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

[Mysteries1974]

Thieves case has always caused deep sadness for me. I hope she is identified soon

 

[Roselvr]

I’m hoping DNAdoe will pick up her case! I’m wondering if she was a foster child or in the system in that way? It’s so hard to believe a child would go missing and no one would report her. I guess it happens, more than I’d like to think about.

Why is it hard to believe? There were tons of unwanted kids, myself included which I found out why when I was 40; while my dad was fighting terminal cancer. I found out my mother cheated, back then there were no paternity tests.

Could also be she was adopted, so even if one of the companies did her DNA that they may not find her parents. What if she were adopted and so was her bio mother? That would make it harder to find her family.

In addition to what Alley said, people could get an ad in newspapers and/or magazines.

I’m hoping DNAdoe will pick up her case! I’m wondering if she was a foster child or in the system in that way? It’s so hard to believe a child would go missing and no one would report her. I guess it happens, more than I’d like to think about.

Why is it hard to believe? There were tons of unwanted kids, myself included which I found out why when I was 40; while my dad was fighting terminal cancer. I found out my mother cheated, back then there were no paternity tests.

Could also be she was adopted so even if one of the companies did her DNA; they may not find her parents. What if she were adopted and so was her mother? Finding her bio family gets hard

It's possible she was reported missing and it just didn't go anywhere, or the report got lost or destroyed. Jimmy Reymer went missing from one state, was reported missing locally in another, and ended up a John Doe in a third state. So many other things could have happened apart from her not being reported.

Also look at Michelle Knight who was held captive by Arielle Castro. There was an MP report; LE eventually tried to contact her mother (when Michelle was 18) who had moved. To make a long story short, her mom did try to follow up with LE who were unresponsive, didn't call her back. When Michelle turned 18 LE purged her file because of circumstances. We all learned a huge lesson with that case

2+, actually! Colleen Fitzpatrick's own identifinders, which takes on cases involving children, and Barbara Rae-Venter, who helped LE crack the GSK case. GEDmatch is an open data personal genomics database, which in theory means that it is open to use for LE in general, genealogists or not. I believe we will get several more options in the time to come.

Even though GEDmatch is public; doing this kind of family tree is not easy. You're talking about building a tree of possibly great, great, grandparents then building out their kids, kids kids etc then finding that needle in a haystack. Carl can tell everyone how complicated it is.

To understand, watch the show Long ?lost Family on TLC which just happens to be on tonight. 8pm I believe. I normally record it so am not positive

As for Colleen, yes, she has her own company that's been identifying kids for years. She has a few cases she's interested in but I can't repeat what she's said to me.

 

[Roselvr]

Why is it hard to believe? There were tons of unwanted kids, myself included which I found out why when I was 40; while my dad was fighting terminal cancer. I found out my mother cheated, back then there were no paternity tests.

Could also be she was adopted, so even if one of the companies did her DNA that they may not find her parents. What if she were adopted and so was her bio mother? That would make it harder to find her family.

In addition to what Alley said, people could get an ad in newspapers and/or magazines.



Why is it hard to believe? There were tons of unwanted kids, myself included which I found out why when I was 40; while my dad was fighting terminal cancer. I found out my mother cheated, back then there were no paternity tests.

Could also be she was adopted so even if one of the companies did her DNA; they may not find her parents. What if she were adopted and so was her mother? Finding her bio family gets hard



Also look at Michelle Knight who was held captive by Arielle Castro. There was an MP report; LE eventually tried to contact her mother (when Michelle was 18) who had moved. To make a long story short, her mom did try to follow up with LE who were unresponsive, didn't call her back. When Michelle turned 18 LE purged her file because of circumstances. We all learned a huge lesson with that case



Even though GEDmatch is public; doing this kind of family tree is not easy. You're talking about building a tree of possibly great, great, grandparents then building out their kids, kids kids etc then finding that needle in a haystack. Carl can tell everyone how complicated it is.

To understand, watch the show Long ?lost Family on TLC which just happens to be on tonight. 8pm I believe. I normally record it so am not positive

As for Colleen, yes, she has her own company that's been identifying kids for years. She has a few cases she's interested in but I can't repeat what she's said to me.

Apparently there was a quote saved in the reply box or something lol I don't know how else part of it ended there twice after I cut the quotes out to type in a Gmail draft. So weird

 

[ClockworkLemon]

Why is it hard to believe? There were tons of unwanted kids, myself included which I found out why when I was 40; while my dad was fighting terminal cancer. I found out my mother cheated, back then there were no paternity tests.

Could also be she was adopted, so even if one of the companies did her DNA that they may not find her parents. What if she were adopted and so was her bio mother? That would make it harder to find her family.

