Identified! NV - Las Vegas, 'Sahara Sue', WhtFem 17-25, UP159, dentures, jewelry, clothes, Aug'79 - Gwenn Marie Story

[carbuff]

That sounds like the kind of neighborhood I was thinking of.

 

[barbara_c]

my thoughts is she was a runaway for a good few years and a prostitute. i think her home life was poor and not good, and her teeth were never cared for. as she got older they got worse and she went to a free clinic and they were removed and she got inexpensive dentures. the man she was seen with was either a john or her pimp. i think she was partially undressed because she was turning a trick in a car and that is why her lower dentures and shoes are missing. the john pushed her from the car after stabbing her.

i hope they can someday find her name.

I also believe her teeth were in poor condition and it was easier and cheaper for dentures. The missing bottom denture doesn't bother me. Many people with dentures don't wear the bottom. The top denture fits the roof of your mouth and just stays there by suction. Not the case with the bottom. They rarely fit well and you need gobs of denture adhesive to hold them in. Her bottoms were probably with the rest of her belongings, where ever she was saying. She looks so young in her PM photos and my heart goes out to her. She was seen at a liquor store earlier so its safe to say she drank.

 

[JusticeWillBeServed]

New information in Las Vegas cold case

I-Team: New information in Las Vegas cold case

New information is being released about a Las Vegas Jane Doe case that dates back to 1979.

www.8newsnow.com

A body of a young woman believed to be between the ages of 16 to 21 was found in a vacant parking lot on the coroner of Sahara Avenue and Las Vegas Boulevard on Aug. 14, 1979. No one could identify her and she was given the name Jane Sahara Doe.

Metro Police are still actively working on this case and say recent testing of the pollen grains on her clothing shows she may have been spent time in the Napa Valley or Central Valley areas of California before arriving in Las Vegas.

 

[cvaldez1975]

Hmmm, not surprising I grew up central ca. Fresno is part of "the track" and has been for years.

New information in Las Vegas cold case

I-Team: New information in Las Vegas cold case

New information is being released about a Las Vegas Jane Doe case that dates back to 1979.

www.8newsnow.com

 

[Any123]

http://www.ktnv.com/news/37-years-later-police-still-seeking-to-identify-body-of-teen-girl

 

[CountEveryMoment]

She kind of looks like Mary Frances Gregory. Mary Frances Gregory – The Charley Project

Her friend dropped her off in Las Vegas the year before. Her parents believe that she may had lost her memory shortly after entering Las Vegas. There's no mention of dentures, but it could had been left unmentioned.

 

[Springrain]

WOW! So happy pollen testing was done! This makes me hope that Arroyo Grande Jane Doe will get isotopes done--her case is handled by the same department as Sahara Sue's. (She was found nude, so IDK if pollen testing can be done for her at all--maybe with her hair?)

So she was possibly named Shawna/Shauna, may have worked at a nearby hotel, may have lived in a trailer park, and had passed through the Napa or Central Valley! Very interesting.

 

[Roselvr]

Here is my facial reconstruction for Sahara Sue based on the newly posted postmortem photo.

You did a really great job Carl

 

[carbuff]

Shauna, however spelled, is sometimes a nickname for Shoshanna or Susanna or similar names.

Other spellings I've seen: Shana, Shona, Shanna, etc.

 

[CarlK90245]

Out of curiosity, I checked the California Birth Index in Ancestry.com to see how many girls named Shauna or Shawna were born in 1959-1963 in Napa County.

There were only three.

Extending that out to the counties in the Central Valley of California.
Napa
Yolo
Sonoma
Solano
Sacramento
Jan Joaquin
Stanislaus
Merced
Fresno
Madera
Kings
Kern

I came up with only 55 names. I can't post these names on WS. But If any of you who are good at people searches want to narrow the list down to people that we can't account for post-1979, send me a private message and I'll show you the list.

Of course, the fact that she might have been in Napa County or the CV of California doesn't necessarily mean she was born there.

 

[JayFletcher6493]

I live in Sonoma County! Maybe I can help?

 

[Gourami Watcher]

She was found nude, so IDK if pollen testing can be done for her at all--maybe with her hair?)

You might be thinking of Arroyo Grande Jane Doe. Sahara Sue was found clothed, despite that her killer had "partially disrobed" her.

 

[Springrain]

You might be thinking of Arroyo Grande Jane Doe. Sahara Sue was found clothed, despite that her killer had "partially disrobed" her.

Yeah, I was talking about Arroyo when I wrote that--I meant could they test pollen from her hair? Sorry for lack of clarity lol, was very sleepy when I wrote that. :blushing:

 

[DaisyChains]

This lady Shannon, from Riverside county, CA, went missing in July of 79. Her profile says she had a "full dental plate". When I look up what that means, dentures are pulled up in the search.

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/1277dfca.html

of course her DNA and Dentals are already submitted to Namus so she is an automatic exclusion. I just wanted to note her for purpose of excluding her.

 

[MelmothTheLost]

So she was possibly named Shawna/Shauna,

Perhaps she was a Siobhan, pronounced shuh-VAUN.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siobhan

As a name of Irish origin I could see it being reasonably common in parts of New England, but maybe less so in California.

 

[WyomingSkyAngel]

Perhaps she was a Siobhan, pronounced shuh-VAUN.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siobhan

As a name of Irish origin I could see it being reasonably common in parts of New England, but maybe less so in California.

I knew Siobahns in Northern California. (Celtic people have a lot of cultural pride.) There are variants of this name in African American communities since AA dialects are derived from Scotch-Irish American dialect.

My guess on this UID was she was a runaway who fell in with a pimp & met a bad trick or angered her pimp & got disposed of in the manner she was found.

edit to add- I viewed her morgue photos. She looks (to me) mostly Caucasian. Also frankly if her name was "Shawna" that's a popular name in the Southwestern-Midwestern cultural group of working class Caucasians of America. Not a slam on that group. I've only heard that name being given to women in that cultural sub-group. (Other regional variants on the name are Shanna, Shayna & Sean.)

 

[cvaldez1975]

I know a "shavawn" from CA but she isn't this girl.

Perhaps she was a Siobhan, pronounced shuh-VAUN.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siobhan

As a name of Irish origin I could see it being reasonably common in parts of New England, but maybe less so in California.

 

[folieadeuxnola]

Bumping for Sahara Sue

 

[Fairy1]

I know that UNLV has a dental school that does free or low cost work. IDK if that existed back in the 70's. But I suppose there were other universities that provided that service then. I wonder if the dentures had some type of identifying numbers or marks that could help identify this UID?

 

[folieadeuxnola]

Think I mixed up the list with another uid by accident was working on a couple of uid's at once .. it was a cross eyed mistake. Reported for that post to be deleted


.this is the correct list a little messy thou sorry its a bit of work to post them in a readable format... even harder working from a tablet instead of latop... ugghh

MP8811
Lisa Borden
10/10/1979
Howard TX

MP20779
HazelCross
05/01/1973
LucasOH
--
MaryGregory
--
--
--
MP825
PauletteJaster
05/05/1979
GeneseeMI

MP4020
DianeDye
07/30/1979
Santa ClaraCA
--
DebraPscholka
CA
--
Diane Lynn
HarrisFL

MP5852
AmyBillig
03/05/1974
Miami-DadeFL

MP7870
RebeccaDunn
05/10/1979
ClarkNV

MP6400
DeborahMeyer
08/04/1974
CarbonWY