Identified! AZ - Apache Junction, HispFem UP6349, 16-18, desert near Hwy60, Phnx Trnsit Sys token, ring, Aug'92 - Melody Harrison

Okay, who has the time & patience to:

look at elementary school yearbooks
from the late 1950's and early 1960's
in schools that served military bases
for mixed-race boys named Bernhard/Bernard/Bernie???

Arizona Military Bases | 7 Bases | MilitaryBases.com


When did the DOD stop operating schools in the US?

Can't figure it out from this:
DoDEA History

Who can access DOD school records, anyway?

jmho ymmv lrr
 
They did not say he is her father, but it can be read between the lines. From the statement he was born in 1953 and Apache Junction JD was 14-16 in 1992, when she was found, so she was born in 1976-1978. The DDP is looking particularly for Bernhard Neumann, although he has 9 other siblings. They think that she is related to him (giving his age he is not her brother/grandfather).
Are his other 9 siblings in the US or in Germany? I’m assuming they lost track of him also?
 
Okay, who has the time & patience to:

look at elementary school yearbooks
from the late 1950's and early 1960's
in schools that served military bases
for mixed-race boys named Bernhard/Bernard/Bernie???

Arizona Military Bases | 7 Bases | MilitaryBases.com


When did the DOD stop operating schools in the US?

Can't figure it out from this:
DoDEA History

Who can access DOD school records, anyway?

jmho ymmv lrr
Hopping onto this because I have some experience with military records on my own tree as well as on the Allenstown Four case and my mom comes from a huge military family. The DOD never "stopped operating schools" on base in the US, a lot of times those schools were either handed over to a local district that was established or were always located in an adjacent town.
Unfortunately a lot of military records - specifically Army - were destroyed in a fire at the records facility in St. Louis in 1973, which would likely cover this guy's time as a dependent had his father been Army. My mom's aunts and uncles grew up at Fort Riley in the mid 60's-early 70's and the only reason we have material documentation of them having attended school there was because the high school was not Army-affiliated. Even some of my great-grandpa and his wife's residency records - AND apparently, their marriage record - were destroyed in the fire because he was a captain who lived on base and that's where everything occurred.
If this guy's father were Army, he would most likely have been at Ft. Huachuca (which is a base that I have had an INSANELY hard time finding records for), but the closest military base in general to Phoenix was Luke AFB.
 
Hopping onto this because I have some experience with military records on my own tree as well as on the Allenstown Four case and my mom comes from a huge military family. The DOD never "stopped operating schools" on base in the US, a lot of times those schools were either handed over to a local district that was established or were always located in an adjacent town.
Unfortunately a lot of military records - specifically Army - were destroyed in a fire at the records facility in St. Louis in 1973, which would likely cover this guy's time as a dependent had his father been Army. My mom's aunts and uncles grew up at Fort Riley in the mid 60's-early 70's and the only reason we have material documentation of them having attended school there was because the high school was not Army-affiliated. Even some of my great-grandpa and his wife's residency records - AND apparently, their marriage record - were destroyed in the fire because he was a captain who lived on base and that's where everything occurred.
If this guy's father were Army, he would most likely have been at Ft. Huachuca (which is a base that I have had an INSANELY hard time finding records for), but the closest military base in general to Phoenix was Luke AFB.
What about Davis Monthan? Back in the day, my dad worked Civil Service corrosion control on the Titans,
 
FYI - in the article they are referring to her as Jane Doe, hence the reference to Jane in the snips.

Teenage girl found dead in Arizona desert connected to Pittsylvania County

...SBM

"On Jane's paternal side, we have made contact with the first or second cousin," Bourgeois said. "We found out that Jane is related on that person's paternal side. That person's father has about ten children, two of which are half-siblings, and Jane is related to those half-siblings. This is where we're at a standstill."

Authorities obtained the birth certificate of one half-sibling: Bernhard Neumann. He was born in 1953 in Darmstadt-Eberstadt, Germany.

Jane's cousin told Bourgeois that her father was in the military had Bernhard while stationed in Germany.

Are his other 9 siblings in the US or in Germany? I’m assuming they lost track of him also?

If you click on the first quote above and see the text in red, AJD isn't related to the 8 full siblings, only the 2 half-siblings. That would be Mr Neumann and another half-sib.

Which makes me wonder about the second half-sibling and why they haven't featured more prominently. If half-sib #2 is male, then why are they only focused on Bernard? How have they ruled out the unnamed half sibling? Off my head I wonder if he is deceased with no descendents - in which case Bernard may be the key to unlocking which of the two men is AJD's father and which is her uncle?

Or maybe that second half-sib is a female, so deemed of less significance in tracing AJD's paternal lineage?

