PA PA - Janet Walsh, 70 - Shaler Township, in Allegheny County - 20 January 2020

Human skeletal remains found in Boyce Park | TribLIVE.com

Posting due to location (same county)

 

Thank you for posting. I have followed this case since the begining. No positive identification as of yet.

 

Hi,
Family of another missing person in the area have been told the bones are male, which rules out their loved one and also Janet.

 

JAN 22, 2021
1 year after Shaler woman went missing, police give update on investigation and ask public for help (wtae.com)
Allegheny County and Shaler Township police detectives are renewing their call for help to find a 70-year-old woman who was reported missing one year ago.

[...]

Police said she was supposed to meet her daughter for dinner but was not at home and did not contact her daughter.

County detectives learned that Walsh was last seen at church on Jan. 19, 2020.

[...]

 

Even if she was so sad and heartbroken over recent events that she decided to take her own life, it's nearly impossible to successfully make yourself disappear, much less with a car.
I'm a mile or two away and trying to think of anywhere she could have gone off the road that would not have been discovered. It's pretty densely populated, and it's not like we have lakes everywhere. Anybody have any theories?

 

This popped up on a missing persons in Pennsylvania Facebook page today. It is heartbreaking, especially because she has such a sweet smile and face.

I read somewhere than the canceled appointment was with a counselor or therapist, and wasn’t sure if anyone here has heard that or could confirm it. I did just read here that when she canceled the appointment she sounded congested or stuffed up. Was it due a cold or illness, or due to crying?

It sounds like she was close to her daughter. My thoughts would be if she took her own life, she would not have done it in a place that she would not be found as she would not want her daughter to experience that. There would have been a note left with her location.

That leads me to two other options. 1) Abduction. 2) Accident where the vehicle is out of sight.

1) Abduction seems unlikely to me, as there has been no mention of any items stolen or missing. I believe I read her debt card was unused, which also leans towards no abduction.

2) Accident seems to me to be the leading cause of Janet’s disappearance. How many cases have been talked about here where people and their vehicles have been either submerged in water or hidden by brush for years before they have been found. Were all the cameras belonging to businesses local to where Janet lived checked on either January 19th or 20th to see if they could narrow down a time and direction in which she might have been headed?

This is actually a great time to be searching in Pennsylvania if there is not snow on the ground. Leaves are off the trees and brush is dead.

Rivers and large bodies of water could be much more difficult. Why do I feel like if Janet’s SUV is in the water it would be harder to see because of its color?

This makes me so sad!

 

Police renewing push for information on woman missing for a year

Police in Shaler are renewing their push for information on a woman who has been missing for more than a year.

Janet Walsh, 70, was reported missing on Jan. 20, 2020.

 

In looking at the map, there do not seem to be any large bodies of water or rivers in the immediate area. There is Fall Run Park, that looks large and wooded, but also looks well used. If Janet had parked there, her vehicle would have been found.

I looked at the closest drug stores, and it looks like they are in the same area, about a couple minute drive to the northwest up Mount Royal Blvd. There is another drug store just south of her home that would be less than 10 minutes away, as well as grocery stores.

There are a lot of residential developments, but it certainly does not look like a “bad” area. Houses seem reasonably priced and well cared for. No obviously blighted neighborhoods where one, especially a single older woman, would fear for their safety.

Janet’s neighbor is lovely- neat and tidy, full of well kept homes. Homes that are close together. It seems like a neighborhood where the neighbors would notice if something strange were happening, like your neighbor was being abducted. The houses are close enough that you would most likely hear someone scream.

 

RSBM

Kiwanis Park is practically around the corner from Janet's home. It's not a huge park but get away from the ball fields and it pretty woodsy and there's only a couple of ways to get in. I would think/hope that it has been searched pretty thoroughly. The Allegheny River is only about 3 miles from her home. Is it possible for a car to end up in the river? Well, there are boat launches down there so I'd say yes it's possible.

 

Do you know how thoroughly the river was searched? Or how deep it is?

 

I'm not sure if you can see on whichever map you're using, but the whole township is ravines and hills. Roads wind. An accident would be very believable. If I knew where she was likely to travel, I would gladly see if a drone could look in places off the roads.
The weird thing is, at the top of ravines are usually neighborhoods, so it's not even like the woods go very deep anywhere. For example, Fall Run Park is basically a trail along a creek in a ravine. If you look up to the top on either side, you see the backs of the houses from the neighborhoods above. The entire area we live in is fully developed. A car would be likely be seen by someone in most of the ravines. I also don't see how she could have gone into the river, unless it was intentional, because she lives in a major metropolitan county. Things actually get more congested in the areas near the river. I don't personally know of any private places without driving north a good bit.

