NY NY - Denise Sheehy, 16, Woodside, 7 July 1970

[Houston Mom]

Doe Network has East Islip UID as having 10 fillings. Thanks to Carlk90245 Denise had 8.

http://doenetwork.org/hot/hotcase2403.html

 

[Houston Mom]

Doe Network has East Islip UID as having 10 fillings. Thanks to Carlk90245 Denise had 8.

http://doenetwork.org/hot/hotcase2403.html

Less than 50 miles from Woodside to East Islip:

http://goo.gl/maps/g19tH

 

[Houston Mom]

hmmm....Denise's teeth seem to have more than one filling......

 

[madamx]

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/1068ufny.html
Unidentified Female
Date of Discovery: April 2, 1978
Location of Discovery: East Islip, Suffolk County, New York
Estimated Date of Death: 1968 to 1975 (most probable 3 years prior)
State of Remains: Not recognizable - Near complete or complete skeleton
Cause of Death: Homicide
Estimated Age: 15-23 years old (most likely 18-22 years old).
Race: White (with other ethnicity)
Gender: Female
Height: 5'2" to 5'8" (most likely 5'3")
Weight: Unknown
Hair Color: Brown, light and long.
Eye Color: Unknown
Clothing: A brown leathery belt and a woman's clog shoe for the right foot was located nearby. The shoe measured 11" in length (top) and 10.5" (bottom) by 3.5" in broadest width (bottom) by 4.5" (top).

Jewelry: A gold ring with the initials "D.E.C." was found nearby. It may or may not be related to the decedent.

Additional Personal Items: Unknown
Distinguishing Marks/Features: Well healed fracture of right clavicle (collar bone) with resultant deformation. Bony lesion on the left fist rib. Metopic suture is patent. Fingernails (3) with reddish purple material.

Dentals: Available. Ten teeth with amalgams. Impaction of maxillary right third molar.
Fingerprints: Not available.
DNA: Samples submitted - Tests not complete.

Missing Since: July 07, 1970 from Woodside, Queens County, New York
Classification: Endangered Missing
Date Of Birth: February 20, 1954
Age: 16
Height: 5'3" (160 cm)
Weight: 103 lbs (47 kg)
Hair Color: Brown
Eye Color: Brown
Race: White
Gender: Female
Distinguishing Characteristics: Denise has pierced ears.
Clothing: Red-and-white top, size XS, blue shorts. White, size 5 1/2,
clog type sandals.
Jewelry: Gold ring with the initials DS, and Gold boys school ring.

Details of Disappearance
Denise was last seen leaving her family’s Woodside, Queens, apartment just before 5 p.m. on July 7, 1970 and she has not been seen or heard from since. She stormed out after an argument with her mother. Denise hopped a fence in the courtyard behind the building and exited through an adjacent Mets apartment building. She was reported as missing the next day by her parents.


I wish there was a photo of the ring because sometimes things get worn out from time and may look different.. I saw on a post not to long ago on a ring that someone said it was a letter F I script and it looked exactly like a C to me the way my mother used to write he C when she signed her name. I have seen this woman that was found in Islip and since I saw the clog and ring I have always thought it could be Denise.. Islip by car is not so far from Woodside and there is absolutely nothing out there at that park. It was Denises Birthday on Feb 20th it makes me sad she still has not been found. she went missing a couple of blocks from my home.

New on NamUs. Young white girl wearing clogs found 1978. Estimated postmortem interval 3 Years. Long light brown hair.

https://identifyus.org/en/cases/11774

http://www.nampn.org/cases/sheehy_denise.html

 

[Thewop356]

I think that this should be submitted...the gold ring with the initials "DS" that belonged to Denise and the gold ring found with the UIB with initials "DEC" which could have easily been a typo back in the 70s. Also the UIB being found wearing a clog and Denise being reported missing wearing clog type sandals. I know those type shoes were very popular, but this should be cake work for LE to check out. Nice catch HoustonMom and MadamX!!!

 

[Houston Mom]

DNA complete on both Sheehy and UID, so unless a mistake was make she should have been ruled out. IMO

 

[Odyssey]

I'm starting to feel like a lone wolf on this, but I have my doubts about the automatic ruleouts. I don't fully understand how it works but there are lots of ruleouts listed for UID's where both had DNA but still was compared manually. I'm not sure we should just not send them in because of it.