Or no official record was found for half-sib #2. Maybe he/she had another mother, for example.

It fascinates me why this second half sibling hasn't been mentioned except in passing.
 
I need to share this immediately. The uncle of Apache Jane Doe has been identified as Bernhard Lyon Neumann (born 1951) of North Carolina. Neumann is on Jane Doe's paternal side, so her father is his brother. However, Neumann was adopted as a baby so he doesn't know her or his siblings including Jane Doe's dad.

Bernard's parents have been identified as Else Neumann who's German. Bernard's African American father served in the military while stationed in Germany.

The father of Jane Doe might be half German and half African American. He might have been adopted by a military family with ties to New York.

Unsolved: DNA match reveals major development in decades-old Jane Doe cold case
 
I need to share this immediately. The uncle of Apache Jane Doe has been identified as Bernhard Lyon Neumann (born 1951) of North Carolina. Neumann is on Jane Doe's paternal side, so her father is his brother. However, Neumann was adopted as a baby so he doesn't know her or his siblings including Jane Doe's dad.

Bernard's parents have been identified as Else Neumann who's German. Bernard's African American father served in the military while stationed in Germany.

The father of Jane Doe might be half German and half African American. He might have been adopted by a military family with ties to New York.

Unsolved: DNA match reveals major development in decades-old Jane Doe cold case

I typed so fast that I got the birth year wrong- it's 1953.
 
In the early 1950s, it was standard practice for the German authorities in conjunction with the American government to adopt mixed race children of single German moms and AA military fathers to American couples. The German authorities claimed that a black child wont have much of a chance in (back then) white dominated Germany, while the Americans wanted to bring as many US citizens by birth back home and also satisfy the demand for adoptive children. So it was a mutual agreement.

The - mostly unwed - German mothers consented. There were cases where the AA military fathers took their children back to the US.
It was such a hot topic in postwar Germany that they even made a popular movie about it.
 
Wow! I am so fascinated that they were able to find Bernhard, it gives hope to the most difficult cases. I am glad Bernhard will learn something new about his bio family and may be also will reunite with his cousins (I remember previous articles mentioned cousins knew about Bernhard)

However, it makes the case more complicated. The only information known about the second brother is that his adoptive family had ties in New York. I now remember that in the original articles, they mentioned there were two siblings, but I think they thought the second was a girl.
 
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Thanks @HmmMysterious I’m so glad that was cleared up. It always annoyed me that people jumped to the conclusion that Neumann was her father, and I attempted to explain this other possibility in my post a few days ago.
 
Definitely an interesting behind-the-scenes look at a fairly complex genealogical research with this one, with many twists and turns. Hopefully an answer is just around the corner! I would imagine, as @victoriarobinson642 said, that they had "Bernhard" upload elsewhere in addition, to expand the number of matches they have to work with. It must be quite overwhelming for him, to not knowing anything about his birth family, to all of a sudden learn that he has a niece who is a UID decedent and a bio sibling out there who is seemingly an important piece of the puzzle needed to solve this.
 
In the early 1950s, it was standard practice for the German authorities in conjunction with the American government to adopt mixed race children of single German moms and AA military fathers to American couples. The German authorities claimed that a black child wont have much of a chance in (back then) white dominated Germany, while the Americans wanted to bring as many US citizens by birth back home and also satisfy the demand for adoptive children. So it was a mutual agreement.

The - mostly unwed - German mothers consented. There were cases where the AA military fathers took their children back to the US.
It was such a hot topic in postwar Germany that they even made a popular movie about it.

Something similar happened during the Vietnam years, though I don't think to the same extent.

A veteran I went to college with had adopted his buddy's mixed-race child after the buddy was killed in combat.
 
I'm honestly surprised they were able to find him. I wasn't expecting them to do so, but it's just that much more amazing that they did. As an adoptee myself, though, my heart is kind of breaking for him. It's difficult enough to spend so long wondering about your biological relatives and who you come from, but when you get the chance to learn something about them, it's because your niece, the daughter of the brother you've never known, was found dead in the desert almost thirty years ago and no one knows who she is? I can barely wrap my own head around this, I can't imagine what it must be like for him.
 
I wonder if something similar to this girl also happened to Apache Junction Jane Doe, but she was (apparently) never reported missing..

 
According to the Dna Doe Project's Facebook page, Apache Junction Jane Doe's mother is of Mexican descent. The organization is seeking new DNA matches of Mexican descent from: Santa Barbara County, Tulare County, L.A County, Ventura County, Monterey County, Sinaloa, Sonora, Baja California Sur, and Nuevo Leon.

DNA Doe Project
 

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