WA WA - Seattle, WhtFem 30-50, 159UFWA, alias 'Mary Anderson', copper IUD, breast surgery scars, Oct'96

[Debbie Miller]

What about this Mary Anderson missing since 1982:
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/a/andersen_mary.html

She would have been 37 when our Mary Anderson committed suicide. The height is off, but there is such a wide range on Mary from 1982 that I wonder if who ever filed the report did not know her height so just guessed at it. It seems like she was estranged from her family for a long time.

This was already turned into the ME, not sure of the findings with this.

Thanks for looking!

 

[carbuff]

Another thought about why she left a false ID: She might have wanted to avoid the press (whether from fear or from legitimate concern).

Also, if she were testifying against someone, she might have been afraid of them or their associates.

 

[Danaya]

My suggestion is someone comb through Vancouver's missing people as there is a ferry terminal.

 

[Storm24]

Carbuff... Maybe but I think it unlikely. Neither the press nor "associates" could have forced her to produce identification - law enforcement could.

Danaya... did a cursory check once before but I'm going to go back and try something a bit more thorough.

Regarding the kitchen bowl: Has anyone seen a description of it reported or maybe a picture? Big, small? Decorative, plain? New, used?

Regarding the prescription pill bottle: Any evidence it was used to transport the poison? Any residue found on the inside?

 

[carbuff]

Carbuff... Maybe but I think it unlikely. Neither the press nor "associates" could have forced her to produce identification - law enforcement could.

Danaya... did a cursory check once before but I'm going to go back and try something a bit more thorough.

Regarding the kitchen bowl: Has anyone seen a description of it reported or maybe a picture? Big, small? Decorative, plain? New, used?

Regarding the prescription pill bottle: Any evidence it was used to transport the poison? Any residue found on the inside?

I meant that she registered and died under a false name so the press wouldn't connect her to her real persona. I don't think it's likely either; I think she just didn't want to be traced back to her family. But registering in a hotel under an assumed name used to be pretty common.

 

[Storm24]

Very true, Carbuff... My wife and I did while we were dating!

 

[Storm24]

Cyanide is found in many different forms and used in several different industries such as mining, jewelry, pesticides, etc. Has anyone seen any information as to which this Jane Doe may have ingested? Could it have been transported in the prescription pill bottle? Was there a drinking glass with cyanide & Crystal Light residue?

Also, does anyone have a picture or any details on the kitchen bowl that was found in the room?

Lastly, does anyone have access to the exact time line (from when she checked into the hotel until her body was discovered)?

 

[GeoStar]

I read somewere that someone thought she was Canadian because of a maple leaf in her room ?

This was at a time when Canada was laying off a lot of high end managers from their governement JOBS as an politically induced retirement plan---- the then government had in place.

 

[iconoclast]

Judging by what she had with her, clearly this woman had money. It seems unlikely that no one missed her. And why a kitchen bowl? Why a symbol of domesticity, for someone who was in a motel? Was she leaving a failed marriage?

 

[nevinm]

Cyanide seems like a relatively uncommon method - I wonder how she could have obtained it.

 

[WholeLottaRosie]

According the the article, it said she had surgical scars on both breasts. I would assume in the autopsy they ruled out implants, which have serial numbers.

What a mystery. I think of this case all the time, and, I thought there was a longer thread here, but, can't find it.

ETA - I wonder if they could have (and now seems too long to try) give a whole list of all the Estee Lauder products she had with her to EL reps at all dept stores in the country. Seriously. The reps keep good records of customers (mine does) and know what people buy. Most have names/addys/phone no. to contact customers periodically. The company wouldn't have it, the dept stores wouldn't but the reps would. And someone would probably recognize it and think, yeah, and she hasn't been in a while. Might have helped.

I wonder if they periodically run her prints. Someone could have added a long lost relative.

 

[nevinm]

According the the article, it said she had surgical scars on both breasts. I would assume in the autopsy they ruled out implants, which have serial numbers.

What a mystery. I think of this case all the time, and, I thought there was a longer thread here, but, can't find it.

ETA - I wonder if they could have (and now seems too long to try) give a whole list of all the Estee Lauder products she had with her to EL reps at all dept stores in the country. Seriously. The reps keep good records of customers (mine does) and know what people buy. Most have names/addys/phone no. to contact customers periodically. The company wouldn't have it, the dept stores wouldn't but the reps would. And someone would probably recognize it and think, yeah, and she hasn't been in a while. Might have helped.

