Identified! PA - Bensalem, WhtFem 461UFPA, 20-30, pregnant, in pumphouse, Jan'88 - Lisa Todd

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Earth said:
Is it possible to get any DNA from Lisa's fetus? If we find the father then we might find out who killed her.
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In 1994, the Vidocq Society, a members-only Philadelphia crime club, created a forensic reconstruction of Todd’s face. But it wasn’t until 2002 that Bensalem police officially reopened her case and began considering forensic options for identifying her.

Todd’s DNA was sequenced in 2007, with no results. Seven years later, St. Mary’s Hospital in Bensalem performed a free CT scan of her skull, and the resulting updated 3D image was entered into the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Another DNA sequencing followed, this time for the fetal bones of Todd’s unborn child.

DNA technology leads to breakthrough in decades-old Bucks County ‘Jane Doe’ case
 
I'm hoping that they can test the DNA of the fetus, cross-check it against the DNA of her living son, and see if there's a match. If the same dude is father of both, I'd do some heavy investigating. A lot of times, women who get pregnant multiple times under 18, it's usually by the same dude. She was pregnant at 14, more than likely by somebody older. She kept that child, and was going to keep this one. Baby daddy probably didn't like this. I get her attire was "adult-like" but its possible judging by the shoes they weren't even her's. Plus what kid is dressing sexy while 6 mos pregnant?

On a sad note, somebody really let this child down. 2 year old at 17, means pregnant at possible 14. Dropping out of school and pregnant again 2 years later. A number of people failed this child.
 
Rob774, I completely agree. And I would think the fact that her living kid is alive and located could help track down a potential father.
Lisa and I share the same surname; granted it's not really uncommon, but it's not Smith or Jones either. I'd really like to see this one solved.
 
I am actually happy she has two living siblings. They may be able to shed some more light on why Lisa got into such a difficult life so early (pregnant at 14 is hard, dropping out of school and then pregnant again 2 years later, i wonder who did that to her? Who impregnates a child?). The siblings were children back then, though and may not know much about Lisas private life (she may have ran away with some man they did not know) and of course the family is entitled to privacy. But I am happy they are there and seem to be actively aiding the case to move forward.
 
Rob774 said:
I'm hoping that they can test the DNA of the fetus, cross-check it against the DNA of her living son, and see if there's a match. If the same dude is father of both, I'd do some heavy investigating. A lot of times, women who get pregnant multiple times under 18, it's usually by the same dude. She was pregnant at 14, more than likely by somebody older. She kept that child, and was going to keep this one. Baby daddy probably didn't like this. I get her attire was "adult-like" but its possible judging by the shoes they weren't even her's. Plus what kid is dressing sexy while 6 mos pregnant?

On a sad note, somebody really let this child down. 2 year old at 17, means pregnant at possible 14. Dropping out of school and pregnant again 2 years later. A number of people failed this child.
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I am only a bit older than Lisa, and recall a few school peers that got pregnant with few resources. Most had to drop out, grow up fast, work. They didn't have programs or much education for teens/young single mothers, other than Planned Parenthood (with protesters outside screaming) or a few other abortion venues. Most medical providers would also involve an under 18's parent which was not always a good thing. Sad all around.
 
In 2020, Bensalem PD partnered with Bode Technology to explore advanced DNA testing methods. Bode Technology had to leverage propriety DNA extraction methods to work with the highly degraded skeletal evidence. The DNA extract developed at Bode Technology was then sent to Othram Inc. for further analysis. Othram used human enrichment paired with Forensic-Grade Genomic Sequencing to produce a genealogical profile. While the DNA evidence was severely degraded due to the age of the case and the condition in which the remains were found, the Bode-Othram partnership produced a genealogical profile that enabled genealogy search. Genealogical research performed by Bensalem PD produced the leads necessary to confirm Todd’s identity.
High-tech DNA Extraction Method Helps Identify Pregnant Jane Doe Found in 1988
 
imstilla.grandma said:
In 2020, Bensalem PD partnered with Bode Technology to explore advanced DNA testing methods. Bode Technology had to leverage propriety DNA extraction methods to work with the highly degraded skeletal evidence. The DNA extract developed at Bode Technology was then sent to Othram Inc. for further analysis. Othram used human enrichment paired with Forensic-Grade Genomic Sequencing to produce a genealogical profile. While the DNA evidence was severely degraded due to the age of the case and the condition in which the remains were found, the Bode-Othram partnership produced a genealogical profile that enabled genealogy search. Genealogical research performed by Bensalem PD produced the leads necessary to confirm Todd’s identity.
High-tech DNA Extraction Method Helps Identify Pregnant Jane Doe Found in 1988
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Even the toughest cases can be worked, but sometimes you have to develop new methods along the way...
 
