Identified! NJ - Blairstown, Cedar Ridge Cemetery, 'Princess Doe', WhtFem 14-18, 36UFNJ, peacock skirt, Jul'82 - Dawn Olanick *charges*

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I know there have been reports that Princess Doe was thought to have been sighted prior to her death. Were those sightings / an eye witness that mentioned Florida considered to be reliable? I have read all of the information albeit awhile ago and unfortunately there are so many cases on the site and I have problems keeping up with all of the details about all of the cases. I do remember the mention of "possible sightings".
 
I know that a reliable witness saw her in a mini-market (as i recall, it was an A&P store), only a day or two before her estimated date of death. I haven't heard anything about that witness mentioning Florida.
 
Princess Doe - The Mystery Girl In The Cemetery - Unsolved Casebook

Princess Doe (scroll to subheading Investigation, para. 5)

Princess Doe apparently volunteered (during casual conversation?) that her father was a dentist. If that were, indeed, Christine's father's trade, did he have a good excuse for not correcting his own daughter's malocclusion? Any number of answers to that may exist, of course, so we don't want to rule anything out--but it's still worth thinking about.
 
Not sure whom may be familiar with Blairstown NJ in the early 80's but I live near there, but only for the past 10 years. I am wondering if there were any hotels in the area at that time. Now there are none that I am aware of. I am asking because I was on rt. 94 the past couple days, north of Blairstown, and I kept thinking; "Why was she there?" Blairstown seems nice, if you are looking for a place to move a family, but there is not much going on there. Princess Doe was probably not local so what brought her to the area. If witness accounts are correct, she was in Blairstown for at least a day (having been seen in the A&P ).

Also, I read the Unsolved Casebook article linked in an above post. I would really like to know the name of the local guy that was suspected in this case.
And, I wonder what led them to believe she had spent time on Long Island NY? I have been trying to figure out what would set Long Island apart so distinctly from say, Manhattan, Jersey or even else where along the atlantic seaboard.
 
rob525 said:
Not sure whom may be familiar with Blairstown NJ in the early 80's but I live near there, but only for the past 10 years. I am wondering if there were any hotels in the area at that time. Now there are none that I am aware of. I am asking because I was on rt. 94 the past couple days, north of Blairstown, and I kept thinking; "Why was she there?" Blairstown seems nice, if you are looking for a place to move a family, but there is not much going on there. Princess Doe was probably not local so what brought her to the area. If witness accounts are correct, she was in Blairstown for at least a day (having been seen in the A&P ).

Also, I read the Unsolved Casebook article linked in an above post. I would really like to know the name of the local guy that was suspected in this case.
And, I wonder what led them to believe she had spent time on Long Island NY? I have been trying to figure out what would set Long Island apart so distinctly from say, Manhattan, Jersey or even else where along the atlantic seaboard.
Click to expand...
The Doe Network page states that her clothes are said to have come from a store on Long Island. That's probably where that idea originated.
 
CarlK90245 said:
I know that a reliable witness saw her in a mini-market (as i recall, it was an A&P store), only a day or two before her estimated date of death. I haven't heard anything about that witness mentioning Florida.
Click to expand...

rob525 said:
Not sure whom may be familiar with Blairstown NJ in the early 80's but I live near there, but only for the past 10 years. I am wondering if there were any hotels in the area at that time. Now there are none that I am aware of. I am asking because I was on rt. 94 the past couple days, north of Blairstown, and I kept thinking; "Why was she there?" Blairstown seems nice, if you are looking for a place to move a family, but there is not much going on there. Princess Doe was probably not local so what brought her to the area. If witness accounts are correct, she was in Blairstown for at least a day (having been seen in the A&P ).

Also, I read the Unsolved Casebook article linked in an above post. I would really like to know the name of the local guy that was suspected in this case.
And, I wonder what led them to believe she had spent time on Long Island NY? I have been trying to figure out what would set Long Island apart so distinctly from say, Manhattan, Jersey or even else where along the atlantic seaboard.
Click to expand...

i grew up in a town about 20 minutes away from blairstown and travelled through the area regularly as a child on our weekly trips to a campground in the delaware water gap during the camping season. i was almost 12 when princess doe turned up in the cemetery and i remember investigators canvassing our campground with her post mortem photo. i didn't see it, but my mother did and i remember her horrified reaction to it.

as i recall, the a & p was located directly across from the cemetery. i'm sure i visited that a & p on many occasions. i don't remember much about hotels or motels in the area, but there could have been a few and they would have been pretty small mom and pop type operations.

i think it is probably believed that she was somewhat transient to the area since no one knew her and as noted, there are not a whole lot of reasons to be in that area if you did not live there. there is route 80, which was a major travel corridor for everything from locals to tourists to truckers. in fact, there is or was a major truckstop not too far down 80 from blairstown. other possible reasons to be in the area are the proximity to the delaware river for recreation and the appalachain trail passes through the gap area as well. thats about all i can come up with at the moment.
 
