Identified! TX - Huntsville, 'Walker County Jane Doe', WhtFem 14-16, 91UFTX, 1 November 1980 - id'd November 2021 - Sherri Ann Jarvis (14)

[CADwrest]

Thanks for your replies.

Based on the photo identification, I'm satisfied that the witnesses did indeed meet the victim, and it's not a coincidence with two different, similar looking girls. I just wanted to ask that question because I have seen doubt expressed on that.

Mia- no, never been to Huntsville, closest I've been to the area is Dallas. I just make judicious use of google maps! Ok, so the Gulf station is even FURTHER south than the Sonic. That's interesting...

It's late so I'm going to leave it for now. But this is good info, and why I wanted to try and nail down what we could. Because I'm wondering if the distance involved, the fact that she wasn't trying to reach the Hitchin Post, and the fact that it was way out of the direction she needed to go, might imply something interesting. I just really wish we had a time for her being there.

 

[paul1980]

This is unrelated but why does the law mandate that criminals be sentenced according to the laws at the time? we didn't take child sex crimes as seriously in the seventies but several criminals who were only brought to justice now have to be sentenced by the weak standards of the past?

 

[Alleykins]

This is unrelated but why does the law mandate that criminals be sentenced according to the laws at the time? we didn't take child sex crimes as seriously in the seventies but several criminals who were only brought to justice now have to be sentenced by the weak standards of the past?

Not an expert, but I believe it has to do with expos facto law.
http://www.dictionary.com/browse/ex-post-facto-law

 

[CADwrest]

This is unrelated but why does the law mandate that criminals be sentenced according to the laws at the time? we didn't take child sex crimes as seriously in the seventies but several criminals who were only brought to justice now have to be sentenced by the weak standards of the past?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ex_post_facto_law

It gets into ex post facto concerns, apparently. If I'm reading this right, as long as the act was a crime at the time it was commited, you can use modern enforcement guidelines to prosecute it, but only to the extent the enhancements aren't considered a "punishment".
I'm not an attorney, though, so take with a grain of salt.

 

[mia g]

Tonight I'm gonna attempt to draw a map .. of the area and the only routes I can figure .. then those that are good with google map will have a better idea of the lay out and the area .. will that help??


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[CADwrest]

That'd be great! I've looked around online quite a bit and can't figure out where it was!

 

[mia g]

the address of the South End Gulf Coast Gas Station... from there ( I feel) she'd have gone South to Hwy 19 once on 19 she'd have turned left ( 19 can be seen on the map) .. Mileage from Gulf station to Ellis ( if you go straight down hwy 19 ) to FM 980 ( the road Ellis is one) is 20.1 miles ( drove it today ! ( more discoverys in next post)


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[mia g]

Part 2
Okay I went to Huntsville met with some others and we drove several routes to see what made the most since ..and I figured something out . I feel certain BRoach. The owner of the station would have told her to go to Hwy 19 and follow it to fm 980! So IF WCJD did go that direction.. she would have come across Fm 2821... ( this is the first cross road she'd have come to that was "lit" up) . ( keep in mind it would have had to be dark by this time in October its after 630) So if for whatever reason she did go down FM 2821 it ends up basically at Hitchin Post. ALSO another discovery today there is a cross road FM 947 ( I think I'll have to double check that) but it goes to Ellis also ( now there is a sign marking it as a route to Ellis .. I'm pretty certain the sign wasn't there in 80 if it was it woulda been dark) ..
Now there are also a couple others to shoot across to Fm 2821 going through Huntsville .. the Hwy 19 makes most sense .. though.. but now with the street names the map folks will be able to have better knowledge ..


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[mia g]

the site WCJD was found it's on the right side of north bound I45 half way between mile marker 122 and 123 ( another land mark is its .5 miles south of FM 1696 exit) ..
There is a large culvert at this point . The side of the road drops very steeply .. and it drops right down into this culvert .. the culvert looks like a small very small stream and goes into the piney woods .. today there was standing water as far into the woods as we could see ..
disclaimer the pictures I posted in 2010 stung it was the area is incorrect I went about a quarter mile to far..


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[mia g]

another picture towards the culvert ..


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[rascal32]

It's been a year or two since my last revision, and I got to tinkering with it again.

