CO CO - Gilpin Co., WhtFem, 25-30, burned, off Hwy 119, overbite, Sep'52

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3.5 is almost considered a child's shoe size. If, indeed, the sole size is 3.5 it would be a remarkable coincidence.
 
I received an email from the case manager. She indicated there is very limited information on the case (probably no information available re the shoe size of the sole found at the scene). She stated she will forward the information re Lorraine Chance to the coroner for further review.
 
RaqStar23 said:
I received an email from the case manager. She indicated there is very limited information on the case (probably no information available re the shoe size of the sole found at the scene). She stated she will forward the information re Lorraine Chance to the coroner for further review.
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Good News
 
I don't usually post on this thread, but I wanted to call your attention to this "new in Doenetwork " listing.

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/3616dfmn.html

Ione Rehwinkle, age 23, disappeared in 1952 from MN. Her exact disappearance date in 1952 is unknown, January 1 is being used as the default date, as usual. Circumstances are not listed or are unknown. She is listed as "endangered missing". Her photo has a strong resemblance to the recon of Jane Doe. The height is off slightly : Rehwinkle is believed to have been about 64 inches, hair is listed as "brown".
 
I'm curious if it was actually known to be a homicide?

I think it most likely was, but the funeral pyre connection made me wonder if this woman could have died and someone decided to do the cremation themselves because they couldn't afford the crematory fees?

I had to look up what a funeral pyre is.

It is a structure of wood used for open-air cremation by some cultures. They do use an accelerant. It is mostly illegal in the western world but I'm not sure if it was illegal then. Perhaps the JD had been reported as deceased not long before she was found.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyre
 
carbuff said:
I found a few possibilities. None from the year of the murder, but some from a couple of years before. I went back to 1949.

Jean Spangler, who went missing from LA in October 1949? The teeth caught my eye. (see first attachment) She left in mysterious circumstances but was thought to have been seen alive several months later. Her listing on Charley doesn't have any stats:

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/s/spangler_jean.html
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/436dfca.html

Lillian DeMaris is probably too small:

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/d/demaris_lillian.html

Mimi Boomhower is quite a bit older than the UID is thought to be, but she had a taste for glittery jewelry and has a certain facial resemblance (see second attachment):

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/b/boomhower_mimi.html

Mabel Chambers looks like she might also have a funky bite. She has a fair resemblance through the chin and jaw (third attachment):

https://www.findthemissing.org/en/cases/11013/1/

Floradean Walker matches on stats -- 5'7" and 25-27 years old. She's thought to have gone missing in 1951 or thereabouts but the exact date is apparently unknown. (Fourth attachment.)

https://www.findthemissing.org/en/cases/8609/3/
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I sent in Lillian Demaris a year or 2 ago and the coroner let Namus know how excited they were to try to compare Lillian to this UID. I also let them know that the UID's height was recorded incorrectly. I found an article in which the detective states her height (which was not estimated to be 5'7"). It was closer to 5'3"-5'4". When the coroner saw this correct info they were encouraged to move forward with investigating Lillian. She had many children. Let's hope one of them will submit DNA or that they can find her dentals somewhere.


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Odyssey said:
I'm curious if it was actually known to be a homicide?
I think it most likely was, but the funeral pyre connection made me wonder if this woman could have died and someone decided to do the cremation themselves because they couldn't afford the crematory fees?
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Hmmm, that would assume that the deceased had specifically asked to be cremated rather than buried, because it would have been a lot less hassle to bury someone oneself than to carry out a cremation. And if it was a funerary cremation of a loved one, would you not expect the person carrying it out to do so in a place over which he had control and could therefore ensure that the remains could be retrived and then properly disposed of?

An open pyre cremation is not an easy thing to get right to completely destroy a human body. It requires a lot of fuel, much more than you might expect. Even if an accellerant is used, that typically burns off pretty fast and doesn't do the job. If you have seen the crime scene photos of the Isdal Woman, you will see just how ineffective petrol, paraffin and suchlike can be.

I remember watching on YouTube an episode of one of the US UID/mystery documentary series which featured burned remains found in a skip/dumpster. The body had been almost completely destroyed in that case, but (a) it was a contained space and (b) (IIRC) it was estimated that a good 5 gallons of fuel had been used.
 
STANDREID said:
I wonder why the killer risked discovery by burning the body since someone could have seen the smoke and investigated. If they had buried her in the woods, she would probably have never been discovered.
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Absolutely. Burning a human body alongside a road, even in a fairly remote area, is a fairly dangerous undertaking.