In addition to what Alley said, people could get an ad in newspapers and/or magazines.



Why is it hard to believe? There were tons of unwanted kids, myself included which I found out why when I was 40; while my dad was fighting terminal cancer. I found out my mother cheated, back then there were no paternity tests.

Could also be she was adopted so even if one of the companies did her DNA; they may not find her parents. What if she were adopted and so was her mother? Finding her bio family gets hard



Also look at Michelle Knight who was held captive by Arielle Castro. There was an MP report; LE eventually tried to contact her mother (when Michelle was 18) who had moved. To make a long story short, her mom did try to follow up with LE who were unresponsive, didn't call her back. When Michelle turned 18 LE purged her file because of circumstances. We all learned a huge lesson with that case



Even though GEDmatch is public; doing this kind of family tree is not easy. You're talking about building a tree of possibly great, great, grandparents then building out their kids, kids kids etc then finding that needle in a haystack. Carl can tell everyone how complicated it is.

To understand, watch the show Long ?lost Family on TLC which just happens to be on tonight. 8pm I believe. I normally record it so am not positive

As for Colleen, yes, she has her own company that's been identifying kids for years. She has a few cases she's interested in but I can't repeat what she's said to me.

It was a rhetorical question...or, I guess, a rhetorical statement if there is such a thing, as far as why she wasn’t reported missing. It’s just sad to me.

 

[Paul B.]

WCJD likely was *glad* to no longer be home. As with many runaway UID's is our motto of "send them home!", what they would've wanted?

 

[Slow cheetah]

I just want to put this out there as it is something that I thought of the other day. First let me say that at least 2 fairly popular YouTube channels did Halloween mysteries videos that featured this case. On one of them, the thumbnail was the pic that surfaced in 2015 that everyone thinks could be her.
Back to my point. I have been wondering about this.....does anyone know if the witnesses that claimed to see her, from the gas stations/truck stops, were shown pictures of her from the morgue, mortuary pics (after embalming), or just police sketches? Because I have to wonder if....suppose there could've been a girl I'm there that looked like her that night, and these ppl were mistaken? It is easy to look at a picture of a deceased person and not recognize them properly esp. in her case where she was severely beaten. The morgue photo looks a lot different than the photo taken after she was embalmed. And the sketches, up until the ones that Carl did, were great but inconsistent; in one of them she almost resembles Orange Socks. I am also curious to know if the witnesses saw her carrying the shoes that were found beside her body .And if there was ever any kind of DNA testing done on those shoes too bc if there was I haven't heard any results. If there WERENT any tests done on the shoes for fingerprints or anything, I wonder why not? Were the shoes even kept?
Back to the point here. I wonder if it could be possible that our Jane Doe was not the same one seen at the gas stations/truck stops. I know it may sound a bit far fetched & I'm sure may have been considered already. There couldve been an entirely different girl around that looked very similar to her BC after all there was no clothing found with the body .Just shoes. And I feel like anything could be possible; what if the witnesses did see a girl with those shoes, and they thought it was our girl; but come to find out it was NOT her and those shoes could've been randomly thrown there by coincidence? What of the girl wearing them got pissed off BC they were uncomfortable and threw them somewhere.....and that place just so happened to be where WCJD'S body was disposed of later? Or vice versa....what if the body was already there, and the girl that was seen and (could've been) mistaken for her and actually was the one with the shoes, slung them out of a car window or something not knowing there was a body already there. I know some of you guys are probably going to think .crazy with this especially if there were 2 different witnesses in two separate places who claimed to have seen this girl. But if you keep an open mind about it... It could be possible. Why not?
One more question I have....was isotope testing ever done on her teeth? Ok, two more questions....was an official autopsy report ever released? There should not be any reason why it shouldn't be possible to obtain one, from what I understand doesn't it fall along the lines of the freedom of onfinformat act? Has anyone ever tried to obtain this?

 

[daisy6441]

Wednesday evening, I put up a 38th anniversary post on the Who Was Walker County Jane Doe? Facebook page (for which I am the administrator) Two days later, over a half-million people reached, and a quarter-million engagements (meaning likes, comments, clicks, and shares). The post has over 18,000 shares, and over 1,700 comments. My notifications counter has been running nonstop.

I’m not sure what caused the interest this time around, when previous posts attracted only modest interest. But the word is getting around.

I shared it and I noticed a couple of my friends took it from me and shared it. Then I saw it from a few other friends so maybe their interest is because we are local to the area but its nice to see it traveling around.

