Identified! OH - Dobbstown, 'Belle in the Well' WhtFem UP6259, 30-60, in cistern, Apr'81 - Louise Petersen

[Kat]

http://dailyindependent.com/local/x947029600/Body-exhumed-in-Ohio-cold-case

Body exhumed in Ohio cold case

June 16, 2011
Kenneth Hart The Independent

County, Ohio, authorities on Wednesday exhumed the body of a woman killed 30 years ago in an attempt to learn her identity.

and:

NamUs has already excluded 13 people as the unidentified woman, Sheriff Jeff Lawless said.

NamUs profile:

https://identifyus.org/cases/6259

Ruleouts listed on page:

Kristy Booth 1960 Texas
Barbara Cotton 1965 North Dakota
Laura Flink 1947 Washington
Rachael Garden 1964 New Hampshire
Paulette Jaster 1954 Michigan
Kimberly King 1966 Michigan
Gloria Korzon 1943 Pennsylvania
Sheila Lyon 1962 Maryland
Nadine O'dell 1958 Michigan
Mary Sprague 1960 Florida
Belinda VanLith 1957 Minnesota
Lisa White 1961 Connecticut
April Zane 1960 Illinois

This UID female's body was discovered in a cistern/well. She was too badly decomposed for her identity to be determined by the methods used at that time.

I did not look for any UID pages on other sites.

 

[CarlK90245]

I did not look for any UID pages on other sites.

I don't see her listed in DoeNet.

This body was found two days before Buckskin Girl (also in Ohio), though she was obviously killed much earlier.

 

[CarlK90245]

Sandra Flynn Fisher was last seen only 20 miles away in Russell Spring KY. (I can't find a Dobbstown OH in Google Maps, but Chesapeake OH is the city listed in NamUs).

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/f/fisher_sandra.html
https://www.findthemissing.org/cases/2236/1

Her listed height (5'4") is within an inch of the 5'3" estimate, and her listed weight 150 is within the 130-150 lb "Living weight" estimate (In the Circumstances Section of the NamUs UP casefile).

 

[CarlK90245]

Sandra Flynn Fisher was last seen only 20 miles away in Russell Spring KY. (I can't find a Dobbstown OH in Google Maps, but Chesapeake OH is the city listed in NamUs).

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/f/fisher_sandra.html
https://www.findthemissing.org/cases/2236/1

Her listed height (5'4") is within an inch of the 5'3" estimate, and her listed weight 150 is within the 130-150 lb "Living weight" estimate (In the Circumstances Section of the NamUs UP casefile).

:doh: I mistook the distance. I mistakenly plotted Russell KY, not Russell Springs. Russell Springs KY is 200 miles from Chesapeake OH.

BTW, Dobbstown is just up the road from Scottstown, in the vicinity of OH-State Rte. 217 E and Greasy Ridge Road.

 

[Barkley]

Regarding the Fischer girl from Kentucky, her Charley project page mentions she had ran away with the carnival twice before. She was at a fair when she disappeared. I wonder if there is anyway to find out if there was a fair in Ohio after she disappeared?

 

[nerosleuth]

NEW INFO: Examination Completed on Murder Victim From 30 Years Ago

UPDATE 6/22/11 @ 10:30 a.m.

WSAZ-TV from Huntington, West Virginia is reporting that the Lawrence County, Ohio Sheriff's Office recently reopened a 1981 cold case.

The body was recently exhumed and sent to the Boyd County, Kentucky Coroner's Office. The coroner took DNA samples from the body and also took a full body x-ray.

The Boyd County Coroner's Office concurred with the original autopsy that the unid victim was between 30 to 60 years old.

The coroner also found that the victim had a very pronounced overbite, a condition commonly known as "buck teeth".

UPDATE 6/15/11 @ 6 p.m.

In April 1981, two girls playing near their home on Wright Ridge found a woman's body placed down a cistern. The cause of death at the time -- strangulation.

Investigators say the victim was tied around the neck and weighted down to keep her down the well.

The coroner’s report from 1981 says the strangled body was in that well for six months to a year.