If anyone understands it more, please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[madamx]

Yes Thewop356 I believe the same. I think it should be looked at and if they did a rule out (which I don't know) they should look at it again. It just seems like it really could be her. I know there was an Article not to long ago nd it was with a photo of her sister still looking. This case has haunted me forever. She went missing the year I was born and just blocks away. My friend lived in the Mets apartments I used to go there all the time. It was a middle class neighborhood where everybody knew everybody and all the kids were outside until dark and the older people hung out on lawn chairs on the stoops and the guys hung out on the corner drinking beer and playing music at he bodega.

I think that this should be submitted...the gold ring with the initials "DS" that belonged to Denise and the gold ring found with the UIB with initials "DEC" which could have easily been a typo back in the 70s. Also the UIB being found wearing a clog and Denise being reported missing wearing clog type sandals. I know those type shoes were very popular, but this should be cake work for LE to check out. Nice catch HoustonMom and MadamX!!!

Joyce Josette asked this question a couple of posts above......

I just found out that the drinking age in NY in 1971 was 18. If she was out drinking with friends, it's perfectly believable that the alcohol was provided by someone who wasn't involved in her disappearance, such as a girlfriend only a couple years older. I would still like to know where the alcohol came from, though

From growing up in the neighborhood I can first hand tell you that at any age you could get a beer at the corner Bodega it did not matter. I know because My mother used to send me to get the tiny cans of beer when she used to make her yellow Cuban rice w/chicken and they used to sell it to me I must of been like 9 or 10. Also there were a lot of Irish Bars in particular there was one on 46th street called Sally O's and we were 17 and we used to go there and they would serve us..Sally Os was only a couple of blocks from the Mets which was on 48th st.. and that was just one of the bars.. there were many, just like there were a lot of bodegas. Alcohol was easily available just like cigarettes. Times were very very different then.

This case reminds me of another one Valerie Smith of Long Island City Queens who disappeared from the area in 1981.. sadly she does not have a thread here and there are so many photos of her too. I wish Someone could make one for her. I don't know how

https://www.findthemissing.org/en/cases/20265/7
http://www.nampn.org/cases/smith_valerie.html

 

[madamx]

I came across this on another site which gives a little more information and also mentions she had another ring with her. I wish there was some way we could see a photo of the ring that was found with the UID in Islip

https://letsfindthem.wordpress.com/tag/denise-marie-sheehy/


Pictured; Denise Marie Sheehy
DOB: Feb 20, 1954 Missing Date: 07/0770 Race: Caucasian Age When Last Seen: 16 Age Now: 58 Height:*5’3″ (160 cm) Weight: 103 lbs (47 kg) Hair Color: Brown Eye Color:*Shoulder-length, Brown (she also had her ears pierced.) Other: Last seen wearing a gold ring with her initials (DS) and another gold (mens) school-ring.
Missing From:*Woodside, (Queens), New York City, NY.
→ On the evening of July 7th, 1970, sixteen-year-old Denise Sheehy had an argument with her mother while the two were eating dinner. Upset, the teen got up and stormed out of the house taking no items with her. She started heading in an unknown direction.
Initially, it was believed that Denise was simply ran-away to cool off but after a few days her family and friends grew worried.and needed to cool off, but she never came back and no one has seen or heard from her since.
There is not much information on this 42-year old cold-case. Many internet ”sleuths” were comparing unidentified ‘Jane Does’ to Denise Sheehy.


This comment was left
Denise, I don,t know if you even would remember me, but I was known by the name Mary B and I was a friend of Kathy Reilly and your sister Pat . One night we went out [me,you ,Kathy Reilly and Patricia Coyne] and I remember a conversation you had with us that haunts me to this day. You told us you liked hanging around with us because you didn’t think any of the girls you grew up with liked you . You said you felt like you didn’t belong anywhere sometimes even with your sisters. I figured you probably had just had a fight with one of them,as sisters sometimes do [I have two myself ] I remember we all told you we had never heard any of these people say a bad word about you including your sisters. In fact I would have expected a slap in the face if I had ever dared to make a bad comment about you,besides the fact that I liked you and had no complaints. If you are by some chance alive and can get word to someone,you would make many people ecstatic. I saw what your loss did to your family. I saw what your loss did to everyone. Please know I have never forgotten you. Love, Mary B

 

[madamx]

this is the article her where

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/woman-awaits-reunion-sister-missing-1970-article-1.1338795