 

[FireOwl9]

I just want to put this out there as it is something that I thought of the other day. First let me say that at least 2 fairly popular YouTube channels did Halloween mysteries videos that featured this case. On one of them, the thumbnail was the pic that surfaced in 2015 that everyone thinks could be her.
Back to my point. I have been wondering about this.....does anyone know if the witnesses that claimed to see her, from the gas stations/truck stops, were shown pictures of her from the morgue, mortuary pics (after embalming), or just police sketches? Because I have to wonder if....suppose there could've been a girl I'm there that looked like her that night, and these ppl were mistaken? It is easy to look at a picture of a deceased person and not recognize them properly esp. in her case where she was severely beaten. The morgue photo looks a lot different than the photo taken after she was embalmed. And the sketches, up until the ones that Carl did, were great but inconsistent; in one of them she almost resembles Orange Socks. I am also curious to know if the witnesses saw her carrying the shoes that were found beside her body .And if there was ever any kind of DNA testing done on those shoes too bc if there was I haven't heard any results. If there WERENT any tests done on the shoes for fingerprints or anything, I wonder why not? Were the shoes even kept?
Back to the point here. I wonder if it could be possible that our Jane Doe was not the same one seen at the gas stations/truck stops. I know it may sound a bit far fetched & I'm sure may have been considered already. There couldve been an entirely different girl around that looked very similar to her BC after all there was no clothing found with the body .Just shoes. And I feel like anything could be possible; what if the witnesses did see a girl with those shoes, and they thought it was our girl; but come to find out it was NOT her and those shoes could've been randomly thrown there by coincidence? What of the girl wearing them got pissed off BC they were uncomfortable and threw them somewhere.....and that place just so happened to be where WCJD'S body was disposed of later? Or vice versa....what if the body was already there, and the girl that was seen and (could've been) mistaken for her and actually was the one with the shoes, slung them out of a car window or something not knowing there was a body already there. I know some of you guys are probably going to think .crazy with this especially if there were 2 different witnesses in two separate places who claimed to have seen this girl. But if you keep an open mind about it... It could be possible. Why not?
One more question I have....was isotope testing ever done on her teeth? Ok, two more questions....was an official autopsy report ever released? There should not be any reason why it shouldn't be possible to obtain one, from what I understand doesn't it fall along the lines of the freedom of onfinformat act? Has anyone ever tried to obtain this?

I asked Carl about whether isotope testing has been done on WCJD before, and he replied that he doesn't think they have, due to the fact that isotope testing is very expensive and not particularly accurate.

 

[Mysteries1974]

Missing Person Case

The Doe Network: Case File 1099DFCA

I’ve always considered these two possibilities for the walker county JD

 

[Triss]

I can see the resemblance but I think both of them are too old to be this Jane Doe.

 

[carbuff]

Pickle has DNA in the system so is a ruleout by default.

Adams would have been around 25 in 1981. I think our girl is older than she looks, but not that much older. I don't see much resemblance, personally. Her chin is way too strong.

 

[daisy6441]

Pickle has DNA in the system so is a ruleout by default.

Adams would have been around 25 in 1981. I think our girl is older than she looks, but not that much older. I don't see much resemblance, personally. Her chin is way too strong.

Didn't they say after the exhumation that she was close to 14 or 15? Or 15 or 16? I don't remember the exact numbers.
I know they look at teeth as an indicator of age. I was late when it came to losing teeth. I didn't get wisdom teeth until after I had my first child at about 24 years old where others had wisdom teeth extracted in high school. The dentist always told me I didn't have any. My daughters are also this way. They had friends losing teeth in kindergarten and they didn't lose any until the end of 1st grade.
Couldn't something like that throw off the age range a little?

 

[carbuff]

The short answer is yes, the exhumation indicated a lower age, and yes, things like that can throw the age estimate off. They likely found some skeletal and dental indications that she wasn't fully mature, though, so I wouldn't stretch it too far.

 

[Hector702]

