PA PA - Shelley Luty, 19, Upper Darby, 23 Aug 1982

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/l/luty_shelly.html

Shelley Luty


Above: Luty, circa 1982

Vital Statistics at Time of Disappearance

Missing Since: August 23, 1982 from Upper Darby, Pennsylvania
Classification: Endangered Missing
Date of Birth: May 21, 1963
Age: 19 years old
Height and Weight: 5'3, 126 pounds
Distinguishing Characteristics: Caucasian female. Red/brown hair, blue eyes. Luty has previously fractured her skull. She has a scar on her nose and a scar on her arm shaped like a triangle or a Christmas tree. Her front right tooth is chipped and was capped. Some agencies spell her name "Shelly."

Details of Disappearance

Luty was last seen at 11:00 p.m. on August 23, 1982, as she ended her waitressing shift at the Llanarch Diner on Township Line Road in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania. She got into her stepfather's car, which she had borrowed, but never arrived home. Luty has never been heard from again. The car is also missing.
Luty's mother, who was working in the diner when Luty disappeared, saw a male customer who left the establishment very shortly before Luty did. Witnesses believe they saw the same man speaking to Luty outside the diner. A composite sketch of the man is posted below this case summary. He is described as Caucasian, 25 to 29 years old, 5'10 to 6'0 tall with an athletic build. It has not been established that he was involved in Luty's disappearance, which remains unsolved.



Above: Composite of unidentified man


http://inquirer.philly.com/packages/crime/html/122099graphic.asp

25 Years ago...

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Shelley Diane Luty
Missing since August 23, 1982 from Upper Darby, Delaware County, Pennsylvania.
Classification: Missing

Vital Statistics

Date Of Birth: May 21, 1963
Age at Time of Disappearance: 19 years old
Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 5'3"; 126 lbs.
Distinguishing Characteristics: Reddish-brown hair; blue eyes.
Marks, Scars: Scar on her nose and a scar on one of her arms that looks like a christmas tree or a triangle. Previously fractured skull.
Dentals: A chipped/capped right front tooth.

Circumstances of Disappearance

Shelly Luty said goodbye to her mother at the Llanarch Diner on Township Line Road as she ended her 11 p.m. waitressing shift on August 23, 1982. She walked out to the parking lot, got in her car, and was never seen again.

Shelly had borrowed her stepfather's car to drive to work. She had parked the car on a poorly lit street acress from the diner. The car has also disappeared.
According to her mother who was working at the diner where her daughter disappeared, a man who had been in the diner left just minutes before her daughter. Witnesses say the same man was talking to Shelly in the parking lot of the diner. He is described as a white male, 25-29 years of age, about 5'10-6'0 with athletic build.



Investigators
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:
pper Darby Police Department
610-352-7050

Agency Case Number: J-26521
NCIC Number: N/A
Please refer to these numbers when contacting any agency with information regarding this case.

Source Information:
Philadelphia Daily News, September 3, 1982
Delaware County Daily Times, December 2, 1983
The Doe Network: Case File 1463DFPA

LINK:
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/1463dfpa.html

It would be nice if they said what type of car it was.
I feel like I've been saying this a lot lately, but I guess it's because I've been up and down the east coast a lot, but I grew up less than a mile from the Llanerch diner, and let me just say, the drawing of the guy on the doenetwork she was seen last talking to looks just like my dad from around that time period! Don't worry, I am not suggesting my dad has anything to do with it, not in a million years(hey, he also looked like the drawing taht was being passed around before they caught the unibomber). It just freaked me out to see her being from my town(this happened the year after I was born apparently) and the sketch look like my father!

DAMN! She looks so familiar.

No info on her clothing? I went through the UIDs in Pennsylvania on the Doe Network and notice that many of them have very specific clothing descriptions that may be helpful in identifying her. I didn't see any that matched her description though.

I'm going to try to look information about her in the archives for a more complete description.

I also wonder if the car was disposed of in water since it's never been found. There is the delaware river, darby creek, the resevoir in media, the brandywine river and so on...

doubt it, just had to throw it out there though
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/461ufpa.html

StealthTheory said:

doubt it, just had to throw it out there though
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/461ufpa.html

Click to expand...

I thought that too because of the age but it doesn't really look like her and I would have thought that LE would have at least investigated the possibility.