Feel free to make maps, circle places of interest. Whatever. I can explain what that area looks like in my experience, drive past it to check if her car could be there, or take pictures. Everything is right down the street from me.

 

From TribLive:

“The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh river rescue and Murrysville’s medical and dive team have been down on the (Allegheny) river at least four or five times when weather allowed,” Frank said.
Frank said the river became the focus of the search because “without this vehicle (being located), we made an assumption that she may have been into the water because we lost all track of her vehicle.
“It’s unusual that we haven’t even locate a vehicle, so we are really puzzled by this,” he said.
Allegheny County Police Lt. Venerando Costa said in addition to searching the river “multiple land searches” were performed.

Police renew call for tips to help locate Shaler woman missing since January 2020 | TribLIVE.com

The river is pretty deep, certainly deep enough to swallow a car. Back in 2003, a gentleman from Plum Boro disappeared. Three years later, he was found in his car in the Allegheny River near the Tarentum Bridge (about 15 miles upstream from Etna - near Shaler).

 

I lived in Shaler and Etna for several years so I'm pretty familiar with the area.

 

Wow, I missed all of that information!

I wonder if anyone has hiked the length of Pine Creek and Little Pine Creek just to look up the hillsides. Those are the main ravines on the map by the roads around her home that she might take and swerve off. Cars have been hidden in plain sight before so stranger things have happened. I truly don't see how she could be on a hillside somewhere and not be seen. What are your thoughts @CCJD ?

 

I have to go back to old articles to find her church. I know she had involvement. Just knowing things like her usual grocery store, the main family or friend she would visit, and her church location pretty much covers things most people would do in a week. As someone else said, most things are close so there isn't much reason to go far. If, for example, she had a someone she often visited up Route 28 or something, that change the perspective on everything.

 

I tend to doubt that anyone has hiked the lengths of Pine Creek & Little Pine Creek but I believe both creeks generally run behind or are otherwise close to houses, businesses, etc. Are accidents possible? Oh my, yes! Sometimes just over the hillsides, sometimes they land in a creek. While not an every day occurrence, they ,surprisingly, aren't that rare. In fact, there was one today in Hampton.
Hampton police investigating crash involving vehicle over a hillside | TribLIVE.com
Google Maps
They usually make the news because the creeks are, again, generally close enough to buildings so that someone sees the crash happen and dials 911. It's a pretty good bet that if Janet had gone over a hillside, someone would have heard it or seen it but, as you said, stranger things have happened and what I think might not be worth a hill of beans.

 

Here is a screenshot of the Accuweather report from January 2020. The 19th was warmer than the 20th. I wonder if it was warm enough on the 19th to cause any melting that would have refrozen overnight to cause slick and/or icy areas on the 20th, especially since the high on the 20th was only 27*.

 

This is an excellent post!

 

I do see in the information release by law enforcement that Janet’s cell phone was found upstairs in her house. There is no mention of a purse or handbag.

I am in my 50s, but I rarely go anywhere without my cell phone. I learned that lesson after running to the grocery store without it, and my car not starting when I went to return home. I also walk, hike and ride horses, so I have a tracking app on there so that it will alert my husband if I stop moving.

I can understand a woman older than me might not be quite as cell phone dependent, but I still find it unusual to not carry it with you if you are headed out, unless it was for a quick trip to the store, drug store, gas station, etc. and she only planned on being gone for a few minutes.

 

Janet Ann Walsh – The Charley Project



Walsh was last seen in Shaler Township, Pennsylvania on January 19, 2020. She had a scheduled therapy appointment the next afternoon, but canceled it. Her daughter was invited over for dinner on the evening of January 20. When Walsh's daughter arrived at her mother's residence in the 100 block of Dolores Drive, Walsh's vehicle wasn't there. Walsh's cellular phone was inside the residence upstairs, but there was no sign of her. She has never been heard from again.

Walsh's car, a silver and black 2018 Chevrolet Trax with the Pennsylvania license plate number KTW-6007, has never been located. A photo of it is posted with this case summary. The circumstances of her case are unclear.