Identified! TX - Williamson Co., 'Orange Socks' WhtFem 33UFTX, 15-30, off I-35, Oct'79 - Debra Jackson

[carbuff]

That's a very good reconstruction. It looks like her and also makes her look human, which the old official one certainly didn't.

 

[macrauchenia]

I have looked at this poor girl's face a lot, thinking how strange she looked. Then today it dawned on me. It wasn't diagnosed, but I believe this girl suffered from Acromegaly. http://endocrine.niddk.nih.gov/pubs/acro/acro.htm

Excerpt: "Gradually, bone changes alter the patient’s facial features: The brow and lower jaw protrude, the nasal bone enlarges, and the teeth space out."

Take a look at the photo of a woman suffering from Acromegaly and the drawing of Williamson Co. Jane Doe/Orange Socks. If you have the more graphic morgue photos the resemblance is striking, but it's all because of the disease. I am not a medical doctor so this is JMO.

I agree; I think this girl was in the early stages of acromegaly. I think that's PARTLY why she's gone unidentified so long: anyone who cared about her cannot recognize her looking like she did by the time she died. That, and she clearly had had a difficult life, so probably there were very few good people close to her who would report her missing (or who would know that they SHOULD, if she ran away before).

But SOMEONE must have cared, right? A fellow reform-school student, a fellow prostitute even? I really want to think so. She bothers me more than any other IUD, even the little kids. Somehow I can relate to her on a highly emotional level that makes me too upset to look at her morgue pictures. And I tend to pride myself on my strong stomach; I've been watching graphic real-crime shows and reading forensics books since adolescence without flinching at anything. But I can't bear to look at her lifeless face.

This girl was in SUCH pathetic shape, with a far-gone and almost certainly painful venereal disease and no regular access to things as basic as nail-clippers or menstrual products. She died on Halloween, and her socks were Halloween-orange, so I think it's likely she bought them as cheapy dollar-store-esque novelties within a week or two of her death. She couldn't have had much in the way of possessions.

The way I imagine it, she probably wore socks at all times, even during otherwise naked sex work (in truck cabs), because of her embarrassment regarding her unkempt toenails. I also think this behavior (refusing to take off her socks) would stand out to her customers. (But I don't think she was a prostitute for any reason other than survival, there may not be that many.) Is there any way to distribute her poster so lots of North American truckers would see it? I know many continue driving into their 60s and 70s, maybe one guy somewhere is still alive with helpful memories of a sock-wearing hitchhiker?

Her case REALLY bothers me. I know she's dead and gone so it can't possibly bother her, but I don't want her to be known by her socks forever (although it's pretty endearing as IUD nicknames go, IMO). I hope she gets identified soon so any friend of hers can finally stop worrying about her. But I doubt the man who actually killed her will ever go to court for it. D:<

 

[macrauchenia]

Just now saw her PM pictures (I read through this whole thread before I made an account, so I didn't know there were PM thumbnails). Not as gory as I'd feared, but still upsetting! I feel so sad for her! Maybe a moderator should put a *GRAPHIC* warning in the title for those who might be even more upset by them than me?

Previous comments are 100% correct re: none of the reconstructions look much like her at all. However, I don't think this matters at all if she had acromegaly or another endocrine disorder(real possibilities IMO), because if she didn't look anything like that before, no family or friend would ever think that's really her.

Look at Pio Pico (last Mexican governor of what is now the state of California) for a great example of this. Seems he had acromegaly as a younger man, then spontaneously recovered, and you would NEVER think from the pictures that it's the same man.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pío_Pico
People can look TOTALLY DIFFERENT from how they did before as a result of such medical problems, transformed in a relatively short period of time.

I agree with the commenter who said we should be focusing on missing girls with far more "delicate" features than many of the ones already submitted. Resemblances mean almost nothing if she had something like acromegaly, so she could be almost ANYONE within a certain age range and time frame. And I've always feared that this poor girl was never reported missing, but that's not a reason to give up on identifying her.

 

[macrauchenia]

Yesterday I went through every female through a decade of the Charley Project, and I have made a list of less than a dozen possibilities. I need to find further information on them to rule out every one I can based on known features, then maybe compare to post-mortems when I feel up to handling it. She should not look TOO different, probably same proportions, just less "coarse" in the past basically.

