CA CA - Julie Elizabeth Soracco, 15, Placerville, 1 Aug 1977

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Julie was not reported missing until 2019 and her disappearance date is known to be 1977 or 1978. Not exact..
She had a picture that was left behind of a girl named Tracy....if Tracy's identity is ever found out, she may know where Julie was going to or who she hung out with at the time. Julie spent time in Foster care and with her Grandfather. I believe her sister now searches for her.
 
It is interesting to look at the public records for Julie's father, Frank Soracco, on Ancestry. This includes many newspaper cuttings (mainly from the Mountain Democrat, the local paper in Placerville) running from the early 50s when he was a high school football star to the 70s. Whilst it is easy to judge with hindsight the cuttings do suggest a small town which was so out of step with more progressive parts of California that it may have been transplanted from Alabama. In the later 60s and 70s he returned to speak to school children about his experience of the Selma civil rights movement, only to be met with locals objecting to him being allowed to speak and others demanding to put a counter view. And the attached clipping about his dismissal reinforces the image of an exceptionally regressive local population. In such a town it seems likely that they would happily airbrush from their existence a local troublemaker and his difficult teenage daughter. I even wonder if someone may have seen her as a possible object for revenge on the father. It would certainly explain her grandfathers silence. To all intents and purposes Frank Soracco was run out of town and this, combined with the breakdown of the relationship with Julie's mother, explains his absence.
 

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HI All,

I've been looking through the year books for 1975,1976,1977 and 1978 El Dorado High School and apart from one image in the 1978 edition there are no images of Julie and her name is not listed in any of them. They contain all students at that time.

See image attached , it doesn't move the case along and it's not a positive id of her but I thought the girl in green looked like her. Photo is from the 1978 year book. Seems a lot of girls from that time period had that haircut :)

Based on what we have, IMO, we can rule out August 1 1977 or before as when she went missing. She has a 1977/78 High School Student Card, which wouldn't have been issued until late August or September 1977. The card has 40 slots around the outside signifying 40 weeks of school, only one slot is punched out.

In addition, over on Facebook a few years ago the PI helping out her sister asked a group if anyone knew her/had information. One guy mentioned he remembered her, how fitting in as the new person can be hard.

Throw all that together with her not featuring in the end of year 1978 school year book by name and I believe we can be confident she wasn't at El Dorado very long then went missing. Probably went something like this :

  • Goes to her Grandfather's place in Placerville in summer break 1977, was only going to be a temporary measure.
  • May have had a part time summer job at a clothing store , was mentioned on Facebook
  • Goes to live in Foster Care (Aldea) sometime during summer break prior to school starting
  • Starts school late August 1977, gets issued Student Card (she's been identified as having been at school)
  • Judging by the lack of use of the Student Card, went missing September/October/November 1977
While the above doesn't move any discovery along, I've wondered why the August 1 1977 date was never challenged based on the school card which couldn't have been issued that early.
 

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Year book photos from Ponderosa HS are on Ancestry. I have searched them for the period (late 50s to mid 60s dob) filtered to the name Tracy (or Tracey) and, unfortunately I do not see any obvious match. There are plenty of girls with that name but none look like the picture. This is not definitive because appearances (especially hairstyles) change but the facial shape in the picture is quite striking. It is also possible some pupils photos are missing - but the records for Ponderosa on Ancestry are extensive.
Did you also search as last name being Tracy/Tracey? TY
 
HI All,

I've been looking through the year books for 1975,1976,1977 and 1978 El Dorado High School and apart from one image in the 1978 edition there are no images of Julie and her name is not listed in any of them. They contain all students at that time.

See image attached , it doesn't move the case along and it's not a positive id of her but I thought the girl in green looked like her. Photo is from the 1978 year book. Seems a lot of girls from that time period had that haircut :)

Based on what we have, IMO, we can rule out August 1 1977 or before as when she went missing. She has a 1977/78 High School Student Card, which wouldn't have been issued until late August or September 1977. The card has 40 slots around the outside signifying 40 weeks of school, only one slot is punched out.

In addition, over on Facebook a few years ago the PI helping out her sister asked a group if anyone knew her/had information. One guy mentioned he remembered her, how fitting in as the new person can be hard.

Throw all that together with her not featuring in the end of year 1978 school year book by name and I believe we can be confident she wasn't at El Dorado very long then went missing. Probably went something like this :

  • Goes to her Grandfather's place in Placerville in summer break 1977, was only going to be a temporary measure.
  • May have had a part time summer job at a clothing store , was mentioned on Facebook
  • Goes to live in Foster Care (Aldea) sometime during summer break prior to school starting
  • Starts school late August 1977, gets issued Student Card (she's been identified as having been at school)
  • Judging by the lack of use of the Student Card, went missing September/October/November 1977
While the above doesn't move any discovery along, I've wondered why the August 1 1977 date was never challenged based on the school card which couldn't have been issued that early.
Re: punches on her student card. I am speaking to the idea that she could have gone missing even later. I grew up about 15 years later at a nearby high school. We used to play El Dorado in sports. My student card punches were for sporting events. The reason was so only kids from our school could get in for free for the #6 football game. You couldn’t pass a card around through the fence and sneak your friends from other schools in. That’s how I remember it anyway.

So, my point is, she could have had her card longer but not attended extracurricular activities?

Did you all get a punch each Monday for showing up for a new week of school?

Similar punches on this cafeteria card signified school lunch punches, but I couldn’t find anything else:
 
I just noticed in the thread for this UID, they have an updated sketch. I am fairly certain I submitted Julie quite some time ago. No idea if they took a look, but cross posting in both as I think it is worth ruling out



NCMU1184501c1.jpg... Have you seen this child? Jane Otay Doe 1978
 
oh wow, this is an amazing visual match! the eyes, the nose (especially the bridge and directly between the eyes!!), the lips, the face/jaw shape... they are all very similar in my opinion. i'd say the differences are very minimal and could potentially be explained (reconstructions are never 100% accurate anyway): it looks like Julie plucked her eyebrows, and that her actual brow bone wasn't as high up as she plucked them; you can see that in the photos of her from when she was slightly younger. and while it may be a bit of a stretch, i have heard of some people plucking their widow's peak. her widow's peak seems most noticeable in this photo (and even then it's not super prominent), but again in her younger photos you can't really tell that she has one. the only part that i can't seem to think of an explanation for is the "deformed right ear", but because this doe was found in 1984, then maybe it could have somehow become that way in the intervening years???
 

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