I decided that my prior version had her looking too dolled up, and her hair too poofy. So I gave it another shot. I had based my prior version on the description indicating hair styled in "wing fashion". This time, I have her looking slightly younger and less make-up, with her hair more consistent with what I can see in the side-view PM photo.

I think this is the best one I've ever seen compared to the actual photos. I really think this is what she looked like. After likely being on the road and hitching she would probably have looked a little warn out. I really like this one!


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[mia g]

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[CarlK90245]

I am in Texas for a few days, so I decided to pay a visit Huntsville today (Saturday). I met "Mia G" and a friend from the Who Was WCJD FB page at the cemetery, and we spent several hours driving around to the various points of interest.

Mia G showed us where the gas station was located. It is now a vacant corner lot next to the Saint Stephen's Episcopal Church on 5019 Sam Houston Avenue. (The church was not there in 1980.)

We then drove to the entrance of the Ellis Unit (20 miles from the gas station), then to the Hitchin Post Truckstop (between 5 and 7 miles from the gas station, depending on the route), and then to the culvert aside I-45, where her body was dumped.

Several things were very obvious after this visit:
(1). The 20 miles from the gas station to the prison, starting at 6:30 pm was ridiculously too far for her to walk.

(2). The shortest route from the gas station to the Hitchin Post was the opposite direction from the route from the gas station to the prison.

(3). Mia G made the point that the most logical route to the prison would have taken her north on Sycamore to Hwy 190, left on hwy 190 to State hwy 247, and then north to State Hwy 980, which takes you to the Ellis Unit. It would seem that she likely missed the turn on Hwy 247, and continued along Hwy 190, which eventually leads back to the Hitchin Post on I-45. That is a 7-mile walk, and it would have been around 9 PM by then. By then, she would have been exhausted, and she was probably looking for somewhere to sleep.

(4) The hitchin post is adjacent to the northbound on ramp to I-45, and the dumping spot was only a few miles north of that.

IMO, the most likely scenario is that she encountered a trucker parked at the Hitchin Post, and asked if he would let her sleep in his truck. He probably killed her in the truck, and then pulled on to northbound I45, drove a few miles north, and then dumped her onto the embankment aside I-45.

 

[mia g]

I am in Texas for a few days, so I decided to pay a visit Huntsville today (Saturday). I met "Mia G" and a friend from the Who Was WCJD FB page at the cemetery, and we spent several hours driving around to the various points of interest.

Mia G showed us where the gas station was located. It is now a vacant corner lot next to the Saint Stephen's Episcopal Church on 5019 Sam Houston Avenue. (The church was not there in 1980.)

We then drove to the entrance of the Ellis Unit (20 miles from the gas station), then to the Hitchin Post Truckstop (between 5 and 7 miles from the gas station, depending on the route), and then to the culvert aside I-45, where her body was dumped.

Several things were very obvious after this visit:
(1). The 20 miles from the gas station to the prison, starting at 6:30 pm was ridiculously too far for her to walk.

(2). The shortest route from the gas station to the Hitchin Post was the opposite direction from the route from the gas station to the prison.

(3). Mia G made the point that the most logical route to the prison would have taken her north on Sycamore to Hwy 190, left on hwy 190 to State hwy 247, and then north to State Hwy 980, which takes you to the Ellis Unit. It would seem that she likely missed the turn on Hwy 247, and continued along Hwy 190, which eventually leads back to the Hitchin Post on I-45. That is a 7-mile walk, and it would have been around 9 PM by then. By then, she would have been exhausted, and she was probably looking for somewhere to sleep.

(4) The hitchin post is adjacent to the northbound on ramp to I-45, and the dumping spot was only a few miles north of that.

IMO, the most likely scenario is that she encountered a trucker parked at the Hitchin Post, and asked if he would let her sleep in his truck. He probably killed her in the truck, and then pulled on to northbound I45, drove a few miles north, and then dumped her onto the embankment aside I-45.

It's Hwy 19 not 190 ...


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[Alleykins]

Thank you all for the insight!

