MI MI - New Buffalo, "Betty the Bag Lady", WhtFem 65-75, UP8224, wrapped in sheet/towel/2 bags, Aug'92

[vermontaigne]

I just read this how 12 days before a headless and limbless body was found..and I looked it up it had polyester elastic pants and nude pantyhose (this sounds like its an older person) and I don't know why but it made me think maybe its the daughter of the old lady that was found. Makes me wonder if the daughter was caring for the mother and a family member or husband or boyfriend killed them both to get the house or $$$.. just thoughts..I wonder if the DNA matches for both Jane Does. The unidentified old lady makes me sad because there are so many scams against old people all the time.

Yeah, it's kind of interesting that they speculate that the remains may have been of someone who had been at a care home in Northern IN or IL, because IL would be a definite possibility for Vernon County Jane Doe from SW Wisconsin, who also had severed hands, back in 1984. I've always thought that a SS or other scheme might have been behind that murder. In that case, though, the victim had been killed by blunt force trauma, the body wasn't bagged, and she still had her clothes on and her dentures. It is possible that someone finding that police had tried to match dentures and clothes would have refined their technique on a subsequent go, to obliterate more evidence. On the other hand, pollen evidence points Vernon County Jane Doe having been in the US desert southwest some time prior to her being dumped.

As police say regarding the other New Buffalo UID, though, because of the prevailing winds, people who die in Lake Michigan tend to reach land on the eastern shore. Chicago area, Indiana Dunes park, someone could go in the water there and just drift all the way, particularly in late summer. If they're both in CODIS, you'd think that the family link would have been flagged.

 

[Melt71]

This is a new DNA Doe Project case. Her current status is "at lab for sequencing."

DNA Doe Project

I see she’s moved from sequencing to bioinformatics. Final step before uploading!

 

[JovanSrna]

I see she’s moved from sequencing to bioinformatics. Final step before uploading!

That information is not up to date. She is already an active case.

 

[Melt71]

That information is not up to date. She is already an active case.

Aha they need to update their FB listing - says updates last Friday (sorry). I’m currently working on my phone so couldn’t open the spreadsheet to see! Apologies!

 

[Giuc0]

I didn't know it either, but I have picked up quite a few tips. Never trust blond hair in the Everglades, the enzymes change the color. Bone breaks in children under the age of 6 can heal well enough not to be picked up on an xray a few years later. And the eye thing.
I am a fountain of useless death trivia.

Far from useless because you teach me for getting better matches.
Thank you _____@ (a rose with only a keyboard, pre-graphic smileys era: the _ as much as you want and @ for the rose itself)

 

[ginestra]

Keep waiting for an update! Wish they would release the info soon!!

 

[Al Ka]

Unidentified, handless remains from ’92 to undergo genealogy testing

It’s been 27 years since a man driving on a rural road in New Buffalo near Michigan’s southwest border spotted the remains of an elderly woman.

She’d been wrapped in a sheet and placed inside two garbage bags secured by twine.

The skeletal remains were missing both hands, as well as a set of dentures.

“I saw a very obvious profile of a human wrapped in a black, plastic bag, obviously dumped,” recalled nearby resident Mark Henshaw in an interview with News 8 Wednesday afternoon.

“As I slowed to investigate, I noticed the bag had been partially ripped open and there was human hair protruding or poking through the bag at the opening. So, I knew right away what it was.”
---
Last fall, Michigan State Police exhumed the remains to obtain DNA, which they then submitted to a genealogy testing organization that uses a nationwide, public, DNA database to make comparisons and reconstruct family trees.

“Right now, it sounds like they’ve got some leads,” Kill said.

“(DNA Doe Project) has sent out their investigators to follow up on the leads they have, so to me that indicates that they’ve found some family members some place and they’re working on it,” said Kill.

Based on the initial investigation, state police know the woman was white, 65 to 70 years old and had been deceased four to seven days before her body was left near the banks of the Galien River in New Buffalo.

Detectives believe the remains had been there for 24 hours before Henshaw discovered it.
---
Her feet had been wrapped in a thin, institution-style towel, which led police to believe she may have come from a care facility across the nearby state line, either in Indiana or northern Illinois.
---
Kill said the level of decomposition made it impossible to determine how she died — for instance, if she’d been shot, stabbed, beaten to death or anything else.

Unidentified, handless remains from ’92 to undergo genealogy testing

 

[Melt71]

You have to wonder if the remains were somehow tied to this kind of business and a transaction somehow went bad FBI scrutinizes funeral home that also makes money selling body parts

 

[carbuff]

More likely to be elder abuse and hiding the death so they could keep collecting her checks.

 

[ginestra]

Kill said the level of decomposition made it impossible to determine how she died — for instance, if she’d been shot, stabbed, beaten to death or anything else.

I thought they always said natural causes. ??

 

[Liv27]

I thought they always said natural causes. ??

I don’t think it was natural causes. She was wrapped up in a bag.