If Lisa was 17 in the late 80's, she was a few years older than me, since I didn't turn 17 till '91. I also knew kids who got pregnant young, and the resources didn't get better to the mid-90's where HS's actually started having care centers for their pregnant students. It's beyond baffling to think of kids have secs (I'm at work, some I'm too chicken to type out the word :) ) at that age. I knew a girl who was 16 with a 3 old. So yeah... do that math. Lisa needed help, and she needed help from somebody who truly cared for her to get her outta that environment. Most people, especially young girls find themselves in precarious predicaments during their early stages of freedom and exploration, most just end up with a crazy story to tell friends decades later. Its sad that somebody stole this story from Lisa.

May she RIP.
 
Rob774 said:
If Lisa was 17 in the late 80's, she was a few years older than me, since I didn't turn 17 till '91. I also knew kids who got pregnant young, and the resources didn't get better to the mid-90's where HS's actually started having care centers for their pregnant students. It's beyond baffling to think of kids have secs (I'm at work, some I'm too chicken to type out the word :) ) at that age. I knew a girl who was 16 with a 3 old. So yeah... do that math. Lisa needed help, and she needed help from somebody who truly cared for her to get her outta that environment. Most people, especially young girls find themselves in precarious predicaments during their early stages of freedom and exploration, most just end up with a crazy story to tell friends decades later. Its sad that somebody stole this story from Lisa.

May she RIP.
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As a teenager in the late '70s - early 80s I have stories that make my hair raise up - more now than at the time, when comparable circumstances were considered sad, but not anyone else's concern. I knew pregnant 13-year-olds in junior high school. Not in the 'inner city', but in the supposedly placid suburbs. The sad thing was that these young girls were so stigmatized and marginalized, socially and in the classroom, considered "bad girls" whose example should serve as a warning to their peers – when in reality there should have been alarm bells ringing for all the adults around them, and efforts at intervention to literally save their lives. Today we would consider many of them the child victims of pedophiles - either in their own family, or from highly inappropriate relationships with non-familial grown men. Some of them were "dating" men in their 20s with parental permission - what did those parents think was going to happen?

I have to ask who were the grown-ups in Lisa's life, and why didn't any of them stand up for this clearly at-risk child before she wound up with a second teen pregnancy, at the bottom of a hole in an abandoned building. So sad to see her childhood so abbreviated, even before her life was snuffed out by someone who likely found her inconvenient.
 
Agree. And with a supportive environment, most teen moms go on to have very successful and stable lives. I had a classmate who dropped out at 17 due to pregnancy. Well, she went on to have another child, graduated, studied, married her sweetheart (the father of her kids), went on to have a beautiful teaching career and i am a little bit jealous of her now because she has almost adult kids in her mid 30s while I am the same age, but busy with a toddler... :)
I wish Lisa could have had a similar story instead of having her life stolen by someone...

Rob774 said:
If Lisa was 17 in the late 80's, she was a few years older than me, since I didn't turn 17 till '91. I also knew kids who got pregnant young, and the resources didn't get better to the mid-90's where HS's actually started having care centers for their pregnant students. It's beyond baffling to think of kids have secs (I'm at work, some I'm too chicken to type out the word :) ) at that age. I knew a girl who was 16 with a 3 old. So yeah... do that math. Lisa needed help, and she needed help from somebody who truly cared for her to get her outta that environment. Most people, especially young girls find themselves in precarious predicaments during their early stages of freedom and exploration, most just end up with a crazy story to tell friends decades later. Its sad that somebody stole this story from Lisa.