Then I will explain my best possible matches here, and hopefully end up with something to submit something to the investigators. Wish me luck!

OFFICIAL NAMUS RULE-OUTS:
Susan Cooke
Pinkie Davis-Herron
Nancy Jason
Martha Morrison
Sharon Pretorius
Kathleen Rodgers

 

[Roselvr]

Just now saw her PM pictures (I read through this whole thread before I made an account, so I didn't know there were PM thumbnails). Not as gory as I'd feared, but still upsetting! I feel so sad for her! Maybe a moderator should put a *GRAPHIC* warning in the title for those who might be even more upset by them than me?

Previous comments are 100% correct re: none of the reconstructions look much like her at all. However, I don't think this matters at all if she had acromegaly or another endocrine disorder(real possibilities IMO), because if she didn't look anything like that before, no family or friend would ever think that's really her.

Look at Pio Pico (last Mexican governor of what is now the state of California) for a great example of this. Seems he had acromegaly as a younger man, then spontaneously recovered, and you would NEVER think from the pictures that it's the same man.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pío_Pico
People can look TOTALLY DIFFERENT from how they did before as a result of such medical problems, transformed in a relatively short period of time.

I agree with the commenter who said we should be focusing on missing girls with far more "delicate" features than many of the ones already submitted. Resemblances mean almost nothing if she had something like acromegaly, so she could be almost ANYONE within a certain age range and time frame. And I've always feared that this poor girl was never reported missing, but that's not a reason to give up on identifying her.

Here is Carl's version which is closest to what she actually looked like. Carl has been going thru his recons to rework/ sign them but I see this version isn't signed so I'm not sure if he will see something that needs reworked or not. Here is her FB page which has her PM photos for anyone that wants to see

Here's my rendition of "Orange Socks".

Yesterday I went through every female through a decade of the Charley Project, and I have made a list of less than a dozen possibilities. I need to find further information on them to rule out every one I can based on known features, then maybe compare to post-mortems when I feel up to handling it. She should not look TOO different, probably same proportions, just less "coarse" in the past basically.

Then I will explain my best possible matches here, and hopefully end up with something to submit something to the investigators. Wish me luck!

OFFICIAL NAMUS RULE-OUTS:
Susan Cooke
Pinkie Davis-Herron
Nancy Jason
Martha Morrison
Sharon Pretorius
Kathleen Rodgers
Last edited by macrauchenia; Today at 02:44 AM. Reason: 1- I found the rule-out section on NamUs! D'oh! 2- I couldn't post the box so it'd show up so then I had to type the names.

Her rule outs should have been as easy as copy and paste

Exclusions
The following 7 people have been ruled out as being this decedent:
First Name Last Name Year of Birth State LKA
Susan Cooke 1954 Washington
Pinkie Davis-Herron 1956 Texas
Nancy Jason 1958 Maryland
Nancy Jason 1958 Maryland
Martha Morriosn Unknown Oregon
Sharon Pretorius 1960 Ohio
Kathleen Rodgers 1956 California

 

[macrauchenia]

Okay, I have narrowed it down to THREE!
(I ALMOST put Sheryl Ann Tillinghast as #4, but I decided she very likely was murdered soon after disappearing, as she left behind TWO paychecks; plus her front incisor teeth had a noticeable gap which Orange Socks does not have as far as I know.)

I have posted links to their Charley Project pages for picture reference (which probably means very little as I've explained in previous posts), and because the Charley Project typically has the most thorough background information.

