MD MD - Upper Marlboro, WhtFem 18-30, UP2260, bus ticket, deformed foot, tattoos, Sep'79

[madamx]

Clothing:
Men's clothing and shoes.

Burnt orange, zip up, terry cloth shirt, with brown stripes on shoulders and down front;

white panties;
white bra.

Black or dark blue, knit, men’s pants,

white socks and
black, lace up, leather shoes.

Wish we had photos or labels of the clothing.

 

[madamx]

Marks/Features:
Several tattoos:

"LOVE" at the upper right arm

"143", "Rudy", a red heart "C.S." on right forearm

"F.A.L." and a star on outside of left wrist.

 

[madamx]

Maybe her

WI - WI - Suzanne Marie Schultz, 17, Black Earth, 1 Dec 1978

MISSING
Missing Person / NamUs #MP6635Suzanne Marie Schultz, Female, White / Caucasian
Date of Last ContactDecember 1, 1978
Missing FromTampa, Florida

Case Information


Case Numbers
NCMEC Number966014
Demographics
Missing Age17 Years
Current Age60 Years
First NameSuzanne
Middle NameMarie
Last NameSchultz
Nickname/AliasSue, Susan

SexFemale
Height5' 6" (66 Inches)
Weight120 lbs
Race / EthnicityWhite / Caucasian

Circumstances
Date of Last ContactDecember 1, 1978
NamUs Case CreatedApril 15, 2010
Last Known Location Map
LocationTampa, Florida
CountyHillsborough County
Missing From Tribal Land--
Primary Residence on Tribal Land-


-
Circumstances of DisappearanceSuzanne was last seen leaving her home in December of 1978. Her exact missing date is unknown so the date listed above is an approximation. Suzanne contacted her family in July of 1979, from Tampa, Florida, where she was believed to be staying with a male companion, and said she would be returning home. She failed to return home and the vehicle in which she was traveling was later found abandoned in Chicago, Illinois. Suzanne has not been seen or heard from since.

Physical Description
Hair ColorBrown
Head Hair DescriptionShoulder length
Body Hair Description--
Facial Hair Description--
Left Eye ColorGreen
Right Eye ColorGreen
Eye Description--
Distinctive Physical Features

 

[Andreee]

Hi, interesting find but I just don't think this is Christine Schultz. According to the Doe Network description, the UID is 173 lbs. and Christine is 120 lbs. I don't see a young woman of 17 gaining that much weight over a yr or so but could be. Also, Christine looks from the photo looks fairly 'conservatively' (for lack of better word sorry) dressed and there is no mention in her description of a deformity of her left foot or tattoos which I assume would've been included. Also, she was in Tampa according to her phone call home and her family was told she was on her way home. With her car later found abandoned in Chicago, a different route plan than the UID. Sad for both the UID not being id'ed yet nor Christine found.

 

[branmuffin]

View attachment 129735View attachment 129736View attachment 129737

I found the video ***WARNING POSTMORTEM**** I posted the video in order to see the Jane Doe because its really so hard to tell with the 3 very different artist renderings of the UID

the video has a little more information also.. says the Trailway Ticket was from Miami to Florida.. I was looking to see if it mentioned a date for the ticket but it did not.

Although the UID has some facial injuries the PM pic really helps to establish her age range better. She appears younger and more refined than some renderings portray. The first drawing of the UID seems most representative of her true appearance based on her PM pic.

Her eyebrows are finely shaped, whether natural or tweezed. Her skin appeared clear and youthful. Her hair appears to be cut evenly. As @madamx has stated she has that small fleshy protuberance in the centre of the upper lip which is referred to as the labial tubercle or procheilon. One missing person has that in her picture.

FL - FL - Michelle Mulcahy, 17, Fort Lauderdale, 7 July 1979

Initially, I wondered if this woman was a transient who wore men's clothing as a way to play down her female-ness to avoid any kind of sexual harassment. But based on the PM image she is clearly an attractive young woman and the clothing would have done little to hide it. Plus she wore white underwear including a bra which would have accentuated her breasts.

