GUILTY PA - Allegheny Co., WhtFem 202UFPA, 20-45, in Allegheny River, Oct'03 Carolyn Roehlig

[webrocket]

I don't know Dippy. on the one hand the UID has a very full face to have been only 97 lbs. however, if she was a herion addict, she could well have been underweight.

to me, and this is just my opinion, I think the manner of death of this UID is far too complex to be Rachel. there are plenty of rural areas to dump a body much closer to her home town that for someone to take her 100+ miles away, drug her with heroin (overdose levels nonetheless) and phenobarbital, then package her and dump her in a river seems to be too many layers of unnecessary effort.

 

[Essbee]

I'm not sure if this thread has been split, but here's her Namus profile: https://identifyus.org/en/cases/2668

There are 19 exclusions so far.

VERY interesting info here on Namus. Although the other website mentioned that the cause of death was "drug overdose," and this website agreed about the drug overdose with phenobarbital and heroin... Namus gives additional info that the UID was wrapped in a blue blanket bound with duct tape and found with a platic Walmart bag over her head! This really changes the picture from simple drug OD to something much more sinister. ALSO, it mentions that "the body could have traveled past locks or dams" and could have been dumped upstream, from as far away as New York!

 

[carbuff]

O'Hara PA is a bit upstream from Pittsburgh, probably far enough upstream that people missing from Pittsburgh aren't likely:

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=O'Ha...near=O'Hara,+Allegheny,+Pennsylvania&t=m&z=11

The Allegheny River runs up through Pennsylvania and into New York near Salamanca. There aren't many large towns out there.

 

[carbuff]

O'Hara PA is a bit upstream from Pittsburgh, probably far enough upstream that people missing from Pittsburgh aren't likely:

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=O'Ha...near=O'Hara,+Allegheny,+Pennsylvania&t=m&z=11

The Allegheny River runs up through Pennsylvania and into New York near Salamanca. There aren't many large towns out there.

Correction: I said that backwards. The Allegheny runs from New York, crosses into PA near Salamanca, and continues through Pennsylvania until it joins the Monongahela in Pittsburgh to make the Ohio.

 

[Aeronomy]

I think this picture of Ann Margret Mason looks a lot like the UID, but I can't find any details that would suggest she'd be in the NE part of the U.S.

That said, she hasn't been seen since she was released from jail on September, 19 2003 in Florida. I noticed the UID's jeans were initially available for purchase in Florida and Louisiana so I felt it was worth a mention to see what you all thought.

Ann Margret Mason - Age 39
60 - 61 inches
165 lb *I know the weight is off (OT - Do they weigh you when you are released from jail?)*

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/m/mason_ann.html

 

[azure]

VERY interesting info here on Namus. Although the other website mentioned that the cause of death was "drug overdose," and this website agreed about the drug overdose with phenobarbital and heroin... Namus gives additional info that the UID was wrapped in a blue blanket bound with duct tape and found with a platic Walmart bag over her head! This really changes the picture from simple drug OD to something much more sinister. ALSO, it mentions that "the body could have traveled past locks or dams" and could have been dumped upstream, from as far away as New York!

I suppose if the UID OD'ed with a person who was either terribly paranoid from drugs or had warrants, etc, they might wrap her up and dump her. Hard to say what one might do with a dead body they felt partially responsible for.

It also seems possible that she could have been given the cocktails of drugs and then suffocated with the bag. I've heard at times, the signs of suffocation can be easy to miss.

 

[carbuff]

I think this picture of Ann Margret Mason looks a lot like the UID, but I can't find any details that would suggest she'd be in the NE part of the U.S.

That said, she hasn't been seen since she was released from jail on September, 19 2003 in Florida. I noticed the UID's jeans were initially available for purchase in Florida and Louisiana so I felt it was worth a mention to see what you all thought.

Ann Margret Mason - Age 39
60 - 61 inches
165 lb *I know the weight is off (OT - Do they weigh you when you are released from jail?)*

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/m/mason_ann.html

She looks like a pretty good possibility to me despite the weight issue. If she's a heroin addict, she could have lost a lot of weight very quickly, though I wouldn't think quite that much in a month.

Too bad her only photo is face on and the UID's are both from the side. It looks to me like Mason has a small scoopy nose similar to the UID's.

Mason's Namus https://www.findthemissing.org/en/cases/14335/3 indicates her DNA testing isn't complete yet.

 

[rcoope23]

What do think of as Tammy Kowalchuck as a possible? http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/k/kowalchuk_tami.html. She would have been 20 years old and on the lower end of the range. The teardrop tattoo could easily have been hidden by decomposition. Height is right considering a couple of years growth and weight is within range. The pictures of Tammy show her as thin and drawn, perhaps already an involvement in drugs which led to her to leave to be further involved in the drug lifestyle.

