PA PA - Uniontown, WhtFem 30-45, UP16509, in big rig accident, cigs, keychain, clothes, jewelry, May'86

[sunnynz]

I spent a huge amount of time on this case a couple of years ago and never found anyone that matched in the databases. But it occurred to me with this renewed interest int he case, that I haven't searched Namus for cases that were added in the last year or so.

I just found this listing in Namus which was added in 2019. Dolores Segura The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) - she is Hispanic though so I am not sure whether that info could have been mistakenly recorded for our UID or not?

• Missing Since04/01/1981
• Missing FromSan Francisco, California
• ClassificationMissing
• SexFemale
• RaceHispanic
• Date of Birth02/21/1950 (70)
• Age31 years old
• Height and Weight5'3, 158 pounds
• Distinguishing CharacteristicsHispanic female. Brown hair, green eyes.

It's really her eyebrows and hairline that looked familiar to me. It's hard to tell from the angle of Dolores' face in the picture whether the nose shape and the distance between nose and upper lip could match.

 

[carbuff]

Race is always a best guess. We've seen it be wrong many times. And for forensic classification, hispanic is an ethnicity, not a race. So like a kind of caucasian...which might or might not be right depending on the person's specific ancestry.

Dolores does look very similar.

 

[victoriarobinson642]

I definitely see a resemblance.

 

[Bit of hope]

I was looking into Daisy Mullins Dungan....no idea how she would have ended up there...just a thought....ideas? Probably to old?
CA - Daisy Mullins Dungan - aged early 40’s - Fresno - missing in late 70’s

 

[sunnynz]

I was looking into Daisy Mullins Dungan....no idea how she would have ended up there...just a thought....ideas? Probably to old?
CA - Daisy Mullins Dungan - aged early 40’s - Fresno - missing in late 70’s

Well there’s certainly a resemblance and I think the age and timeframes are close enough. In my opinion, this is going to be the way she’ll be found - not in a missing persons database. If there’s a way to find out more about daisy and the circumstances of her disappearance that would be interesting. Could be worth submitting.

 

[victoriarobinson642]

I was actually a bit shocked to see Uniontown Jane Doe didn't have a reconstruction, so I touched up her photo a bit myself.

 

[Hillbilly hen]

has anyone ever checked for a match against Launa Renee Merritt missing since 1981

 

[sunnynz]

has anyone ever checked for a match against Launa Renee Merritt missing since 1981

I spent a huge amount of time on this Doe’s case a few years back but I never came across Launa. She could be a possible although it seems weird she would suddenly go 5 years without contacting her family before being found deceased. Could be worth looking into though.

 

[Bit of hope]

has anyone ever checked for a match against Launa Renee Merritt missing since 1981

Thanks for posting...I really have no feel with this right now.....let me look into it further tomorrow...

 

[CCJD]

has anyone ever checked for a match against Launa Renee Merritt missing since 1981

Links for Launa:

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)
2447DFNY - Launa Renee Merritt
Launa Renee Merritt – The Charley Project

 

[Bit of hope]

has anyone ever checked for a match against Launa Renee Merritt missing since 1981

@Hillbilly hen
The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

I'm not sure how accurate the age estimate for Jane Doe is. Jane Doe was supposed to be between 30 - 45 and found in 1986. Launa would have been approx. 20 in 1986. Launa has a surgical scar on her abdomen. Jane Doe doesn't seem to have scars, but, depending on the source, she had severe injuries so maybe a potential scar could have been missed. Height and weight between UID and Launa also don't seem to line up to good, but besides that

I have doubts about the gap between Launa's missing date (02/23/1983) and the year this woman was found (1986), especially because of this from her Charley Project file:

Launa had told her grandmother that if she ever went a month or more without contact, her grandmother should tell the police about one of the men she associated with.

Launa Renee Merritt – The Charley Project

 

[Romulus]

I ask a trivial question and throw an alternative hypothesis: is it certain that the woman died in the car accident? And what if she had already died in the ditch, maybe murdered and hidden there by someone and the trailer when it swerved ended up on it, fracturing its bones as well? Maybe a missing girl not reported or murdered by someone.

 

[Caring1]

NamUs is showing one MP exclusion, listed below.

NamUs has a photo of UP16509 belongings and have listed the miniature handcuffs as miniature padlocks. Even if they were padlocks, a search of a MP with the word "PADLOCKS" would not come up as they have used the #0 rather than the letter O. I have noticed this in many of the circumstances, physical descriptions and clothes/accessories.

PADLOCKS
vs
PADL0CKS

The #0 has been entered for the letter O in each word of their description. This greatly hinders search efforts.

Jewelry
THIN G0LD CHAIN KC BRASS ENGRAVED WITH H0T & H0RNEY 2 MINATURE PADL0CKS AND KEY
On the Body

Missing Person / NamUs #MP1117Vernette Wester
Date of Last ContactNovember 22, 1985
StateAZ
CountyMaricopa

 

[carbuff]

Not that it helps with the matching, but...the o-versus-zero thing is often a remnant from pre-computer days when many typewriters didn't even have keys for zero and 1. Typists used the O for zero and lowercase "l" for 1. Several popular models (IBM Selectrics, for one) had fonts that used a tall narrow uppercase "o". When records of all sorts started being converted to online formats, often OCRs (Optical Character Readers) misread those tall O's as zeros. The 1/l will also often be mixed up.

I imagine there are other causes as well but that's one I ran into a lot early in my career as a software technical writer. Half the documents I had to maintain had to be edited thoroughly before they were usable. It was very annoying.

