Identified! NJ - Mercer Co., WhtFem 288UFNJ, 18-30, J. Rifkin Victim, Mar'89 - Heidi Balch

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I think the cheeks and mouth are very similar. The only thing is the date missing was in 82 and the body found was in 89. That doesnt mean though that she had not been alive for the 7 years missing either. They are similar for sure....good find! Maybe some of our more seasoned sleuthers will jump on in...lol
 
Good find. They resemble each other quite a bit. I would definitely submit it!
 
The Doe Network: 2818DFNY
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/2818dfny.html

Arlene Abbas

Missing since January 6, 1989 from Brooklyn, New York City, New York
Classification: Endangered Missing

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Vital Statistics



Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 160 lbs.
Distinguishing Characteristics: White female. Strawberry blonde hair; blue eyes.
Clothing: May be wearing traditional Muslim clothing.
Medical: Mental health issues
Dentals: Not available.
AKA: Arlene Day Abbas


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Circumstances of Disappearance
Arlene Abbas was born in Indiana and eventually married and went to live in New Orleans with her husband and children. Arlene converted to the Islamic faith at the time of her marriage. In the mid 1980's Arlene and her husband were divorced and Arlene went to New York, leaving her small children with her husband.
In 1989 she was hospitalized in New York city for mental health issues and subsequently released to a halfway house in Brooklyn. Arlene left the halfway house in Brooklyn on January 6, 1989 and was never seen again.
It is possible Arlene is institutionalized or does not know how to contact family members




The Doe Network:
Case File 288UFNJ
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/288ufnj.html

Unidentified White Female


•Discovered on March 5, 1989 in Mercer County, New Jersey.
•She was a victim of homicide.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Vital Statistics

•Estimated age: 18 - 30 years old
•Approximate Height and Weight: 5'0"-5'9"; 100 - 140 lbs.
•Distinguishing Characteristics: Dirty blonde to light brown hair; blue eyes. Mole on left chin; 1' to 1.5" scar over left eye. Ear lobes scarred from piercing. Blood type A. HIV positive.
•Dentals: All teeth had been extracted except for 3rd molars which were incompletely erupted or impacted.
•Other: Her name may be Susie.
•DNA: Available.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Case History
The victim was murdered by Joel David Rifkin in March 1989. He picked her up in Manhattan’s East Village, NY at around 10:00 pm. She was a drug addict and prostitute.
Rifkin beat and strangled her and then dismembered her body. To foil identification, Rifkin severed her fingertips and pulled her teeth with pliers, then jammed her severed head into an old paint can.
Rifkin drove the body parts across the state line to New Jersey, dropping the head and legs in the woods near Hopewell. Then he returned to Manhattan, pitching the arms and torso into the East River. On March 5, 1989, a member of the Hopewell Valley Golf Club in Hopewell Township, NJ found the can containing the victim's head near the 7th tee. Her legs were found in Pequonnock Creek, Jefferson Township, NJ on 4/8/89. Match confirmed by DNA testing.
The case remained unsolved until Rifkin confessed in 1993.
 

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Wow - looks like an excellent match to me! You should submit it.

Sidebar - not that it's funny at all, but you posting this made me think of the episode of Seinfeld where Elaine is dating a guy named Joel Rifkin and she's trying to get him to change his name. I don't think I realized that Joel Rifkin was a real serial killer until I just saw your posting.
 
oh wow their hair is exactly the same down to the lightened front part.
 
this is my first attempt at starting a thread and I hope I get it right. I did not see this UID listed here and if she is, I apologize for any duplication.

Body parts from the same person were found about one month apart in NJ - Mercer County March 3 or 5, 1989 (date not clear) and Morris County April 8, 1989. Date of death determined to be March 3 or 5, 1989. The ghoul who murdered the UID disposed of her hands and extracted her teeth to prevent identification.