The body was so badly decomposed that there were no fingerprints, no identifying features at all.

The sheriff believes the murder victim, found with rubber bands on her wrists and weighing about 140 pounds, was likely not from the area.

ORIGINAL STORY 6/15/11 @ 11 a.m.

LAWRENCE COUNTY, Ohio (WSAZ) -- The investigation into the identity of a woman who was murdered 30 yeas ago has been reopened.

In April 1981, the unknown woman’s body was found in a cistern in the Dobbstown area of the county. Investigators at the time ruled the death a homicide.

The woman was wearing a red sweater and blue jeans with her hands covered by a pair of socks.

Source:

http://www.wsaz.com/news/headlines/Invesigation_into_Womans_Death_Reopened_123919809.html

 

[webrocket]

odd they could not discern a hair color. I understand that per the Namus profile there was no head hair but they said there was pubic hair. that should have indicated her likely hair color.

 

[webrocket]

here is an interesting possibility although the weight is off.

Jeanne Marie Scrima was last seen near Erie, PA in March 1980, was 5'3" and weighed 118 lbs. this interesting narrative is found in the DN profile:

Scrima's light blue 1977 Lincoln Continental was discovered abandoned several weeks after she was reported missing. It was seen in Ohio, and it passed through several hands in Ohio and ended up abandoned in Michigan on October 5, 1980.

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/947dfpa.html

here is her namus page:

https://www.findthemissing.org/cases/5498/0/

no reference to her having an overbite or buck teeth, although her front top teeth are visible in the DN page.

 

[CarlK90245]

Julia Helen Klachan
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/2508dfbc.html

* between 30 to 60 years old. - Check. (Age 31)
* buck teeth - Check.
* about 5 feet, 4 inches - Check (5'4").
* About 140 lbs. - Check (140 lbs).
* In the well six months to a year - Julia went missing a little over 2 years prior.

The circumstances and geography are pretty far off though - The circumstances hint at domestic violence, though that's not necessarily the case. However, if that was the case, I'm not sure how she would get from BC Canada to the backwoods of southern Ohio.

 

[Donjeta]

The ruleouts list has changed from Kat's post. Paulette Jaster has been removed and Ellen Akers added.

 

[webrocket]

I wonder if she is Linda Hamilton, missing from Mahoning County, OH on September 19, 1977.

Linda was 28 y.o., had buck teeth, eyeglasses, was about 5'6", 135 lbs.

Linda was just added to Namus last month.

https://www.findthemissing.org/cases/12363/3/

 

[tatertot]

I think it's worth an inquiry, webrocket! Per NamUs, DNA on Linda is submitted but tests aren't complete. Linda disappeared and her husband was killed during Edward Surratt's '77-78 spree and he confessed to their murders in 2007. He said the bodies of the only two victims who haven't been found were "unrecoverable by anybody's standards." Just my two cents but from his interviews he came across as very blunt and it seems as though if they were truly unrecoverable he'd say where they were and why they can't be found. I think his reluctance to reveal their whereabouts suggests that he knows there is some chance of recovery.

Per Charley Project, Linda's car was found near her workplace with bare female footprints and a man's bootprints leading from it, in some places appearing as though the woman had been dragged. This doesn't match with the socks found on the UID, but according to NamUs the socks were on her feet (two pairs, perhaps with the other layered clothing she was trying to be thrifty by turning down the thermostat at night) and according to the WSAZ article she had socks over her hands.

This is four hours from the scene of most of Surratt's murders, but he was a long-distance trucker and that might account for the distance. He killed his victims in various ways, which could account for the strangulation of the UID.

 

[webrocket]

here's Charley:

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/h/hamilton_linda.html

here's Doe:

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/2225dfoh.html

 

[CarlK90245]

Something i noticed from the NamUs page. The victim was missing the five rear-most teeth from her lower right side and all three molars from her lower left side. The notation says that they were lost antemortem, or prior to her death.

There was also excessive wear on her lower front teeth (probably from overuse to compensate for the missing rear molars).

And her upper front teeth were apparently knocked out at the time of her death.

