General Questions, discussions, briefings, newbies, etc.

[Irish_Eyes]

Well, last night I couldn't sleep at all! So I was watching TV again. And I happened to catch an episode of The New Detectives. The episode title is "Faces of Tragedy." Forensic artist Karen Taylor was featured. I have seen some of her work. I thought it was cool because in the episode she actually drew a sketch while she talked the viewer through the process, and the resulting sketch was instrumental in eventually identifying the remains of a teenage girl. I haven't found a link to watch it online, but maybe someone else can, or maybe it will be on again.

http://investigation.discovery.com/tv-schedules/series.html?paid=141.15370.18472.3020.x

 

[rollinginit]

Just wondering something.....is it possible that the ages on these peole can be way off from namus?

For example....the lady with the pearl necklace (Ohio), I see her and she looks younger, IMO, than 50. Or are the ages pretty close?

 

[CarlK90245]

Just wondering something.....is it possible that the ages on these people can be way off from namus?

For example....the lady with the pearl necklace (Ohio), I see her and she looks younger, IMO, than 50. Or are the ages pretty close?

Yes, it's possible. I've seen numerous occasions where the age was off.

But to me, the Pearl lady looks older than 50.

 

[rollinginit]

Thanks Carl. I appreciate the fast reply.
I've been reading the threads on the matches to see how it works.

Thanks for your input on pearl lady. I guess I was wondering if her face could be a little bloated, which would make her appear older.

Ugh, it's so frustrating. I want to find them all.

Thanks again.

 

[phubbard63]

[The scientist] said that as humans walk throughout their day gravity causes the spinal fluid to gradually move downward. As a result she said we are actually shorter at the end of our day than at the beginning - because our spine compresses some when there's less fluid floating in there. She said anywhere up to an inch shorter! That got me thinking about our UIDs....as they lose spinal fluid in the decomp process perhaps they get shorter too? Perhaps that is just another factor in why some of the heights are off. I will try to find the title to the program and a link.

There's the cerebrospinal fluid, the stuff that bathes the nervous system cells (and gets bloody in meningitis cases, etc). Then there are the intervertebral discs, the pads between the vertebra (which sometimes "slip" with painful results). I'm pretty sure it's the discs which are responsible for the effect you're talking about, but yes that does happen -- you're shorter at the end of the day than in the morning. An interesting side note -- astronauts are prone to backaches while in orbit because their bodies don't get this daily compression from gravity.

I'm thinking of two other things that might throw off a height estimate. In all the times I've ever been asked for my height, everyone has always simply taken my word for it. In three different states, the DMV clerk who issued a driver's license always simply asked "how tall are you" and accepted whatever I told them. Now, I've never tried to fudge my height, but it occurs to me that someone might add or subtract a couple of inches for whatever reason -- personal embarrassment about being unusually short or tall, etc. So a 5'4" male might be "officially" recorded as 5'6", for example.

Another thing worth mentioning regarding those spinal discs -- they do get thinner as a person ages, with the result that most people are shorter at 60 than they were at 30. But how many people bother telling the DMV clerk when renewing a license, "I'm not as tall as I used to be?" For that matter, how many are unaware of it? (When was the last time your height was actually measured?) So I guess that could throw things off too.

 

[Irish_Eyes]

Just a vent...

While looking at possible matches for an UID who was estimated at 5'0" tall a few months ago I came across the profile of Ronda Sue Harney.

https://www.findthemissing.org/en/cases/5421/0/

Ronda is listed as 60 inches (or 5 feet) tall. Here is Ronda's photo:

Clearly not five feet tall! I called the NamUs case manager, and of course he saw what I saw, and sent a message to the LE agency asking them to please review. Only after that did I see that this was brought up another WS poster in 2010! I just went back and checked again, and it is STILL wrong.

Frustrating!

 

[CarlK90245]

Yes, I was that WS poster. I e-mailed the NamUs Case manager back in June 2010 to point that out. He said that he would check with the officer who entered the data.

Obviously, they blew it off.

It appears that 60 inches is the default figure they put when they haven't the vaguest idea how tall the MP was.

 

[CarlK90245]

I just got word from the photo hosting service that I've been using for years (Webshots.com) that they are going out of business and re-opening a new site called Smile with much less functionality.

This is going to be a major mess because it appears that as of December 1, all of the photos that I have posted on the various forums here and elsewhere will all disappear. They didn't give much warning, and if you read the blog page, there are a lot of their customers who are steaming mad.

I will have to sign up for a new hosting service, and I will try to replace as many of the links as I can, but unfortunately, I won't be able to replace all of them.

 

[Irish_Eyes]

Oh man, Carl, that's terrible! All your hard work! Is it just a time factor that won't let you replace all of them? Anything us other sleuthers can do to help?

 

[CarlK90245]

All your hard work! Is it just a time factor that won't let you replace all of them?

Basically, that's it - the time it would take to individually go in and replace the bad link.

Anything us other sleuthers can do to help?

Not really. Only I (and other mods) have edit capability on my old posts.

 

[sayd]

Basically, that's it - the time it would take to individually go in and replace the bad link.



Not really. Only I (and other mods) have edit capability on my old posts.

Carl,

I have noticed all you do here often, and I just wanted to tell you how sorry I was to read this.

 

[CarlK90245]

Carl,

I have noticed all you do here often, and I just wanted to tell you how sorry I was to read this.

I think I've replaced most of the links. I've gone through all of the UID Forums and subforums, and the Missing Person forums, as well as the Located forums. It took over a week, but most (if not all) of the old Webshots links are now in my Photobucket account and are re-posted.

I may have missed a few, but I think I've gotten most of them.

 

[DippyBlonder]

Just a vent...

