OR OR - Betty McCullough, 10, Silver Creek Falls, 21 June 1941

Sorry, I meant to put that she has been missing 65 years in the original thread.
 
I had never heard about this case. Someone who still has access to the doe network as a member (I can't find my log in info since my move and they won't return my emails) should see if they can get this posted. If I recall right, a profile must be submitted by a family member or LE. If someone can verify that, I will contact the Salem-News and see if they can get the family to authorize the profile.
 
Auggie21 said:
I had never heard about this case. Someone who still has access to the doe network as a member (I can't find my log in info since my move and they won't return my emails) should see if they can get this posted. If I recall right, a profile must be submitted by a family member or LE. If someone can verify that, I will contact the Salem-News and see if they can get the family to authorize the profile.
Actually, it is on the Doe Network..it was just posted there August 3 under site updates. There wasn't a case number or anything like that for it so that's why I just posted the news article link. It's interesting though that other people supposedly disappeared from the same area. It's a very sad story, especially given little Betty's health problems and the fact that she couldn't speak or hear.
 
Any idea what disease she was diagnosed with?
 
I wonder if someone should leave a comment on the news article comment thingy to connect this thread to it??
 
anthrobones said:
I wonder if someone should leave a comment on the news article comment thingy to connect this thread to it??
That's a good idea. I left a comment the other day and didn't think of it. Maybe someone else could do it since I already left one. Thanks!
 
bykerladi said:
Any idea what disease she was diagnosed with?
I don't know bykerladi..it was pretty vague in the news article. I work as a medical transcriptionist and I've been trying to figure out what it might be but I don't have a clue. It may have been something kind of rare....it said she couldn't speak or hear either but I don't know if being deaf mute had something to do with the disease she had or if it was something else entirely.
 
My immediate thought was that she had some kind of genetic problem or rare syndrome of some sort. She had an unusual look that might lend credence to the syndrome thought.
 
She doesn't really look like a girl. Doesn't really have anything to do with anything, just something I noticed.
 
Is it possible that a "passing motorist" would have picked up the girl and taken her to the state hospital or assylum? If she couldn't speak, how would someone who found her know that she wasn't lost or abandoned?
 
At 10 years old, she could've communicated where she lived or something.


I just wonder if whatever she was diagnosed with isn't really fatal, at least by today's medical standards...
 
I found a couple medical websites that said heart disease could accompany deaf-mutism but it wasn't all that common. Maybe she had some sort of heart disease too. The description of her illness in the article is just too vague to come up with a diagnosis. With not being able to hear or speak, sudden bouts of illness could be something like a seizure too maybe??

I thought too that maybe what she had wasn't fatal but since she became ill suddenly at times and couldn't speak or hear it was probably said to be terminal because doctors didn't know for sure what it was.
 
I left a comment on the article's page. Someone has to approve it first.
 
anthrobones, thank you for leaving the message at the site where the news article is...the editor who is helping the niece also left a message to thank everyone for their comments...Since they have this link I hope they keep us posted with any new developments
 
I'm going to put Betty on the Charley Project probably tomorrow. I wish I had better pics for her -- the ones available are some of the worst quality I've seen in a long time. The only thing I can tell about her disappearance is that she had very large ears, and maybe short hair.
 
meggilyweggily said:
I wish they'd say exactly what was wrong with her, medically speaking.
I kept wondering about that too when I first posted this last summer. It says in the article she was subject to sudden bouts of illness and unable to hear or speak. I never thought of possible autism until just recently. That would explain the inability to speak. But I looked up other possible symptoms of autism and one of them was appearing deaf at times. Back in 1941, no one had ever heard of autism and in fact it wasn't diagnosed here in the US until 1943 when a psychiatrist at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore made the diagnosis. There are many other symptoms such as avoiding eye contact, not responding to name, lack of social play, etc. It's possible she had autism and, of course, it wouldn't have been diagnosed as such. Another symptom of autism that could be very disturbing in Betty's case is lack of stranger anxiety. If she wasn't afraid, she more than likely would have gone with anyone and that may very well be what happened or chances are they would have found her eventually had she just lost her way.

I never thought of a connection to Boulder Jane Doe before this. On the BJD website it says she was probably born between 1934 and 1937. Betty was born in 1931 if she was 10 years old in 1941. But there is a resemblance and the birth years on BJD are just an educated guess, so anything is possible.
 

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