I wonder if they periodically run her prints. Someone could have added a long lost relative.

Maybe a breast reduction surgery...

It does seem like if they were able to get her photo more widely shown, someone might recognize her... She had good clothes, and I am guessing she somehow obtained the cyanide through her work, so it seems like she must have had contact with people.

 

[milopedes]

Good thinking re: reduction surgery. That is very likely.

I read that a cab dropped her off. I know taxi services keep records, and I'd think the police would have followed that lead given how thorough they were on all the other fine little details. So, my question is: Where did the cab pick her up from?

I doubt she is from the area. If she went to such lengths to conceal her identity, I'm guessing she would have realized that the local papers would have shown a picture of her.

I, too, thought she had money considering several things I read. But the brands she wore weren't from upscale stores, so now I'm thinking that isn't the case.

If I had to guess, I'd agree with the article which seems to indicate she was depressed about getting older. Maybe she lost a husband or lover to another woman?

The presence of an IUD also says something. She was very methodical to remove traces of her life, but left that clue there. But what does it say?

It is just so difficult to say.

 

[Maia]

I’m new to WS but I’ve been lurking here, reading many cases, for several months. After reading about “Mary Anderson”, I can not accept 100% that her death was a suicide. It may have been and I’m just out in left field (it wouldn’t be the first time, LOL), but too many facts just don’t ring true, IMHO, for a suicide. I have to question why a woman, in her deepest despair, with intentions of killing herself, would pay for a room for 2 days and why would she pack several bags of luggage. If she felt she needed luggage to appear normal while checking into a hotel, I would think that 1 would be sufficient for a 2 day stay. I also question her packing 3 or 4 changes of clothes, pantyhose, shoes, slippers, make-up (maybe that I understand), perfume, toothpaste, a kitchen bowl (?), and an iron (?). Why would she need these things?

Another question I have is why would she strip the bed sheets off the bed (were they in the room when she was found?) and why would she have removed her dental plate if she wanted to appear “pretty” in death?

How do they know she arrived by taxi if she was dropped off around the corner? Did a taxi driver come forward? And, like Milopedes stated in his/her post, I wonder where the taxi picked her up.

I Googled the name “Mary Anderson” looking for more information regarding this and couldn’t find anything other than what is here. I clicked on the ‘images’ tab to see if there might be someone that has a resemblance to her sketches and could that possibly be her real name. One picture stood out to me. I know it’s a long shot…a very, very long shot, but the girl’s eyes and the expression on her face caught my attention right away. I have posted a link below and would love to hear someone else’s opinion on this…even if it’s to tell me that I AM in left field.

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl...m=1&hl=en&rlz=1T4GGLL_enUS346US346&tbs=isch:1

I have many other thoughts and questions regarding Mary Anderson’s case but I imagine at this late date they most likely can not be answered.

Like I said…I’m new and I apologize for such a long post

 

[nevinm]

Good questions, Maia!

I too wondered about the taxi. Presumably the door or desk staff at the hotel remembered her arriving in a taxi. Unfortunately, the "Something about Mary" article mentions that the investigators checked taxi records, but couldn't find anything. If she just hailed a cab on the street, I'm not sure if drivers would keep detailed records of all their fares (does anyone know?). If not, then maybe they should have sent out a bulletin to cab drivers soon afterward, to ask if anyone remembered dropping her off at that hotel.

It would be interesting to see a detailed list of all the belongings she had with her, if the investigators compiled this. Kitchen bowl and iron do seem odd, unless she had had no fixed address for a while, living in shelters or hotels - then maybe these were all of her belongings, and she had a bowl and iron for practical purposes. In that case, maybe she would have had other such things, e.g. utensils. If this was the case, maybe she had been living somewhere else, and had just travelled to Seattle, because if she had been living in shelters/hotels in Seattle, you would think someone would have recognized her from the press. However, if she had been homeless, then, like someone else mentioned, it is curious that she would check into an expensive boutique hotel, as she could just as well have done this in a cheap hotel.