#3 NANCY MARIE O'SULLIVAN
(disappeared at 15, would have been 19 in 1979)
( http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/o/osullivan_nancy.html )
Ten siblings. She had a history of running away. Disappeared from South Holland, Illinois on March 7th 1974, witnesses saw her hitching a ride with a blue Cadillac.
"She may have tried to go to Texas... "
(+) Brown hair.
(-) Blue eyes. But they sure look brown to me in her picture. Eye color descriptions have been wrong before.
(+) "No known distinctive body features" on NamUS

#2 HELEN MARIE GREEN
(disappeared at age 13 or 14, would have been 21 in 1979)
( http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/g/green_helen.html )
"Helen disappeared from Chicago, Illinois sometime in 1971 or 1972. She ran away with her brother, who was later located and placed in a youth camp. By the time he was found, he and his sister had separated. Helen has never been found. Few details are available in her case."
(+) Brown hair.
(+) Brown eyes.
(+) "No known distinctive body features" on NamUS
(?) Her only known photograph shows a girl who looks much younger than 13, so even less can be made of the resemblance. However, I do see one there. Her eyes are wide-set and their shape is similar.
(?) What looks like it could be a mole on Helen's right cheek is actually a smudge or some other thingy on the photograph or lens, I THINK.

#1 APRIL ROSE ZANE
(disappeared at age 17, would have been 19 in 1979)
( http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/z/zane_april.html )
Supposedly she was last seen in Frankfort, Illinois on April 18th 1977, but the Doe Network says "It is possible that she went missing the year prior in 1976. " It's unclear, maybe she first went missing in 1976 and then someone saw her a year later before she dropped out of sight again?
April had a history of running away and had had problems with the police for curfew violations at least.
I really think Orange Socks is an older April with an endocrine problem, the nose and wide-set eyes especially. Excess androgens cause noticeable eyebrow thickening and darkening, but overall their eyebrow shape and their glabellas are very similar.
(+) Reddish hair
(?) "Blue to gray/green" eyes (but eye color has been more off than this before, hazel eyes have been described as gray AND as green before)
(+) 5'8"!
(+) Scar on chin! (Not described in detail)
(?) Zane has freckles on her nose, and Orange Socks appears to have some freckles in the same area in her side-view post-mortem picture. It is common for freckles to fade as we age.
(-) Appendectomy scar, and scar on knee, which are not documented for Orange Socks. Could that just be oversights of the coroner, or whoever picked out what information to publicize?

Let me know what you think, and if I should submit any as possible matches! I really want to figure out who Orange Socks is, I want to find out that there's someone out there who cared about her.

 

[macrauchenia]

April Zane's hair also seems thick and rough-textured like Orange Socks's hair.
Then, on April's Charley Project page, she looks like she's at most 14 in the left hand photo. In the middle photo she looks like she's about 11. Imagine her features continuing to "coarsen" for 4 or 5 years: you're picturing Orange Socks, right?

While looking for possible matches for Orange Socks, I made certain assumptions, which others may or may not agree with. My assumptions include:
a) She's at the younger end of her estimated age range.
b) She was a hitchhiker who occasionally sold sex (to men who gave her rides) in order to survive, rather than as a job. She was not a "streetwalker" or a "lot lizard": her work as a prostitute was on a more sporadic and desperate basis.
c) Her family was either very abusive (so she'd run away) or her family had completely abandoned her already. Accordingly, she may have run away from a juvenile facility, or she may have recently "aged out" of the foster care system. She probably ran away multiple times before disappearing.
d) She was afflicted with some sort of medical condition that has changed her appearance quite a bit.

 

[Hexe]

Pio Pico did not miraculously recover from his acromegaly, he just grew a beard that hid somewhat his enlarged mandible. Still, on his old age pics there are still visible acromegalic features. The skeletal changes caused by acromegaly can be reverted only by plastic surgery. They do not vanish on their own, that is impossible.

Wys&#322;ane z mojego LG-K120 przy u&#380;yciu Tapatalka

 

[Roselvr]

Okay, I have narrowed it down to THREE!
(I ALMOST put Sheryl Ann Tillinghast as #4, but I decided she very likely was murdered soon after disappearing, as she left behind TWO paychecks; plus her front incisor teeth had a noticeable gap which Orange Socks does not have as far as I know.)

I have posted links to their Charley Project pages for picture reference (which probably means very little as I've explained in previous posts), and because the Charley Project typically has the most thorough background information.

