would be nice to solve.

http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?p=6094583#post6094583

Thanks!

 

[andrewgant]

Hey Andrew, thought I would throw another cold case in here. A South Carolina girl went missing in 1977 from the Boulevard Motel in DeLand, Angela Ramsey.

I'll go ahead and post the last thing we ran on her in the forum link you posted...

 

[starmushrooms]

I'll go ahead and post the last thing we ran on her in the forum link you posted...

Thanks Andrew!

 

[CarlK90245]

I had saved Colleen Orsborn's Charley page before it was removed from the site. I'm putting it here to keep it available to WS members.

Colleen Emily Orsborn

Left: Orsborn, circa 1984;
Right: Age-progression at age 35 (circa 2004)

Vital Statistics at Time of Disappearance

Missing Since: March 19, 1984 from Daytona Beach, Florida
Classification: Non-Family Abduction
Date Of Birth: March 3, 1969
Age: 15 years old
Height and Weight: 5'2, 95 pounds
Distinguishing Characteristics: Caucasian female. Blonde hair, hazel eyes. Orsborn's name may be spelled "Osborn" or "Osbourne."
Clothing/Jewelry Description: Possibly a two-piece pink bikini bathing suit and flip-flops.

Details of Disappearance

Orsborn was last seen at her family's home in Daytona Beach, Florida on March 19, 1984. She missed the school bus on the day of her disappearance and her mother gave her some money so she could take the county bus to school. Orsborn never arrived at school, however. She is believed to have skipped school to go to the beach. Authorities initially believed Orsborn to be a runaway who was headed towards the Titusville, Florida area, but have since changed their theory.

Orsborn has five older siblings. She was a student at Campbell Junior High School at the time of her disappearance; she had previously attended St. Paul's Catholic School but was discharged for behavioral problems. Her loved ones stated she is very intelligent but did not like school in 1984, and often skipped classes. At the time of her disappearance, Orsborn's parents had separated and her mother was ill. Some of her loved ones theorized that she ran away because of the stress in her family, but no one believed she would have been gone this long without contacting anyone.

Investigators now believe that Orsborn may have been abducted by Christopher Wilder, a man linked to at least a dozen disappearances, rapes, murders and/or attacks of numerous women in the early to mid-1980's. Photos of Wilder are posted below this case summary. He is believed to have been in the Daytona Beach area on the day Orsborn disappeared.

One of Orsborn's classmates stated a man resembling Wilder had offered her $100 to pose for pictures. This would fit with Wilder's modus operandi, as he sometimes attempted to lure young female victims by offering non-existent "modeling sessions" or other tactics. He was put on probation in 1980 after pleading guilty to attempted sexual battery towards a teenage girl. While on a visit home to Australia that same year, he was charged with kidnapping and sexually assaulting two teenaged girls. His parents bailed him out of jail and he flew back to the United States, promising to return for his trial which was set for April 1984. He is a also a suspect in the Florida disappearances of Mary Opitz, Rosario Gonzales, Elizabeth Kenyon, and Tammy Leppert. Wilder was killed during a shootout with authorities shortly after Orsborn vanished.

Orsborn's case took another turn in 2001, when her brother received an anonymous letter postmarked February 21, 2001 from Manchester, New Hampshire. The letter was written in felt tip pen and had many misspellings. It was signed with a fish mark, similar to the Christian symbol for Christ. Orsborn's siblings believe the letter is legitimate. Her parents have both died in the years since her disappearance.

The letter's author claimed he or she murdered Orsborn and buried her body in an area along the Tomaka River in Daytona Beach in 1984. He/she stated that Orsborn could be located approximately one mile from the Route 4 overpass along Interstate 415. The writer also claimed that he/she buried Orsborn's clothing in a black garbage bag about one hundred feet from her supposed burial site. The author stated that he/she was dying due to cirrhosis of the liver, which can occur as a result of heavy alcohol usage. Authorities theorize that the unidentified individual may be a member of Alcoholics Anonymous, a program which encourages participants to admit past wrongdoings and ask for forgiveness from their victims. It is not known if the author has any true connection to Orsborn's case. Investigators pursued the possible lead, but they have not been able to determine who wrote the letter or whether or not the information provided is authentic.

Above Images: Wilder