Identified! WA - Cowlitz Co., Hisp/Nat Am girl in river, Sep'87 - Kamnee Narain

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http://doenetwork.us/cases/295ufwa.html



Unidentified Hispanic or Native Female

Discovered on September 24, 1987 in the Cowlitz River in Kelso, Cowlitz County, Washington.

The victim had been killed by a blow to the head.





Vital Statistics





  • Estimated age: Thought to be 18 - 24 months old, but possibly 15 months - 3 years of age
  • Approximate Height and Weight: 33"; 20 - 30 lbs.
  • Distinguishing Characteristics: Short straight black hair; dark eyes.
  • Clothing: She wore a bright pink t-shirt with a narrow white stripe; a cloth diaper with pink plastic pins under plastic pants and terry-cloth shorts.
Case History
Fishermen in search of steelhead in Cowlitz River discovered the victim's body, caught in a snarl of driftwood on September 24, 1987.
It's unknown whether any forensic evidence taken from the baby before her death has been preserved. The pathologist who conducted her autopsy has no records and does not recall her case. She may have to be exhumed if authorities one day need DNA to match her to a relative.
Detectives believe they do know who Baby Jane's mother was. 13 days earlier, on September 11, a fisherman in the Lewis River, about 17 miles away, near Woodland, made the find of a woman's torso with only the arms attached. Her legs were found a few days later in the Willamette River in downtown Portland.
The woman was wearing a sheer nylon two-piece pink teddy and blue-green Hanes underwear. She had red fingernails and toenails, and wore two thin silver bangles on her wrist. She was about two months pregnant and had been pregnant at least once before. Police believe she was Baby Jane's mother, but local officials have been unwilling to pay for exhumation and about $1,000 for the DNA tests that could confirm their theory.
Fingerprints from the body were entered in the national crime information computer.

 
Oh, man!

It's unknown whether any forensic evidence taken from the baby before her death has been preserved. The pathologist who conducted her autopsy has no records and does not recall her case. She may have to be exhumed if authorities one day need DNA to match her to a relative.

They found her and buried her, without even so much as keeping any biological samples! And wasn't DNA available then? It is like, ok here she is, now bury her! :banghead: You would think that a DNA test would have been a normal part of that investigation.....They BELIEVE they know who her mother is! I would have thought that finding out for sure would have been a priority, as it could possibly change the whole focus of the investigation! What if they aren't related, and there are two murderers out there, not just one!
 
M, I think we've mentioned the enormous discrepancy in the care and concern directed toward Native American murders...? :furious: Is there anything else about the mother mentioned anywhere?
 
It is frustrating b/c if the 2 were linked then that could be the beginning of solving the murder, I mean it is so simple and common sense says to test the 2 and see if they match. I looked for missing and unidentifieds and couldn't find anything about the 2. Maybe someone else will have some luck.
 
shadowangel said:
M, I think we've mentioned the enormous discrepancy in the care and concern directed toward Native American murders...? :furious: Is there anything else about the mother mentioned anywhere?

Yes, sadly there does seem to be a discrepancy in the care and concern for NA natives murders. And that may explain why they didn't investigate the murders.
But, so often....too d*mn many times, they have done some checking, said well she isn't one of our citizens.....then just dump them in a grave site somewhere....and maybe they remember where it is, or maybe not. To me that is malpractice. The coroner doesn't even have the records.
And they got by with it, and still get by with it, because no one knows to stand up for the victim. That attitude continues today in so many departments, and is why so many UID's exist out there.
And many UID's don't even make it to DOE. They are destined to remain nameless, just because no one wants to take the time to put them in a database.
 
Anyone think they look alike? The size and the age seem to match up.
http://www.doenetwork.us/cases/507dfaz.html

This one is unlikely, but it is possible that she gave birth in Jan or Feb 1987 and by sept. had a 9 month old daughter and they were both murdered. The ages don't match up but all babies and infants are different she could have been large for her age. I have a 2 1/2 year old neice who is the size of a 12 month old and a friend with a 9 month old who is wearing 18-24 month clothing. Perhaps they got the est. age from bone development such as the bone in the head going from a soft spot to hard bone and not body size though.
http://www.doenetwork.us/cases/37dfca.html
 
It also chaps my hide that the pathologist had no records and could not recall the case! It seems that, no matter how many autopsies they would do, they would always remember the children who died violent deaths, not only for the emotional factor, but because there are relatively few of them. And who was responsible for this sloppy recordkeeping (or lack thereof)? Presumably the county/city, I guess.

Something else that jumped out at me was the fact that the child was wearing a cloth diaper. I wonder what kind of cloth diaper it was - homemade (ie basic cloth) or one of the fancier cloth diapers favored by the more hippie-ish types? These are often made by small businesses and could be relatively easy to trace, esp in the NW area and before the advent of the internet.