#3 NANCY MARIE O'SULLIVAN
(disappeared at 15, would have been 19 in 1979)
( http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/o/osullivan_nancy.html )
Ten siblings. She had a history of running away. Disappeared from South Holland, Illinois on March 7th 1974, witnesses saw her hitching a ride with a blue Cadillac.
"She may have tried to go to Texas... "
(+) Brown hair.
(-) Blue eyes. But they sure look brown to me in her picture. Eye color descriptions have been wrong before.
(+) "No known distinctive body features" on NamUS

#2 HELEN MARIE GREEN
(disappeared at age 13 or 14, would have been 21 in 1979)
( http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/g/green_helen.html )
"Helen disappeared from Chicago, Illinois sometime in 1971 or 1972. She ran away with her brother, who was later located and placed in a youth camp. By the time he was found, he and his sister had separated. Helen has never been found. Few details are available in her case."
(+) Brown hair.
(+) Brown eyes.
(+) "No known distinctive body features" on NamUS
(?) Her only known photograph shows a girl who looks much younger than 13, so even less can be made of the resemblance. However, I do see one there. Her eyes are wide-set and their shape is similar.
(?) What looks like it could be a mole on Helen's right cheek is actually a smudge or some other thingy on the photograph or lens, I THINK.

#1 APRIL ROSE ZANE
(disappeared at age 17, would have been 19 in 1979)
( http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/z/zane_april.html )
Supposedly she was last seen in Frankfort, Illinois on April 18th 1977, but the Doe Network says "It is possible that she went missing the year prior in 1976. " It's unclear, maybe she first went missing in 1976 and then someone saw her a year later before she dropped out of sight again?
April had a history of running away and had had problems with the police for curfew violations at least.
I really think Orange Socks is an older April with an endocrine problem, the nose and wide-set eyes especially. Excess androgens cause noticeable eyebrow thickening and darkening, but overall their eyebrow shape and their glabellas are very similar.
(+) Reddish hair
(?) "Blue to gray/green" eyes (but eye color has been more off than this before, hazel eyes have been described as gray AND as green before)
(+) 5'8"!
(+) Scar on chin! (Not described in detail)
(?) Zane has freckles on her nose, and Orange Socks appears to have some freckles in the same area in her side-view post-mortem picture. It is common for freckles to fade as we age.
(-) Appendectomy scar, and scar on knee, which are not documented for Orange Socks. Could that just be oversights of the coroner, or whoever picked out what information to publicize?

Let me know what you think, and if I should submit any as possible matches! I really want to figure out who Orange Socks is, I want to find out that there's someone out there who cared about her.

My partner and I got Helen in NamUs and know her family. There is no way Helen is Orange Socks, she most likely is buried locally and has not been found. Her brother saw her bike crumpled in the back of a truck. He doesn't know if she was hit or just her bike. I'll see if we can get another photo. We tried, but they were in an attic in another state.

I don't think she's April either, April's DNA (Helen's too) would have hit in NamUs

As for Nancy, if you read her CP page they feel she met with local foul play.

Orange socks is not someone currently listed in NamUs with DNA

 

[Alleykins]

I didn't know this about Helen's bike. Do you think someone hit her while riding it, killed her on accident and then panicked and hid her body?

 

[folieadeuxnola]

Orange Socks has some very distinctive facial features IMO do not believe any of the (3) are her. As like Roselvr believe she is someone whom has not been listed ... in a few recent UID cases the MP's were not on the radar anywhere. Promoting persons whom have a missing loved one, family or friend to report LE is so very crucial.

 

[Roselvr]

I didn't know this about Helen's bike. Do you think someone hit her while riding it, killed her on accident and then panicked and hid her body?

I'm not sure

Orange Socks has some very distinctive facial features IMO do not believe any of the (3) are her. As like Roselvr believe she is someone whom has not been listed ... in a few recent UID cases the MP's were not on the radar anywhere. Promoting persons whom have a missing loved one, family or friend to report LE is so very crucial.

I think that either someone will see one of the recons like Jason Callahan/ Grateful Dead Fan or it will be similar to Caledonia Jane Doe/ Tammy Jo Alexander where someone wonders where their friend/ loved one is and makes a report.

 

[macrauchenia]

My partner and I got Helen in NamUs and know her family. There is no way Helen is Orange Socks, she most likely is buried locally and has not been found. Her brother saw her bike crumpled in the back of a truck. He doesn't know if she was hit or just her bike. I'll see if we can get another photo. We tried, but they were in an attic in another state.