The UID is described as a white female, age 16-31, height 5'0" (est) weight 115 (est), brown hair, blue eyes, mole on left cheek. There were two different Namus numbers assigned to the remains:

Mercer County - https://identifyus.org/cases/1675
Morris County - https://identifyus.org/cases/1681

per NJ State Police website, the UID is between 4'11" to 5'2", brown or sandy hair, blue eyes, with a scar over her left eye 1"-1 1/2" in length:

http://www.njsp.org/miss/ui_morris_u786215594.html

I found this potential match, but did not want to limit this thread to discussion to just this missing person, Rebecca Crist:

https://www.findthemissing.org/cases/1796/1/
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/c/crist_rebecca.html

Rebecca is described as 25 y.o. in 1988, 5'0" and 115 lbs, blue eyes and red hair.

As per the Charley Project profile, there was some feeling that Rebecca may have left on her own accord at least at first. Further there is an alleged confession written in 1991 by someone who said he accidentally killed her and dumped her in landfill. LE was not able to verify the contents of the alleged confession so the guy was not charged.

On the plus side of this potential match are the race, gender, height, weight, age, eye color, general appearance and time frame (less than one year between date lka and the date of death March 3, 1989). the only real downside is the hair color which is described as red for Rebecca and sandy or brown for the UID. In my view the left most drawing at Mercer County Namus profile looks very much like Rebecca including the way the hair was parted and that her hair matches the color in the right most drawing.

There are DNA samples from both Rebecca and the UID and I just don't have a clear enough understanding of the difference between a nuclear DNA test and the mitochondrial DNA test to know if this makes this an automatic exclusion. I do not know if the differences would generate a match (or exclusion) or whether the two results would have to be examined separately because they are not the same.

At Namus, Rebecca is noted to have mitochondrial DNA sample on file and they have a nuclear DNA sample from the UID in NJ (Mercer County link).

Even if Rebecca is a rule-out on DNA, this UID has not been discussed here on WS to my knowledge so maybe we can help identify her.
 
Mercer co Jane Doe has DNA on file.
https://identifyus.org/cases/1675

Kristy Lynn Booth's Namus page says that DNA sample is submitted and tests complete. Her dentals are available as well but Jane Doe's teeth were extracted after death so it's of little help but Kristy Booth's DN page says that her tooth number 30 was missing and according to Namus, Jane Doe's tooth number 30 was missing postmortem so if that's correct it would tend to rule Kristy Booth out.

https://www.findthemissing.org/cases/2928/0/
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/704dftx.html
 
jodierenee said:
someone else on WS thinks they have a match too. Hopefully one of you guys is right!

NY-I think I found the missing link in Doe Networks Hot Case #3 - Websleuths Crime Sleuthing Community
Click to expand...

The thread is marked ruled out but the DN page still exists.

deadlyfamous said:
it looks like someone else has found a better match for this uid. there's more info on it on doe, which i didn't realize...the uid was actually a prostitute and drug addict from ny that was murdered by serial killer joel rifkin. here's the thread:
http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=86249
Click to expand...

Also ruled out.

The UID Namus could be more helpful.
Based on the information here https://identifyus.org/cases/1681 I wouldn't know that this case is connected to https://identifyus.org/cases/1675. The latter link gives the connection but the age ranges and the exclusions given are different even though they're the same individual. Anyway, Nadine Timm and Arlene Abbas are ruled out. The age is either 18-30 or 16-31. Anne Riggin would have been 32 in early 1989 which just barely misses the range by a couple of months (her birthday is in December).

Anne Riggin has no Namus page. She has dentals available according to DN but the UID had all her teeth extracted after death except three molars that were incompletely erupted or impacted. Anne Riggin's molars might possibly rule her out.

http://www.lbth.org/ncma/gallery/ncmaprofile_all.php?A200402081S
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/1569dfpa.html
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/r/riggin_anne.html

None of the links say anything about her DNA or if she had links to drugs and prostitution before her disappearance but I suppose if she was missing for seven years before being murdered anything could have happened.
 
tamar said:
The Doe Network: 2818DFNY
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/2818dfny.html

Arlene Abbas

Missing since January 6, 1989 from Brooklyn, New York City, New York
Classification: Endangered Missing