I suppose it's possible she was gay. It certainly was unusual to have that many tattoos in that era, especially as a women, since all of them would be visible if wearing short sleeves. It sounds a bit trite but is it possible she was in the military? I don't see if fingerprints are on file. I also thought based on her height and weight she was a bit overweight but she could have been in really good physical condition and the extra weight was muscle rather than fat.

Edited to add: Just thought I'd add that I don't think that Michelle Mulcahy is this JD. She is too tall and too slim and I believe too young. I was just pointing out the rare nature of that lip thing.

 

[madamx]

Although the UID has some facial injuries the PM pic really helps to establish her age range better. She appears younger and more refined than some renderings portray. The first drawing of the UID seems most representative of her true appearance based on her PM pic.

Her eyebrows are finely shaped, whether natural or tweezed. Her skin appeared clear and youthful. Her hair appears to be cut evenly. As @madamx has stated she has that small fleshy protuberance in the centre of the upper lip which is referred to as the labial tubercle or procheilon. One missing person has that in her picture.

FL - FL - Michelle Mulcahy, 17, Fort Lauderdale, 7 July 1979

Initially, I wondered if this woman was a transient who wore men's clothing as a way to play down her female-ness to avoid any kind of sexual harassment. But based on the PM image she is clearly an attractive young woman and the clothing would have done little to hide it. Plus she wore white underwear including a bra which would have accentuated her breasts.

I suppose it's possible she was gay. It certainly was unusual to have that many tattoos in that era, especially as a women, since all of them would be visible if wearing short sleeves. It sounds a bit trite but is it possible she was in the military? I don't see if fingerprints are on file. I also thought based on her height and weight she was a bit overweight but she could have been in really good physical condition and the extra weight was muscle rather than fat.

Edited to add: Just thought I'd add that I don't think that Michelle Mulcahy is this JD. She is too tall and too slim and I believe too young. I was just pointing out the rare nature of that lip thing.

Yes Yes I agree the first rendering is the one I feel that captures her the best. The other ones make her look so much older. Oh you see the little lip thing too!

I really feel she has that underground punk ska look going .. I just keep going back to the Rudy tattoo and the men’s clothing.

Below I took some snapshots of an old book I have called Punk which depicts the fashion of the beginning of punk era in the 1970s. It’s sort of what I feel this girl was going for. I could be totally wrong but I just keep getting pulled in that direction.

I wish we had photos of her clothing.

 

[BigKeyManatee]

Although the UID has some facial injuries the PM pic really helps to establish her age range better. She appears younger and more refined than some renderings portray. The first drawing of the UID seems most representative of her true appearance based on her PM pic.

Her eyebrows are finely shaped, whether natural or tweezed. Her skin appeared clear and youthful. Her hair appears to be cut evenly. As @madamx has stated she has that small fleshy protuberance in the centre of the upper lip which is referred to as the labial tubercle or procheilon. One missing person has that in her picture.

FL - FL - Michelle Mulcahy, 17, Fort Lauderdale, 7 July 1979

Initially, I wondered if this woman was a transient who wore men's clothing as a way to play down her female-ness to avoid any kind of sexual harassment. But based on the PM image she is clearly an attractive young woman and the clothing would have done little to hide it. Plus she wore white underwear including a bra which would have accentuated her breasts.

I suppose it's possible she was gay. It certainly was unusual to have that many tattoos in that era, especially as a women, since all of them would be visible if wearing short sleeves. It sounds a bit trite but is it possible she was in the military? I don't see if fingerprints are on file. I also thought based on her height and weight she was a bit overweight but she could have been in really good physical condition and the extra weight was muscle rather than fat.

