TX TX - Pearl Shepherd Rodriguez, 18, Diboll, 1 August 1987

Springrain

Who was she? Pregnant & stabbed to death
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https://www.findthemissing.org/en/cases/32618/2/
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/r/rodriguez_pearl.html

She has no Doe Network page that I could find.

It is not noted on Charley Project or NamUs, but she had two children, a 2-year-old and an 11-month old (who are both alive and looking for her), at the time of her disappearance.

There is also a slight discrepancy in ages. Pearl is listed on Charley Project as having been 18 on her LKA date, her DOB listed as 2.15.69, which would place her at age 18. However, NamUs says she was 17 and has no DOB.

There is also a discrepancy in height. Pearl is listed on Charley Project at 5'1 and 120 lbs., and on NamUs as 5'1-5'7 and 120-140 lbs.
 
She has DNA completed at the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification.

It was from that that she was ruled out today as being Princess Blue, discovered in 1990 in Brazoria County, TX.
 
Sorry for the double post, but I was looking through Doe and found some slight possibilities. I tried to stick to the remains of petite, mixed race young women. I do not think I put any that specifically said the JD had not given birth, Pearl had children.
I know the ages are off for a lot of them--I keep thinking of Marilee Bruszer. The first possible JD's estimated date of death is slightly earlier than Pearl's LKA date, however, as with Marilee Bruszer, the death date could be somewhat off.

This is just a dump of any slightly reasonable possibilities found in 1987-1995, so let me know what you all think.

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/340uftx.html *
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/936uffl.html
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/349ufpa.html
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/78uftx.html *
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/862ufla.html
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/845ufms.html
http://www.doenetwork.org/hot/hotcase1442.html
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/103uftx.html
http://doenetwork.org/cases/1092ufny.html
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/855ufsc.html (should be pretty easy to rule out)
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/856ufsc.html
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/299uftx.html (I know it is suspected that she is Lynda Lee Bronaugh, but since she was never officially identified, maybe it's worth a shot?
http://doenetwork.org/cases/1059uffl.html (was a smoker)
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/179ufpa.html
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/689ufaz.html *
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/1238ufco.html *
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/257ufnm.html
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/666uftx.html *
(did Pearl speak Spanish? Maybe she was shopping 3.5 hours away, in Dallas, hence the grocery list found with the body)
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/338ufnv.html (no date of death given)

I know most of these are stretches. I marked the JDs that are the most likely possibles, in my own mind, with an * asterisk.
 
I had 340uftx, the woman with the Houston Gamblers t-shirt, on my list, too.

Houston Gamblers were a USFL pro football team in 1985-86. They played in the spring.

97 Rock was an album rock FM radio station in Houston from 1981-fall 1986. (Hannah Storm was their sports news person.)

There are several "Sam's Place" around the country. Most are sports bars. The most likely match is the one on Leghorn Street in Houston, assuming it was there in 1986.

So the shirt can only date from 1985-86 and it's from the Houston area.


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I had no idea what "mates fresca" could mean, but on further research, I believe it refers to fresh yerba mate. Popular with people from Uruguay, Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia, and Brazil:

http://verbs-in-spanish.blogspot.com/2010/08/tomar-mate.html

"Chichile" in "queso chichile" is not a word I've ever seen, maybe she misspelled chile? In which case it would mean a cheese with chilis in it, i.e. pepperjack cheese.

The Dallas Cowboys won the Super Bowl on January 30, 1994, which should narrow down when she was killed (sometime after January 30, 1994 but before December 1994)

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/666uftx.html *
(did Pearl speak Spanish? Maybe she was shopping 3.5 hours away, in Dallas, hence the grocery list found with the body)
 
If she has two kids, does that mean she was married young? And does that mean Rodriguez is her married name and Shepherd her maiden name?
 
If she has two kids, does that mean she was married young? And does that mean Rodriguez is her married name and Shepherd her maiden name?

Maybe, but not necessarily. Shepherd could have been her middle name (maybe it was her mother's maiden name, so they gave it to Pearl as a middle name).
 
Maybe, but not necessarily. Shepherd could have been her middle name (maybe it was her mother's maiden name, so they gave it to Pearl as a middle name).

Yeah, I know theoretically. I mean, has anybody found anything to indicate whether that's the case?
 