I just want to put this out there as it is something that I thought of the other day. First let me say that at least 2 fairly popular YouTube channels did Halloween mysteries videos that featured this case. On one of them, the thumbnail was the pic that surfaced in 2015 that everyone thinks could be her.
Back to my point. I have been wondering about this.....does anyone know if the witnesses that claimed to see her, from the gas stations/truck stops, were shown pictures of her from the morgue, mortuary pics (after embalming), or just police sketches? Because I have to wonder if....suppose there could've been a girl I'm there that looked like her that night, and these ppl were mistaken? It is easy to look at a picture of a deceased person and not recognize them properly esp. in her case where she was severely beaten. The morgue photo looks a lot different than the photo taken after she was embalmed. And the sketches, up until the ones that Carl did, were great but inconsistent; in one of them she almost resembles Orange Socks. I am also curious to know if the witnesses saw her carrying the shoes that were found beside her body .And if there was ever any kind of DNA testing done on those shoes too bc if there was I haven't heard any results. If there WERENT any tests done on the shoes for fingerprints or anything, I wonder why not? Were the shoes even kept?
Back to the point here. I wonder if it could be possible that our Jane Doe was not the same one seen at the gas stations/truck stops. I know it may sound a bit far fetched & I'm sure may have been considered already. There couldve been an entirely different girl around that looked very similar to her BC after all there was no clothing found with the body .Just shoes. And I feel like anything could be possible; what if the witnesses did see a girl with those shoes, and they thought it was our girl; but come to find out it was NOT her and those shoes could've been randomly thrown there by coincidence? What of the girl wearing them got pissed off BC they were uncomfortable and threw them somewhere.....and that place just so happened to be where WCJD'S body was disposed of later? Or vice versa....what if the body was already there, and the girl that was seen and (could've been) mistaken for her and actually was the one with the shoes, slung them out of a car window or something not knowing there was a body already there. I know some of you guys are probably going to think .crazy with this especially if there were 2 different witnesses in two separate places who claimed to have seen this girl. But if you keep an open mind about it... It could be possible. Why not?
One more question I have....was isotope testing ever done on her teeth? Ok, two more questions....was an official autopsy report ever released? There should not be any reason why it shouldn't be possible to obtain one, from what I understand doesn't it fall along the lines of the freedom of onfinformat act? Has anyone ever tried to obtain this?

Can you link the YouTube videos?

 

[Paul B.]

I still think she looks closer to a child in the PM pix. Why the urgent need to prove she was older?

 

[Jdart14]

I still think she looks closer to a child in the PM pix. Why the urgent need to prove she was older?

I agree. There is an established range..which was further confirmed back in 1999? That is sufficient for any comparison as potential matches come up. I think it happens though, we are short on evidence...we don't have a lot current leads to go on so the mind begins to pick apart what IS there. Which is ok....keeps the sleuthing alive and keeps us all digging. Still the most productive thing we can do is get the word out.

I do again wish that we had a good synopsis of what is known and fact.. Also what we know to be true or not true as far as notable leads to this point.

Lets as a group start a list of ideas that we would like to see further investigated...maybe this would provide us all some direction as to where go next.

Starters:
- What is the possibility that WCJD's destination was not Ellis Unit but Ellis Co. Jail further north? The jail was well established and had recently had a juvenile addition established.
- The possibility that WCJD was not visiting someone at Ellis Unit but someone that lived near the prison. Has there been any searches to identify land/home owners around the prison at the time?
- ???

 

[Spindlebrook]

I agree. There is an established range..which was

Starters:
- What is the possibility that WCJD's destination was not Ellis Unit but Ellis Co. Jail further north? The jail was well established and had recently had a juvenile addition established.
- The possibility that WCJD was not visiting someone at Ellis Unit but someone that lived near the prison. Has there been any searches to identify land/home owners around the prison at the time?
- ???

I disagree with any theory that she wasn’t intending to go to the prison but rather visit somebody “near” the prison. Every prison I’ve seen, and a Google Maps image of the Ellis Unit is no exception, is situated in a place where there are no houses/neighborhoods around it, just farm fields and desolation.

Which makes sense. It’s a matter of public safety. I mean, would you buy a house near a prison?

 

[Jdart14]

I disagree with any theory that she wasn’t intending to go to the prison but rather visit somebody “near” the prison. Every prison I’ve seen, and a Google Maps image of the Ellis Unit is no exception, is situated in a place where there are no houses/neighborhoods around it, just farm fields and desolation.

Which makes sense. It’s a matter of public safety. I mean, would you buy a house near a prison?

Not suggesting someone living next door to the prison....I think we may be missing the point a little. I agree with what yours saying but there are homes and I believe some RV parks out 980...the road that the prison is on. there is NOTHING else out that way so it would make sense as a reference point.

I guess I should have stated that a little more clearly...

 

[Paul B.]

@Jdart14 I have to agree with earlier - both WCJD and her family were likely happy to be rid of each other... but what about elementary/middle school friends? Why didn't they bother in four decades?

 

[Jdart14]

@Jdart14 I have to agree with earlier - both WCJD and her family were likely happy to be rid of each other... but what about elementary/middle school friends? Why didn't they bother in four decades?

I wish I knew the answer to that @Paul B. Ive thought about it before though. This may not be the best example but my family moved when I was in fourth grade. My closest friends I kept in touch with for a little while via phone or we mailed letters. But others who were not "best friends" became memories. Sure you may think about them from time to time but for me it was pretty late in life before I thought about tracking some of those people down to see how they were doing and that was really only made possible by Facebook or some other type of social media. If her family traveled with work or she had not really established any close friends I could see how it would be the case. Its sad, but again there are reasons that she hasn't been ID'd.