Edited to add: Just thought I'd add that I don't think that Michelle Mulcahy is this JD. She is too tall and too slim and I believe too young. I was just pointing out the rare nature of that lip thing.

These three reconstructions couldn’t look more different could they?
I’m glad that they didn’t settle for the previous versions; one makes her look swarthy and hirsute, and the other elderly and balding.

So, two of the portraits are labeled as “artist’s revision,” and the third as a “composite sketch.” Can someone please explain the difference in the processes? I am seriously curious.

Since this Doe had a recognizable face could they not have photoshopped out her wounds, closed her eyes completely, maybe blurred a bit on her skin and hair, and used that? Would that be called another kind of process, maybe “retouched autopsy photo?”

I do hope that this poor woman gets her name back. All MOO

 

[carbuff]

These three reconstructions couldn’t look more different could they?
I’m glad that they didn’t settle for the previous versions; one makes her look swarthy and hirsute, and the other elderly and balding.

So, two of the portraits are labeled as “artist’s revision,” and the third as a “composite sketch.” Can someone please explain the difference in the processes? I am seriously curious.

Since this Doe had a recognizable face could they not have photoshopped out her wounds, closed her eyes completely, maybe blurred a bit on her skin and hair, and used that? Would that be called another kind of process, maybe “retouched autopsy photo?”

I do hope that this poor woman gets her name back. All MOO

I'm not an expert, but I'll share what I know.

They do sometimes do retouched autopsy photos. The issue is that depending on the condition of the face, the degree of swelling from injuries, and so forth, LE may not feel that the death photo accurately reflects what the person looked like in life. Since the point of the reconstruction/composite/whatever they call it is to produce an image that will be recognized by people the victim knew that may mean making a sketch or reproduction of some kind.

A composite sketch is put together by a police artist using a set of standard features, usually the FBI's Facial Identification Catalog. Usually there's a witness giving the description and picking out the features. Here's a link that explains the process: COMPOSITE DRAWINGS
In this case, I'm not sure whether the artist worked from a witness who had seen Jane while she was alive, or if the artist worked by looking at the victim's face or the autopsy photos. Probably a combination.

A reconstruction usually works from the postmortem photos or the victim's remains, often using the skull as the basis for detailed analysis of bone structure, depth of fat and muscle tissue, and all the rest.

Artist's revision would mean that the new artist worked from the composite, giving it a more realistic look. I've seen some very useful versions of this where the artist gives a variety of possibilities for what the person might have looked like--dressed up, different lengths and colors of hair, different body weights, etc. These look pretty basic.

The current trend is for very realistic, almost photographic reconstructions, like the ones CarlK does. But when I took a forensics class a couple of years ago, they said that often the exaggerated "caricature" style produces better results than more realistic images, because friends or relatives recognize things like "that looks like old Joe with his big ears. whatever happened to him? Maybe I'd better call." Whereas if a photo-like picture isn't exactly right, it sometimes gets dismissed.

 

[branmuffin]

Yes Yes I agree the first rendering is the one I feel that captures her the best. The other ones make her look so much older. Oh you see the little lip thing too!

I really feel she has that underground punk ska look going .. I just keep going back to the Rudy tattoo and the men’s clothing.

Below I took some snapshots of an old book I have called Punk which depicts the fashion of the beginning of punk era in the 1970s. It’s sort of what I feel this girl was going for. I could be totally wrong but I just keep getting pulled in that direction.

I wish we had photos of her clothing.

I wish we had images of her clothes and her tattoos and her shoes. Maybe she wasn't wearing shoes but those boots that the punk scene wore Doc Martens. I wish they would ditch those artist rendering that make her look so old and pudgy. She wasn't at all.

 

[branmuffin]

These three reconstructions couldn’t look more different could they?
I’m glad that they didn’t settle for the previous versions; one makes her look swarthy and hirsute, and the other elderly and balding.

So, two of the portraits are labeled as “artist’s revision,” and the third as a “composite sketch.” Can someone please explain the difference in the processes? I am seriously curious.

