Identified! MO - Wright City, Wht/HispFem Torso 813UFMO, 20-45, Jun'04 - Deanna Howland

Rest area, 50 miles W of St. Louis
Found last month....
Police have nothing to go on
Has anyone heard anything else?

This case really freaks me out... too close to home, and doesn't look like it'll be solved anytime soon. Reminds me of the body found in a box near here years ago, right next to I-70. Don't think that one was ever solved.

but is the torso of an adult female? I'm thinking of the guy who took his daughter and son from a 4th July picnic last year and admitted he killed them-but he never told authorities where he put the bodies-and then he killed himself in jail. The daughter was a teenager-is it possible?

where did you folks find out this info? was it the st. louis times or local news? if any one has a link to the story please post.

Authorities continue to work to identify the remains of a woman that was found June 28, in brush at the westbound Interstate 70 rest stop in Wright City.

Detective Michael Yarbrough with the Greater St. Louis Major Case Squad said Thursday that the Major Case Squad is now reviewing a DNA profile of the woman, which was returned from the state crime lab. In the hope of finding the identity of the woman, that profile is being compared with other DNA profiles that are on file with Missouri law enforcement.

Authorities have also been reviewing missing person files from throughout Missouri in an effort to identify the victim.

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/neighborhoods/stories.nsf/Neighborhoods/News/96AA9D1179EB81FF86256ECA00249834?OpenDocument&Headline=Investigators+work+to+identify+woman's+remains&highlight=2%2Ctorso%2Cfound

Trying to make the link clickable

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/neighborhoods/stories.nsf/Neighborhoods/News/96AA9D1179EB81FF86256ECA00249834?OpenDocument&Headline=Investigators+work+to+identify+woman's+re%20mains&highlight=2%2Ctorso%2Cfound

A family will now have an answer, hopefully. I pray she is not buried as a Jane Doe. Praying for answers for those working this case, and justice.
With love and HOPE, Lanie
HelpForTheMissing@yahoo.com

*edited to try and fix link, y'all may have to copy and paste it*

gatetrekker44 said:

but is the torso of an adult female? I'm thinking of the guy who took his daughter and son from a 4th July picnic last year and admitted he killed them-but he never told authorities where he put the bodies-and then he killed himself in jail. The daughter was a teenager-is it possible?

Click to expand...

However, it sounds like the torso had hardly deteriorated, so not gonna be related to that case. Very eerie. Although since it was found along an interstate, it could be someone from most any state. Definitely some sicko, who dismembered it.

even though brooke has been missing for some time now, I wonder if the torso could be hers? maybe this is possible. but then again it could be any number of these missing people that could have been held against there will for what ever reason the perp wanted and then murdered the person just recently. I think that the le should at least send dna material to investigators that are working the brooke wilberger case. like showsinger said, it could be anyone from almost anyplace since the body was found along an interstate rest area.

At the risk of being disgusting, the torso could have been kept in a freezer, the removed and left at the site. Then there is no telling how long she has been dead.

You know, its like these monsters don't follow the news any more. Sure they can take the limbs and head off a dead body, but they can still do DNA testing to determine who the person is. Its not like it was before where they had to have dental and fingerprints!!! :banghead:

I live in St. Louis and the last we heard is that it was an animal carcas and that a man disposed of it

Here's the story .... it is kind of hard to follow, though...
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/ne...lse+alarm,+police+say&highlight=2,torso,found

"Remains lead to false alarm, police say

The St. Louis Area Major Case Squad briefly returned to duty Monday over the suspicion that human remains had been found north of Warrenton, a few miles from the Interstate 70 rest area where a woman's torso was discovered June 28.

But investigators determined within a few hours that the remains were most likely badly decomposed bear parts that a taxidermist had discarded in the trash. Major Robert Lowery Jr., the squad's commander, described it as a false alarm.

Major Case Squad detectives worked on the mystery for about two weeks before turning the investigation back over to the Warren County Sheriff's Department.

Despite examining numerous missing persons reports and pursuing many leads, authorities have yet to identify the victim. An autopsy showed that she was white and at least 20 years old.

Anyone with information is asked to call the sheriff's department at 636-456-4332.
"

eyespy said:

I live in St. Louis and the last we heard is that it was an animal carcas and that a man disposed of it

Click to expand...

Huh? You mean that a man disposed of animal remains that were mistaken as possibly additional body parts maybe belonging to the torso found, right?