 

[GeoStar]

She may have been distraut about losing her job , a good one that she had worked at all her life and that she felt might not be open to her again. Having spent the better part of her life working at a job that lets her go ( people at work see her like a window wiper ie. not at all) would be a big downer. At around the same time as this happened I remeber that this poor fellow ( I said hi , bye to a few times) who lived across the street a few doors down from were I lived then, who was down on his luck. His wife left him, he was in for therapy and when he got out he found that his government job had been elininated due to an early retirement program . The program had an inducment package that gave you 50,000 dollars to get a new carreer, ( or gamble away?) unfortunately he was so far gone he killed himself on july 1st canada's birthday , a coincidence? any connection I don't know...

Mary Anderson is the name of the lady who invented the window wiper , something everyone looks through and does not see, maybe the priority and requirements for promotion had changed. If that were her real name, I would speculate this mystery might have been solved a while ago.

 

[Kodiak]

I had only recently discovered this case. I'm a Seattle native and never knew about this woman's death. I'm always walking by the Vintage Park Hotel on 5th Avenue, and always wondered what kind of hotel it was. I didn't realize it was that pricy and fancy. It appears to be just a quiet, quant building.

I asked my mother this morning about this case, and her eyes it up like christmas trees. "Oh, yes, I remember it was on the news and in the papers, " she exclaimed.

I read through this thread and all the articles on Mary Anderson. I find it odd that the police never pinpointed where she came from prior to the cab ride. Usually that's the first thing answered regarding a crime when cabs or public transportation are involved. All they had to do was seek out every cab company in the greater Seattle area to check any cabs that had the destination of the Vintage Park Hotel on 5th Avenue... unless they do know, and have not released this information.

Some mentioned that she could have acquired the cyanide from working at a jewelers, a mining, or a plastics company, or a lab. She could have worked as photographer, or photo developer, or perhaps a medical film technician. Cyanide can be created by the use of the compound chemicals to develop photos... the procedure in creating the artistic "cyanotype" photo is the perfect example of this, and the chemicals used. Cyanide is also found in the water and left over solutions from developed photos or x-rays... she could have drank it in that form.

This is a very interesting, and perplexing case.

 

[websurfer]

I had only recently discovered this case. I'm a Seattle native and never knew about this woman's death. I'm always walking by the Vintage Park Hotel on 5th Avenue, and always wondered what kind of hotel it was. I didn't realize it was that pricy and fancy. It appears to be just a quiet, quant building.

I asked my mother this morning about this case, and her eyes it up like christmas trees. "Oh, yes, I remember it was on the news and in the papers, " she exclaimed.

I read through this thread and all the articles on Mary Anderson. I find it odd that the police never pinpointed where she came from prior to the cab ride. Usually that's the first thing answered regarding a crime when cabs or public transportation are involved. All they had to do was seek out every cab company in the greater Seattle area to check any cabs that had the destination of the Vintage Park Hotel on 5th Avenue... unless they do know, and have not released this information.

Some mentioned that she could have acquired the cyanide from working at a jewelers, a mining, or a plastics company, or a lab. She could have worked as photographer, or photo developer, or perhaps a medical film technician. Cyanide can be created by the use of the compound chemicals to develop photos... the procedure in creating the artistic "cyanotype" photo is the perfect example of this, and the chemicals used. Cyanide is also found in the water and left over solutions from developed photos or x-rays... she could have drank it in that form.

This is a very interesting, and perplexing case.

I have a few" Possibles"

want to compare notes?
:waitasec:

 

[Kodiak]

I have a few" Possibles"

want to compare notes?
:waitasec:

Would love to, but, I, myself, don't have any notes on this case, or at least compiled any yet. But, I got your message too, and if you would like me to look over anything, I would love to help you out.

 

[bawitter]

I just found this thread so i'm a little late in responding but I still wanted to comment anyway. Regarding the gloves I know Nordstroms in the Menlo Park Mall in Edison, NJ was opened in 1991. If Mary Anderson was really from New York or Astoria it wouldn't have been thata far of trip for her to get there. And in all honesty there may have been more Nordtroms in the area. I don't think the gloves need to ahve been purchased in Seattle or even on the west coast. As far as her choice of hotels goes I don't think it necessarily indicates she had a lot of money. If her intent when she checked in was to take her life I thiink it's possible that even if she wasn't well off it is possible she took all the money she had left and checked into a really nice hotel. She knew she couldn't take it with her and she obviously wasn't leaving it for a loved one as she dodn't want to be identified so why not live the last hours of your life in luxary? Either way given the items she had in her possession it seems she wanted to keep up appearnaces so chosing a nice hotel certainally would play into that as opposed to being found in a run down motel.