““It was my 19th birthday and I called from a pay phone to tell my mother I was getting on the subway home to our place (in the Mets apartments at 4815 46th St.) from my job at AT&T in Manhattan,” says Diehl.y sister is one of the longest missing persons in the state,” says Lorraine Sheehy Diehl, 62, sitting in her Middle Village apartment as cable news plays on her TV.“My mother was setting the table for my birthday party. Then she smelled beer on my sister Denise’s breath. My mother had just heard Denise talking to her boyfriend who was visiting a sick aunt in Pennsylvania. My mom and Denise argued. My mother said she was gonna tell my father when he got home from work at the post office. My sister stormed out.”
Denise hopped a fence in the courtyard behind the building and exited through an adjacent Mets apartment building. “A neighbor said she saw Denise walking out as she was coming in,” she says.
“A drug dealer lived in that building. It was 1970. The year after Woodstock. If a teenager died in Woodside it was in Vietnam or an OD. Nobody was killing teenage girls.”
Diehl says the family waited all night for Denise to come home.
“My parents reported her missing the next day,” she says. “Denise, my sister Pat and I all slept in the same room. Denise’s empty bed made us cry every night. My mother wouldn’t let anyone disturb my birthday party setting on the table for a week.”
“The cops were sure her boyfriend had nothing to do with Denise’s disappearance,” she says. “We never believed he did either. In fact, he came home to help us search the basements and stairways and rooftops of the Mets. I searched the streets of Greenwich Village to see if she ran away with hippies. I thought of Manson’s cult that killed Sharon Tate the year before. Every time a cult did a mass suicide like in Jonestown I searched the names and faces of the dead.”
When her father got a tip that Denise was spotted in Maine, he drove the family up there to search. Dead end.
“My father refused to ever file a life insurance claim because that would be admitting Denise was dead,” she says. “He died believing Denise was still alive. My mother is still alive living in Florida and at 81 still believes Denise is alive and coming home.”

 

[hot cawfeee]

Great sleuthing all round as always......fast questions------with regard to the found ring-- could it be D"&"C ...meaning Donna & Carl
boys school ring-what school and was it engraved ???
Did Denise have a summer job ? Possibly she met someone there, went to a bar for a drink to cool off and up with someone ?
wonder if the local precinct had a prostitution problem in the area ?

 

[masquerading]

I'd be interested to know if Denise had been in trouble for drinking prior to this. I know it was a completely different time back then, but her parents may have still disapproved if she did it often or came home drunk more than once. Just a curious thought.

My feeling is that she really only meant to go for a walk or stay with a friend for the night so that her mother could cool off, but something went horribly wrong. To me, the idea of her trying to hitch a ride to Pennsylvania to be with her boyfriend doesn't seem too far fetched. I don't think she would've been trying to run away/disappear forever, just long enough for things to simmer down at home. If she tried to leave, she easily could've accepted a ride from the wrong "helpful stranger" and wound up in a horrific situation. Or she could have ran into someone on the street, if it turns out that she was just taking a walk. The UID with the gold ring seems like a promising lead. Hoping there's a resolution soon.

 

[theshadow45]

Bumping for Denise, today is her birthday.

 

[theshadow45]

Denise has been missing for 48 years today.

 

[madamx]

Denise has been missing for 48 years today.

Thank you the shadow45 for remembering Denise.. I live so close.. I pass by here all the time and think of her.. makes me sad.. Its weird I had a thought just now as I was going to post the link to google maps for the block.. I just thought she lived really close to the cemetery, I wonder if anyone was being buried ant that same time and she was dumped in the hole before it was covered.. just a thought that popped in my head.

48 years someone should of seen something!!

this is the block she lived on.
Google Maps

 

[Mysteries1974]

Denise may be a possible match for a Jane doe found in Florida in 1971. I am submitting the matches to doe

 

[madamx]

Denise may be a possible match for a Jane doe found in Florida in 1971. I am submitting the matches to doe

Omg Mysteries1974 really?! Wow that is awesome. I have known about this case forever . I grew up and live just blocks from where she lived and disappeared!
Crossing my fingers and please keep us posted. Thank you. I always thought she is the UID w the clogs and ring found at the beach in Long Island.

 

[Mysteries1974]

Just before I was about to submit the match I did further resaearch and found that the Jane doe and Denise did not have many similarities but I will not give up hope.

 

[HelpingHeart]

Was there a subway nearby the apt, and did that train go as far as Islip?

 

[madamx]

Was there a subway nearby the apt, and did that train go as far as Islip?

The number 7 train has been on queens Blvd there since the 1930s. Which would be like 3 or 4 blocks from the apartments. Now there is a connection to the Long Island Railroad on 61st which is only 2 subway stops from the subway stop closest to her apartment. The thing is I don't know if that connection was there in 1970. Good thought though.!!!

As far as I could remember growing up we always took the train to the city (the opposite direction) and the people that ever went to Long Island went by car or bus I think.