Identified! MO - McDonald Co., 'Grace Doe' Fem Skeletal 784UFMO, 21-31, Dec'90 - Shawna Beth Garber

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This article was brought to my attention via PM by another WS member.

[McDonald County detective Lorie] Howard took two phone calls that will likely lead to the facial reconstruction of the woman Howard calls “Grace.” People have told her it is only by the grace of God that she will ever succeed in her solving the cold case.

...

["Grace"] had apparently been hogtied and with six different types of binding: Nylon rope, lead rope, coaxial cable, telephone cable, parachute cord and clothesline. Because of the way she was bound, both hands behind the back and tied to one leg and a shoelace, Howard feels that Grace was also raped before she died.

Howard believes Grace was killed more than a month before her remains were discovered and that it had probably happened on Halloween night.

...

The remains, which includes the skull and about 60 percent of the skeleton, were sent back to Columbia where Howard will drive on Tuesday to pick them up. ... it should only take a couple of weeks to forensically reconstruct Grace’s face.

Howard has already called America’s Most Wanted television program, with whom she has long been in contact, who told her that as soon as she has a face for Grace they will televise the story.

Read More:
http://www.neoshodailynews.com/features/x713424775/Cold-case-update-bones-found

Here are the DoeNet and NamUs Pages:

The Doe Network:
Case File 784UFMO
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/784ufmo.html
NamUs UP Case 5321 https://identifyus.org/cases/5321

784UFMO.jpg
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784UFMO2.jpg

Shoes, Jacket and Bindings

Unidentified White Female

* The victim was discovered on December 2, 1990 in McDonald County, Missouri.
* Estimated Date of Death: 2 months prior
* State of Remains: Not recognizable

Vital Statistics

* Estimated age: 21-31 years old.
* Approximate Height and Weight: Height estimated at 63" or 5'3". Weight estimated at 120 lbs.
* Distinguishing Characteristics: Brown hair. Eye color is unknown.
* Clothing: A blue jean coat, white t-shirt, "Lee" brand blue jeans, socks, and white "Fitness" brand hi-top tennis shoes (size 7 1/2).
* Dentals: Available. Dental x-rays available, dental models and or photographs available. Well cared orthodontic patient, excellent occlusion tooth.
* DNA: Available. mtaDNA; University of North Texas
* Fingerprints: Not available.

Case History
Victim was found in a remote area at an abandoned farm house. She had been bound. The skull was separated from the body.
 
I can find no 20-something females who were missing within the previous year from the states of Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas, or Oklahoma.

If I go back 2 years, all I get are the three Lenexa KS victims of Richard Grissom.
Joan Butler, Theresa Brown, and Christine Rush.
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/b/butler_joan.html
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/b/brown_theresa.html
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/r/rusch_christine.html

Perhaps she came from somewhere else, or more likely, she isn't listed.
 
Someone interested in Fetish or bondage has likely read up on (as no internet at the time) knots and ropes and likely practiced such, so the use of so many types of rope/bindings and wrapped so heavily (as indicated in the pictures) is strange to me. Suggests someone/a group of people who were worried one rope was not enough(?). Possibly someone not as strong as she is and who wanted to make sure she would not escape? If binding someone for a sexual assault, one would imagine you'd want the victim to be secure but not so bound that they are virtually mummified by the amount of bindings, which is what seems to have happened here.

I'm finding the amount of bindings and way she was bound to be troubling (in an already troubling case).
 
Dennis Radar, BTK should be looked at in this case, IMHO. He murdered Vicki Wegerle in 1986, and then he wasn't known to kill again until 1991 when he killed Delores Davis who lived close to him. In 1989, he was named as a State Supervisor for the US Census Bureau so he could have moved freely in Kansas. The 1990 McDonald County, Missouri location of this bound female was easily within the driving distance of a man who was free to roam the state of Kansas, perhaps abduct a runaway and take her from Kansas to an abandoned farm house in Missouri. How sure are we that BTK gave up all of his victims???
 
It's about 230 miles from Wichita to McDonald County MO so I would doubt Rader based on distance alone. True, he was born in Pittsburg KS - though raised in Wichita - which would have drawn him closer if he had in fact have visited the old hometown; but Pittsburg is about 85 miles and upwards of two hours away from the Missouri location. Rader's m.o., over the course of seventeen years, involved killing women in their homes, women in Wichita KS. At it he enjoyed, for many years, complete success. I doubt that he was the type to branch out. Still worth a look I guess.
 


The diligent work of a detective in McDonald County has led to a facial reconstruction of a woman who was found murdered on county road over twenty years ago.


