MD MD - Upperco, BlkFem 17-19, UP1416, clothes, boots, jacket, earrings, Mar'96

Synthia1021

New Member
Joined
Jan 15, 2007
Messages
105
Reaction score
3
The height is off.. but I think the dates match up... and also they both speak of a blemish on the head, and car found in maryland. Any thoughts?




Michelle Louise Harley

Doe Network.
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/1376dffl.html
Case File 1376DFFL

Missing since July 20, 1989 from Lauderhill, Broward County, Florida.
Classification: Involuntary / Endangered Missing

Vital Statistics
  • Date Of Birth: September 16, 1966
  • Age at Time of Disappearance: 22 years old
  • Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 5'8"; 128 lbs.
  • Distinguishing Characteristics: Black female. Black wavy hair; brown eyes. Medium Complexion.
  • Scars/Tattoos: She has a blemish on the side of her head where her hair would not grow in one spot.
  • Clothing: Dressed in business attire. She liked to wear gold jewelry.
  • Dentals: Available. She may have had a chipped tooth.
  • DNA: Available

Circumstances of Disappearance
Last seen on July 20, 1989 at her place of employment in Oakland Park, Florida. Harley left work on her lunch hour with an unknown male suspect in her own car. Harley has not been seen since.
She left behind her 6 year old son whom she contacted twice a day to check on, because of a medical condition. There has been no contact with or sightings of her since her disapperance.
The male suspect was shot and killed on December 6, 1989 after he shot and killed his ex-wife. Harley's car's VIN# has shown one hit since her disapperance which came from a salvage yard in the state of Maryland.
Foul play is suspected.


http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/197ufmd.html
Case File 197UFMD

Reconstructions of Victim by Left and Center: NCMEC; Right: Detective Karen Gentry
Unidentified Black Female

  • Discovered on March 5, 1996 in Baltimore County, Maryland.
  • There was no outwards sign of trauma.
  • Estimated at location for approximately 5 years or longer.
  • Skeletal Remains

Vital Statistics

  • Estimated age: 17 - 19 years old
  • Approximate Height and Weight: 5'1" - 5'3 1/2"
  • Distinguishing Characteristics: She had a small blemish on the right side of her skull which may have been caused by surgery, an accident or hereditary. Eyes most likely brown; hair black.
  • Dentals: Available. Good visible teeth with one missing.
  • Clothing: High top tennis shoes, MIA make, size 6B - laces missing, with velcro strap across the ankle.


  • FLIPPO TOTTI make pants, Size 7/8, Length "L", with a web type belt which is possibly brown in color. The pants have ankle zippers.
    A label found at the scene has "IT'S A LABEL, MADE IN THE U.S.A." printed on it. Another label believed to be from the victim's blouse or jacket has "SIZE 9/10" printed on it. The blouse appears to have originally been light in color with slightly darker faint pin stripping. The pin stripping has four lines per bar. The blouse, which is a cotton blend, has a collar, pocket, cuffs, and pearl colored buttons.
    Leather or vinyl jacket, with a zip-up front and gathered waist band.
    Two yellow gold hoop earrings (for pierced ears) with a small yellow gold ball mounted on the bottom of each hoop.
  • Other: DNA available
Case History
The skeletal remains of this victim were found on March 5, 1996 in the woods in the 17,800 block of Falls Road, Baltimore County, Maryland.
 
Yes, besides the fact that I can't do math in my head (i'll leave that up to the websleuthers)
I think you're on to something. Aside from the obvious physical, this is what I like:

a. Business attire: She went out on her lunch. remains were found with clothing consistent of business attire (fine blouse, pinstriping, pearl buttons)

b. Gold jewelry: gotta love the way metals hold up in this world. the UID was wearing gold earrings, the missing person wore gold jewelry.

c. Body type/size: at 5'8", 128 pounds, she could have been a tall sized 9 or 10 jacket. but I am not sure about the jacket thing unless it was a business jacket= she went out in July in Florida. I don't know if she'd wear a jacket per se. Floridians help me out- is the air conditioning in cars/places cold enough to need a light jacket in july? Also, the remains with the clothing were found in Maryland, not Florida.

Doesn't mean anything except a road trip, but I am not sure someome would have a leather jacket in July.

**the only thing that sticks out is that the missing person had a son and, the IUD doesn't list that the doe ever gave birth. However, it may just not be listed.

Good looking out though... I think you are on to something, even if it's minute details like this.

MG
 
Thanks MRSG728

Under the missing womans info it stated - Harley's car's VIN# has shown one hit since her disapperance which came from a salvage yard in the state of Maryland.

Then the UID body was found in Maryland.

Hopefully there can be more information found on these two women.

Thanks for your response.

Synthia
 
Hi Synthia. Everything indicates a possible match except for the height and that there is no mention of Princess Doe giving birth. Perhaps they simply didn't mention it for some reason. Maybe they couldn't tell for sure if she had given birth.

I am not sure; but, when there are only skeletal remains can the ME tell for certain if someone has given birth? I understand that there are changes in the pelvic bones. However, Michelle had given birth 6 years prior to her disappearance.

As for the height. The discrepancy is pretty large. Princess Doe was guessed to be several inches shorter than Michelle. Generally, height for a body where only skeletal remains are found is usually obtained by measuring the long bones, preferably the long bones of the legs. If Michelle was long waisted and had more of her height from the hips up, height estimation from the long bones would be off and closer to 5'3" or so. Estimating height using skeletal remains is not an exact science, so I wouldn't' rule her out.