 

[ipa]

I've seen that O/0 issue so often now that if I'm searching for a word on NAMUS with an O I try it both ways.

 

[carbuff]

I've seen that O/0 issue so often now that if I'm searching for a word on NAMUS with an O I try it both ways.

Good idea.

 

[PunkRock]

I know it's a bit of a stretch, but I have another theory that just popped in my line of view.

I was getting an update on a recent local case, when this missing persons case popped up : CASE: COLD CASE - 1984 - MISSING 25-YEAR-OLD MARY ANN BAGENSTOSE - PEQUEA TOWNSHIP -

Here's the thread locally on WS : PA - PA - Mary Ann Bagenstose, 25, West Willow, 5 June 1984

Our age ranges are similar, the faces look pretty close, and there's only a 2-year gap separating the date of Mary's disappearance and the discovery of Doe.

I know Lancaster is a long way away from Uniontown, but then I remembered the fact/theory of the route the trucker may have taken, and I thought "well, Lancaster and MD are pretty close, so let's see if they could intersect at some point..."
So, I punched in the coordinates mimicking the other locations others here suggested, and I saw this :

Point A is where Mary was last seen, Point B is the approximate accident site, Point C is the previously mentioned starting point, and Point D stands for the estimated location Doe was potentially going with our trucker.

While the starting point is shifted pretty far (relatively speaking), it would potentially make Uniontown less of an outlier if our driver was coming more from a Northbound location like NY or upper PA, or maybe even turned more North from Sparrow right of the bat for some reason.

I'm new at this, so I could be totally off or missing some details, but I just thought I'd share this little spark with you guys.

EDIT : I was referring to this post I remember reading when I was still a lurker on here, lol - PA - PA - Uniontown, WhtFem 30-45, UP16509, in big rig accident, cigs, keychain, clothes, jewelry, May'86
EDIT 2 : Have we confirmed that his path started at Sparrows Point? Sorry again, just wanted to make sure I have all my facts straight before following up with any more thoughts.

 

[CCJD]

I know it's a bit of a stretch, but I have another theory that just popped in my line of view.

I was getting an update on a recent local case, when this missing persons case popped up : CASE: COLD CASE - 1984 - MISSING 25-YEAR-OLD MARY ANN BAGENSTOSE - PEQUEA TOWNSHIP -

Here's the thread locally on WS : PA - PA - Mary Ann Bagenstose, 25, West Willow, 5 June 1984

RSBM

Given the circumstances surrounding Mary Ann's disappearance, I'd find it highly unlikely. I believe she's been deceased since the day she was reported missing. JMO

Also, Mary Ann had blonde hair and, according to some old articles, green eyes. UID brown hair and brown eyes.

Intelligencer Journal 29 Jun 1984, page 36 - Newspapers.com

View the digital scanned newspaper from Intelligencer Journal dated 29 Jun 1984, page 36.

www.newspapers.com

(subscription required)

 

[sunnynz]

I know it's a bit of a stretch, but I have another theory that just popped in my line of view.

I was getting an update on a recent local case, when this missing persons case popped up : CASE: COLD CASE - 1984 - MISSING 25-YEAR-OLD MARY ANN BAGENSTOSE - PEQUEA TOWNSHIP -

Here's the thread locally on WS : PA - PA - Mary Ann Bagenstose, 25, West Willow, 5 June 1984

Our age ranges are similar, the faces look pretty close, and there's only a 2-year gap separating the date of Mary's disappearance and the discovery of Doe.

I know Lancaster is a long way away from Uniontown, but then I remembered the fact/theory of the route the trucker may have taken, and I thought "well, Lancaster and MD are pretty close, so let's see if they could intersect at some point..."
So, I punched in the coordinates mimicking the other locations others here suggested, and I saw this :
View attachment 372781
Point A is where Mary was last seen, Point B is the approximate accident site, Point C is the previously mentioned starting point, and Point D stands for the estimated location Doe was potentially going with our trucker.

While the starting point is shifted pretty far (relatively speaking), it would potentially make Uniontown less of an outlier if our driver was coming more from a Northbound location like NY or upper PA, or maybe even turned more North from Sparrow right of the bat for some reason.

I'm new at this, so I could be totally off or missing some details, but I just thought I'd share this little spark with you guys.

EDIT : I was referring to this post I remember reading when I was still a lurker on here, lol - PA - PA - Uniontown, WhtFem 30-45, UP16509, in big rig accident, cigs, keychain, clothes, jewelry, May'86
EDIT 2 : Have we confirmed that his path started at Sparrows Point? Sorry again, just wanted to make sure I have all my facts straight before following up with any more thoughts.

Sadly it seems like Mary Ann was killed by her husband. It’s the totally cliche story told by so many partners/exes of missing women from that era.

 

[PunkRock]

RSBM

Given the circumstances surrounding Mary Ann's disappearance, I'd find it highly unlikely. I believe she's been deceased since the day she was reported missing. JMO

Also, Mary Ann had blonde hair and, according to some old articles, green eyes. UID brown hair and brown eyes.

Intelligencer Journal 29 Jun 1984, page 36 - Newspapers.com

View the digital scanned newspaper from Intelligencer Journal dated 29 Jun 1984, page 36.

www.newspapers.com

(subscription required)

Sadly it seems like Mary Ann was killed by her husband. It’s the totally cliche story told by so many partners/exes of missing women from that era.

Fair enough; thanks, guys!
But as far as the starting point being somewhere else to KY, or that he took a turn earlier en route to end up in Uniontown later down the interstate—do you think that holds water or nah?