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Vital Statistics



Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 160 lbs.
Distinguishing Characteristics: White female. Strawberry blonde hair; blue eyes.
Clothing: May be wearing traditional Muslim clothing.
Medical: Mental health issues
Dentals: Not available.
AKA: Arlene Day Abbas


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Circumstances of Disappearance
Arlene Abbas was born in Indiana and eventually married and went to live in New Orleans with her husband and children. Arlene converted to the Islamic faith at the time of her marriage. In the mid 1980's Arlene and her husband were divorced and Arlene went to New York, leaving her small children with her husband.
In 1989 she was hospitalized in New York city for mental health issues and subsequently released to a halfway house in Brooklyn. Arlene left the halfway house in Brooklyn on January 6, 1989 and was never seen again.
It is possible Arlene is institutionalized or does not know how to contact family members




The Doe Network:
Case File 288UFNJ
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/288ufnj.html

Unidentified White Female


•Discovered on March 5, 1989 in Mercer County, New Jersey.
•She was a victim of homicide.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Vital Statistics

•Estimated age: 18 - 30 years old
•Approximate Height and Weight: 5'0"-5'9"; 100 - 140 lbs.
•Distinguishing Characteristics: Dirty blonde to light brown hair; blue eyes. Mole on left chin; 1' to 1.5" scar over left eye. Ear lobes scarred from piercing. Blood type A. HIV positive.
•Dentals: All teeth had been extracted except for 3rd molars which were incompletely erupted or impacted.
•Other: Her name may be Susie.
•DNA: Available.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Case History
The victim was murdered by Joel David Rifkin in March 1989. He picked her up in Manhattan’s East Village, NY at around 10:00 pm. She was a drug addict and prostitute.
Rifkin beat and strangled her and then dismembered her body. To foil identification, Rifkin severed her fingertips and pulled her teeth with pliers, then jammed her severed head into an old paint can.
Rifkin drove the body parts across the state line to New Jersey, dropping the head and legs in the woods near Hopewell. Then he returned to Manhattan, pitching the arms and torso into the East River. On March 5, 1989, a member of the Hopewell Valley Golf Club in Hopewell Township, NJ found the can containing the victim's head near the 7th tee. Her legs were found in Pequonnock Creek, Jefferson Township, NJ on 4/8/89. Match confirmed by DNA testing.
The case remained unsolved until Rifkin confessed in 1993.
Click to expand...

Arlene Abbas is now the only official rule out on this case.
 
Is there another thread for the Jane Doe on Websleuths? Cannot find one....thanks
 
She was identified.
http://www.trentonian.com/article/2...opewell-golf-course-identified-24-years-later
But it appears that she was last seen in 1995.


Heidi Balch

attachment.php

Above: Balch, circa 1987 (more recent photographs are unavailable)

Vital Statistics at Time of Disappearance

Missing Since: February 1, 1995 from New York City, New York
Classification: Missing
Date of Birth: January 7, 1964
Age: 31 years old
Height and Weight: 5'3, 115 pounds
Distinguishing Characteristics: Caucasian female. Blonde to brown hair, blue eyes. Balch may use the name Heidi Balch Ulhag.

Details of Disappearance

Balch was last seen in the vicinity of the 3400 block of Avenue J in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, at 11:30 a.m. on February 1, 1995. She has never been heard from again. Few details are available in her case.
 

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How is someone found in 1989 but last seen 6 years after their remains were found?
Aside from the high forehead, I don't think I would have made the connection from the recons.

Glad Heidi has her name back. :rose:
 
Cubby said:
How is someone found in 1989 but last seen 6 years after their remains were found?
Aside from the high forehead, I don't think I would have made the connection from the recons.

Glad Heidi has her name back. :rose:
Click to expand...

I think the recons are pretty close. I think they got her facial shape about right, even though the hairstyle was different.

You can barely see the mole on the left side of her chin, that is described of the Jane Doe (and depicted in the recons). She looks to have a mole on the left side of the nose that isn't mentioned or depicted.
 
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