In life, Michelle had an area on the side of her head (R or L, we don't know) where her hair would not grow. We don't know if that anomaly extended to her skull (Princess Doe had a blemish on the right side of her skull).

This could be a match. Both Princess Doe and Michelle have dentals available. It would be fairly easy to do a comparison. I would send the two in to all LE involved. Good luck Synthia. Great work!

Lion
 
<<Floridians help me out- is the air conditioning in cars/places cold enough to need a light jacket in july? Also, the remains with the clothing were found in Maryland, not Florida.>>

It depends on the time of year for jacket-wearing weather which occurs during January through the beginning of March; once April comes along in the tropics of South Florida the weather heats up to the point that I can't stand wearing pantyhose, nevermind a jacket. Yes, we are heavily air conditioned, but getting into a car, even with a sun shade over the windshield, can make one break out into a sweat in about two seconds.
 
I have contacted each of the departments on this. I will let everyone know their response I soon as I hear something. Thanks everyone for your advice and your help.
 
Thank you Synthia. I am interested in knowing how this turns out.

Lion
 
I wondered if this was a match too at one point...I wonder if MarylandMissing knows if this one has been looked into?????
 
MLHarley1.jpg
MLHarley2.jpg
197UFMD.jpg
197UFMD1.jpg

Michelle Louise Harley.....................Unidentified Black Female


The Doe Networkhttp://www.doenetwork.org/



Pretty close! The fact that the vehicle vin number sufaced in MD and the UID body was in MD is a pretty good indicator. Her son would be 24 now. He would probably be grateful to know where his mother is.
 
I don't know, the tennis shoes, and the type of pants do not seem like business attire. From the description of the pants, I think they are the jogging/windsuit type pants with the ankle zippers. Likely to be worn with tennis shoes. It might be something would wear to work depending on her job. Any info on where she was employed?
 
Hi SadieMae:). Good question. I know that some people change for lunch if they plan on walking in a park during lunch or something like that. So it is still possible. But, it may be one other thing that doesn't quite fit. However, with so many missing and not yet matched up with our Does, the differences may prevent some from being matched up when in fact some of them might be matches.

I recall one set of skeletal remains that was presumed to be a young male. Later, DNA matched a woman to the Prince Doe. Not only did the remains belong to a woman; but, she had given birth twice! So they missed it totally on that. The remains were compared for about one second previously, until the person doing the comparison thought that the sexes didn't match. I saw this on Forensic Files or Medical Detectives a few years a go, I think. But, I recall the episode because it was surprising and interesting to me. So, my motto has become, "when in doubt, acknowledge the doubt, and send it in if there is still a possibility." We have so many missing and unidentified bodies, and I can't imagine what the family out there are going through.

Lion
 
I am her aunt we were living together at the time of her disappearance. I feel very strongly that the unidentified black female found in Baltimore MD is her remains. I contacted MD LE a couple of years ago, they insist it's not her remains. Both cases have DNA on file. Were you ever able to find out anything? Every couple of years I start this search and I still come back to the female in MD.

Any help would be a blessing and closure.

Carla
 
I am her aunt I contacted them they said it was not possible. Don't know if they compared DNA, but my heart tells me this is her.
 
First I would like to welcome you to WS, Carla. Thank you for sharing.

Michelle is on the exclusion list on Namus for this UID so I would assume she was ruled out by DNA but I do not know for sure. Maybe someone with more experience with this will have a definitive answer. I did see that on Michelle's Namus page it says under DNA that initial inquiry underway. Once again I am not exactly sure what that means but someone on here will.
 
If it says "intital inquiry underway", it usually means that Law Enforcement is in the process of contacting suitable family members for DNA samples.

Sikkemarn might be in a position of knowing if that has actually occurred. If it has not occurred, then perhaps they ruled her out on dentals. The dental chart for the Jane Doe indicates that none of the teeth that were found with the remains had any dental work, and her four wisdom teeth were present at the time of death. A few of the Jane Doe's teeth had fallen out after death.

So if Michelle had her wisdom teeth removed, or if any of the following teeth had fillings or were missing, then this Jane Doe could not be Michelle:
  • Any upper teeth (other than the upper wisdom teeth)
  • Any of the lower teeth numbered 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 26, 27, 31, or 32.

(Our 32 teeth are numbered starting 1-16 from right to left at the top and continuing left to right 17-32 at the bottom.)

ETA: One thing I find curious is that one of the facial reconstructions depicts the Jane Doe with a missing left lateral incisor (#10). The dental chart shows that her #10 tooth was still present, as were all of her upper front teeth.
 
I've tried looking into this case a few times - the "it's a label" may have been this one, or at least this company http://www.trademarkia.com/its-a-label-73328952.html Also, the jeans would have been Filippo Totti, not FLIPPO TOTTI. I REAAALLLY wish LE had put up a photo of the actual labels - companies change their labels periodically and it would be a good way to date the earliest date she could have died (by dating the clothing more precisely). I can, for example, find one Filippo Totti label that wasn't in use until 1991, another 1989...
 
Have sent an email asking if there are any details about the tags or any sketches of them... Not very hopeful, but it's worth a shot. Also, on NamUs the tag is listed incorrectly in a new way, as Filli Totti, unhelpful if people are searching. I will update anyone reading this if I hear back at all, though I'm not holding my breath.
 

Members online

Online statistics

Members online
156
Guests online
936
Total visitors
1,092

Forum statistics

Threads
589,935
Messages
17,927,879
Members
228,005
Latest member
vigilandy
Back
Top