Lorie Howard has devoted hundred's of hours of her own time the last three years trying to find out who "Grace" Doe is so she can give her back her real name.


For about three weeks in late 1990 a ten year-old boy who lived on Oscar Talley Road told his parents that there was a dead person on a carport near an abandoned farmhouse. They believed at the time it was just the little boys imagination. It wasn't.


A couple collecting cans on December 2, 1990, found Grace's skull, that was wrapped in a towel, and other bones scattered in some weeds near the farmhouse and called authorities. Grace's skeletal remains had been scattered by animals, according to Howard.


http://crimesceneinvestigations.blogspot.com/2011/04/meet-mcdonald-county-missouris-grace.html
 
She said the bones were sent 20 years ago to an anthropologist at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville for his help in developing a profile of the murder victim. When Howard contacted him trying to relocate the bones in 2009, he could no longer recall the case or produce the skeletal remains, she said.

Recently, the anthropologist’s successor realized that certain bones the school had been using as teaching tools were the very remains the Boone County medical examiner’s office had sent to the school for analysis in 1990.

http://www.joplinglobe.com/local/x1240519325/Bones-revive-hope-in-old-murder-case
 
I just noticed something. From CarlK's link above, it says that she had auburn hair not brown, but all the reports say hair is brown.


<<<snip>>>

'One thing Howard did have was a cast of Grace’s teeth, along with the anthropologist report which stated the murder victim was probably in her mid-to-late 20s when she died, stood between 5’1” and 5’4” and was of a slender build. She also had auburn hair.'

http://www.neoshodailynews.com/features/x713424775/Cold-case-update-bones-found
 
In the blog entry at the link in the bottom of kathee's post (post #6), it indicates that they found only a single strand of blonde or sandy brown hair from the collar of her coat. That would also exclude Ashley.

But I'm not sure that one can come up with strong conclusions based on a single strand of hair. As far as we know, she might have been wearing someone else's coat.
 
I saw the mention in the blog that Det. Lorie Howard was having trouble locating Janet Dolgae's casefile. So I called in to tell her that the Fulton County GA authorities had compared Janet to one of their UID's and had ruled her out. I told her that if she was trying to locate identifiers, she might want to contact them.

She indicated that since then, she was able to find Janet's aunt, and that issue was resolved, although she still hasn't had the opportunity to compare Janet to Grace Doe.

While I had her on the phone, I gave her the name of Ashley Fuller Reed.

She said that was very interested in any possibles that we can send her way. She says that she has DNA and Dentals on Grace, but Grace is not yet in CODIS.

So, from the blog (and my submission), the following persons have been submitted :

Robin Renea Abrams
Cheryl Ann Kenney (Ruled Out on DNA)
Janet Dolgae
Ashley Fuller Reed
 
Just some random things that stand out to me, thinking out loud:

Some of the ligatures were military-issue parachute cord. Any military bases/families around that area?

Neighbors heard a woman's screams and a loud (possibly diesel) truck in the area about a week before Halloween 1990.

She seems to be part Caucasian, part Native American. Canvass possible ancestors on nearby reservations? They do have DNA now from a fingernail with which to try familial DNA matching, for Grace as well as her killer.

Missing women who have been ruled out so far include Cheryl Ann Kenney, missing from Nevada.

They have NOT been able to rule out Janet Dolgae, who went missing from Cortland, Ohio on October 1, 1989, and IMO looks a little like this image, but they have lost her missing-person report (possibly in a flood). They finally re-filed her case in 2008 but there are jurisdictional problems, so it hasn't gone anywhere. Grace's detective is working on obtaining DNA in that case.

I hope they can piece this together soon! 20 years, sheesh!
 
I just started reviewing this one, and already I've come up with some other possibilities. The UID has a very distinctive hook in her nose, so I'm keeping that in mind as well when looking at MPs. I'm looking nationwide.

Barbara Elizabeth Miller

BMiller1.jpg

Missing since July 1, 1989 from Mifflinburg, Union County, Pennsylvania.
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/601dfpa.html

Juliana Mae Schubert

JSchubert1.jpg

Missing since June 30, 1989 from Arlington, Snohomish County, Washington.
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/548dfwa.html

Also, the fact that she was found in Missouri and there was ligature/bondage involved makes me think of John Robinson. Anyone know where he was living in 1990? I know the reckless way the remains were left in the house is not his MO (he kept the bodies in barrels/storage facilities) but it could have been an early victim before he really figured out his "craft".
 

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