da fino said:
i grew up in a town about 20 minutes away from blairstown and travelled through the area regularly as a child on our weekly trips to a campground in the delaware water gap during the camping season. i was almost 12 when princess doe turned up in the cemetery and i remember investigators canvassing our campground with her post mortem photo. i didn't see it, but my mother did and i remember her horrified reaction to it.

as i recall, the a & p was located directly across from the cemetery. i'm sure i visited that a & p on many occasions. i don't remember much about hotels or motels in the area, but there could have been a few and they would have been pretty small mom and pop type operations.

i think it is probably believed that she was somewhat transient to the area since no one knew her and as noted, there are not a whole lot of reasons to be in that area if you did not live there. there is route 80, which was a major travel corridor for everything from locals to tourists to truckers. in fact, there is or was a major truckstop not too far down 80 from blairstown. other possible reasons to be in the area are the proximity to the delaware river for recreation and the appalachain trail passes through the gap area as well. thats about all i can come up with at the moment.
Click to expand...

Thank you. I had some of the same thoughts although I did not think about the campgrounds in the area. The truckstop is still there. Although it is about 12 miles from 80 to Blairstown, I believe. I thought about the trucker angle but to me it doesn't make sense. I looked at some aerial photos on NETR aerials and noticed that in the 1980s aerial shot, there is a small road and what appears to be a turn around / parking area. It seems to overlook the ravine. This area also looks to be hidden from the main road and would be known to someone local but probably not just passing by. Also, there are many places closer to 80 that would seem to be more remote than Cedar Ridge Cemetary. I mean why would a stranger to the area pick one of the few somewhat populated spots along rt. 94 to stop?
 
I tried to show where the service road is in the older aerial photos. The turn around area and road would be unseen from the road, particularly in the summer time. IMO. The road is not in the more recent aerial photos.
 

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I live semi local, and have a customer located on Rt 94 so drive the area on a pretty regular basis. I just can't imagine someone not from the area randomly picking Exit 12, then driving 5 miles down Rt 521 to 94 then another 2 miles to the cemetery, when in the early 80's 521 was pretty desolate and plenty of places to have left her.

There were two new podcasts released last few weeks regarding her case. I haven't had a chance to listen to either yet but will soon. Not sure if they can be linked here. But you can see them on Princess Doe Facebook page.
 
JrzyGirl70 said:
I live semi local, and have a customer located on Rt 94 so drive the area on a pretty regular basis. I just can't imagine someone not from the area randomly picking Exit 12, then driving 5 miles down Rt 521 to 94 then another 2 miles to the cemetery, when in the early 80's 521 was pretty desolate and plenty of places to have left her.

There were two new podcasts released last few weeks regarding her case. I haven't had a chance to listen to either yet but will soon. Not sure if they can be linked here. But you can see them on Princess Doe Facebook page.
Click to expand...

I have the same thought, although I have been going under the assumption that they got off at exit 4 and drove 94 to Blairstown but that could be wrong. Is there a reason why you are saying exit 12? But I do agree, neither way makes sense. My only thought was that hey got to exit 4, saw a truck stop and decided to drive until they found a hotel? Since there was no google maps and they may have been unfamiliar with the area.
I do agree that it seems like it was someone local that killed her.
 
NJEverCurious said:
The Doe Network page states that her clothes are said to have come from a store on Long Island. That's probably where that idea originated.
Click to expand...

Oh, OK. I thought it was something in the analysis of the teeth etc. that pointed to Long Island.
 
@rob525 my only assumption for Exit 12 is that is my way of travel to Blairstown. Never thought much about the truck stop further up on 80, but now that I am perhaps she was left there after hitchhiking, perhaps as rumors say a prostitute, and somehow got into Blairstown. It's got to be at least a 5/7 mile walk to the A&P.

I still after all of these years, don't know if I believe it was a local.
 
rob525 said:
Thank you. I had some of the same thoughts although I did not think about the campgrounds in the area. The truckstop is still there. Although it is about 12 miles from 80 to Blairstown, I believe. I thought about the trucker angle but to me it doesn't make sense. I looked at some aerial photos on NETR aerials and noticed that in the 1980s aerial shot, there is a small road and what appears to be a turn around / parking area. It seems to overlook the ravine. This area also looks to be hidden from the main road and would be known to someone local but probably not just passing by. Also, there are many places closer to 80 that would seem to be more remote than Cedar Ridge Cemetary. I mean why would a stranger to the area pick one of the few somewhat populated spots along rt. 94 to stop?
Click to expand...

JrzyGirl70 said:
@rob525 my only assumption for Exit 12 is that is my way of travel to Blairstown. Never thought much about the truck stop further up on 80, but now that I am perhaps she was left there after hitchhiking, perhaps as rumors say a prostitute, and somehow got into Blairstown. It's got to be at least a 5/7 mile walk to the A&P.

