NY NY - Portland, Woleben Rd, UncFem 15-30, UP85157, in shallow grave, dead for decades, Sep'21

Update To Be Provided After Remains Found In Portland

MAYVILLE — New information regarding the discovery of two sets of human remains last week in the town of Portland will soon be provided.

A press conference has been set for 9:30 a.m. Thursday in Mayville, Chautauqua County Sheriff James Quattrone said. News from the conference will be shared by The Post-Journal as it’s made available.
 
Sheriff: Remains Found In Portland Are Of Missing Buffalo Woman

MAYVILLE — Remains found last week in the town of Portland have been confirmed to be that of a missing Buffalo woman, 50-year-old Marquita Mull, Chautauqua County Sheriff James Quattrone said Thursday. The first set of remains have yet to be identified, though Quattrone said during a press conference in Mayville that they are not of Lori Ceci Bova or Corrie Anderson, both reported missing from Chautauqua County.

Mull was reported missing July 18; she was last seen alive in June. Quattrone said the Sheriff’s Office has been working with police in Buffalo and noted that due to the manner of disposal, foul play is suspected in Mull’s death
 
Marquita was last seen in June.

It's the other body that has not been identified yet that "has been in the ground for decades as one of the articles said.

UPDATE: Remains Found Of Missing Buffalo Woman; First Set Not Identified

"The remains of the unidentified woman were found on Sept. 26 by a hiker on the Chautauqua County Rails to Trails off of Woleben Road. That individual found what she believed was a human skull. Officers secured the scene and brought out a specialist from Mercyhurst University’s Anthropology Division the following morning. Investigators did some excavating of the scene and recovered the skeletal remains from a shallow grave, about 6 inches deep. Quattrone said the body is estimated to have been in the ground for “decades.”

Last seen alive in June is not decades :/
 
Two people, so close, both with no reason to be there- wonder if we have an active serial killer in WNY?
I've thought this for some time. There are just too many unsolved murders of women--I currently live in a county a few hours away with a much higher population, and we have basically none. However, when I've talked to a friend of the family in law enforcement, he says that LE knows what happened in most of the cases. They just can't prove it. I think he's full of it!
 
Portland find needs more time

Local investigators are awaiting results on a few fronts to help piece together what led to two bodies being left in the woods in the town of Portland.

The first step to potentially solving that mystery, according to Lt. Alex Nutt of the Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Office, likely requires identifying the first set of remains to determine if there is any connection to another set found nearby.
 
Results from forensic DNA tests conducted on a sample of skeletal remains by state crime lab were "inconclusive," Chautauqua County Sheriff Jim Quattrone said Wednesday.

"They weren't able to do an accurate profile," he said.
-----------------------------------------

Quattrone said the sheriff's office will send another bone to the state lab for another round of analysis. He said he happens to be going to Albany next week anyways and will hand deliver the evidence himself.

ID of skeletal remains found off Chautauqua path remains mystery
 
This is another possibility for the found remains, decades old -

Canada's Missing | Case details

In case the link doesn't work well the missing person is Madeleine Marie Theresa Van Overdijk.
Reported missing from Brantford, Ontario 12 March 1973 by her husband.

Madeleine use to be in an OPP database of missing persons with much more detail than the RCMP gave her when the OPP database closed and was merged into an RCMP database. Madeleine and her husband made a weekend trip to New York over the weekend of 10 - 11 March 1973 and he reported her missing on Monday 12 March when he returned from work. He claimed Madeleine was going to Toronto that morning (from Brantford). Have always found the detailed description of what she was wearing to be a little too detailed, and have always wondered why the $150 she was supposed to have on her was described as Canadian currency.

I hope LE will check if this is Madeleine. I once asked NY LE to check if another skull found in NY could be her - never heard back nor do I know if DNA is available to identify Madeleine if she ever was found. Pretty sure Madeleine never came back to Canada that weekend. Jmo.

Chautauqua county fits will with a border crossing at Buffalo.
 
Unidentified Person / NamUs #UP85157
Female, Uncertain
Date Body Found: September 26, 2021
Location Found: Portland, New York
Estimated Age Range: 15-30 Years

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

Circumstances of Recovery: On 9/26/21 a citizen was on the Rails to Trails system in the Town of Portland. The citizen stated that she was near the trail head off of Woleben Road when she located what appeared to be a human skull in the woods near the trail. Members of the Sheriff's Office went to the scene and confirmed that the skull was human. There were other skeletal remains with the skull. It appears that this set of remains may have been there for decades. A second set of human remains was located in the same area. Those remains have been identified and are estimated to be several months old.
 
5 Exclusions
MP8139 Corrie Anderson 10/28/2008 Chautauqua, NY
MP2885 Leichia Reilly 01/31/1985 Erie, NY
MP10278 Lori Bova 06/07/1997 Chautauqua, NY
MP2499 Barbara Shumac 12/16/1982 Erie, PA
MP2886 Anjanette Piotrowski 10/17/1994 Erie, NY
 
Fwiw, the OPP assured me in an e-mail this afternoon that they will look into the possibility that the decades old remains are those of Madeleine Van Overdijk. This has been passed back to them from the RCMP site (who I contacted this am) and the OPP will likely work in conjunction with Brantford LE.

Have always wanted Madeleine to be found someday. Others as well of course, but have always seen this as a possible 'she didn't see it coming' scenario.
 
Yesterday I asked the OPP to advise if MVO has been excluded as a possibility for these remains or is it still undetermined.

Not sure if they will respond or not. Not sure that Brantford LE will respond either. Not sure that Brantford LE ever established a way to identify MVO if her remains were ever found.

Frustrating.
 
It's going to be several months at best before they get usable DNA for identification.

"Quattrone said the sheriff's office will send another bone to the state lab for another round of analysis. He said he happens to be going to Albany next week anyways and will hand deliver the evidence himself.

At the same time, DNA tests are being conducted by the FBI in Quantico, a process that can take four to six months, Quattrone said."

ID of skeletal remains found off Chautauqua path remains mystery
 

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