CA CA - Nancy Penner, 28, Paradise, 31 October 1983

I came across this case after Nancy's daughter posted in a Facebook group about searching for answers about her Mom.

It would be wonderful to be able to help Nancy's kids get closure of some kind.

https://www.findthemissing.org/en/cases/14952/0S
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/2993dfca.html
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/p/penner_nancy.html
https://www.newsreview.com/chico/finding-my-mother/content?oid=1869627





Name: Nancy Ann Penner
Age last seen: 28 years
Date last seen: 31 October 1983
Height (inches): 64.0
Weight (pounds): 110.0
Place last seen: Paradise (Butte Co), CA

Circumstances: On Halloween night, 1983, Nancy Penner’s friend invited her to celebrate. Nancy didn’t show. Weeks later, her brother called to invite her to Thanksgiving. He couldn’t reach her. As Christmas neared with no word from Nancy, a missing-persons report was filed. She was last seen at her residence in the 2000 block of Dean Road in Paradise where she lived with her boyfriend and two children. Detectives found a bullet lodged in the bathroom cabinet at Nancy's residence. Foul play is possible.

On December 22, which was Nancy's birthday, Jeff took her two children and left California, flying to Hawaii. He later returned with them. He left Omar with relatives in California, and left Yana with his stepsister in Iowa. Omar was adopted and changed his name to Daniel, though as an adult he resumed using his birth name. Jeff committed suicide in 1986. As an adult, Omar remembered seeing Jeff shoot Nancy in the family's bathroom. Nancy ran out of the house holding her arm and Omar never saw her again. Police did find a bullet lodged in the bathroom cabinet at Jeff and Nancy's house, which supports Omar's memory.

Very little evidence is available as to Nancy's fate; the investigation stalled after Jeff's death. Omar believes her body may be buried in a remote area of Butte County, California or possibly thrown down one of the region's many mine shafts. Nancy's case remains unsolved.


Hair: Blond/strawberry
Eyes: blue
Dentals: not available
Fingerprints: not available
DNA: Sample submitted - tests complete

Other information provided by Nancy's daughter:
- Jeff Jeffries - the main suspect, had access to transportation at the time
- Nancy was half Italian, with some Russian ancestry

I have started this thread with Nancy's daughter's blessing and hopefully she may be able to contribute here if anyone has any other questions.

Her daughter has a memorial for Nancy on findagrave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/177818098/nancy-ann-penner

This is my very first comment on the site, just in case I do something wrong.

I realize there's around 18 months between Nancy's disappearance, and this Doe's discovery, not to mention several thousand miles, but I feel that she strongly resembles this woman.

Baker county Jane Doe was found comatose on the side of a highway in southern Georgia, and later died from the injuries she was found with. I've read speculation that she was pushed from a moving vehicle, and that caused her injuries, but I can't find any details about the injuries other than head trauma. I haven't submitted the possible match yet, because of the distance and time, but stranger things have happened. Any thoughts?

scottishwhisky said:

This is my very first comment on the site, just in case I do something wrong.

I realize there's around 18 months between Nancy's disappearance, and this Doe's discovery, not to mention several thousand miles, but I feel that she strongly resembles this woman.

Baker county Jane Doe was found comatose on the side of a highway in southern Georgia, and later died from the injuries she was found with. I've read speculation that she was pushed from a moving vehicle, and that caused her injuries, but I can't find any details about the injuries other than head trauma. I haven't submitted the possible match yet, because of the distance and time, but stranger things have happened. Any thoughts?

Click to expand...

Welcome to websleuths! I definitely see the resemblance you’re referring to. The details on Nancy’s case point to her having met with foul play right around the time she was last seen so I personally don’t think this UID would be a match. Others might have some more thoughts for you though.

I don’t want to be discouraging to you, if you really feel this is a match then you should submit it.

Here is her data in the Californua State Attorney Office. There is contact data: Nancy Ann Penner

Bringing this article (already posted above) back on the tabel. A very interesting read about Nancy and the circumstance surrounding her dissapearence, written by her son Daniel (Omar).
Finding my mother - Feature Story - Local Stories - November 4, 2010

“When I was 4, I saw my mother shot,” I said. “She ran out of the house and that’s about all I remember.”

OK, Nancy Ann Penner was my and my half-sister Yana’s mother. Yana’s father was Jeff Jeffries. I’ve never known my birth father. Jeff was supposedly an ex-Navy Seal. He and Nancy grew pot and lived in Paradise.

My last memory of my mother was one night when Jeff for some reason had his arm behind the toilet. Yana was crying. Then Jeff was shooting at Nancy. She ran out of the house holding her arm and I never saw her again.