May she RIP.
Click to expand...
 
janewall said:
As a teenager in the late '70s - early 80s I have stories that make my hair raise up - more now than at the time, when comparable circumstances were considered sad, but not anyone else's concern. I knew pregnant 13-year-olds in junior high school. Not in the 'inner city', but in the supposedly placid suburbs. The sad thing was that these young girls were so stigmatized and marginalized, socially and in the classroom, considered "bad girls" whose example should serve as a warning to their peers – when in reality there should have been alarm bells ringing for all the adults around them, and efforts at intervention to literally save their lives. Today we would consider many of them the child victims of pedophiles - either in their own family, or from highly inappropriate relationships with non-familial grown men. Some of them were "dating" men in their 20s with parental permission - what did those parents think was going to happen?

I have to ask who were the grown-ups in Lisa's life, and why didn't any of them stand up for this clearly at-risk child before she wound up with a second teen pregnancy, at the bottom of a hole in an abandoned building. So sad to see her childhood so abbreviated, even before her life was snuffed out by someone who likely found her inconvenient.
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I hate your post so much, because you’re so right. It was - and is - comfortable to point out the “bad girls” instead of taking a minute to look why they’re “bad.” Especially in placid suburbia, we love to focus on everything but the fact that the vast majority of children are sexually abused by family/trusted adults. Moo.
 
Very sad all the way around. I've heard the horror stories about rampant corruption in Philadelphia back in the day. Police really bungled this case. I believe classism played a role in having her case file removed from the NCIC and not given another thought afterwards. If it was a girl from the "right" side of the tracks, who came from a well-to-do family in a "respectable" neighborhood, they'd have worked this case morning, noon, and night. It'd be plastered all over the place. Either it's good, old-fashioned classism, or mom and dad were so estranged from their daughter that they didn't care to follow up with the police or put some pressure on them to re-investigate over the years.

As sad as it is, I'm honestly not shocked that she was a runaway who'd dropped out of school and already had a young child (and another on the way) at 17. Many, if not most of the unidentified cases I stumble across involving a decedent estimated to be a teen (or young adult under 25) invariably share strikingly similar features to one another. Once positively IDed, it usually comes out that these previously unidentified kids were trying to escape a less-than-stellar home life. It's the same tired old tale virtually every time: parents just don't care, or are abusive in some way, and the kid then looks for love and acceptance in all the wrong places. Runaways are always extremely vulnerable to predatory adults and are low on the totem pole out in the streets.

In my community, it certainly isn't unheard of for middle-school and high-school girls to get pregnant. If the family's conservative they usually pressure their daughter to keep the baby, and the grandparents in those scenarios basically raise the baby.
 
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SurrealisticSlumbers said:
Very sad all the way around. I've heard the horror stories about rampant corruption in Philadelphia back in the day. Police really bungled this case. I believe classism played a role in having her case file removed from the NCIC and not given another thought afterwards. If it was a girl from the "right" side of the tracks, who came from a well-to-do family in a "respectable" neighborhood, they'd have worked this case morning, noon, and night. It'd be plastered all over the place. Either it's good, old-fashioned classism, or mom and dad were so estranged from their daughter that they didn't care to follow up with the police or put some pressure on them to re-investigate over the years.

As sad as it is, I'm honestly not shocked that she was a runaway who'd dropped out of school and already had a young child (and another on the way) at 17. Many, if not most of the unidentified cases I stumble across involving a decedent estimated to be a teen (or young adult under 25) invariably share strikingly similar features to one another. Once positively IDed, it usually comes out that these previously unidentified kids were trying to escape a less-than-stellar home life. It's the same tired old tale virtually every time: parents just don't care, or are abusive in some way, and the kid then looks for love and acceptance in all the wrong places. Runaways are always extremely vulnerable to predatory adults and are low on the totem pole out in the streets.

In my community, it certainly isn't unheard of for middle-school and high-school girls to get pregnant. If the family's conservative they usually pressure their daughter to keep the baby, and the grandparents in those scenarios basically raise the baby.
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Great post. Honestly I don't think it has anything to do with police corruption if that's what you were referring to.

As far as socio economics and wrong side of the tracks I agree. I have to look at the middle school again, but I think we're talking Frankford. In 88 you went up missing in those parts your face didn't get flashed up on Action news that's for sure. That s*cks.

I pray they find who took her up to Bensalem.
 
Susikatze said:
She must have dropped out of school way earlier than 17 as she already had a 2 year old child when she disappeared. She must have gotten pregnant at 14 or 15 the latest. I wonder what happened to her that her life took such a turn?

