PA PA - Martha, 17, & Sandra Stiver, 14, Philadelphia, 1968

[OkieGranny]

http://fox43.com/2014/07/07/berks-c...=Feed:+fox43/jndg+(WPMT+-+News)#axzz36mnTAGP5

The Berks County Coroner’s Office will be holding a press conference today, to talk about a homicide case more than 40 years old.

The family of Sandra Ann Stiver will also be there.

 

[Richrd]

Stiver Family Visits The Former Resting Place Of Their Loved Ones

Mon., Jul 7th: http://www.wgal.com/news/46yearold-cold-case-takes-center-stage-in-berks-county/26823990#!97jTZ**

Includes Video

Mon., Jul 7th: http://hosted2.ap.org/PASCR/a9680d7...dentified/id-ed18cb4aee6f4f23b75d11a890f447b4:*

Includes Press Conference Photos

**Latest Autopsy revealed that Sandra Ann, then 14, died from Multiple Gun Shot Wounds;

The Cause of Death of Sister-In-Law Martha, then 17, is Undetermined.

Mon., Jul 7th: http://lancasteronline.com/news/pen...cle_dbc508d4-f4e7-53b3-b6cb-c7b6fad15ca4.html

As Always: PA Crimestoppers - 1-800-4PA-TIPS - https://www.crimewatchpa.com/crimestoppers/


Slow, But Steady Progress In This Tragic Case.

 

[apearn]

Wow! I'm glad to see then ID'd.

 

[OkieGranny]

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/family-68-murder-victim-accept-remains-24451081

The family of a teenager whose bullet-riddled remains were recently identified in eastern Pennsylvania 46 years after she ran away from home say they won't be satisfied until they find out the identity of her killer.

The family of Sandra Ann Stiver accepted her cremated remains at a news conference Monday at the Berks County coroner's office near Reading.

"We're sad and we're hurt and we're mad," said Sandy's sister, Hazel Demoss, of Richfield, Ohio. "We want to know who did it."

 

[Paradise]

Family Accepts Remains

http://m.wfmz.com/family-of-missing...-her-remains-appeals-for-information/26824226

 

[Richrd]

Stiver Family's Grateful Interview With Local Media

Sat. July 19th: http://readingeagle.com/news/article/steven-henshaw-old-missing-persons-case-is-new-to-many-in-media

Should You encounter a Subscription Barrier:

Copy: Old missing persons case is new to many in media

Paste Into: www.google.com

Also: Recent, Additional Thread by OkieGranny, and Paradise:
http://www.websleuths.com/forums/sh...ver-Philadelphia-1968&p=10714025#post10714025


May We Have Even More Progress In The Near Future.

 

[Roselvr]

Stiver Family's Grateful Interview With Local Media

Sat. July 19th: http://readingeagle.com/news/article/steven-henshaw-old-missing-persons-case-is-new-to-many-in-media

Should You encounter a Subscription Barrier:

Copy: Old missing persons case is new to many in media

Paste Into: www.google.com

Also: Recent, Additional Thread by OkieGranny, and Paradise:
http://www.websleuths.com/forums/sh...ver-Philadelphia-1968&p=10714025#post10714025


May We Have Even More Progress In The Near Future.

Google cache direct link - Steven Henshaw: Old missing persons case is new to many in media

 

[OkieGranny]

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/2...y_of_Philly_teens_who_disappeared_in__68.html

Sandy's sister, Hazel DeMoss, of Ohio, and her brother, Walt Sterner, of Northeast Philadelphia, visited both locations yesterday for the first time since DNA tests confirmed that Sandy, 14, and their sister-in-law, Martha Stiver, 17, were the unidentified Jane Does buried in that potter's field...

DeMoss believes that Sandy and Martha's murders are tied to the infamous murder of a young couple at a Berks County amusement park in 1969. Two members of the Pagans Motorcycle Club were sentenced to life in prison based on the testimony of two other club members, James "A'rab" Eways and Harlin "Wolfman" Bailey.

A book about the case, The Dreamland Park Murders, claims one of the convicted murderers, LeRoy "Elroy" Stoltzfus, said Eways had "bragged about killing some girls before the Dreamland Park thing."

 

[SurrealisticSlumbers]

The photos may have been kept as a souvenir; a trophy of sorts. Add to this, that the girls' underwear had been "rolled off" of the remains, indicating sexual assault…He's where he needs to be, at least (if it is indeed this Eways character).