That said, it was effective in that 65 years later the woman is still unidentified and if she was murdered her killer did get away with it.
 
RaqStar23 said:
Thank you Houston Mom :) Yes, the shoe size of the sole would be a helpful piece of information for this case. I did a quick internet search re women's shoe sizes during that time and found an article on the blogsite, Dr Nick's Running Blog, in which Dr. Nick Campitelli had an info graph. The info graph mentioned that the average women's size was 3.5 (UK size) which would equate to size 6 today. I'm not sure how UK sizes compare to U.S. sizes
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Is this the source you used?

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-s.../why-our-feet-are-getting-bigger-9481529.html

This article does give the UK and US sizes for comparison.
 
MelmothTheLost said:
Hmmm, that would assume that the deceased had specifically asked to be cremated rather than buried, because it would have been a lot less hassle to bury someone oneself than to carry out a cremation. And if it was a funerary cremation of a loved one, would you not expect the person carrying it out to do so in a place over which he had control and could therefore ensure that the remains could be retrived and then properly disposed of?

An open pyre cremation is not an easy thing to get right to completely destroy a human body. It requires a lot of fuel, much more than you might expect. Even if an accellerant is used, that typically burns off pretty fast and doesn't do the job. If you have seen the crime scene photos of the Isdal Woman, you will see just how ineffective petrol, paraffin and suchlike can be.

I remember watching on YouTube an episode of one of the US UID/mystery documentary series which featured burned remains found in a skip/dumpster. The body had been almost completely destroyed in that case, but (a) it was a contained space and (b) (IIRC) it was estimated that a good 5 gallons of fuel had been used.
Click to expand...

Was just a thought because as far as I could tell it was a preexisting pyre so people were cremating there at some point. I'm not sure if it was illegal at that time or not but it just occurred to me that an illegal but legitimate cremation could be a possibility.

I don't think it's likely though.

I admit I know next to nothing about the cremation process.
 
I don't think it was a formal pyre. The reporter seems to have called it that, but the description says it's just a log pulled on top of the body and set on fire.

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New to this....I wonder if there were any concerts or other big happenings (fairs, rodeo, etc) in the area around that time?

When I read that she had a turquoise sequinned blouse, blue jeans, necklace, earrings, razor, empty lipstick and a purse somewhat feels like she was dressed up for a special night out. For some reason I'm thinking a rodeo....

Was there anything in her purse? Is that listed someplace?
 
Odyssey said:
Was just a thought because as far as I could tell it was a preexisting pyre so people were cremating there at some point. I'm not sure if it was illegal at that time or not but it just occurred to me that an illegal but legitimate cremation could be a possibility.
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What makes you think there was a pre-existing pyre there? Looking back at the article linked to in the original post, Charles Darnoch admitted he cut the log the woman was found under and that he built a fire for a picnic nearby. If he was out hunting it's likely he'd want to make coffee at some point.

I don't know about the legalities of cremation outside the UK at that time. For a while, until air pollution and air quality laws were enacted in the 20th century, it had been legal to carry out open air cremations in the UK, though in practice they had been very few and far between. These became illegal for various reasons, including the release of mercury vapour (from fillings) and other pollutants from the body. Recently there has been pressure to allow open air cremations in rural areas for Hindus and others with similar religious requirements but I think they have been refused.

Cremation is one of those practices which is very culturally dependent. There is an absolute taboo in Islam on cremation, whereas Hinduism requires it. It seems to be related to strength of belief in a bodily resurrection. How likely is it that it would have been acceptable in rural CO in the 1950s, and if acceptable what official facilities were there to accommodate it?
 
MelmothTheLost said:
What makes you think there was a pre-existing pyre there? Looking back at the article linked to in the original post, Charles Darnoch admitted he cut the log the woman was found under and that he built a fire for a picnic nearby. If he was out hunting it's likely he'd want to make coffee at some point.
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Respectfully Snipped.

I guess I was under that impression because it is repeatedly described as a funeral pyre, which is a pretty specific thing. Not a term I can imagine being used for a random log unless there was a reason to call it that, like if cremations had been done at the site before. If it were just the term "pyre" I could see that maybe since pyre relates to fire, it could be a generic term for anything used to light a fire, but the fact that the word funeral is always in there, made me think there was some reason for that.

It's like when a body is found in a field, I've never seen the field called a cemetery unless there was some knowledge that it had been used for that purpose at some point.

I do think that it was a homicide, but just thought there could be a possibility that it was a cremation.
 
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