Hi everyone. I am new to this website. I have been reading the forums on Websleuth for a few weeks now.
I remember reading the newspaper from July 1999, an unidentified female who was found dead in a Racine Co., WI cornfield not far from Interstate 94. She was tortured for some time prior and ultimately resulted to her demise. The senseless murder of this still unidentified female has saddened me and brought tears to my eyes nearly everytime I look at her poster.
I lived in Racine, WI for all my childhood life and into my early adult years, then moving to Kenosha County, WI. So I have always felt some kind of pull drawing me to finding the identification to this girl.
Recently and I don't know why or what has intrigued me so much so that I have spent countless hours viewing possible matches of disappearances throughout the country, including as much I could view internationally, mostly Canada. Thoroughly searching missing persons agencies online for the midwestern states and the states I-94 travels through. Someone, somewhere must have knew this woman. Here are a few links describing her appearance and the nature of the crime.
http://www.find-missing-children.org/Posters/poster274.htm
WARNING-POST MORTEM
www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbRUhe5HmQA
Video
http://www.racineco.com/sheriff/crimebulletin.aspx
Computer generated photo
http://canyouidentifyme.blogspot.com/2007/10/crystal-rae-1999-unidentified-racine.html
More info including a better photo of the shirt Jane Doe was wearing
I have viewed every single possible match fitting Jane Doe's description on numerous websites for women disappearing around the time frame in which she was found (Charley Project, NCMEC, Porchlight, etc..) There was always some sort of identifying characteristic that would rule out the possible match. Even going back 5-6 years thinking maybe she was a runaway.
So I started thinking that maybe she wasn't even an adult but maybe a child abducted many years prior to her being found. I looked through the countless children missing in the U.S. for same color eyes, hair, etc..
Then I came across Nyleen Kay Marshall who was abducted in 1983. The eye color doesn't match but in my opinion the shape of her face and the possible protruding front teeth (a video of Nyleen's disappearance aired on Unsolved Mysteries shows Nyleen's mother speaking of her child--to me it looked as if she has protruding front teeth--possibly passing that trait onto her child.) the wavy brown hair and the cute button nose.
youtube.com/watch?v=zA7U6HVuXgU - 81k (Unsolved Mysteries segment)
The most identyfying factor to me was a man who called and wrote several letters to missing children agencies stating he had Nyleen. The letters/postcards were postmarked from the Madison, WI area. The shirt Jane Doe was found wearing was distrubuted in 1984 possibly purchased by the abductor and why Jane Doe was wearing the shirt.
I realize the shape of Jane Doe's face and chin compared to the shape of Nyleen's is a little off, but with Jane Doe being malnourished I am assuming could change the structure of Jane Doe's face. Also, Nyleen being only 5 when abducted, she had that chubby child-like face that so many young children have but outgrow as pre-teenagers.
This entire scenario has reminded of the true crime story "American Crime" about a girl living with a childhood friend's family in the 1960's who was abused and tortured and ultimately murdered by the hand's of her friend's mother and other family members.
So possibly our Jane Doe could be Nyleen. Maybe once she became older, a little wiser she started to recollect her childhood memories and questioning those memories, maybe she became too much to handle. The abductor may have been abusing her all of these years or maybe just shortly before the time of her death.
Maybe she was a runaway (repeatedly running away) and the parents have just given up and maybe she has just been lost in the system. Or maybe a prostitute or a drug addict and no one realizes she is gone or had not reported it. Maybe she's not even from this country--which is much harder to try and locate online especially in regions of Russia (Ukraine) where children and women are bought and sold just to be slaves to their owners in America.
Then again, Jane Doe could have been abused by her parents or husband/boyfriend. Maybe the abuser said she left him or ran away. With that in mind, people that knew her would never question Jane Doe's whereabouts.
I have wracked my brain trying to find the identity of this poor girl. I am so frustrated that she can't be identified. Someone knew her!! I know this is just one case out of thousands (understatement) but I just can't understand how someone just disappears without any trace.
I was never associated with the detectives or police of this crime, but I can't help but to care and wonder what happened to her and who could be so cold to inflict such violence on another human being.
I am a mother of three and I could never imagine being in the shoes of parents with missing children. I don't know how I could live on. But I would hope that someone whether it be law enforcement or just an everyday person wanting answers would do everything in their power to help locate my child.
So anyways, I am just wondering if anyone out there has followed either one of these cases and if anyone else has the same ponders as I do with the comparison of Jane Doe and Nyleen.