Since this Doe had a recognizable face could they not have photoshopped out her wounds, closed her eyes completely, maybe blurred a bit on her skin and hair, and used that? Would that be called another kind of process, maybe “retouched autopsy photo?”

I do hope that this poor woman gets her name back. All MOO

She is very recognizable and any police force could do what you suggested: clean up the injuries, close her eyes and fix her lip. Poor thing. She doesn't look anything like I pictured before I saw the PM photo. She's young and healthy looking and appeared to care about her looks. And those artists renderings? They need to go.

 

[snowgoose]

The current trend is for very realistic, almost photographic reconstructions, like the ones CarlK does. But when I took a forensics class a couple of years ago, they said that often the exaggerated "caricature" style produces better results than more realistic images, because friends or relatives recognize things like "that looks like old Joe with his big ears. whatever happened to him? Maybe I'd better call." Whereas if a photo-like picture isn't exactly right, it sometimes gets dismissed.

Excellent point. Reminds me of a Scott McCloud comic about abstraction in comic-book drawings of faces, I'll try and attach it here.

A simple drawing resembles a large number of people, a photorealistic image looks like a unique individual. So there's a fine line to walk. When an artist is starting with very decomposed or skeletal remains and going for a photo-realistic reconstruction, it becomes necessary to invent some details (like the shape of some features or the colour/texture of the skin), which can be misleading.

 

[BigKeyManatee]

I'm not an expert, but I'll share what I know.

They do sometimes do retouched autopsy photos. The issue is that depending on the condition of the face, the degree of swelling from injuries, and so forth, LE may not feel that the death photo accurately reflects what the person looked like in life. Since the point of the reconstruction/composite/whatever they call it is to produce an image that will be recognized by people the victim knew that may mean making a sketch or reproduction of some kind.

A composite sketch is put together by a police artist using a set of standard features, usually the FBI's Facial Identification Catalog. Usually there's a witness giving the description and picking out the features. Here's a link that explains the process: COMPOSITE DRAWINGS
In this case, I'm not sure whether the artist worked from a witness who had seen Jane while she was alive, or if the artist worked by looking at the victim's face or the autopsy photos. Probably a combination.

A reconstruction usually works from the postmortem photos or the victim's remains, often using the skull as the basis for detailed analysis of bone structure, depth of fat and muscle tissue, and all the rest.

Artist's revision would mean that the new artist worked from the composite, giving it a more realistic look. I've seen some very useful versions of this where the artist gives a variety of possibilities for what the person might have looked like--dressed up, different lengths and colors of hair, different body weights, etc. These look pretty basic.

The current trend is for very realistic, almost photographic reconstructions, like the ones CarlK does. But when I took a forensics class a couple of years ago, they said that often the exaggerated "caricature" style produces better results than more realistic images, because friends or relatives recognize things like "that looks like old Joe with his big ears. whatever happened to him? Maybe I'd better call." Whereas if a photo-like picture isn't exactly right, it sometimes gets dismissed.

Thanks so much for this detailed explanation @carbuff.
I always learn a lot from your posts.

 

[BigKeyManatee]

Excellent point. Reminds me of a Scott McCloud comic about abstraction in comic-book drawings of faces, I'll try and attach it here.

A simple drawing resembles a large number of people, a photorealistic image looks like a unique individual. So there's a fine line to walk. When an artist is starting with very decomposed or skeletal remains and going for a photo-realistic reconstruction, it becomes necessary to invent some details (like the shape of some features or the colour/texture of the skin), which can be misleading.

Interesting graphic and info. Thanks, @snowgoose.

 

[carbuff]

An aside: apparently one of the variables at the moment in the US is that people my age, who grew up with black-and-white television, don't have any trouble recognizing someone in a black-and-white photo, while people who grew up with color TV/video aren't as good at translating shades of gray into hair color, eye color, and so forth.