 

[ginestra]

I live in this area. This is a local paper.
NILES — The identity of a woman’s body found in 1992 remains unknown after 20 years, and the Michigan State Police Niles Post is again asking the public for help in identifying her.

Trooper Jeffery Oudman said the woman died of natural causes. But someone had cut off her hands, removed her teeth, tied her up in garbage bags and dumped her body. Detectives theorize that someone close to the woman wanted to hide her death to continue collecting money or benefits, Oudman said. He said fingerprints and teeth, in this case dentures, are tools police use to identify a person.

20 years later, she’s still a mystery

 

[ntt1]

Admixture now posted
Betty.jpg

 

[ntt1]

From DDP's Facebook page. Sounds like this might be a difficult case, especially if it involves Irish genealogy.

Can you help us identify Berrien County Jane Doe (1992)?
Our research has found that she has genetic connections to the following surnames in County Waterford, Ireland: McLaughlin/McLoughlin, Morrissey, O'Brien, Kelly, Hogan, Mahoney, Cashman, Walsh & Lyons and in County Kerry, Ireland: O'Sullivan/Sullivan & Kelly. Many of her matches still reside in Ireland, England and New Zealand.
She also has potential connections to these surnames: O'Donoghue / Donahue / McDonagh, O'Brien and other locations in the United States: Connecticut, Massachusetts, Michigan, Indiana and Illinois.
Also of note is that, based on her ethnicity admixture, she may possibly have a Grandparent from the Eastern or Western Mediterranean Regions.
Do you recognize any of these surnames or locations from your OWN family tree?

 

[djanga]

From DDP's Facebook page. Sounds like this might be a difficult case, especially if it involves Irish genealogy.

Can you help us identify Berrien County Jane Doe (1992)?
Our research has found that she has genetic connections to the following surnames in County Waterford, Ireland: McLaughlin/McLoughlin, Morrissey, O'Brien, Kelly, Hogan, Mahoney, Cashman, Walsh & Lyons and in County Kerry, Ireland: O'Sullivan/Sullivan & Kelly. Many of her matches still reside in Ireland, England and New Zealand.
She also has potential connections to these surnames: O'Donoghue / Donahue / McDonagh, O'Brien and other locations in the United States: Connecticut, Massachusetts, Michigan, Indiana and Illinois.
Also of note is that, based on her ethnicity admixture, she may possibly have a Grandparent from the Eastern or Western Mediterranean Regions.
Do you recognize any of these surnames or locations from your OWN family tree?

I am wondering if she was born in Ireland... It seams that one of the connection she has in the USA is Michigan, could it be that she was local in Michigan or may be Illinois?

 

[ChatteringBirds]

I really hope she will get her name back soon and some true justice. What a horrible crime.

 

[ntt1]

I am wondering if she was born in Ireland... It seams that one of the connection she has in the USA is Michigan, could it be that she was local in Michigan or may be Illinois?
View attachment 285943

I wonder if there is an east coast (NY, MA) connection as well, due to the Irish connections. Just my speculation, but it could be that she was the only member (in addition to possibly her children) that was in America, and her extended family back in Ireland had lost touch with this particular branch.

Irish vital records are decent back to the 1890s but get a little spotty before then, so could be difficult (not to mention the common surnames).

 

[madamx]

I live in this area. This is a local paper.
NILES — The identity of a woman’s body found in 1992 remains unknown after 20 years, and the Michigan State Police Niles Post is again asking the public for help in identifying her.

Trooper Jeffery Oudman said the woman died of natural causes. But someone had cut off her hands, removed her teeth, tied her up in garbage bags and dumped her body. Detectives theorize that someone close to the woman wanted to hide her death to continue collecting money or benefits, Oudman said. He said fingerprints and teeth, in this case dentures, are tools police use to identify a person.

20 years later, she’s still a mystery

I noticed this article says most likely someone close to her to keep getting her check, which would be my theory. So I am assuming she would be home then.

But the doe network says she was wrapped in sheet and towel from institutions found in Illinois and Indiana.

 

[djanga]

Somebody on the DDP facebook page suggested that she could be Janet Sue Kirkup (although according to the Charley Project her nee last name was Johnson). Janet was 52-53 at the moment of her disappearance and she was last seen in Jackson, Michigan. I think she is not in rule-out list.

The Doe Network: Janet Sue Kirkup - 2627DFMI

Janet Sue Kirkup – The Charley Project

 

[madamx]

Somebody on the DDP facebook page suggested that she could be Janet Sue Kirkup (although according to the Charley Project her nee last name was Johnson). Janet was 52-53 at the moment of her disappearance and she was last seen in Jackson, Michigan. I think she is not in rule-out list.

The Doe Network: Janet Sue Kirkup - 2627DFMI

Janet Sue Kirkup – The Charley Project

Oh wow story lines up except for the buried in NY but everything else sounds right especially if her kids reported her missing. I wonder if she had dentures