 

[rcoope23]

Also as a plus for Tammy Kowalchuck looking at google maps it is only four hours to PA and she could easily have gone to New York as well if the body was dumped from there. The teardrop tattoo on someone so young makes me feel sad for her. Someone so young shouldn't be involved in the gang or prison culture that would lead to getting a tattoo like that.

 

[Paradise]

What do think of as Tammy Kowalchuck as a possible? http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/k/kowalchuk_tami.html. She would have been 20 years old and on the lower end of the range. The teardrop tattoo could easily have been hidden by decomposition. Height is right considering a couple of years growth and weight is within range. The pictures of Tammy show her as thin and drawn, perhaps already an involvement in drugs which led to her to leave to be further involved in the drug lifestyle.

The UID doesn't have any tattoos...and Tammy has at least one (the teardrop). I doubt this is Tammy.

 

[ctaylor]

A new article on this case, which also mentions other UIDs in Allegheny County. Sounds like the Cold Case investigator Jessica McMurray is really doing some great work in trying to identify them ....

http://triblive.com/news/allegheny/10521685-74/body-mcmurray-cases

Allegheny County forensic investigator tackles cold cases

It's the middle of the night at the morgue and forensic investigator Jessica McMurray has called up a file on her computer.

It's an unidentified woman whose body was found in 2003 in the Allegheny River near Fox Chapel Yacht Club.

The woman's body was wrapped in a blanket and bound with duct tape, a plastic bag over her head. She died of a drug overdose, likely heroin, and could have floated down the river for miles, possibly from New York. Allegheny County police are investigating the case as a homicide, as typically is done with such cases.

McMurray has looked at the file so often she has memorized the woman's height — 5 feet, 3 inches — her weight — 97 pounds — the date she was found and the location. She matched the details of the file against hundreds of missing person cases in national databases.

“Process of elimination, basically,” McMurray said. “I come in every day, and I think, ‘What can I do today that I haven't done yet to figure out who this person is?' ”

...

 

[KaylaraOwl]

The girl in the tunnel's namus is giving ing mea permission error.

 

[CarlK90245]

The decedent has been identified as Carolyn Roehlig,

"While her death was not ruled a homicide at that time, it was investigated as suspicious," police said in a written statement. "Today her son, Kevin Roehlig, was questioned in connection with the death. Charges are expected to be filed against Kevin Roehlig."

 

[Migmuu]

Wow! I think this is the worst botched age estimate and facial reconstruction I've ever seen.

Carolyn was 66, which is very far from the 20 - 45 that was estimated. Not to mention the facial reconstruction that doesn't even look like her in any universe:

 

[SurrealisticSlumbers]

I was so happy to see this case finally resolved. When I'd come across her information in the PA UIDs it always just made me sad, because I think we were led to believe that this was a heroin addict who'd died of an overdose. I always had a hunch that her estimated age was wrong and that she was actually much older, based on her apparel. What a lowlife of a son that is. How could you do that to your own mother. Unbelievable... I'm sure more information will emerge as the trial moves forward.

 

[JusticeWillBeServed]

Sharpsburg man indicted for collecting dead mom's Social Security for 13 years - August 30, 2017

Kevin Roehlig, 56, was charged Wednesday with theft of government money. Roehlig allegedly collected $124,500 in Social Security benefits from November 2003 until August 2016.

http://www.pennlive.com/news/2017/08/man_collected_moms_benefits_fo.html

Police say her son acknowledged dumping her body after she overdosed on heroin, but the corpse charge was dismissed because the statute of limitations had expired.

 

[SurrealisticSlumbers]

The jail sentence wasn't mentioned in either article. I hope he's locked up for at least as long as the amount of time his mother went unidentified and without a proper burial.

Neither article really mentioned Carolyn's fate. I'm not buying anything that comes out of the son's mouth. Said he found her in the bathtub dead from a heroin overdose. A normal person would call 911 and then, when declared dead, organize a funeral and see that their loved one is buried. Not duct tape and wrap up her body, then throw it in a river.

My thought is that she didn't have much of a support network, other family members in the area, and was either divorced or widowed... the forty-something (at this time) year-old son mooched off of her. No mention if he was living with her at the time. Wouldn't be surprised if he was. I saw a cryptic comment on one PennLive article about this case. "He was just turning his life around," someone said. Hmm.

Maybe he was a drug user, and got his mom using, too. It was all to convenient to find her dead. Or, he stuck the needle in her and gave her an overdose. Selfish .

 

[JusticeWillBeServed]

May 2018:

Man who admitted to dumping mother's body in river in 2003 dies from self-inflicted gunshot wound

Pittsburgh police are investigating the death of a Stanton Heights man who was charged last year with stealing his dead mother’s Social Security benefits.

A police spokesman said Kevin L. Roehlig, 57, died Tuesday in the 5500 block of Camelia Street in Stanton Heights after sustaining a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. The incident occurred shortly before 10 p.m.