Identified! WA - Spokane, WhtFem 16-30, UP489, AKA "Millie", skull found in '98, Jun'84 - Ruth Belle Waymire

[CarlK90245]

Thanks for the responses! I decided to email Janet Franson at NamUs about some of my ideas here including Susan M Cooke, who perhaps has the best potential because of disappearing in Washington only a few days before the body was found. I doubt I'll get a positive match so soon after starting, but as a beginner I hope to get better and better at this kind of searching.

https://www.findthemissing.org/en/cases/23251/0

I tried to locate a photo of Susan M Cooke in the 1973 Cle Elum-Roslyn HS yearbook. Nothing on her, but I noticed there is another girl from the Sophomore class in the same book with the surname Cooke (and a first initial also S) who appears to have a very noticeable underbite. Her face isn't as long and narrow is the Jane Doe's skull structure, but there is clearly an underbite.


Hmmmm.

 

[biscuits222]

The High-School yearbook sleuthing sounds very interesting! To put Susan M Cooke in a direct comparison, weight height and age fit, hair color not same:

UID Namus 489 Spokane, Washington 06/20/84

Body hair - blonde appearing
Estimated age Adult - Pre 30
Minimum age 16 years
Maximum age 30 years
Race White
Sex Female
Weight (pounds) 130, Estimated
Height (inches) 67, Estimated
DNA: Sample submitted - Tests complete

https://identifyus.org/en/cases/489

MP Susan M Cooke, Cle Elum, Washington, 06/16/84 NamUs MP # 23251

Head hair Brown
Age last seen 29 to 29 years old
Race White
Sex Female
Weight (pounds) 110.0 to 130.0
Height (inches) 62.0 to 66.0
Sample submitted - Tests complete

https://www.findthemissing.org/en/cases/23251

 

[biscuits222]

Going on the idea that the last known alive dates are often inaccurate, I did the obvious thing and looked for MPs who are listed as going missing after the UID was said to be found: Debra King from Tacoma WA, hair listed as blonde like the UID, height 1 inch shorter https://www.findthemissing.org/en/cases/14622/16

 

[EffyElsewhere]

I think she resembles this woman, missing from Idaho since 1979:

http://www.nampn.org/cases/schaper_gayla.html

 

[carbuff]

Gayla Schaper with Carl's reconstruction.

 

[CarlK90245]

I revised my skeletal reconstruction for this Jane Doe about a year ago, but I have been sitting on it because I was trying to obtain a better description of the moles on her neck.

I finally received the autopsy, anthropology, and exhumation reports from the Spokane ME, in addition to a couple of photos of her headless body from the breasts-up, that clearly show the location of the two moles. Her head was removed right at the top of the neck, so her entire neck was included with the body. The autopsy report indicated that her hair color and texture (either straight or slightly wavy) was based on the color and texture of the hair on her arms.

With all of that, I was able to complete the reconstruction "warts and all" (to steal a phrase from Oliver Cromwell)

 

[CarlK90245]

Thanks for the responses! I decided to email Janet Franson at NamUs about some of my ideas here including Susan M Cooke, who perhaps has the best potential because of disappearing in Washington only a few days before the body was found. I doubt I'll get a positive match so soon after starting, but as a beginner I hope to get better and better at this kind of searching.

https://www.findthemissing.org/en/cases/23251/0

She looks like a pretty decent possible, especially considering that she supposedly had a cleft lip. The sockets of the Jane Doe's front teeth are spaced a little wide, so the cleft lip and gapped teeth might be related.

Too bad there isn't a photo of her.

I located a photo of Susan Marie Cooke (Maiden Name: Smegelsky) in the 1973 Oswego New York High School yearbook. I am sure that this is the same Susan M. Cooke who is listed in NamUs because there is an entry for her in the Washington State Death index with the date of death (June 16, 1984) being the same as Susan M. Cooke's Date LKA in NamUs. The WA State Death Index lists her alternative name as Smegelsky.

Her facial characteristics are quite different from what I am seeing in Spokane Jane's Skull. She does have a fairly strong chin, and a projecting mouth; however, her nose is much flatter and broader than the nasal bone and nasal aperture on the skull indicates.