He <Detective Dan Angel> said detectives found a bullet lodged in the bathroom cabinet at Nancy and Jeff’s Paradise residence, and on Dec. 22, 1983, three days after a missing-person report was filed for Nancy, Jeff Jeffries, Yana Jeffries and Omar Penner departed the Chico airport headed for Kona, Hawaii.

I wonder what caliber, fired from what kind of gun? .22 handgun? Was there ever a gun recovered matching the bullet?

He eventually flew us all back and dropped me with family, disappearing with Yana. I was adopted and lived a fairly normal life in Durham.

So Nancy (according to the timeline) was supposedly killed by Jeff? between 10/31/1983 (date of last contact) and 12/22/1983. I do think the bathroom shooting incident occurred (a shame we can not put a date on that), but she wasn't shot (killed) right there and then IMO. She ran outside holding her arm. It seems to me she was not deadly woonded. The whole story feels like it was more of a graze.

“Jeff took his own life,” Angel said, watching me.

He shot himself in the heart with a .22-caliber handgun on Sept. 28, 1986, in West Plains, Mo., Angel continued, adding that Jeff had left a note citing a breakup with a woman.

“Hmm, ‘check mine shafts,’ ” <Detective> Angel read from the report.

“Oh,” I remembered. “Supposedly Jeff owned some remote property up past Cohasset. Some of Nancy’s family thinks she might be in an abandoned mine shaft up there.”

Turns out there was a property, but no mine shafts. Nancy (or her body) could basically be everywhere and her body is still not found. Despite nobody thinks she would have abandoned her children (most mother don't) she could have fled the scene with the intension to come back and was killed..somewhere else and under very different circumstances.

“Are there mine shafts there?” I asked.

He said there weren’t. Good news, but it stopped there. Green said he seriously doubted that Jeff would have taken Nancy’s remains up there.

“It’s rough,” he said. “Man, it’s rough. I’ve covered every foot. Used to be you had to take a horse in.”

Nancy had owned a horse.

But one question remained, one I saw very little discussion about in the case report. What really happened in that bathroom?

I’ve not had the chance to discuss this with either Angel or Reniff, but cold-blooded murder seems really just an assumption, one story. Was it possible that Nancy’s death was an accident? It was time for the tough questions.

Sources who knew Nancy personally said she had a temper, that she was “pissed off” and even got in bar fights. According to her own brother she’d shot out the tires on Jeff’s truck once. Floyd Green even said she had a nickname, “Nancy the Knife,” given to her after she once went after a boyfriend with a blade.

Perhaps Nancy flushed Jeff’s drugs, he flew off the handle, Nancy got scared, got a gun (which she was obviously capable of) and there was a struggle. Jeff could even have killed her in self defense. Since Jeff grew pot at the house and probably had cocaine in his blood, he had a motive to avoid telling the police.

A possibility. It could have been an accident..still don't believe she was killed during the recalled bathroom incident. Memory is a strange thing...maybe it happened differently or something happened afterwards and parts of the memories are suppressed. Was the "crime scene" ever processed. Was there blood found at all? What kind of story did the evidence tell?

Nancy Ann Penner

MISSING SINCE: 10/01/1983
SEX: Female
DOB: 12/22/1954
RACE: White
HEIGHT: 5' 4"
EYES: Blue
WEIGHT: 110 lbs.
HAIR: Blonde
DENTAL X-RAYS AVAILABLE: No

Nancy was last seen on October 1, 1983, in Paradise.

Contact
AGENCY: Butte County Sheriff's Office
PHONE NUMBER: (530) 538-7321
CASE NUMBER: 8318738

FB page made for Nancy run by her daughter - Finding Nancy Penner

Narrative of the case I have posted yesterday with some new information in the comments - https://www.facebook.com/UnidentifiedAndMissingPeople/posts/2958988407713356

Al Ka said:

FB page made for Nancy run by her daughter - Finding Nancy Penner

Narrative of the case I have posted yesterday with some new information in the comments - https://www.facebook.com/UnidentifiedAndMissingPeople/posts/2958988407713356

Click to expand...

Jeffrey Jeffries married a woman in 1984. After his death, half the marriage certificate was found, and a suicide note about a break up. I have not been able to locate this mystery woman. Can anyone help?

Nancy's NamUs profile was modified today, 5/11/22. The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)
She currently has 7 rule outs listed
UP7690
09/11/2005
Orange
CA

UP6629
02/03/1991
Frederick
VA

UP6661
02/03/1991
Stafford
VA

UP12683
06/06/2014
Newport News
VA

UP6796
11/18/1985
Alleghany
VA

UP6642
08/07/1986
Chesterfield
VA

UP9938
01/11/1987
San Mateo
CA

She had a storage unit in Paradise. Not sure how relevant it is, but it's definitely the same Nancy.

15 June 1984, The Paradise Post, pg 11


Estate proceedings filed by her husband in 1985:

31 May 1985, The Oroville Register, pg 16