 

[CADwrest]

Carl and Mia, thank you for taking the time and doing all ofthat! That kind of information really helps those of us out here on theinternet to get a sense of what she was dealing with that night. I noticedthat, as I was thinking about her movements, I kept thinking of her showing upat the Gulf station in broad daylight and maybe getting to Hitchin Post atdusk. As Mia noted, it was actually already night. It had been dark for aboutan hour before she even got to the Gulf Station.
One thing that stands out to me is that Bobby Roach did saythat he last saw her going NORTH on Sam Houston Hwy; if he actually told her totake HWY 19 (which would make sense), then the very first thing she does is go inthe wrong direction. (I wonder if the directions he actually gave her are inthe case files.)
Also, and take this for what it’s worth, but the HitchinPost hours listed on the internet state that it closes at 10pm each night. It’sclosed for remodeling now; even if it wasn’t, that doesn’t mean that the hourswere the same in 1980. Midnight seems late for it to still be open, but I alsoagree that if she ended up there by random wanderings, that time isn’tunreasonable.
OK, so let me bounce a different theory off you all. This isa girl who has apparently grown comfortable hitch-hiking. She apparentlyarrived in town on a borrowed ride; presumably the prisoner she was visitingwasn’t going to be able to help her leave, so she probably planned tohitch-hike out of town too. And I agree that she probably met her killer in thesame way.
So- maybe the reason she ends up so far off course is thatshe got a ride from someone after the Gulf station? It’s definitely not out ofcharacter. As to how far out of the way she goes, she’s in a strange town anddoesn’t have a map at this point. I can easily see her getting in a car headingin the right general direction and only realizing when she gets out that itdidn’t help her as much as she thought. (“Yeah, sure I’ll give you a ride. I’mtaking I-45 from here, but I can drop you at the north end of town if you want.”“That sounds great.&#8221 That would also explain why she actually asks someone todraw a map the next time.
I just googled the walking directions, and taking intoaccount she started by going north on Sam Houston, it’s a five mile walk if shegoes directly there, and google lists it as over an hour and a half. Takinginto account missteps and backtracking, we can probably add at least an extrahour to the travel time. So we have her at Hitchin Post at 9pm at the earliest,IF SHE WALKED. If it did indeed close at 10pm, and she got so messed up thatshe extended her walking distance to 7 miles, we have to ask if she even COULDhave gotten to the restaurant before it closed.
So the time she was at Hitchin Post gets evenmore relevant: If she’s there before 9pm, that means someone gave her a ride,and there’s another potential witness out there. I’m assuming at this pointthat the police never released that because they reached the same conclusionmost people have, that the killer picked her up from there. They probably wantto hold onto that because, if someone came forward and knew that detail, itwould show that they actually had real info about the case. But given where weare at this point, 36+ years with no real leads on her killer, I don’t thinkreleasing that would hurt anything, and it might tell us something else.

 

[nannymo]

Thank you CarlK and mia g for taking the time to do this. Carl, you make it sound so simple.....I was in Texas for a few days so decided to go to Huntsville for the day! Considering it takes around 12 hours non-stop to drive from one side to the other and 9-10 hours North to South, just "going to Huntsville" for a few hours is not an easy feat! Thank you for your efforts in what you do......You are an amazing person.

 

[CarlK90245]

It's Hwy 19 not 190 ...


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Hwy 190 is 11th Street. After talking to you, I thought it more likely that B Roach would direct her through the city, rather than up a remote freeway.

After looking at the map, I was thinking a different route than you showed me.

 

[CarlK90245]

Thank you CarlK and mia g for taking the time to do this. Carl, you make it sound so simple.....I was in Texas for a few days so decided to go to Huntsville for the day! Considering it takes around 12 hours non-stop to drive from one side to the other and 9-10 hours North to South, just "going to Huntsville" for a few hours is not an easy feat! Thank you for your efforts in what you do......You are an amazing person.

I started from Dallas, so it was only about a 3 hour drive.

 

[mia g]

Hwy 190 is 11th Street. After talking to you, I thought it more likely that B Roach would direct her through the city, rather than up a remote freeway.

After looking at the map, I was thinking a different route than you showed me.

Awww I see .. what ya mean there are so many routes .. wish le had thought to ask which way he sent her .. or would tell us... I'm working on getting a min thru thurs shift if I do I'm going back to talk to them ..


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