I still after all of these years, don't know if I believe it was a local.
Click to expand...

i think a local would know that there are a ton of more secluded spots locally to dispose of a body personally. but would they be more revealing to the killer's identity? or was the killer pressed for time? he had to know she would be found there eventually. perhaps it was just convenient to scene of the crime, as if he was parked there with her.

still, the murderer had to have some knowledge of that spot and that it would provide enough seclusion for his purpose.

i think the truck stop angle is an important one. if she was a hitchhiker or prostitute, she could have been working the truck stop. and a trucker that regularly traveled the area, could have potentially known of the A & P as a place to find some things that offered more than the truck stop. that might be the right combination of familiarity and scenarios for princess doe to end up in the cemetery.

i have probably said this before in this thread, but i think the tigerlady case has the potential to be connected to this one, even though there is a significant amount of time between them.

NJ - NJ - Knowlton, 'Tiger Lady' WhtFem 47UFNJ, 17-19, tiger tattoo on calf, Oct'91
 
rob525 said:
Oh, OK. I thought it was something in the analysis of the teeth etc. that pointed to Long Island.
Click to expand...
There was hair analysis done that showed she had lived in the Midwest. Not sure how much the analysis of the teeth showed about her previous location(s).
 
da fino said:
i think a local would know that there are a ton of more secluded spots locally to dispose of a body personally. but would they be more revealing to the killer's identity? or was the killer pressed for time? he had to know she would be found there eventually. perhaps it was just convenient to scene of the crime, as if he was parked there with her.

still, the murderer had to have some knowledge of that spot and that it would provide enough seclusion for his purpose.

i think the truck stop angle is an important one. if she was a hitchhiker or prostitute, she could have been working the truck stop. and a trucker that regularly traveled the area, could have potentially known of the A & P as a place to find some things that offered more than the truck stop. that might be the right combination of familiarity and scenarios for princess doe to end up in the cemetery.

i have probably said this before in this thread, but i think the tigerlady case has the potential to be connected to this one, even though there is a significant amount of time between them.

NJ - NJ - Knowlton, 'Tiger Lady' WhtFem 47UFNJ, 17-19, tiger tattoo on calf, Oct'91
Click to expand...

According to the FAQ's on princessdoe.org:

Q15: Is the cemetery thought to be the actual scene of the murder?
A15: No evidence was found to indicate that the actual murder took place there.
However, no other crime scene was associated with the case. Considering the
amount of time that passed and the weather conditions, this is difficult to
determine.
​
If we assume the crime was committed elsewhere and the cemetery was only the place where her body was left, and if we assume the perpetrator was NOT local, I don't think it's a stretch to say a trucker could have committed the crime. Any truck driver who regularly got off 80 in that area could have noticed the cemetery. This begs the question, what type of non-local person would have taken 94 often enough to know the area well? A trucker making regular deliveries to a local business (e.g., A&P, assuming it was there in the early 80's) or even a business further up 94. And I absolutely agree that a local person would have chosen a more secluded spot.

So could she have been a prostitute who worked the truck stops on Route 80? Sure. She was found without any undergarments, so it could have been a sexually-motivated homicide or just a "trick" gone horribly wrong. She could have been killed in the cab of a tractor-trailer and dumped in the cemetery.

Considering the pattern of homicides and sexual abuses The Killing Season TV show alleges are committed by truck drivers, I think the scenarios suggested for Princess Doe are entirely plausible.
 
Ok. A lot of good thoughts being mentioned. I just had a couple questions /comments.
According to google maps it is 7.8 miles from the truck stop / rte 80 to the cemetary.
Exploring the angle that she was a prostitute, does not necessarily mean truck driver. A local would also know to look in the vicinity of the truck stop for hitchhikers / prostitutes. I had originally wondered if Blairstown had the closest hotel to rte 80 back in 1982.
How does the notion that she was sighted prior to being murdered in the A&P? Meaning, she would not have been picked up at the truck stop and then murdered soon after if she had been seen during the day at the A&P.
Also, I thought it was written somewhere that they either found a chunk of rock / granite that the killer had used? Maybe I am confusing details with another case?
I had one more thought. Suppose she traveled to Blairstown in some manner, either with a friend / travelling companion or someone she met at the truck stop on the night before she was sighted at the A&P. Either that night or the next day her companion leaves her in Blairstown. Later, on the night the witness sights her, she encounters the killer.
 
the fact that her face was severely disfigured is saying something to me. perhaps there was some familiarity and emotional connection with her killer. or perhaps if someone recognized her it would have somehow pointed someone to her killer. for instance, perhaps she was recently acquainted with her killer and they were seen together.

likewise, if she was in fact seen in the A & P alive, and later found dead across the street, one would have to think the crime scene is very likely in that vicinity or close by.
 
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