So do they know the ID of the presumed mother? From the tone of the writeup, it's hard to tell.
 
annemc2 said:
. . .Something else that jumped out at me was the fact that the child was wearing a cloth diaper. I wonder what kind of cloth diaper it was - homemade (ie basic cloth) or one of the fancier cloth diapers favored by the more hippie-ish types? These are often made by small businesses and could be relatively easy to trace, esp in the NW area and before the advent of the internet. . .
Thoughts about diapers:
Sometimes people used cloth diapers when there was an allergy that prevented them using disposables. There might be medical records somewhere to indicate such a child.

And at one time it was an ecology issue for some people to use cloth. And some people used cloth if they could not afford disposables.
 
Someone somewhere is missing a daughter and granddaughter. Wouldn't there have been a missing person's report even back then? The mother and baby have to belong to someone. I'll bet the woman that they found is the mother but they really need to do some DNA tests on the two of them. It's a shame that someone won't pay to do that. I wonder how much media attention the mother and baby got when they were found? Probably not much. No one should go unidentified.
 
annemc2 said:
Something else that jumped out at me was the fact that the child was wearing a cloth diaper. I wonder what kind of cloth diaper it was - homemade (ie basic cloth) or one of the fancier cloth diapers favored by the more hippie-ish types? These are often made by small businesses and could be relatively easy to trace, esp in the NW area and before the advent of the internet.

I had a child in '85. I didn't use them regularly, but kept some cloth diapers around, as shoulder covers and in case I ever slipped up and ran out of diapers. Got them at Walmart or Kmart. You could get either the prefolded or the unfolded ones. They really aren't that uncommon.
 
mysteriew said:
I had a child in '85. I didn't use them regularly, but kept some cloth diapers around, as shoulder covers and in case I ever slipped up and ran out of diapers. Got them at Walmart or Kmart. You could get either the prefolded or the unfolded ones. They really aren't that uncommon.

Oh yes, you're totally right! I wasn't even thinking about the plain ol' cloth diapers that many use as burp cloths, etc. I've been so bombarded with recent stories of people using these fancy-schmancy cloth diapers, selling them on ebay, buying special liners, etc, etc, that I heard hoofbeats and thought of zebras instead of horses!
:blushing:
 
Bobbisangel said:
Someone somewhere is missing a daughter and granddaughter. Wouldn't there have been a missing person's report even back then? The mother and baby have to belong to someone. I'll bet the woman that they found is the mother but they really need to do some DNA tests on the two of them. It's a shame that someone won't pay to do that. I wonder how much media attention the mother and baby got when they were found? Probably not much. No one should go unidentified.
If they are Native American, a report may not have been filed, as many NAs are very distrustful of local and state law enforcement-and, in many cases, reports they do file get lost, misplaced, etc (look at the example we are presently discussing).
And, it is possible members of her tribe know what happened and dealt with it accordingly-not chosing to wait for "white man's justice".
 
shadowangel said:
M, I think we've mentioned the enormous discrepancy in the care and concern directed toward Native American murders...? :furious: Is there anything else about the mother mentioned anywhere?
She might be on here, I haven't really followed this thread, but there's a lot of info on here. http://www.missingnativewomen.ca/
 
shadowangel said:
If they are Native American, a report may not have been filed, as many NAs are very distrustful of local and state law enforcement-and, in many cases, reports they do file get lost, misplaced, etc (look at the example we are presently discussing).
And, it is possible members of her tribe know what happened and dealt with it accordingly-not chosing to wait for "white man's justice".

Many things are handled by the tribal associations for each tribe. I know civil issues like custody and things are. But do tribal courts do misdemeanors or felonies? Who keeps records of their activities?
But I also think they have some more "informal" systems in place. And that is the reason that some of their crimes aren't reported to LE. I know they strongly defend their right to govern themselves, and make their own laws. From what I have read, many of them resent any involvment of the "white man's government".
It might be interesting to determine what tribes are in the area, and what their traditional burial rites are. I believe that with some tribes, they are more elaborate than others. Also does status in the tribe at the time of death affect the type of ritual?
 
Was her torso the only part ever found? That could explain why there isn't much info out there on her. If LE came to a tribal organization and started asking questions would they be willing to talk or would they just rather stay out of it?
Does anyone know if there was a need for migrant workers in that area in September? There may be a possiblilty that she was an illegal and there is no record of her or the child in this country.
 
The arms and torso were found in one place, the legs in another.

The article Hollow posted is frustrating...It seems LE up there is wringing their hands over the case, who do they expect to do something?
Sorry, just being cynical again.
 
shadowangel said:
The arms and torso were found in one place, the legs in another.

The article Hollow posted is frustrating...It seems LE up there is wringing their hands over the case, who do they expect to do something?
Sorry, just being cynical again.
That's what I thought too, geez, if they're all so frustrated about not solving the case, maybe they should all chip in and have the woman exhumed so they could do DNA and a facial reconstruction.
 
It's also confusing because they say the police "think" they know who the woman was. Why aren't they saying??? What's the big secret.
 

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