PA PA - Economy Borough, Beaver Co, WhtFem 40-80, UP13338, embalmed head, gray hair, Dec'14

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*Warning: disturbing information in article below.*

News article: http://www.timesonline.com/news/loc...cle_1b025e36-994b-11e5-9f79-6bd2685058d5.html

Highlights: Isotope testing on her hair is underway. She is not believed to be local. Plans are underway for a local burial. A volunteer forensic artist is working on new images with glasses and longer hair (mfenner, you had the right idea!) And *disturbing information warning* her eyes were replaced inappropriately with items that have no place in the realm of embalming/cremation. There's no mention of eye/cornea donation in the latest article.

NamUs updates: Her age is now given as 40-80. Still only one ruleout (the MP's gender and race don't match the UID's, but he was last seen a little over two months before the UID was found, which might explain why a comparison was made.)
 
As baffling as this case is, I have high hopes that this lady's identity will be found soon. Will keep checking this thread for updates. Thanks for all your work, WS'ers!
 
Paradise said:
Could the eyes have been removed to hinder identification?
Click to expand...

Would that work? I can't imagine someone saying "Nope. That can't be grandma, she had eyes, not those red balls."

I wonder if the eyes were taken before a viewing, and balls inserted to give fullness to closed eyelids. Or it could be a weird random thing done by a guanopsychotic, the kind of person who might also leave an embalmed head by the road...
Isotope analysis of hair says she was not local to Beaver County but WAS regional. If only LE would use familial DNA and forensic genealogists they could find relatives in the region they know she lived in during her last few months. There would likely be someone who knew who she was.

I don't know why they won't do it in most cases. Could be an institutional mistrust of new methods. I hope that changes. The DNA database grows daily. The kind of DNA LE runs limits comparisons severely.
 
I think there's a good chance that she had her hair cut regularly. Wish there was a way to circulate the images to all the salons in the areas that it was determined she'd been before her death. There's a good possibility IMO that one of her former hairdressers would recognize her.
 
http://cnews.canoe.com/CNEWS/Crime/2015/12/14/22583331.html
storage.canoe.com.jpg

"ECONOMY, Pa. - Investigators said on Monday that red balls had been placed in the eye sockets of a woman's embalmed head found a year ago in a case that may be linked to a growing black market for body parts.

Economy Borough Police Chief Michael O'Brien at a news conference appealed to the public for help identifying the woman, whose head was discovered in the woods by a child walking home in the rural town about 22 miles (35 km) northwest of Pittsburgh on Dec. 12, 2014.

Despite nearly 30 leads from the public following publication of artist renderings and a bust of the woman's head, she remains unidentified, police said. She was described as Caucasian and about age 50.

Beaver County District Attorney Anthony Berosh said an investigation is under way and it encompasses a range of possibilities.

"There's a black market on body parts and that market is pretty extensive," Berosh said."
 
http://www.brantfordexpositor.ca/20...nnsylvania-may-be-linked-to-body-parts-market
rbbm

Holding up a toy red rubber ball that was similar to those discovered in the woman's eye sockets, O'Brien said funeral home directors and medical examiners all told police that they "have never even heard of this type of use to replace eyes that have been enucleated from the body."

Beaver County Coroner Teri Tatalovich-Rossi said the head was severed with jagged cuts on the exterior, and more precise cuts on the interior. The time of death could not be determined due to the embalming fluid.

Toxicology reports indicate the woman had trace amounts of drugs used to treat cardiac distress in her system, suggesting she may have died from heart failure, O'Brien said.

New information from hair and tooth enamel indicates that in the seven months leading up to her death, she moved up to four times and possibly lived in southwestern Pennsylvania, central Pennsylvania, eastern Ohio, northern West Virginia, northern Maryland or eastern New York, O'Brien said. Her last dental work was likely performed in the 1990s.
Click to expand...
 
Why would anyone even bother to put red balls in the woman's eye sockets?
Is there some kind of significance in doing that?
 
My guess is that she might have been homeless. Very sad, very disturbing.
 
dotr said:
Why would anyone even bother to put red balls in the woman's eye sockets?
Is there some kind of significance in doing that?
Click to expand...

(I have googled some strange things in my time here, add to the list "red balls eye sockets"...)
 
margarita25 said:
Maybe to keep the eye cavity from collapsing or something like that after surgery, I don't know...
Not really wanting to google anymore....disturbing...
Click to expand...

That would make sense if they were put there during a normal procedure, but cannot understand why go to the "trouble" if the body parts were treated so disrespectfully, hmm- cultural thing, freaky ritual, joke?
imo. speculation.

Lol also googled red balls in sockets and kind of wish I had not!
 
Magnum P.E. said:
Would that work? I can't imagine someone saying "Nope. That can't be grandma, she had eyes, not those red balls."

I wonder if the eyes were taken before a viewing, and balls inserted to give fullness to closed eyelids. Or it could be a weird random thing done by a guanopsychotic, the kind of person who might also leave an embalmed head by the road...
Isotope analysis of hair says she was not local to Beaver County but WAS regional. If only LE would use familial DNA and forensic genealogists they could find relatives in the region they know she lived in during her last few months. There would likely be someone who knew who she was.

I don't know why they won't do it in most cases. Could be an institutional mistrust of new methods. I hope that changes. The DNA database grows daily. The kind of DNA LE runs limits comparisons severely.
Click to expand...

It's not legal in many states. If it's related to criminal activity it may fall under "fishing," which is generally not allowed, or invasion of the privacy of noninvolved people. Your DNA is still considered private, and investigators aren't allowed to just go rummaging through it just on the hope they'll find a connection.
 
I am baffled by this case.

I live about 1 hour and 15 minutes away from where the head was found.

One thing that no one has mentioned is that there is a " body farm" about 1 hour 20 minutes away from where the head was found ( very close to where I live).

This is a remote facility located 45 miles southeast of the city of Pittsburgh. It has access to over 200 donated acres. This facility also conducts crime scene investigation training and other related activates.
It is the first in the Northeast and opened in 2011 in conjunction with California University of Pennsylvania.

I do not have any solid theories at this point , but am dumbfounded by the fact that the head was embalmed ( as I'm sure everyone else is).

I cannot understand the value of black market organs once they've been embalmed. It would render them useless. Authorities also stated that the embalming process pointed more towards a medical school as opposed to a funeral home.

I read a bit on that subject and they say that a medical schools purpose is to preserve the body as long as possible, not make it look good , so they use a much stronger concentration of fluids.
I also read that they once they've embalmed a body that they may keep it up to 2 years for medical research before cremating the remains.

So, funeral home, body farm , crematorium, medical school ?

Which makes the most sense ?

I would say that funeral home is ruled out due to the medical school type embalming process.

Would they place an embalmed body on a body farm? I have no idea.

Organ trade ? Organs would be useless once embalmed ( unless they were harvested prior to embalming).

I am rambling a bit , just trying to get my thoughts in order.

My guess at this point with the little information that I have is that perhaps this ( unfortunately) was a prank / stunt or dare which involves medical students or someone with access to the bodies.

I feel that if someone was involved with organ harvesting that they would have attempted to put forth a better effort at concealing the head ( it was not buried).

But then there are the red balls that no one is familiar with !?

I guess all I have are more questions.
 
I had to look it up.

Here's How Much Body Parts Cost on the Black Market
17ke3i1irfaugjpg.jpg

http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--Vt1FPdow--/17ke3i1irfaugjpg.jpg

Full body image at link.
 
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