I don't think she's April either, April's DNA (Helen's too) would have hit in NamUs

As for Nancy, if you read her CP page they feel she met with local foul play.

Orange socks is not someone currently listed in NamUs with DNA

Yeah, I figured Orange Socks was never reported missing. I picked those few possible matches with that in mind, which is why they're longer shots than some others. But I don't want to just assume that she's impossible to identify by known missing people when so few have been ruled out as her identity.

It was unclear to me what happened to Helen Green, or even where her brother lost track of her, and I didn't find any explanation of what investigators thought happened to her.

With Nancy I went on the assumption that the friends were telling the truth, but I don't think they are.

As I understand it, DNA is not in a database that provides suggested matches automatically when you submit a sample (it's not like CODIS). April's and Helen's DNA would not go "ping" as a match to OS in the database, because it takes a suggested match to make a person compare the DNA one on one.
Also, with Orange Socks's DNA, it says "Sample submitted - Tests complete" which I think means they PROCESSED her DNA, but haven't put it in a national database yet. (Surely that's outdated and they've entered it by now.)

Anyone else found possibilities that were overlooked before the endocrine disorder theory was brought up?

 

[macrauchenia]

Orange Socks has some very distinctive facial features IMO do not believe any of the (3) are her. As like Roselvr believe she is someone whom has not been listed ... in a few recent UID cases the MP's were not on the radar anywhere. Promoting persons whom have a missing loved one, family or friend to report LE is so very crucial.

Yes, all my suggestions were definitely based on the theory that Orange Socks had an undiagnosed endocrine disorder (like acromegaly) that changed her facial features and made her very hard to recognize.

I also agree that she was probably never reported missing. She was in such pathetic shape it's hard to imagine that anyone cared about her, and that breaks my heart.

Or, maybe she was reported missing but the police ignored it (never did the paperwork or lost it) because she was over 18 or an habitual runaway. There are many missing persons reports that police threw out: individuals with loved ones who vanished decades ago should somehow be reminded to check and if necessary make another report.

 

[macrauchenia]

Pio Pico did not miraculously recover from his acromegaly, he just grew a beard that hid somewhat his enlarged mandible. Still, on his old age pics there are still visible acromegalic features. The skeletal changes caused by acromegaly can be reverted only by plastic surgery. They do not vanish on their own, that is impossible.

Acromegaly is weird, the facial features DO regress substantially with treatment (or with piuitary apoplexy). I didn't believe it either at first. There are striking before/after pictures of current day people with acromegaly who had treatment, and it's remarkable what one messed up hormone can do.

"Acromegaly is usually a fatal illness if untreated; 80% of patients die within 10 years of the diagnosis. But, Pico survived 36 years after the 1858 image, when his disease was active and had been present for at least 11 years. This unexpected situation was probably due to spontaneous pituitary apoplexy, in this case, selectively involving his tumor but not the remainder of his own pituitary gland.[SUP][6][/SUP] In selective pituitary tumor apoplexy, the adenoma undergoes infarction and shrinkage and disappears. No longer compressed by the adenoma, the nerves controlling the eye muscles could resume normal function and his remaining pituitary cells could restore normal levels of gonadotropic and thyrotropic hormones. Most importantly, absent the abnormally elevated levels of growth hormone that were released by the tumor, the features of acromegaly quickly regress."
-Wikipedia on Pico Pio.

"Upon successful treatment, symptoms and complications generally improve substantially or disappear, including headaches, visual disturbances, excess sweating, and diabetes.[SUP][17][/SUP] Soft-tissue swellings generally decrease and acromegaly-associated facial features gradually return towards normal, although this may take some time.[SUP][17][/SUP] "
-Wikipedia on Acromegaly.

The world of medical journals are not POSITIVE that Pio had acromegaly, but it's a good explanation in my opinion.

I had brought up this example in the first place to show how an endocrine disorder can dramatically change someone's appearance. I think Orange Socks could have had something simpler than acromegaly. Even issues like polycystic ovarian syndrome and Cushing's disease can alter facial features in a "masculine" way.

