GUILTY VA - Jean Smith, 25, shot to death, Isle of Wight County, 17 April 2015

bessie

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Body of woman found in Isle of Wight County
Staff, 13News Now - 2:08 p.m. EDT April 18, 2015

ISLE OF WIGHT COUNTY -- Police are releasing a description of a woman's body found in Isle Of Wight County in the hopes the public will be able to identify her. The victim is a white female, 5'4" tall and weighs approximately 190 pounds. She has brown hair at shoulder length or just above and blue eyes.

At the time of discovery she was wearing a blue hoodie with the word NAVY across the back and a Navy emblem on the front. The initials "JMS" were written on the interior tag of the hoodie. She was also wearing dark colored sweat pants and grey sneakers. The victim was wearing a thin white coral bead/shell necklace.

The woman had a tattoo on her lower right leg, just above the ankle, of a phrase with flowers at each end. The phrase is believed to say "Wahine Ikaika" which loosely translates to Strong Woman or Woman Warrior in Hawaiian. The flower is bluish gray in color and believed to be a Hawaiian Hibiscus, the state flower of Hawaii.

On Friday, the Isle of Wight County Sheriff's Office responded to Hatcher's Lane off of Courthouse Highway where the body of a white female was discovered by turkey hunters.
If anyone has any information concerning this incident please call 1-888-LOCK-U-UP.

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Thank you for starting this. I'm going to follow this one since this is so close to home. Maybe a Navy military spouse or girlfriend? Husband says if she was the enlisted her weight might not be within regs.
 
From the tattoo, combined with the navy sweater, my guess is she was or either is in the military, but she might also be married to someone in the Navy.

I sent the article to local Hawai'i news stations to see if they would run the story or image, in case anyone there would recognize the tattoo (family or friends). I am considering contacting Pearl Harbor, in case individual was on leave, or just recently out-processed, or if any of the military spouses/families recognize her description/tattoo.

Considering they know her eye color, part of me wonders if she had not been there for long, which means she might not be reported missing. Family and friends might not know she is even missing yet!
 
This kind of bothers me a lot because I was stationed in Hawai'i while I was in the Marine Corps. :( :(
 
And thank you for the thread! I am just marking my spot, but will be back later.
 
It seems like she should be able to be identified rather quickly. Great description of her tatts and her physical details. I would think her prints would be on file if she was ex-military.
 
Thank you, Bessie. Marking my spot to work on this later this weekend.
 
Using Google Earth I can see that there are two military bases in fairly close proximity to where WI was found.

One is the Norfolk Naval Weapons Station which is 37.3 miles away if you travel along I-64 West.

The other is Fort Eustis which is 36.8 miles traveling down US 258 South.

I know that some have mentioned the possibility of a wife or girlfriend of an armed forces member as well as WI being in the armed forces herself, but there is another possibility that I think LE should look into.

She could have also been an escort.Military bases like the naval station seem to attract them and it makes sense given the steady supply of customers that come in and out of these ports.

Not trying to cast aspersions on the dead at all but I do feel this should be considered as well.
 
If I remember correctly, it might be a part of the pt uniform for the Navy. She might have either been out running, lounging around somewhere, or was sleeping. But my bet would be on out pting, especially with the grey sweatpants.

And running shoes of course. Hopefully it was not just a random mugging.
 
But that would be weird if she did not have her id on her. You need it for everything. Even on base.
 
If I remember correctly, it might be a part of the pt uniform for the Navy. She might have either been out running, lounging around somewhere, or was sleeping. But my bet would be on out pting, especially with the grey sweatpants.

And running shoes of course. Hopefully it was not just a random mugging.
My first thought was that it sounded like jogging clothes as well. Thankfully there are a lot of good identifiers and I think we will learn her name soon. My BIL is navy, he just tweeted about this and shared on facebook and he already has lots of re tweets and shares.
 
Someone mentioned up thread that she may have been too heavy to be military. My military knowledge is zilch, but 190 lbs at 5'4" seems a little heavy. What are the odds of a hoodie like that ending up in a thrift shop? Or can it be purchased elsewhere?
 
Her tatto means "woman warrior", that combined with the navy swaetshirt suggests to me she is/was military.

One can be overweight in the military. She could have been injured at some point, or some other reason. If you are weighed out of regs you are given a time period to get back into regs.

Which might be why she was possibly out running alone, so that she is not blocked from promotion or kicked out.
 
Someone mentioned up thread that she may have been too heavy to be military. My military knowledge is zilch, but 190 lbs at 5'4" seems a little heavy. What are the odds of a hoodie like that ending up in a thrift shop? Or can it be purchased elsewhere?

Yeah my hubby is in the Coast Guard and part of his job is weighing and taping personnel and he said she would have been over weight according to their standards.
 
There is tons of Navy around here. There is the Northrop Grumman shipyard right across the bridge from Smithfield where they do tons of Navy work and overhauls on Navy ships. There is Navy personnel that work there while the ships are there. There is Norfolk Naval Base, Norfolk Naval Shipyard, Naval Station Norfolk, etc. I think there is tons of Navy all over this area.
 
Typical weight for someone that height would go between 110 lbs and 150 lbs - depends on the woman's age (and taping). Daughter is active duty legal specialist and has to deal with those that are facing excessive weight issues (as in discharge). She suggested if this woman was a soldier that maybe she was recovering from an injury?
 
Her tatto means "woman warrior", that combined with the navy swaetshirt suggests to me she is/was military.

One can be overweight in the military. She could have been injured at some point, or some other reason. If you are weighed out of regs you are given a time period to get back into regs.

Which might be why she was possibly out running alone, so that she is not blocked from promotion or kicked out.

I wish I could see a pic or reconstruction. I am speculating that she is Ohana. Hawaiian lineage. 190 for a sturdy Hawaiian would not be unusual.
 

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