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

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Can we get this upgraded from Identified to Match? I think Carl and others who posted on the other thread deserve this.

Great job, everyone.
 
It took me a while to find this photo online, but this is one of the more spooky photos I've seen. The photo was taken 16 days after Colleen Orsborn was last seen alive.

The legs in the foreground were those of Michelle Korfman, a teenaged beauty pagent contestent at a Seventeen Magazine event in Las Vegas. She disappeared right after this event and her skeletal remains were found a month later in the mountains near Los Angeles.

In the background is Christopher Wilder leering at her. He showed up at the event posing as a photographer at the very time that he was the subject of a nationwide manhunt, and his face was on every news broadcast in the country.

2207078390045078242S600x600Q851.jpg
 
Unbelievable photo of Christopher Wilder. Thanks, Carl for that.
My heart is breaking for all of his victims as they were unaware of his true intentions. It's pure devious & evil act on his part. I'm glad about my neighbor state, NH, caught him & ended his life by shootout.
 
This is incredible — I've never known something simultaneously so heartening and discouraging. A sincere thank you to shadowangel, the indefatigable CarlK90245, and Andrew Gant for connecting the lost young lady to her family.
 
Does anyone know anything more about the anonymous letter? I can't tell if it's details are similar or not to the body identified as Colleen.
 
CarlK90245 said:
CarlK90245 said:
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.
Click to expand...

webrocket said:
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.
Click to expand...

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

... (snipped)

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.)

... (snipped)
Click to expand...

Shor'Nuff - according to NamUs, this decedent was ID'd as Peggy Sue Houser by mtDNA and nucDNA.

https://identifyus.org/cases/216
 
Also, its strange that the doe had been in the shallow grave for about 10 days and was found 1984 and Peggy sue houser disappeared in 1981 and was last heard from in Ohio. Strange that this ended up being a match.
 
I just saw a promo clip on the Investigation Discovery (ID) Channel that they are going to Profile Colleen Orsborn's story next Monday on their weekly Disappeared series.

This should be interesting.
 
shadowangel said:
Colleen Emily Orsborn
Missing since March 19, 1984 from Daytona Beach, Volusia County, Florida.
Classification: Non-Family Abduction

Vital Statistics
Date Of Birth: March 3, 1969
Age at Time of Disappearance: 15 years old
Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 5'2; 95 pounds
Distinguishing Characteristics: White female. Blonde hair; hazel eyes.
Dentals: Not available

Circumstances of Disappearance
Orsborn was last seen at her family's Daytona Beach, Florida home on March 19, 1984. Orsborn was initially thought to be a runaway who was headed towards Titusville, Florida. Police now suspect that she was abducted by serial-killer Christopher Wilder. He was seen in Daytona that day, propositioning "models." He is also a suspect in the abductions of Tammy Leppert and Mary Opitz. Wilder was killed in Colebrook on April 13, 1984, in a struggle with a New Hampshire state trooper.
In February 2001, Orsborn's brother got an anonymous letter postmarked in Manchester, NH from someone who said he had killed the girl, giving some directions to where he supposedly left the body and begging forgiveness. The author said he is dying from cirrhosis of the liver. The author describes an area along the Tomaka River in Daytona Beach where he claims to have dumped the girl’s body and clothes. Investigators say the author may not be Orsborn’s killer, and instead could have learned of the disappearance by talking to Wilder when Wilder passed through New Hampshire. Still, they are investigating the possibility the letter is for real.
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/171dffl.html

The disappearance of Colleen fits the pattern of Wilder, who often attacked near his birthdate of March 13th. This was near the beginning of his cross-country rampage of kidnapping and murder, ending with his death in a confrontation with state police in New Hampshire. While researching Wilder in reference to the disappearance of Dorothy "DeeDee" Scofield, I found this case. After looking at various sites, I found the following UID....

Discovered on April 6, 1984 in Orlando, Orange County, Florida.
Cause of death was homicide
She is estimated to have been dead for up to 10 days before she was located.

Vital Statistics
Estimated age: 14 - 18 years old
Approximate Height and Weight: 5'3"; 100 - 115 lbs.
Distinguishing Characteristics: Brown eyes and light brown hair cut short around the face, 6"-9" long in back. She wore a size 7 -8 shoe. She had no scars or other abnormalities / identifying marks. She had on very faint pink nail polish on fingernails as well as two toenails. her ears were not pierced.
Dentals: Available. She did have cavities, however; it appeared that she had never received dental care.
DNA: Available.
Clothing: No clothing was located.