 

[BigKeyManatee]

Marks/Features:
Several tattoos:
"LOVE" at the upper right arm
"143", "Rudy", a red heart "C.S." on right forearm
"F.A.L." and a star on outside of left wrist.

I suppose it's possible she was gay. It certainly was unusual to have that many tattoos in that era, especially as a women, since all of them would be visible if wearing short sleeves. It sounds a bit trite but is it possible she was in the military? I don't see if fingerprints are on file. I also thought based on her height and weight she was a bit overweight but she could have been in really good physical condition and the extra weight was muscle rather than fat.

OK, I hesitate going here because this isn’t my identity or my culture, and I offer this purely in hopes that it could eventually help identify this person. My sincere apologies in advance if I am being offensive or intrusive. I will use the words of the primary source only.
In researching the sociology of women and tattoos, I came across this information about the significance of a star tattooed on a woman’s wrist. Quoting from the articles inserted below:

In the ’40s, many lesbians got nautical stars tattooed on their inner wrists to advertise their sexuality — a spot they could cover up with a watch during the day.
​

Lesbians Got Tattoos First But Now Everybody's Doing It | Autostraddle
I Saw The Sign: LGBT Symbols Then And Now | Autostraddle

Would such a tradition be relevant to this Doe?
Quotes snipped for relevance. TY! MOO.

 

[madamx]

OK, I hesitate going here because this isn’t my identity or my culture, and I offer this purely in hopes that it could eventually help identify this person. My sincere apologies in advance if I am being offensive or intrusive. I will use the words of the primary source only.
In researching the sociology of women and tattoos, I came across this information about the significance of a star tattooed on a woman’s wrist. Quoting from the articles inserted below:

In the ’40s, many lesbians got nautical stars tattooed on their inner wrists to advertise their sexuality — a spot they could cover up with a watch during the day.
​

Lesbians Got Tattoos First But Now Everybody's Doing It | Autostraddle
I Saw The Sign: LGBT Symbols Then And Now | Autostraddle

Would such a tradition be relevant to this Doe?
Quotes snipped for relevance. TY! MOO.

Yes Yes I found that early on also when I was looking into her tats. It’s on this thread in the beginning. I believe that is prob what the star on the wrist is.

 

[madamx]

An aside: apparently one of the variables at the moment in the US is that people my age, who grew up with black-and-white television, don't have any trouble recognizing someone in a black-and-white photo, while people who grew up with color TV/video aren't as good at translating shades of gray into hair color, eye color, and so forth.

omg I remember when my parents got our first color tv wow...it sat in the living room and it was mesmerizing !

 

[madamx]

I wish we had images of her clothes and her tattoos and her shoes. Maybe she wasn't wearing shoes but those boots that the punk scene wore Doc Martens. I wish they would ditch those artist rendering that make her look so old and pudgy. She wasn't at all.

Yes your right.. Good point and you know Dr. Martens became the punk boot of choice ( I got my first pair in 1985 and still wear Docs) BUT they started out as an orthopedic shoe. This unidentified woman had a deformed arch. She could of been wearing them for both comfort and style.

How I wonder if there were photos of her tattoos and her clothing that they just never released.

 

[madamx]

Thanks so much for this detailed explanation @carbuff.
I always learn a lot from your posts.

Yes we all do!! Carbuff rocks!!

 

[branmuffin]

Yes your right.. Good point and you know Dr. Martens became the punk boot of choice ( I got my first pair in 1985 and still wear Docs) BUT they started out as an orthopedic shoe. This unidentified woman had a deformed arch. She could of been wearing them for both comfort and style.

How I wonder if there were photos of her tattoos and her clothing that they just never released.

I find it so weird that no one seems to have any records of her tattoos. It doesn't make any sense. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. If they had taken images way back when maybe there would be a record of them. Now, after 40 years I wonder what concrete evidence is even around.