 

[Moonwalker9]

I also agree with the conclusion that OS is not someone reported missing, that's why she remaines unidentified for all these years. She did resemble Martha Morrison aswell as Ms Smogalsky from that yearbook but Morrison was later identified and Smogalsky lived in 1979 I think.

I also believe she was a drifter, transient and occasional prostitute. There was 2 matchbooks and a key belonging to a motel in Henrietta, Oklahoma where she was found. That means she must have traveled from north and just recently arrived to the area. I wonder how the motel was followed up, did she register her name when staying? if she was a prostitute, did the police ever pick her up. If so she might be in the crime register. Maybe it could be an idea to check mugshots from the states north of Texas in the years before she was found for persons matching her.

Checking out records from mental institutions and shelters could also be an idea if she was sick, that's reason enough no one missed her cause she was left alone without any immediate family looking out for her. She was escaping a miserable life in search of something better.

What about that ring she had. Where was it sold?,it was probably personal to her. Maybe a gift from a loved one. It could reveal one thing or another.

I also think that taking a DNA test could be useful. It could tell us about the water that she drank and which state(s) she lived her life in, which norrowes our search. It could also tell her race, and if she had any desease like some posters are debating. I always thought she looked like she was part native-american, possibly part african-american also, with the DNA test we'll know for sure. If she was raped, were there any DNA from the perpetrator? If I remember correctly DNA was found and it didn't match serial confessor Henry Lee Lucas.

Based on her quite unusual appearence I'm surprised nobody recognized her. She must have grown up, gone to school or worked at some point so someone must remember something.

 

[rainwater]

Would someone with a medical or nursing background be able to answer the following question: Acromegaly affects the pituitary gland, according to Wikipedia. Would someone in their late teens with acromegaly experience a second, large growth spurt in their height if that person had already gone through a "normal" height growth spurt in their early teens?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acromegaly

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epiphyseal_plate

 

[Tssiemer]

I went it nursing school for a year. In my limited knowledge I think once your growth plates close up that's it. No more growth.


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[macrauchenia]

Would someone with a medical or nursing background be able to answer the following question: Acromegaly affects the pituitary gland, according to Wikipedia. Would someone in their late teens with acromegaly experience a second, large growth spurt in their height if that person had already gone through a "normal" height growth spurt in their early teens?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acromegaly

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epiphyseal_plate

I went it nursing school for a year. In my limited knowledge I think once your growth plates close up that's it. No more growth.

When acromegaly starts BEFORE or DURING puberty, you get something called gigantism (think Andre the Giant and some other pro-wrestlers). But when acromegaly starts after the growth plates have closed, you get the other symptoms while staying a normal size.

EDIT: I am not a medical professional, I have just read a lot about acromegaly lately and that is my best answer based on what I have learned.

 

[macrauchenia]

I also believe she was a drifter, transient and occasional prostitute. There was 2 matchbooks and a key belonging to a motel in Henrietta, Oklahoma where she was found. That means she must have traveled from north and just recently arrived to the area. I wonder how the motel was followed up, did she register her name when staying? if she was a prostitute, did the police ever pick her up. If so she might be in the crime register. Maybe it could be an idea to check mugshots from the states north of Texas in the years before she was found for persons matching her.

...

I also think that taking a DNA test could be useful. It could tell us about the water that she drank and which state(s) she lived her life in, which norrowes our search. It could also tell her race, and if she had any desease like some posters are debating. I always thought she looked like she was part native-american, possibly part african-american also, with the DNA test we'll know for sure. If she was raped, were there any DNA from the perpetrator? If I remember correctly DNA was found and it didn't match serial confessor Henry Lee Lucas.

Based on her quite unusual appearence I'm surprised nobody recognized her. She must have grown up, gone to school or worked at some point so someone must remember something.

I like your idea on checking mugshots from the area. Is there a database someone on WS can access? Or a way to get to these records with a FOIA request? If she did get arrested, I hope she gave her real name.

Isotope testing is used to figure out where someone grew up based on elements in drinking water that get laid down in teeth and other bones. It is different from DNA, but a lot of people get them confused (even the police apparently did in a recent press release on another UID, I think it was Buckskin Girl).