On another note, when perusing various news articles about the IDs, I noticed that very little was said about Martha or how her family is coping with it. It's all Sandy's family, in the photos and interviews. I am sensing a tiny bit of resentment from Sandy's family towards Martha, maybe because Martha was the older teen, and could have done a better job of keeping them both out trouble. Even though both girls were referred to as "wild" by the family. I have only to wonder what that even means, because these are teenage girls we're talking about, who aren't known for having the best critical thinking skills, and these were indeed the "flower power" years of free love, drugs and rock 'n roll. Did they smoke pot; were they promiscuous? Martha was evidently 17 years old - why did she marry Sandy's brother so young? Was she pregnant, and the families insisted on a marriage to "make things right," only to have the baby miscarried or stillborn? Maybe she was even the one to influence Sandy to come run away with her. She was tired of being tied down to hearth and home, at only 17… and we can only speculate that Sandy probably viewed her as a cool, older sister figure (I didn't hear any mention of other siblings in the news articles besides Hazel, or, any siblings older than she, leading me to conclude that she was the firstborn). After all, they were found with basically the same exact pair of sandals, as though Martha had seen them in a store window and wanted a pair, and so Sandy just had to have the same pair. It seems like these girls were just hanging out with the wrong crowd and were living in a time when there weren't a ton of resources set up for investigating the disappearance of a couple of teen runaways, which was all too ubiquitous. This really went under LE's nose for way too long, it's ridiculous in my opinion. That being said, my money's on Eways as being the killer.

 

[Bobby88]

The photos may have been kept as a souvenir; a trophy of sorts. Add to this, that the girls' underwear had been "rolled off" of the remains, indicating sexual assault…He's where he needs to be, at least (if it is indeed this Eways character).

On another note, when perusing various news articles about the IDs, I noticed that very little was said about Martha or how her family is coping with it. It's all Sandy's family, in the photos and interviews. I am sensing a tiny bit of resentment from Sandy's family towards Martha, maybe because Martha was the older teen, and could have done a better job of keeping them both out trouble. Even though both girls were referred to as "wild" by the family. I have only to wonder what that even means, because these are teenage girls we're talking about, who aren't known for having the best critical thinking skills, and these were indeed the "flower power" years of free love, drugs and rock 'n roll. Did they smoke pot; were they promiscuous? Martha was evidently 17 years old - why did she marry Sandy's brother so young? Was she pregnant, and the families insisted on a marriage to "make things right," only to have the baby miscarried or stillborn? Maybe she was even the one to influence Sandy to come run away with her. She was tired of being tied down to hearth and home, at only 17… and we can only speculate that Sandy probably viewed her as a cool, older sister figure (I didn't hear any mention of other siblings in the news articles besides Hazel, or, any siblings older than she, leading me to conclude that she was the firstborn). After all, they were found with basically the same exact pair of sandals, as though Martha had seen them in a store window and wanted a pair, and so Sandy just had to have the same pair. It seems like these girls were just hanging out with the wrong crowd and were living in a time when there weren't a ton of resources set up for investigating the disappearance of a couple of teen runaways, which was all too ubiquitous. This really went under LE's nose for way too long, it's ridiculous in my opinion. That being said, my money's on Eways as being the killer.

According to an article in the Daily Mail about the girls being identified:

"When they moved, Martha - who was married to one of the Stiver's sons - had left her one-year-old daughter behind with family members, and some guessed the girls had headed back to get her."

The fact that there was a baby left behind who would now be in her forties makes it even more puzzling why there isn't more information about Martha's family's reaction to all of this. And if the girls were in fact headed to Kansas City to get the baby, it was probably Martha's idea since it was her child. Do we even know what became of the Stiver son who was married to her at the time? It's like everyone's focusing on Sandy because she was the younger of the two.

​

 

[SurrealisticSlumbers]

Thank you for this information. Sheds more light on the overall situation. I'm not inclined to believe everything I hear in the DM (given that it's got the reputation as being a tabloid) but sometimes they get it right.

 

[Bobby88]

The photos may have been kept as a souvenir; a trophy of sorts. Add to this, that the girls' underwear had been "rolled off" of the remains, indicating sexual assault…He's where he needs to be, at least (if it is indeed this Eways character).

On another note, when perusing various news articles about the IDs, I noticed that very little was said about Martha or how her family is coping with it. It's all Sandy's family, in the photos and interviews. I am sensing a tiny bit of resentment from Sandy's family towards Martha, maybe because Martha was the older teen, and could have done a better job of keeping them both out trouble. Even though both girls were referred to as "wild" by the family. I have only to wonder what that even means, because these are teenage girls we're talking about, who aren't known for having the best critical thinking skills, and these were indeed the "flower power" years of free love, drugs and rock 'n roll. Did they smoke pot; were they promiscuous? Martha was evidently 17 years old - why did she marry Sandy's brother so young? Was she pregnant, and the families insisted on a marriage to "make things right," only to have the baby miscarried or stillborn? Maybe she was even the one to influence Sandy to come run away with her. She was tired of being tied down to hearth and home, at only 17… and we can only speculate that Sandy probably viewed her as a cool, older sister figure (I didn't hear any mention of other siblings in the news articles besides Hazel, or, any siblings older than she, leading me to conclude that she was the firstborn). After all, they were found with basically the same exact pair of sandals, as though Martha had seen them in a store window and wanted a pair, and so Sandy just had to have the same pair. It seems like these girls were just hanging out with the wrong crowd and were living in a time when there weren't a ton of resources set up for investigating the disappearance of a couple of teen runaways, which was all too ubiquitous. This really went under LE's nose for way too long, it's ridiculous in my opinion. That being said, my money's on Eways as being the killer.

