CA CA - Mary Jo Lee Long, 17, Gardena, 27 Dec 1981

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CA Mary Jo Lee Long (17) - Gardena CA, 1981 - Websleuths Crime Sleuthing Community

Our spotlight thread for Mary Jo, no discussion on that thread.

https://www.findthemissing.org/cases/6307/0/
NamUs profile:
Dental available. No DNA or fingerprints at the time of this posting.


http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/l/long_mary.html
Her Charley Project Page

http://kaaltv.com/article/stories/S2430096.shtml?cat=10226

Posted at: 12/27/2011 11:02 PM
Updated at: 12/27/2011 11:06 PM
By: Steph Crock

Video of news coverage at link above as well.

It was thirty years ago when Austin teen, Mary Jo Long was seen for the last time. She was a student here at Austin High School. At the age of 17, she went to live with her father in California, without her mother's approval. Long enrolled at Gardena California High School that spring. Three months later she disappeared.

A missing person case was never filed in CA for her. It was filed in Texas 7 years later.

A detective is now working on getting DNA from family members. Det. Clennon.

Detective Clennon is now working with detectives from California, and even Arizona, that's where Long's father and brother are now living.
 
Bumping for Mary. She is from where I am. I have never heard of her before a few days ago0so sad!
 
Bumping for this girl-someone has to have known what happened to her....so to get this straight, did she vanish from California or MN? How I understood it is she left her California home in Feb of 1981, then went to MN and ultimately vanished from there in 1981 of Dec. If this is the case, I think she could have tried to hitch hike elsewhere. Although it was common during that time period, it was also dangerous. I-90 runs through Austin. In the 80s, there was a girl who ranaway from her Rochester home. She was last seen near the interstate at a truck stop in Albert Lea, which is only 20 minutes from Austin, where Mary went missing from. Although I can't even dig up any articles, I do remember it, and the missing Albert Lea girl was shoved under the rug. In May 1980, the body of an unidentified woman in her 20s-30s, was found in Blue Earth, which also close to Austin and right next to Albert Lea. She had been hitch hiking, and her body was found hidden in the brush alongside the ditch. She is still unidentified, known as Blue Earth Jane Doe. https://mavdisk.mnsu.edu/bittid/
Blue Earth Jane Doe was seen exiting a van on the overpass of the Bricelyn exit by I-90 before she got picked up by a second hitch hiker. She was heading out west.
Robert Leroy Nelson is thought to have been her killer, and is in prison in Texas for another crime. How much he has said could be a lie or it could be true. He was a MN state high way patrol man. I wonder if all these crimes can be linked. If Mary was heading elsewhere, I think it is possible she met with foul play due to hitch hiking.
 
Does anyone have clarification on when she went missing? Her Facebook page created by family mentioned February of 1982 from Gardena, CA. This says December 27, 1981 from Gardena, CA. That is a decent difference.

Did her father and brother not have more details on her disappearance, like what she was doing or when they last saw her...?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk
 
Her Charley Project page says that she left her mother's house in MN in Dec 1981 to live with her father in Gardena. She did not have her mother's permission to do this. She then enrolled at Gardena High School. She went missing from Gardena in Feb 1982.

To me it seems like two possibilities. Her father/brother had something to do with it which is why she wasn't reported missing, or she was running away from her life in MN, found CA wasn't much better and took off again. It's possible she met someone who convinced her to take off with him since she didn't seem satisfied with her circumstances to begin with.

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/l/long_mary.html

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk
 
At age 17, Long left her childhood home in Minnesota to live with her father in California. She was last seen in Austin in December 1981. A half-sister had spent Christmas with her that year.

By all accounts, though, Long had returned to California. So how come a police detective in Austin is in charge of finding her? The case landed in [Detective Todd] Clennon's lap in August, taking its turn in the rotation of cases revisited by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

The first known report of Long's disappearance doesn't show up in her file until 1988, when the girl's mother, who still lived in Austin, went to the Law Enforcement Center.

"She came in Feb. 24, 1988, and said Mary Jo had been gone for seven years," Clennon said. "She wanted her re-entered in the computer as a missing person." Clennon has learned an initial case hadn't been entered.

"The question remains: Was a police report ever filed?" Clennon asked.

http://www.postbulletin.com/news/lo...cle_70566426-12a0-5461-85bc-624b581e9208.html
 
She may have left with a boyfriend that the family knew nothing about, i think. It's listed on the help id me Facebook page in one of the comments on the allenstown post
 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/335237089820203/permalink/1598597493484150/?comment_id=1598623120148254&reply_comment_id=1598623893481510&notif_t=group_comment&notif_id=1500675215757804


Facebook page by the family.

picture posted with a possible boyfriend
attachment.php
 

Attachments

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Mary Jo Lee Long
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The images on the right have been age progressed 47 and 52 years.

Case Classification: Endangered Missing
Missing Since: December 27, 1981
Location Last Seen: Gardena, Los Angeles County, California
Date of Birth: June 9, 1964
Age: 17 years old
Race: White
Gender: Female
Height: 5'5"
Weight: 115 lbs.
Hair Color: Brown
Eye Color: Brown

Dentals: Available
Fingerprints: Not Available
DNA: Available


Clothing & Personal Items: Unknown

Circumstances of Disappearance
Mary was originally from Austin, Minnesota, where she lived with her mother and was enrolled in Austin High School. In the spring of 1981, she went to live with her father in California, against her mother's wishes. When Mary arrived in California, she enrolled in Gardena High School. She went back to Austin, MN for Christmas, returned to California, and then disappeared approximately around two months later. School records indicate that she was absent from school for several days and didn't graduate with her class. No missing persons report was filed in California; a missing persons report instead was filed in 1988 in Minnesota by her mother.

The case has few leads: her mother died in a car accident in 1989; her father lives in Arizona, but is very ill; but other family members are looking for her. Included in the picture array above is Mary and her boyfriend at the time, who resided in California at the time. Family and authorities would like to know his identity; anyone who knows who he might be should contact the Austin Police Department.

Investigating Agency(s)
Agency Name: Austin Police Department
Agency Contact Person: Detective Todd Clennon
Agency Phone Number: (507) 437-9400
Agency Case Number: 88108903

Information Source(s)
Rochester Post-Bulletin (9/27/11)
Mary Jo Long (Missing Person) Facebook Page
California Department of Justice
KAALTV 6 (12/27/11)
 
25 Unidentified Person Exclusions
UP9864 02/14/1982 Coconino AZ
UP1513 07/15/1982 Warren NJ (x3)
UP8427 07/17/1982 Washoe NV (x2)
UP9927 03/21/1984 King WA
UP15630 07/03/1984 Cuyahoga OH
UP6796 11/18/1985 Alleghany VA
UP9929 01/02/1986 King WA
UP6642 08/07/1986 Chesterfield VA
UP9938 01/11/1987 San MateoCA
UP1567 06/01/1987 Knox TN
UP4768 04/19/1990 Licking OH
UP6629 02/03/1991 Frederick VA
UP6661 02/03/1991 Stafford VA
UP8493 12/06/1993 Fairfax VA
UP6303 01/26/1997 Warren VA
UP8419 01/16/2001 Isle of Wight VA
UP7690 09/11/2005 Orange CA (x2(
UP6665 05/14/2007 Petersburg VA
UP8642 03/30/2011 Fulton GA
UP11084 09/12/2012 Bowie TX
UP12683 06/06/2014 Newport News VA
 

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