(Note: I've already submitted Susan as a possible to Orange Socks, even though her Date LKA postdates "Orange Socks' Date of Discovery by about five years. The resemblance is strong enough that we need to cosider the possibility that the Date LKA is in error)

 

[biscuits222]

Not sure if I failed to search right a few months ago or if the results weren't there, but I just searched "Susan Marie Cooke" + missing and got some news stories from June-July 1984 that say a Susan Marie Cooke went missing while boating on a river in Cle Elum, Washington:

https://news.google.com/newspapers?...AIBAJ&sjid=5o4DAAAAIBAJ&pg=6074,7998621&hl=en

A body was found in July '84 but the story doesn't say if it was identified as being SMC:
https://news.google.com/newspapers?...AIBAJ&sjid=5Y4DAAAAIBAJ&pg=2576,1485108&hl=en

Can't find any more stories. The boating info is not mentioned in Namus profile:
https://www.findthemissing.org/en/cases/23251/0/

It seems Google News archive has come back recently? I remember it disappeard years ago, but is now back, great for hunting down old news stories.

 

[CarlK90245]

I created this graphic to illustrate the appearance, size, and location of the scar on Spokane Jane's left arm.

 

[Springrain]

I wonder if the wound was caused by an abusive boyfriend. It seems more likely that abusers would beat them about the face, but maybe he preferred those tools to his hands? By the way, the little graphic is super helpful. I was having a difficult time picturing the scar. It was very prominent.

He may have also killed her. I'd guess so, anyway.

 

[CarlK90245]

Both her cause of death, and the means of dismemberment was "sharp" force trauma, meaning a heavy sharp instrument such as an axe or hatchet. The hands and feet were chopped off, not at the wrists and ankles (which would be much easier), but through the bones of the forearms and lower legs.

The fact that the killer chopped off her head, hands, and feet would lead me to believe that he had a reason to not want her identified. If she is identified, then it probably will easily point to her killer.

The autopsy report noted numerous bruises all over her body also.

 

[Springrain]

Both her cause of death, and the means of dismemberment was "sharp" force trauma, meaning a heavy sharp instrument such as an axe or hatchet. The hands and feet were chopped off, not at the wrists and ankles (which would be much easier), but through the bones of the forearms and lower legs.

The fact that the killer chopped off her head, hands, and feet would lead me to believe that he had a reason to not want her identified. If she is identified, then it probably will easily point to her killer.

The autopsy report noted numerous bruises all over her body also.

Numerous bruises? That seems to point even more towards an abusive boyfriend.

This may be off-topic, but I think it might be worth something. In 1987, a college professor at California State University, (which my father was attending at the time), was found to have picked up a young man at a gay bar and murdered and dismembered him with a chainsaw. He had a whole torture chamber in his house, so he was suspected for being a little-known serial killer. (I can't even imagine how his students felt--my dad had some friends in his class at the time of the murder.) Here's the link if you want to read more:


http://articles.latimes.com/1987-08-30/local/me-4925_1_body-parts

Please excuse my straying...what I'm trying to say is, and agreeing with Carl's post above, that if her identity was discovered it would easily point to her murderer. It seems he had access to sharper tools, rather than rented chainsaws. Maybe he could have been a logger. If he was a logger, and maybe some people had heard about him being abusive, then they might have believed him if he said his girlfriend left. Sorry if that was jumbled.

 

[biscuits222]

Numerous bruises? That seems to point even more towards an abusive boyfriend.

This may be off-topic, but I think it might be worth something. In 1987, a college professor at California State University, (which my father was attending at the time), was found to have picked up a young man at a gay bar and murdered and dismembered him with a chainsaw. He had a whole torture chamber in his house, so he was suspected for being a little-known serial killer. (I can't even imagine how his students felt--my dad had some friends in his class at the time of the murder.) Here's the link if you want to read more:


http://articles.latimes.com/1987-08-30/local/me-4925_1_body-parts

Please excuse my straying...what I'm trying to say is, and agreeing with Carl's post above, that if her identity was discovered it would easily point to her murderer. It seems he had access to sharper tools, rather than rented chainsaws. Maybe he could have been a logger. If he was a logger, and maybe some people had heard about him being abusive, then they might have believed him if he said his girlfriend left. Sorry if that was jumbled.

Cutting the body into pieces to hide identity reminds me of Long Island Serial Killer so I sorta lean more towards a meticulous serial killer who targets prostitutes. I think your average abusive boyfriend doesn't have the drive to chop his girl up in such an extreme way, but if it was a boyfriend I wouldn't be surprised if he also killed many others as part of his MO.

 

[FiveFelines]

Cutting the body into pieces to hide identity reminds me of Long Island Serial Killer so I sorta lean more towards a meticulous serial killer who targets prostitutes. I think your average abusive boyfriend doesn't have the drive to chop his girl up in such an extreme way, but if it was a boyfriend I wouldn't be surprised if he also killed many others as part of his MO.