I thought about this and I think you might be onto something. Both girls were described as being wild, but perhaps Sandy was more of a follower and the family saw Martha, who was still a fairly recent addition to the family at the time, as a bad influence. Maybe they didn't like Martha to begin with and only begrudgingly accepted her into their home because she got pregnant and married the son. If that's true, then whatever bad influence she may have been on Sandy was probably just icing on the cake in their book.

In fact, if you look at the picture of Sandy with her hair in a bouffant, she does look considerably older than 14. Even though the photo is in black and white, it looks like she has very heavy eye makeup on. If you put that pic side by side with the single grainy pic of Martha, they even kind of look alike.

 

[Bobby88]

I don't know what made me just think of this, but I take it that the two girls in the photos in the hangar are Martha and Sandy? If not, were they ever identified?

 

[JupiterAmmon]

I don't know what made me just think of this, but I take it that the two girls in the photos in the hangar are Martha and Sandy? If not, were they ever identified?

Came here to ask that as well. Let me know if you find out the answer.

 

[SurrealisticSlumbers]

Bobby, I believe that it has been identified as a picture of them. When seeing family photos of Martha and Sandy, you can see the resemblance between them and the girls in the picture. I never read anything else about the pic in online news stories but am going to assume this to be the case.

 

[Gardener1850]

[h=1]Remains of slain girls found, but 1968 murders remain unsolved[/h]

Sandra Stiver, 14, and her sister-in-law, Martha Stiver, 17, vanished in 1968 after running away from their home in Philadelphia.

According to Reading Eagle reports, Sandy's body was discovered in August 1968 in Caernarvon Township with five gunshot wounds. The following April, Martha's skeletal remains were found a few miles away in French Creek State Park.

Local authorities say both girls were murdered. The Stiver family, later moving to Ohio, had no idea of what had been done to their relatives, who lay in graves marked Jane Doe.

A breakthrough came when DeMoss found information on the Berks County Jane Does website.

In October 2013, using an old cemetery map and ground-penetrating radar, Reading police exhumed the bodies for DNA confirmation. Finally, on July 8, 2014, the Berks County coroner gave a box containing the ashes of Sandra Ann Stiver to her 87-year-old mother, according to Reading Eagle reports. At the news conference in Reading, DeMoss said, "We're sad and we're hurt and we're mad. We want to know who did it."

http://www.readingeagle.com/voices/...-girls-found-but-1968-murders-remain-unsolved

 

[Richard]

Should be moved to "identified".

 

[imstilla.grandma]

Philadelphia police are hoping a new website can bring justice in some of the city’s unsolved murders.

Philadelphia Police Deputy Commissioner Dennis Wilson and Homicide Unit Capt. Jason Smith will unveil PhillyUnsolvedMurders.com at a Thursday afternoon news conference.

The site, which was not yet live as of Thursday morning, is going to serve as a tool for homicide detectives trying to bring some closure for people devastated by losing a loved one, police said.

“While solving these cases will not bring back those whose lives were taken, it may offer victims’ families and friends some sense of resolution,” the department said in a news release.

Solving an Unsolved Murder Could Now Be Just a Click Away

 

[Richard]

In the summer of 1968, two Philadelphia girls, 14-year-old Sandy Stiver and her 17-year-old sister-in-law Martha Stiver, disappeared from their home. In August of that same year, the body of a young girl was found near Joanna, Pennsylvania, approximately 50 miles northwest of Philadelphia. She had been shot several times with a .22.

Eight months later, in April 1969, the skeletal remains of another young female were found approximately five miles away from the remains in Joanna at the French Creek State Park by a man looking for mushrooms. Although no cause of death could be determined, the manner of death was determined to be probable homicide.

Because of the proximity in the ages of the two females and the fact that they were wearing identical white, Italian sandals, it was believed that the deaths were related. Despite exhaustive efforts to identify the girls, no leads were developed, and both were buried in adjoining, unmarked graves in the Berks County Potter’s Field near Reading, Pennsylvania...

LINKS:

Identified After 46 Years: Sandy and Martha Stiver - Forensic Anthropology Consulting Services, Inc

www.forensicscsi.com

Bodies ID'd as Phila. teens missing since 1968

Two bodies from a Pennsylvania graveyard were identified through DNA as related teen girls who ran away and disappeared 46 years ago

www.cbsnews.com

Bodies of two missing women identified in Berks County

The bodies of two women that were exhumed from a Berks County field last fall have now been identified. Authorities say they have found the remains of 17-year-old Martha Stiver and her sister-in-law, 14-year-old Sandra Stiver, who went missing from Philadelphia in 1968.

www.wgal.com

Berks County remains identified as missing Philly teens

Authorities have identified remains that were exhumed in Berks County as those of two Philadelphia teens reported missing in the 1960s.

6abc.com