I also wondered if she died by a non foul play situation. She was found seated in the pumphouse. While a killer may seat the victims, especially if they think they can get away easily with it, it also looks to me as if she sat down to rest in the pumphouse and died there. I guess anything is possible. Is the abandoned distillery far from civilization?.
Edit, checked it, it is within the city of Bensalem. No remote area at all.
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Honestly I don't see this as an accident although surely it could happened.

As mentioned in media by Sister she was asked to hold her purse. Why?

To get to Bensalem from Frankford area is straight up Frankford Avenue or what was long ago "Kings Highway". Guy or no guy you wouldn't want to go up there to.even make out. To make the trip by 66 bus again straight up, but the bus stops at the Bensalem line.

We were dealing with "The Frankford Slasher" , but this was not his MO. In 88 plenty of drugs and prostitution in Frankford mainly at Church Street.

Just to reiterate I don't believe Detectives "bungled" this case. Homocide Detectives see every case as a human being. What their Detail was then?

Somebody had a hold on this sweet girl somehow. I think it's someone she knew "of". The leaving of the purse I have a theory.

But don't believe it an accident. I feel awful for her sister.
 
Filly said:
Homocide Detectives see every case as a human being.
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Sorry, but I know of a reputable source who's publicly told the story of how she was trafficked as an orphaned kid from the age of 12 to about 18 (when she was finally able to escape her traffickers); this occurred in the '70s and into the '80s in inner-city Philadelphia. The police were well aware of what was going on, and she tried to get help from them to leave the situation, but was just dismissed. In fact, the Philly police were often in cahoots with the traffickers themselves, and would often be "customers." This poor lady, as a sexual trafficking survivor who has now obtained an education and overcome that part of her life, currently does a lot of advocacy work trying to raise awareness of the human trafficking epidemic in the United States. Regarding the police, there were even some lawsuits brought against the Philly police dept. and the City of Philadelphia, alleging long-term corruption, human rights abuses, trumped-up charges, and collusion with criminal entities. Very seedy criminal underbelly to that city that did carry over into law enforcement.

If you are a poor kid in some parts of this country, you are not treated like an equal human being under the law. Especially back then. As a 17 year-old girl from a "bad home," it's likely you'd be written off as merely a runaway or some juvenile delinquent whose disappearance they didn't have to investigate too hard. That's just the sad truth.
 
SurrealisticSlumbers said:
Sorry, but I know of a reputable source who's publicly told the story of how she was trafficked as an orphaned kid from the age of 12 to about 18 (when she was finally able to escape her traffickers); this occurred in the '70s and into the '80s in inner-city Philadelphia. The police were well aware of what was going on, and she tried to get help from them to leave the situation, but was just dismissed. In fact, the Philly police were often in cahoots with the traffickers themselves, and would often be "customers." This poor lady, as a sexual trafficking survivor who has now obtained an education and overcome that part of her life, currently does a lot of advocacy work trying to raise awareness of the human trafficking epidemic in the United States. Regarding the police, there were even some lawsuits brought against the Philly police dept. and the City of Philadelphia, alleging long-term corruption, human rights abuses, trumped-up charges, and collusion with criminal entities. Very seedy criminal underbelly to that city that did carry over into law enforcement.

If you are a poor kid in some parts of this country, you are not treated like an equal human being under the law. Especially back then. As a 17 year-old girl from a "bad home," it's likely you'd be written off as merely a runaway or some juvenile delinquent whose disappearance they didn't have to investigate too hard. That's just the sad truth.
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My heart breaks for your friend. My dear friend went through this as well. No doubt there was corruption.

I can only speak from what I saw and heard from Detectives back then.

There WERE cops that cared. My dad thankfully didn't want Special Units or homicide. To be frank there were men on the force abused horrifically themselves. They saved kids.

Definitely respect and believe your poor friends accounts. That's not every cop/Detective.

I've been on both sides. I know Frankford. I know K&A. I know Somerset. Just in my experience I've found cops that care.

Again my heart breaks for your friend. I am sorry. Sometimes I look at my dad's commendations that we never knew about till his death. It gives me solace after one day of a child abducted on the way to school my father found her in her own Uncle's basement.
 
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