While looking at possible matches for an UID who was estimated at 5'0" tall a few months ago I came across the profile of Ronda Sue Harney.

https://www.findthemissing.org/en/cases/5421/0/

Ronda is listed as 60 inches (or 5 feet) tall. Here is Ronda's photo:

Clearly not five feet tall! I called the NamUs case manager, and of course he saw what I saw, and sent a message to the LE agency asking them to please review. Only after that did I see that this was brought up another WS poster in 2010! I just went back and checked again, and it is STILL wrong.

Frustrating!

Can you believe this STILL hasn't been corrected!

I've emailed them too now.

 

[Irish_Eyes]

Happened to hear about this today. Anchorage police have had a suspected serial killer, Israel Keyes in custody, and he just committed suicide, frustrating further attempts by investigators to find out more about his crimes. Police have tied him to the disappearance of a young Anchorage woman and also, improbably, to the murder of a middle-aged couple in Vermont. Subsequent investigation revealed that Keyes traveled all over the US between 2001 and 2012. He claimed to have several caches of weapons and body disposal items hidden throughout the country, and indeed, detectives have been able to uncover 2 such caches, one as far away as New York State. Keyes was apparently very sophisticated - He would fly into a city, then rent a car and drive hundreds of miles before abducting or killing someone, then transport the body one or more states away.

The FBI has released information regarding Keyes travels and are seeking further information. Please see their timeline here:

http://www.fbi.gov/anchorage/press-...he-publics-assistance-concerning-israel-keyes

If you are looking at a case where the victim disappeared from a certain part of the country within the window of dates that Keyes is known to have been in that region, you might think about looking for an UID in a very wide circumference, and perhaps even out of state.

 

[deca]

There was a case that was on the UID "front page" if you will and there was some speculation that he was a boy from a boys/young mens correction type institution or school. Pre 1980s?

Anyways, on CBS Evening News today, they were talking about graves that were found and abuse that happened at a school. New forensic techniques were being used to locate unmarked graves.
Anyways, does anyone remember what that case we were talking about (in the last 3 months IIRC) was? I think this was the same school as in the program. TIA

 

[CarlK90245]

I just got word from the photo hosting service that I've been using for years (Webshots.com) that they are going out of business and re-opening a new site called Smile with much less functionality.

This is going to be a major mess because it appears that as of December 1, all of the photos that I have posted on the various forums here and elsewhere will all disappear. They didn't give much warning, and if you read the blog page, there are a lot of their customers who are steaming mad.

I will have to sign up for a new hosting service, and I will try to replace as many of the links as I can, but unfortunately, I won't be able to replace all of them.

It is now past December 1, so once in a while, I still run across some posts where the image that I posted has been replaced with a big ugly "TEMPORARILY UNAVAILABLE" message. These were posts that I missed when I was re-posting my Webshots-hosted images that I had to move to Photobucket. BTW, there's nothing temporary about it. Their unavailablility is permanent (i.e., until I fix them).

If you see any of these "TEMPORARILY UNAVAILABLE" messages where images should be in the UID and MP forums, please let me know with a Private Message so that I can fix the bad image links.

 

[JustCryssy]

There was a case that was on the UID "front page" if you will and there was some speculation that he was a boy from a boys/young mens correction type institution or school. Pre 1980s?

Anyways, on CBS Evening News today, they were talking about graves that were found and abuse that happened at a school. New forensic techniques were being used to locate unmarked graves.
Anyways, does anyone remember what that case we were talking about (in the last 3 months IIRC) was? I think this was the same school as in the program. TIA

The Boys School in Marianna, Florida... (??)

Not sure if that is the case you are referring to, but it baffles me that SO many boys died without any recognition from family or friends.
Truly throw-aways. sad.

 

[Irish_Eyes]

Kind of OT, kind of not, but interesting article:

King Richard May Lie Under Parking Lot
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/12/28-king-richard-may-lie-under-parking-lot/

 

[Lins1983]

Kind of OT, kind of not, but interesting article:

King Richard May Lie Under Parking Lot
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/12/28-king-richard-may-lie-under-parking-lot/

That was beyond interesting!! Asa young girl my family knew that if nat geo had any articles that had to do with archeology(sp) i had to read them. Probably why i am enjoying these mp threads. However i to am getting discouraged with NamUs because in Mi were im at most mp entries have none to little info and out of 25 only 2 have reconstructions. Favorite thing entered is "NCIC has little to know information". Sooo frustrating. ok thanks for listening to that rant. As your were

 

[Redhead72]

NEWBIE QUESTION!
I had NO idea where to post this, so mods, please feel free to delete/move this/let me know where I can post a thread to ask some questions about a possible match?

I was just looking through a few sites of cold cases, and unidentified people in IL (my home-state), and ran across a picture of a reconstructed face from a UID body that was found in IL in 2005. I thought it looked a lot like someone whose missing photo I had just ran across at another site... Both the man who is a missing person, and the UID have a distinctive bend in their nose, in the same place. Seeing as I'm comparing a real photo with a reconstruction, I think several things (like puffier cheeks, or the like) could simply be because of the reconstruction techniques. Also, the body was pulled out of water where it was weighted down, so I don't know how long the body had been in the water. They could not determine eye color, and they seem to be unsure if the body was of a man who was balding with gray hair, or just going gray.

The questions I have are this -- is there anyway someone could lose height of a few inches simply from decomposing within water? The missing person is listed as 6'1" and the UID is stated to be only 5'9" - I realize that's a full four inches, so that's kind of a big difference... Neither the UID, nor the Missing person have a thread here at WS that I have found yet, otherwise I'd have posted these questions there.

I've just got this weird feeling that these are the same person and don't know where to go from here with it...

TIA for any advice, or help. Would love to be able to say I've found answers for a woman and her children who have been missing their loved one for 11 years now.