Case History
The victim was located in a wooded area between SR 545 and SR 192 (Lake Buena Vista) near Bali Boulevard in southwest Orange County, Florida. She had been killed and buried naked in a shallow grave.
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/30uffl.html

The resemblance between Colleen and the first set of reconstructions of the UID is unmistakable (the second set of reconstructions look nothing like the first, and do not match the written description. The written description of Colleen does not match her photo, either).
The dates match---The UID was found 18 days after Colleen disappeared. Orlando and Daytona Beach are some 50 miles apart. I would certainly hope this match has already been looked at...
(Anyone capable of posting a side-by-side comparison of the photos, please feel free).
Click to expand...


On DISCOVERY ID, this Monday coming up, on the show DISAPPEARED, they will feature Colleen's story.

I contatced police this past year and alerted them to the fact that in the Orsborn case, the Deborah Quimby case, and Alicia Markovich case, that somebody from a small town area in the state of NH, had sent letters to the families of all 3 of these victims claiming to be their killer, and that their bodies were buried near ponds, lakes, or rivers. In each case, police dug and searched, but found nothing. Each letter sent to these families was postmarked in the same area of NH.

That's no coincidece! The same person sent letters to each of these Families. Now, wether the letter writer was really involved in any of these crimes remains to be seen. But for one reason or another, he chose these 3 cases and mailed letters. The police checked it out and got back to me, and their official opinion is that the letter writer was simply a twisted individual and that these 3 girls cases are NOT RELATED to each other. So, pretty much a dead end
 
Salem said:
Okay - which is it? Colleen or Peggy Sue? I don't see any MSM links and I can't seem to get to the link on identifyus.

Can you give me something to verify who this person is, please.

Thanks,

Salem
Click to expand...

Yes, here it is:

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

Investigation Discovery is featuring Colleen's case tonight on the Disappeared series.

Peggy Sue Houser was matched to a case in Tampa. Here is the thread for Peggy Sue Houser's case.

Identified! FL - Tampa - Female 424UFFL, 14-20, Jan 1982 - *merged* Peggy Sue Houser


Both cases are quite similar. Both were ID'd after erroneous rule-outs and remained UID for 27 years in Colleen's case and 30 years in Peggy Sue's case,

My comment in post #23 about "this decedent" was in reference to an off-topic comment that I had made on Post #12 of this thread.

Identified! FL - Orlando - WhtFem Teen in Shallow Grave - Apr'84-
 
Jubble said:
She had been ruled out, but there has been a DNA link found.
http://www.news-journalonline.com/n...2/dr-g-matches-missing-daytona-teens-dna.html


Websleuths thread for Colleen
Click to expand...

from the above link:

DAYTONA BEACH -- When 15-year-old Colleen Orsborn missed her bus, ditched school, grabbed a pink bikini and left home on March 15, 1984, DNA science was still young.

When a fisherman found a knee poking out of the ground near an Orange County lake a few days later -- faded pink nail polish left on the body's fingers and toes -- there was still no DNA database.

For almost three decades, Colleen and the girl found in Orange County remained separate mysteries.

They shouldn't have.

"It's a tragedy that somebody ruled her out," Orlando's District 9 Medical Examiner Jan Garavaglia said Friday.

Garavaglia confirmed that a DNA sample from the long-unidentified girl by the lake has been matched to Colleen, the pretty Campbell Junior High eighth-grader who police believe was one of the first victims of serial killer Christopher Wilder.


The MSM link still works for me. the remains found in this thread, in 1982 were identified via dna as Colleen.

Another thread exists for Peggy, whose remains were found in 1984.

Both were intially ruled out incorrectly, which is where I think the confusion comes in.

This thread is definately for the remains which were later determined to be Colleen Orsborn.

hth
 
Cubby and Carl, thanks for setting the record straight... The thread title reflects the correction... I am glad Colleen has her name back... May she rest in peace!
 
Oops, and I see I mixed up the years the UID's were found in my previous post. Colleens remains were found in 1984, Peggy's in 1982.

I'm sorry I confused the two. It's sad in both cases, the matches were initially ruled out incorrectly.
 
What a heartbreaking case.
I kept thinking " Christopher Wilder" throughout the entire segment..

I was so very surpsied and happy to see that WS was instrumental in helping to identify her 27 years later. Dr. G is a wonderful forensic pathologist and Medical Examiner.

Good work, y'all!! :rocker:

God bless Colleen's family and friends and all of you who gave a piece of your hearts to the case too.
Maria
 
I just happen to be a regular viewer of the ID Cable channel.
I was so sure when Colleen's case came on that she was a victim of Christopher Wilder.
Kept watching and waiting.. I was so surprised ( not sure why though) to see WS work mentioned in the case with the site URL.

Good work, y'all. I'm so glad her family now has closure.
Dr. G is a fantastic ME who listened!.

Sincerely,
Maria
 
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