I had no idea what "mates fresca" could mean, but on further research, I believe it refers to fresh yerba mate. Popular with people from Uruguay, Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia, and Brazil:

http://verbs-in-spanish.blogspot.com/2010/08/tomar-mate.html

"Chichile" in "queso chichile" is not a word I've ever seen, maybe she misspelled chile? In which case it would mean a cheese with chilis in it, i.e. pepperjack cheese.

The Dallas Cowboys won the Super Bowl on January 30, 1994, which should narrow down when she was killed (sometime after January 30, 1994 but before December 1994)

Thanks Jess...seems that would probably rule her out as Pearl. I found her case pretty interesting so I'll poke around Doe Network and NamUs later for possible matches.
 
Yeah, I know theoretically. I mean, has anybody found anything to indicate whether that's the case?

I haven't been able to find it out.

Hi again. :) I haven't had much time to post but have been digging through Lufkin schools on Classmates. Classmates wanted to charge me when I signed up, but when I followed the link in the email they sent after I abandoned that process, I got access anyway. There's not even anyone named Pearl in any of the classes ever - but that just searched Lufkin High which our Pearl may have never reached. Still trying to get a picture of the history of these schools and if searching under a different school name could work.

I searched all variations of her name and nothing.
 
Sorry for the double post, but I was looking through Doe and found some slight possibilities. I tried to stick to the remains of petite, mixed race young women. I do not think I put any that specifically said the JD had not given birth, Pearl had children.
I know the ages are off for a lot of them--I keep thinking of Marilee Bruszer. The first possible JD's estimated date of death is slightly earlier than Pearl's LKA date, however, as with Marilee Bruszer, the death date could be somewhat off.

[respectfully snipped]

Since the Francine Trimble/Kerry Graham case finally got solved and they got their identities back after one of our very own Websleuthers realized the gender for one of them was wrong (for decades the two found bodies were thought to be a boy and a girl, when in reality they were two girls), I'm definitely taking age, height, weight with a grain of salt. I'm even paranoid about gender, but decided to only keep that in the back of my mind so as to not drive myself totally crazy.
 
Actually they found the gender mistake when they did her DNA. Roselvr noticed that Francine's date of disappearance was wrong--they disappeared together but Francine's date was a year later.

You can assume the gender is correct on any uid that has a full STR profile. If it's just mtDNA, no assumptions because there's no indication of gender in the mitochondria.


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Actually they found the gender mistake when they did her DNA. Roselvr noticed that Francine's date of disappearance was wrong--they disappeared together but Francine's date was a year later.

You can assume the gender is correct on any uid that has a full STR profile. If it's just mtDNA, no assumptions because there's no indication of gender in the mitochondria.


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Thanks, that clears that up for me. I don't want to sound like I'm playing the non-native English speaker card all the time (feels like I do, lol) but certain terms just won't stick in my brain and I basically have to look up the meaning every time I haven't used/read them in a while (technical terms that one doesn't really use in every day life) because they all blur together.
 
Chose this case from Springrain's post: http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/78uftx.html

- UID on NamUs: https://identifyus.org/cases/4064

- UID has crooked lower left tooth - Pearl's teeth look straight in picture, but it's not mentioned if tooth could have been damaged after Pearl disappeared

- UID 'partial remains with soft tissue'; was found August 18, 1988; deceased 2-8 months prior - does not rule out Pearl

- UID (black) hair length 4-5 inches - does not rule out Pearl

- UID has DNA on file

So tell me about DNA comparisons. Are they lengthy? Expensive? The chin in the sketch looks a bit different than Pearl's but it really is hard to compare due to her smiling and the angle. I'm really just thinking someone should compare the DNA... in the vein of chipping away one at a time... even if the UID isn't Pearl, progress was still made.
 
Thanks, that clears that up for me. I don't want to sound like I'm playing the non-native English speaker card all the time (feels like I do, lol) but certain terms just won't stick in my brain and I basically have to look up the meaning every time I haven't used/read them in a while (technical terms that one doesn't really use in every day life) because they all blur together.

The terminology and the science behind it are complex even for native speakers, and I know I'm often fuzzy or careless with my usage, so you should definitely feel free to ask, without worrying about whether we think you're playing some kind of card [emoji4]

Unlike other parts of WS where opinions and hot air are part of the ambiance, the UID threads tend to be much more about getting the facts right and seeing where that leads us. So getting clarification is important.


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