Hmm. I respectfully disagree. There are many cases where a spouse has dismembered their husband or wife, usually to make the body easier to dispose of and/or to prevent identification. Of course, some serial killers do that as well, but what stands out to me is Carl's statement about how she was dismembered. It was not done in a way that suggests the killer had experience with dismemberment.

 

[honesty]

I doubt she was dismembered becaise of hardware in her body. And I wouldn't be looking for someone missing that is listed as having spina bifida. I think she jad a Arnold Chiari (pounced kee-REe) Malformation which very well could have gone unnoticed especially.if she had no symptoms and even if she did it more than likely presented as headaches possible occasional neck and shoulder pain.



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[CarlK90245]

One of my facebook friends asked me to look at Merryl Horowitz as a possible to Spokane Jane.

https://www.findthemissing.org/en/cases/14252/2

Except for the hair color (which is not certain on the Jane Doe), she looks to be a very strong possible, especially considering that she has no DNA or dentals in the system.

Her height is right.
Her age is about right.
The circumstances of her disappearance (i.e., voluntary disappearance after an argument with family), make the 4-year timeframe or the distance not so problematic.
She also left behind a 1-year old son, so her history of childbirth is consistent to the Spokane Jane's history of Childbirth.

Her facial shape is spot-on. Her nose is larger than I have depicted, but it is very possible that I didn't depict the Spokane Jane's nose prominently enough. My depiction of SJ's teeth was an estimate, but I can see that Merryl's teeth are gapped (as SJ's probably were), and her #9 tooth protrudes more than the adjacent #8 (as SJ's probably do)

And since I have access to photos of the SJ's body from the midsection up, I can see that she has a very similar body type. Like Merryl, the Jane Doe appeared to have a "large-boned" build, and her apparent breast size is approximately similar.

I will call this one in tomorrow morning.

 

[CarlK90245]

One of my facebook friends asked me to look at Merryl Horowitz as a possible to Spokane Jane.

https://www.findthemissing.org/en/cases/14252/2

Except for the hair color (which is not certain on the Jane Doe), she looks to be a very strong possible, especially considering that she has no DNA or dentals in the system.

Her height is right.
Her age is about right.
The circumstances of her disappearance (i.e., voluntary disappearance after an argument with family), make the 4-year timeframe or the distance not so problematic.
She also left behind a 1-year old son, so her history of childbirth is consistent to the Spokane Jane's history of Childbirth.

Her facial shape is spot-on. Her nose is larger than I have depicted, but it is very possible that I didn't depict the Spokane Jane's nose prominently enough. My depiction of SJ's teeth was an estimate, but I can see that Merryl's teeth are gapped (as SJ's probably were) #9 tooth protrudes more then the adjacent #8 (as SJ's probably do)

And since I have access to photos of the SJ's body from the midsection up, I can see that she has a very similar body type. Like Merryl, the Jane Doe appeared to have a "large-boned" build, and her apparent breast size is approximately similar.

I will call this one in tomorrow morning.

Submitted by email to Elizabeth Nelson, Lori Bruski, and Jessica Hager

 

[catlike]

One of my facebook friends asked me to look at Merryl Horowitz as a possible to Spokane Jane.

Except for the hair color (which is not certain on the Jane Doe), she looks to be a very strong possible, especially considering that she has no DNA or dentals in the system.

Her height is right.
Her age is about right.
The circumstances of her disappearance (i.e., voluntary disappearance after an argument with family), make the 4-year timeframe or the distance not so problematic.
She also left behind a 1-year old son, so her history of childbirth is consistent to the Spokane Jane's history of Childbirth.

She does look to be a good match.

I read her Namus profile. It seems odd that as a 26 year-old woman she wasn't allowed to take her son. I wonder what the situation was and what the family dynamics were.

 

[Springrain]

I read her Namus profile. It seems odd that as a 26 year-old woman she wasn't allowed to take her son.

I agree. Maybe she had something that went unnoted, like postpartum depression? A year seems like a long time to still have it-to me-but I never met anyone who had it.

 

[FiveFelines]

She does look to be a good match.

I read her Namus profile. It seems odd that as a 26 year-old woman she wasn't allowed to take her son. I wonder what the situation was and what the family dynamics were.

It could be that she did not have legal custody of her son and her mother did. Just a guess. I see a resemblance as well.