Identified! TX - Huntsville, 'Walker County Jane Doe', WhtFem 14-16, 91UFTX, Nov'80 #4 Sherry Ann Jarvis

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Friday Fan said:
Thank you for the link.



How sad.....

Generally when someone runs away at that age, it starts with connections to a friend...The friend knows someone...who knows someone else...etc...

The article states that all records from Minnesota have been destroyed.

But my hunch is she had a local friend. She probably stayed with a friend for a few days, then she went to someone else's house that her friend knew...sort of a 6 degrees...before she knew it, she was out on the road...Seeing that she was gone for so long, she probably had places to bunk for awhile, but as with most of those places the welcome was always temporary. MOO...

Even if records from Minnesota were available, the odds are we would only have the names of a few friends who were contacted. We probably would not get a Texas connection.

I knew a girl who ran away and died about a month later. She was 17 and was last seen with a motorcycle gang. She ran with a rough crowd in real life. She was 200 miles away in Chicago. She either was pushed or jumped from an apartment window. To the best of my knowledge, no one was ever charged.

There may be some truth to the Rockport/Aransas thing...
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i think she ended up there at some point too as she drifted. runaways are so at risk, and i hate that they are brushed off so often. i think her murderer was a stranger.
 
Rest In Eternal Peace, beautiful Sherri ♡ 14 is no age.

she had the most radiant smile, it really showed in her eyes. it’s wonderful to finally see a photo of her in life, looking happy.

Her teeth do look different but I think that’s simply because her adult teeth were growing in. IMO she definitely wasn’t 14 in those photos and people change a lot year to year as teens/tweens.

Sending so much love to her family and anyone who knew her. Poor baby.
 
Kiranerys said:
I personally think its easy to see how she was missed. She was found far from home with nothing to identify her and the photos available of her in death aren't a glaring match to me of the photos of her we are seeing now. Couple that with the fact that resources then were nothing like we have now and I think we can cut everybody a little slack.
I wonder if her family have seen the photos while they were searching and discounted them as they do not represent Sherri how they remember her,so they didn't recognise her. They had no reason to think she would be in Texas and say they have no knowledge of anyone she may have known at the prison. Above all else I am sure they have spent the last 41 years hoping that she was alive and happily living her life somewhere.
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There is always mention that she had no identification. I'm just trying to think back how old I was when I first started carrying ID. It was probably after I received my Social Insurance Number at the age of 16. Even now, I wonder how many 13 or 14 year olds carry ID. Do kids in grade school carry ID? The US has no compulsory ID card to carry, neither does Canada.
 
Kiranerys said:
I personally think its easy to see how she was missed. She was found far from home with nothing to identify her and the photos available of her in death aren't a glaring match to me of the photos of her we are seeing now. Couple that with the fact that resources then were nothing like we have now and I think we can cut everybody a little slack.
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That is so often the case. We can look at the recreations alongside the actual photos and rationalize some similarities. But in real time it wouldn't be enough for family members or friends to make a connection. Not often, anyway. But logically it shouldn't happen frequently. This is volume and an edge, not an absolute. If the recreations are done thoughtfully and well then occasionally they will be the trigger. You just never know who or why.

I don't see any room for blame in this case. We have no idea how long Sherri was in Texas or if anyone knew she was going to Texas. Minus that info, this connection had too many obstacles to overcome.

Only recently did I look at the morgue photo. She stood out as very young, but with a more bloated face than any of her actual photos suggest. That aspect has got to be particularly tough for anyone doing a composite...how much did death change her facial structure and general appearance?
 
Tweet from Paul Holes, an investigator who worked on the Golden State Killer case:

Paul Holes @PaulHoles
I'm leaving the press conference for this case. Othram continues to get families answers and helping investigations. After meeting the lead investigator on Sherri's case I'm confidant the homicide investigation is in good hands.
12:10 PM · Nov 9, 2021
 
branmuffin said:
There is always mention that she had no identification. I'm just trying to think back how old I was when I first started carrying ID. It was probably after I received my Social Insurance Number at the age of 16. Even now, I wonder how many 13 or 14 year olds carry ID. Do kids in grade school carry ID? The US has no compulsory ID card to carry, neither does Canada.
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I never did at that age. I was born in 1956. Every year, we were issued as school ID, but I never remember carrying it or anything.

I only carried ID, when I got my DL. (No picture on it at the time, however)
 
squish said:
Lovely photos of her from a more carefree time. She looks absolutely nothing like what I’d imagined from the PM photos or the resulting reconstructions. I guess we’ve never seen her smiling until now.

I am totally surprised that she’s from the opposite end of the country. When I heard she was not from Texas I was assuming nearby states. Also very shocked that a child could be removed from their family just for truanting. What a horrific punishment for Sherri and her family. And a fat lot of good it did.

RIP young Sherri <3 may you and your family have peace now.
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BBM...I was a Police Officer in 1980 (not in Minnesota) but I did several investigations into runaways, etc. Social Services does not normally remove a child from a their home for just truancy unless the parents are doing nothing to help the situation. I do not know anything of the parents and am certainly not blaming them for any of this. I don't know if the entire truth of her home life in this sad case will ever be known or made public. But, if it is, don't be shocked if there were other factors involved in her removal from the home. Hopefully, some family members will shed some light on all of this.
 
Kiranerys said:
I personally think its easy to see how she was missed. She was found far from home with nothing to identify her and the photos available of her in death aren't a glaring match to me of the photos of her we are seeing now. Couple that with the fact that resources then were nothing like we have now and I think we can cut everybody a little slack.
I wonder if her family have seen the photos while they were searching and discounted them as they do not represent Sherri how they remember her,so they didn't recognise her. They had no reason to think she would be in Texas and say they have no knowledge of anyone she may have known at the prison. Above all else I am sure they have spent the last 41 years hoping that she was alive and happily living her life somewhere.
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I suspect they truly did not realize that UIDs were a "thing"; it is so common for family members of missing people to just not know. But I definitely agree that it would be easy for them, even if they read about WCJD, to not make the connection. They did not seem to know of any connection between her and Texas - understandable. Inter-state communication was poor at best for matching missing people to UIDs. Sherri's post-mortem pictures don't much resemble her in life to me, either. I feel like with other Does, they looked like I imagined (Marcia King in particular looked exactly like the picture of her I had in my head), but Sherri doesn't. I really do think the horrible beating and post-mortem bloat warped her appearance in a way that reconstruction artists couldn't have accounted for. Her face and lips looked a lot thinner in life than in her reconstructions IMO.

branmuffin said:
There is always mention that she had no identification. I'm just trying to think back how old I was when I first started carrying ID. It was probably after I received my Social Insurance Number at the age of 16. Even now, I wonder how many 13 or 14 year olds carry ID. Do kids in grade school carry ID? The US has no compulsory ID card to carry, neither does Canada.
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13/14 year olds don't usually carry ID. I would imagine Sherri probably didn't think to get any form of ID from wherever she was living before she ran away.
 
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