NEW article......
Police are testing DNA that was left on the torso, believing it might belong to the killer. Still no ID on the torso, which was found clad only in a black bra. Police are searching missing persons files to find a possible match. Hope they get something soon. If anyone can link today's story, that would be great.
20 something white female...

ST. LOUIS, Missouri (AP) -- It's been a month since a state crew found a woman's headless, limbless torso in brush near a freeway rest area, and authorities are beginning to get frustrated by the lack of answers.

Although investigators have devoted hundreds of hours to the case, the woman's identity has eluded them -- something that anguishes Warren County Sheriff Mike Baker.

Baker is frustrated that no one has told authorities they're missing a mother, daughter, sister or wife. If investigators can determine the victim's identity, he says, they'll have a starting point for finding her killer.

"Whoever did this -- by removing the head, arms and legs -- did it for the obvious reason of concealing her identity," Baker said Thursday. "Most homicides don't go to these extremes."

More: http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/Midwest/07/30/headless.torso.ap/index.html

I rarely post here but I have been hearing about this ever since it first occurred and a few days ago an article appeared on the front page of a local news journal. I thought it might be (hopefully) helpful to place it where more people could read about it. (Including only the parts of the article that best describe the situation.)

Warrenton Journal
Warrenton, Missouri
Wednesday June 27, 2007
Joe Scott, Editor jscott@yourjournal.com

I just want to send her home
Coroner seeks to identify woman's body and find her family

For Warren County coroner Roger Mauzy, there's one case that won't go away, one case he can't divorce himself from. He wonders what this woman looked like; he wonders what her name is.

He wants to see a picture of her.

"This is one I've lost sleep over," Mauzy acknowledged.

Normally he separates himself from the harsh reality of his work in dealing with suicides, murders and fatal accidents. As with any paramedic or policeman, he often has to shut off his feelings and emotions in order to do his job.

But the case involving this woman is different.

It will be three years ago Thursday that Missouri Department of Transportation workers discovered a woman's torso at the westbound reststop on Interstate 70 in Wright City.

http://warrentonjournal.stltoday.com/articles/2007/06/27/news/sj2tn20070627-0627war_warpe.ii1.txt

Thanks for posting this Mary Belle.
What a touching story. Bless Mauzy and all others like him who care so much.
I sure hope they can get some answers and bring this woman home to her family.

That is the question that has been driving Warren County Coroner Roger Mauzy ever since the headless body of a young woman was discovered more than three years ago near the picnic area of an Interstate 70 rest stop.

The light-skinned woman with brown hair was in her early to mid-20s and wearing only a black bra when she was found.

Investigators said she'd once had an appendectomy and a Caesarean section and had been physically fit in life. Her head and limbs were cut from her body and never discovered.

And no one has come forward to claim her.

She was someone's daughter, and, it would seem, someone's mother.

“I live by the theory that everybody's got somebody,” Mauzy said. But despite his best efforts to determine the woman's identity, to locate her family or friends, he's been unable to.

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica]“By virtue of state law, I am her next of kin, and that's not right.”[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica]Mauzy was called to the rest area about 50 miles northwest of St. Louis on June 28, 2004. Highway workers trimming trees had discovered the torso dumped down a small incline.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica]The woman was killed elsewhere, perhaps just hours before her body was found. Her head, arms and lower legs had been removed, presumably to make it harder to identify her. “I'm speculating she probably had tattoos on both shoulders and both ankles,” he said.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica]A 12-inch, serrated knife with a drop of blood was found down a water drain that was empty of water at the time, just steps from where the body was, Mauzy said. “That knife, I think, was a tease. He knew we'd search down that drain,” Mauzy speculated.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica]He said whoever dumped the woman made no attempt to cover her from view. “This took a real, cold, callous animal to do this,” he said, then rethinks it.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica]Even animals, he said, “wouldn't do this.”[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica]http://www.newstribune.com/articles/2007/07/13/news_state/171state32torso.txt[/FONT]

Investigators with the Major Case Squad of Greater St. Louis convened in Warren County on Monday to reinvestigate the murder of a woman whose torso was found at a rest stop in Wright City in 2004.

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/ne...1C19A93902EFF6A5862573DF0016971C?OpenDocument

Doe Network involved:
If investigators solve the homicide of a woman whose torso was dumped in Wright City, they might have a 42-year-old woman from the Kansas City area to thank.

Traycie Sherwood is with the Doe Network, an all-volunteer group started in 1999 that catalogs missing persons cases across the U.S. and tries to match them with unidentified remains.

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/ne...6EF26A2C945FC2D5862573E6001C2F9D?OpenDocument