Photographic images depict perimortem trauma to the premaxilla which resulted in avulsion of tooth 8 and 9

In layman's terms, there was a trauma to the area of the face between the teeth and nose which occurred at the time of death, and which crushed her two front teeth (i presume at the roots).

 

[CarlK90245]

Julia Helen Klachan
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/2508dfbc.html

* between 30 to 60 years old. - Check. (Age 31)
* buck teeth - Check.
* about 5 feet, 4 inches - Check (5'4").
* About 140 lbs. - Check (140 lbs).
* In the well six months to a year - Julia went missing a little over 2 years prior.

The circumstances and geography are pretty far off though - The circumstances hint at domestic violence, though that's not necessarily the case. However, if that was the case, I'm not sure how she would get from BC Canada to the backwoods of southern Ohio.

Something i noticed from the NamUs page. The victim was missing the five rear-most teeth from her lower right side and all three molars from her lower left side. The notation says that they were lost antemortem, or prior to her death.

...

Maybe I'm just imagining things, but looking at Julia's smile, it appears that her lower lip sort of collapses inward near the corners of her mouth.

But I still can't get past the difficulty explaining why she would end up in Southern Ohio, having gone missing from British Columbia, Canada.

 

[webrocket]

I'd submit Linda's name but it won't do any good. looking at details, her dental records are not available and DNA is pending.

as for the UID, they have dentals and DNA is pending.

in sum, there is nothing to compare yet.

 

[Ambercat]

I looked through NamUs and thought that Lonene Rogers https://www.findthemissing.org/cases/2662/4/, Elizabeth Pratt https://www.findthemissing.org/cases/9167/7/, Agnes Shoe https://www.findthemissing.org/cases/7073/14/, Patricia Barrett https://www.findthemissing.org/cases/12310/20/, and Saunders Rymerhttps://www.findthemissing.org/cases/560/25/ might be considered as possibilities. I tried to look at the photos and see who I thought had an overbite.

 

[Ambercat]

Donella Jean Coultas who went missing on December 18, 1979 got my attention because her Doe Network page says that she has "Buck teeth." http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/961dfca.html

I think there is a lot which is consistent between Ms. Coultas and the unidentified woman, yet Ms. Coultas went missing in South Pasadena, CA and that is quite a distance from Ohio.

 

[traacker13]

here is an interesting possibility although the weight is off.

Jeanne Marie Scrima was last seen near Erie, PA in March 1980, was 5'3" and weighed 118 lbs. this interesting narrative is found in the DN profile:

Scrima's light blue 1977 Lincoln Continental was discovered abandoned several weeks after she was reported missing. It was seen in Ohio, and it passed through several hands in Ohio and ended up abandoned in Michigan on October 5, 1980.

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/947dfpa.html

here is her namus page:

https://www.findthemissing.org/cases/5498/0/

no reference to her having an overbite or buck teeth, although her front top teeth are visible in the DN page.

Hi Webrocket! I found her while searching and thought she was a good possibility too. I'm just curious, Is she ruled out?

 

[ctaylor]

A recent update...

http://www.irontontribune.com/2012/04/25/reconstruction-of-%E2%80%98belle-in-well%E2%80%99-face-to-be-unveiled/

Reconstruction of ‘Belle in Well’ face to be unveiled
Published 9:39am Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Email Comments

A clay model of the face of the woman colloquially called the “Belle in the Well” could bring authorities closer to finding answers in a 30-year-old unidentified person case.

“It looks remarkably well,” Lawrence County Sheriff Jeff Lawless said. “If it is what she looked like, I have seen some amazing things happen across the nation.”

On Thursday at 1 p.m. Lawless and the county coroner’s office will unveil the model.

“Through media attention we want to try to get it out to as many people as we can,” Lawless said. “Who knows where she is actually from? Maybe she made enough friends that someone could recognize her.”

In June, the body of the woman was exhumed from an unmarked grave in the northern end of Lawrence County. The coroner’s office and the sheriff sought tissues from the body to see if DNA testing could lead to an identification. They are still awaiting the results of that.

...