TN TN - Oak Ridge, Melton Hill Lake, "Lady in the Lake", WhtFem 24-35, 272UFTN, ring w/cross, Mar'00

Photos of the lake were made in the park near Oak Ridge.

imagejpg4_zps8f56afc5.jpg
 
I found this missing person (Erin Leigh Foster: https://www.findthemissing.org/en/cases/6076/0/) from Sparta, Tennessee who went missing 4/3/2000. I realize that this is a month past the date that this UID was found however I have to question the accuracy of the reported date because there is no mention of who reported her missing. I also have to wonder if this is the date that the report was taken as opposed to the date that she actually went missing.

Erin's height is only 1 inch shorter than the expected height of the UID (which is tall for a woman at 5'8')The location to Melton lake is also only an 1hour and 40 minutes away from Sparta (map below) and the date she went missing and the discovery of this UID is very close (UID discovered 3/2000 and Erin is reported missing 4/2000):

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Melton+Lake+Peninsula,+Oak+Ridge,+TN+37830/Sparta,+TN/@35.9278006,-85.4051194,9z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m13!4m12!1m5!1m1!1s0x885c340dccac29d3:0x704c9894f8bef736!2m2!1d-84.2025521!2d36.0441333!1m5!1m1!1s0x88672e60a3ec7915:0xff27f5f05167ab67!2m2!1d-85.4641421!2d35.9258985

Erin Leigh Foster is not on the list of rule-outs for this UID either: https://identifyus.org/en/cases/2895

Also notable is her straight perfect looking upper teeth which bare a strong resemblance to the UID's teeth.
 

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Well, I can't believe I never thought of this before, but as someone who is very familiar with that stretch of the river I can say that Melton Hill Park, just a little upstream, could be a likely spot where she went in the river. LE speculated that that she had only gone in the water about a quarter mile upstream, on the Knox County side. The closest water access on the Knox County side is Melton Hill Park. Just SW of the park's label on Google Maps is a forested area where there are cliffs at the edge of the river (not visible on the map). It is a spot well known by young people who hang out there and jump off the cliffs in the warmer months. It is also a popular spot for boats to put in, and for fishing. But in the winter there would not be as many people there, particularly at night. I would have to agree that judging by the river's flow that would be one of the most likely spots she went in. Not that it would help explain much else about the case!

Map link-
https://www.google.com/maps/place/3...2408029,3087m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x0
ETA: the red dot on the map with long. and lat. is where Namus says the body was found.
 
Well, I can't believe I never thought of this before, but as someone who is very familiar with that stretch of the river I can say that Melton Hill Park, just a little upstream, could be a likely spot where she went in the river. LE speculated that that she had only gone in the water about a quarter mile upstream, on the Knox County side. The closest water access on the Knox County side is Melton Hill Park. Just SW of the park's label on Google Maps is a forested area where there are cliffs at the edge of the river (not visible on the map). It is a spot well known by young people who hang out there and jump off the cliffs in the warmer months. It is also a popular spot for boats to put in, and for fishing. But in the winter there would not be as many people there, particularly at night. I would have to agree that judging by the river's flow that would be one of the most likely spots she went in. Not that it would help explain much else about the case!

Map link-
https://www.google.com/maps/place/3...2408029,3087m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x0
ETA: the red dot on the map with long. and lat. is where Namus says the body was found.

Whether that's the place she was thrown into the lake or not, I am certain that she was dumped in somewhere by someONE.
Why else would she have been naked? Foul play wouldn't even be totally necessary. It could have been an OD or something...
I can't find skinny dippers reported missing, so there has to be a story behind why she was found floating (nude and dead) in a Tennessee lake.
 
The current ruleouts according to https://identifyus.org/cases/2895

First Name Last Name Year of Birth State LKA

Lisa Karen Addington 1962 Oklahoma
Sharon Apgar 1966 Kentucky
Shannon Arif 1977 Tennessee
Beatrice Bailey Coleman 1964 Tennessee
Tina D'Ambrosio 1961 Arizona
Matha Leeanne Green 1970 Tennessee
Patricia Kelley Tennessee
Renea Donda Martino 1961 Tennessee
Paula Merchant 1973 South Carolina
Debra A. Murr 1956 Tennessee
Parley Pate 1959 North Carolina
Patricia Schmidt 1964 Virginia
Laurie Sibrell 1963 Tennessee

She has DNA and dentals. She had evidence of slight scoliosis and no sign of childbirth.
 
