Hey y'all. First time posting here; I've been looking at this case for the past couple days (completely coincidental to the anniversary), and thought I'd chime in with some personal thoughts.
Namely, has anybody ever considered the possibility that she was a nun? She definitely looks like she's of Southeastern Med descent in the reconstruction, Greek or Turkish or even Albanian. If so, there's a really good chance that she and her family belonged to the Orthodox church, which still holds a sizeable presence in NEPA (the oldest Orthodox monastery in America isn't far from White Haven), and I have to imagine that presence was even stronger in the 70's.
Sexual abuse isn't any less common within the Orthodox church than any other denomination, and it's (sadly) very easy for me to imagine a scenario where a novitiate could be impregnated by a priest, monk or seminary student and then murdered to save that person's career. And, to me at least, the idea would explain a lot of things. Like how a girl from Tennessee wound up in NEPA to begin with - even in the 70's it wasn't uncommon for girls with no obvious life path to be shipped off/ship themselves off to a nunnery. Or why nobody took note of her disappearance - she would have been cloistered away from the world, and if she'd had any interaction with the public at all, her appearance would have been shrouded by her habit and head covering. And any members of the public who might have recognized her could have written it off because her pregnancy would seem to rule her out.
Further, her disappearance could have been explained away as a teenage girl deciding the church wasn't for her and setting out on her own, and it's unlikely that anyone in the church would have gone to the police even if they suspected the truth. Her being a nun could even explain why the killer waited until that late in the pregnancy to kill her; those robes can hide a lot underneath, and he may not have even known until she was very far along.
I feel like it would have been extremely easy for a priest or similar church official to escape suspicion for such a crime in the 70's, particularly if he didn't have an existing criminal record. Most people would have dismissed the idea out of hand; even if there was a solid lead that led to the church, police would have - at most - pursued it with extreme caution, or else backed off completely.
It's out of left field, I know, but a lot of this theory just seems to 'click' with me for whatever reason. I feel like if whoever did this remained with the church afterwards, they likely abused someone else, so investigating the records of church officials who have since been accused of abusing women and girls and seeing who would have been in the area at the time might yield results. Also looking into records - if at all available - of local priests or seminary students who were defrocked or left the church of their own accord shortly after this crime was committed could be valuable. And, of course, seeing if there were any nuns or novices who went missing around that time.
Also, on a secondary note, how certain is the isotope testing that she came from Eastern Tennessee, specifically? I ask because - to the best of my knowledge - Eastern Tennessee isn't a hotbed of immigration. I believe Memphis, however, has a significant Greek population that goes back decades. Maybe checking the records of area high schools in Greek neighborhoods - and Orthodox churches - could lead to something.
Anyway, those are my thoughts. For whatever reason, this case has kind of leapt out at me for the past few days, so I'm definitely going to be following the rest of this thread with interest. Thx.
Namely, has anybody ever considered the possibility that she was a nun? She definitely looks like she's of Southeastern Med descent in the reconstruction, Greek or Turkish or even Albanian. If so, there's a really good chance that she and her family belonged to the Orthodox church, which still holds a sizeable presence in NEPA (the oldest Orthodox monastery in America isn't far from White Haven), and I have to imagine that presence was even stronger in the 70's.
Sexual abuse isn't any less common within the Orthodox church than any other denomination, and it's (sadly) very easy for me to imagine a scenario where a novitiate could be impregnated by a priest, monk or seminary student and then murdered to save that person's career. And, to me at least, the idea would explain a lot of things. Like how a girl from Tennessee wound up in NEPA to begin with - even in the 70's it wasn't uncommon for girls with no obvious life path to be shipped off/ship themselves off to a nunnery. Or why nobody took note of her disappearance - she would have been cloistered away from the world, and if she'd had any interaction with the public at all, her appearance would have been shrouded by her habit and head covering. And any members of the public who might have recognized her could have written it off because her pregnancy would seem to rule her out.
Further, her disappearance could have been explained away as a teenage girl deciding the church wasn't for her and setting out on her own, and it's unlikely that anyone in the church would have gone to the police even if they suspected the truth. Her being a nun could even explain why the killer waited until that late in the pregnancy to kill her; those robes can hide a lot underneath, and he may not have even known until she was very far along.
I feel like it would have been extremely easy for a priest or similar church official to escape suspicion for such a crime in the 70's, particularly if he didn't have an existing criminal record. Most people would have dismissed the idea out of hand; even if there was a solid lead that led to the church, police would have - at most - pursued it with extreme caution, or else backed off completely.
It's out of left field, I know, but a lot of this theory just seems to 'click' with me for whatever reason. I feel like if whoever did this remained with the church afterwards, they likely abused someone else, so investigating the records of church officials who have since been accused of abusing women and girls and seeing who would have been in the area at the time might yield results. Also looking into records - if at all available - of local priests or seminary students who were defrocked or left the church of their own accord shortly after this crime was committed could be valuable. And, of course, seeing if there were any nuns or novices who went missing around that time.
Also, on a secondary note, how certain is the isotope testing that she came from Eastern Tennessee, specifically? I ask because - to the best of my knowledge - Eastern Tennessee isn't a hotbed of immigration. I believe Memphis, however, has a significant Greek population that goes back decades. Maybe checking the records of area high schools in Greek neighborhoods - and Orthodox churches - could lead to something.
Anyway, those are my thoughts. For whatever reason, this case has kind of leapt out at me for the past few days, so I'm definitely going to be following the rest of this thread with interest. Thx.