After searching her name, here are some pages with more information on them -
Apparently she had a toddler daughter at the time of her disappearance and the FBI was involved in the investigation.
The car was a Mint Green Chevy Impala (mint green sounds pretty noticable to me)
http://www.geocities.com/awagner615/Shelly_LutyMissing.html

bumping this because of the activity on threads about bodies found in Tinicum Marsh. I wonder if someday Shelley will be found there.

I just wanted to mention another case, a missing girl from Secane PA which is not far at all from where Shelley disappered from.
http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14938&highlight=Upper+Darby

I am originally from Upper Darby, which is where Shelley Luty disappeared from.
I wanted to show people here the diner she worked at. It now has a website.
http://llanerchdiner.com/
This place was a dive 8 years ago and sounds like it always has been. It's been around for a long time. If you go on Yelp.com and read reviews you'll read things about people missing the criminal/seedy elements that have recently disappeared.
Here is a link to google street view of the diner.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=...98574727632079018.00000111c8143167e55db&msa=0
Llanerch is on Township Line. Township line is a main street that can quickly take you out of the town towards more rural areas or into Philadelphia, PA.
You can also see that the diner is a bit isolated. There aren't many buildings very close to it. I have been there late at night and it feels very desolate.

Secane is only a 20 minute drive from where Shelley disappeared in 1982. In 1977 a Cheryl Ann Iacovone disappeared in Secane, PA when walking to a friends house.
http://www.missingkids.com/missingk...aseNum=603887&orgPrefix=NCMC&searchLang=en_US

I wonder if Shelley and Cheryl had any friends or family in common.
I also wish I knew if Cheryl disappeared while walking at night or not.
Shelley was 19 when she disappeared. Cheryl was 17.

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/2105dfpa.html

Myra Manley, 19, disappeared in September, 1983 from her father's apartment complex on City Line Avenue.
People! City Line Avenue is what Township Line turns into once you enter Philadelphia!
I really don't like to be a conspiracy theorist, but maybe there is something to this.
Myra disappeared a year and a month after Shelley and disappeared on basically the same street Shelley did.

Ridley State Park? Yes, it's been there for a very long time. I believe it first was an estate that was then willed to the State on the condition it was made into a state park.
I went there a lot as a kid for Bike Rides.

There are other places though, like Naylors Run, which is a shady park nearby. It's wedged next to my old High School and the local Hospital. It's very isolated once you are inside.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&sou...163,-75.295916&spn=0.016105,0.045104&t=h&z=15
There is Arlington Cemetary, which is HUGE, and would be a very easy place to take someone to and do what you wanted with them. There is Har Jehuda Cemetery too.
Just like everytown, there are a lot of isolated nooks and crannies.

Can anyone point me to a site that would have cases listed regionally where the remains were identified, just the death not solved?
I have no problem finding the same people over and over again on the Unidentified on Missing sites, but having info on identified bodies would be useful.
Thanks!

Bump

Shelly has been missing 28 years now. Come home soon.

I don't know for sure, but I would think she would have been wearing her work uniform. A white short sleeved dress that zipped up the front, a black apron, and black/white sneakers. I was to young to recall, I only know what I've been told.

Also, the car had previously been in an accident and had the front end replaced with the front end of a different model car. Which would have stuck out to anyone who knows something about cars. I'm sure someone probably noticed the car somewhere at some point, however a lot of the time people don't know they should be looking for what they see.

At this point, my mother has been gone for the last 28 years of my life. I can barely remember her, but I think about her every day. Every birthday, holiday, every milestone of my life I've had an unspoken sadness that weighs upon my heart. My mother is one of many missing, but she's not just a number. "Mother is the word of God on the lips of all children". She was my mother. She was my world. My life has not been, nor will ever be right without her. My biggest wish is that someday I'll know what became of her.

With all the missing people in this world it's easy to feel discouraged. I believe in karma, and believe justice will or may already have come to whoever took my mother away. All I want to know is where to find her. She deserves a proper resting place, and my family and I need closure. If anyone out there thinks they may have any information, even if it seems coincidental or insignificant, pleas report it. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

And btw...Cheryl is no relation. I wouldn't know if they had any friends in common perhaps our families should compare notes. Maybe there could be some kind of connection.