How about April Susanne Wiss? I know it says she had 3 black dots tattooed on her right hand and Jane Doe had none, but they could have been overlooked or scraped off. She was about to testify on a statutory rape trial before she disappeared. The reconstruction looks similar to her.

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/w/wiss_april.html


Has April ever been submitted?

Height, weight, hair, timeline and possible circumstances fit. The family thinks she may have been abducted and subjected to human trafficking.

April Susanne Wiss – The Charley Project
 
The current ruleouts according to The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

First Name Last Name Year of Birth State LKA

Lisa Karen Addington 1962 Oklahoma
Sharon Apgar 1966 Kentucky
Shannon Arif 1977 Tennessee
Beatrice Bailey Coleman 1964 Tennessee
Tina D'Ambrosio 1961 Arizona
Matha Leeanne Green 1970 Tennessee
Patricia Kelley Tennessee
Renea Donda Martino 1961 Tennessee
Paula Merchant 1973 South Carolina
Debra A. Murr 1956 Tennessee
Parley Pate 1959 North Carolina
Patricia Schmidt 1964 Virginia
Laurie Sibrell 1963 Tennessee

She has DNA and dentals. She had evidence of slight scoliosis and no sign of childbirth.

The only name added:
MP38062 Barbara Wooden 10/23/1998 Hamilton TN
 
The fact that she was nude makes me lean more toward murder than suicide. I've never heard of someone taking off all their clothes before jumping. (Although it's certainly possible.)

I went back to the beginning to refresh my memory on this case. I'm not sure her being nude is significant.

In many other unidentified drowning victims, it appears that losing one's clothing in water is pretty common. Even fairly mild currents can pull clothes off, especially if it snags on something in the water. Any woman who's ever lost her bikini top diving in can testify how easily those come off. Even a regular tank suit such as one a fitness swimmer might wear can be sucked off rather easily if the current is right.

I don't think it would require rapids. If there was enough current to move the body, there was probably enough to remove clothing.

She might be a suicide, but I'm more inclined to think, as others have mentioned, that she went swimming with someone who caused her death.
 
She does match on a lot of fronts, but she'd be quite a bit older than the UID. 28 in 1985 would make her over 40 in 2000.

Well, yeah the post-mortem interval is a problem.

But since I'm emotionally invested in the whole Clark not-Rockefeller thing, ya'll should just nod & go along with it.

Not really, and thanks for finding a fact quickly before I get too wound up!
 
Well, yeah the post-mortem interval is a problem.

But since I'm emotionally invested in the whole Clark not-Rockefeller thing, ya'll should just nod & go along with it.

Not really, and thanks for finding a fact quickly before I get too wound up!

Not to feed your addiction or anything, but I'm not sure the difference from the high-end age estimate of 35 for the UID to the 40-something Linda quite constitutes an exclusion.
 
Thanks, @carbuff !
upload_2021-3-7_11-59-36.jpeg
image from tenor.com

But, even I can't imagine where Linda Sohus might have been between 1985 & 2000.

jmho ymmv lrr
 
Living (overseas?) under another name, probably.

I thought for sure they'd find her buried near her husband--I'm thinking maybe she and Clark murdered him and left together, but beyond that my imagination fails me.
 
Investigative reporter Frank Girardot, now retired, checked records and found record of located remains of a very tall red-haired woman, near an Interstate exit ramp in (I think) Tennessee. He suggested these were Linda Sohus' remains. Of course I didn't write this down, exit number, county, nope of course not.

I can imagine Linda getting in the truck with 'Clark,' sure that John needed to wrap up something with his Mom. Sure that she and 'Clark' would pick John up at the airport in Phoenix or Albuquerque or Oklahoma City. I can imagine 'Clark' convincing her that John & his Mom weren't finished with the lawyers yet, so they would have to pick him up in St. Louis instead, or Nashville, or Louisville...until it was too risky for 'Clark' to be driving John's recognizable truck with John's recognizable wife any further.

Meet True Crime Author, Journalist, and Murder Investigation Expert Frank Girardot • WildBlue Press

https://www.amazon.com/Name-Dropper-Investigating-Rockefeller-Mystery/dp/0985325585

Yeah, I might be over-invested in this one....
 
This is interesting: NamUs was updated today with the info that Jane Doe was found wearing a 14k gold ring with a cross on it. I can't see this mentioned anywhere else, and in the article quoted in the first post in this thread, police stated that the body was found with no jewelry.

Here are the two photos of her ring.
 

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