PA PA - Edna Thorne, 15, Philadelphia, 24 June 1975

Richard · Oct 28, 2004

EDNA CHRISTINE THORNE
DOB: Feb 25, 1960
Missing: Jun 24, 1975
Age at time: 15
Age Now: 44
Sex: Female
Race: White
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Brown
Height: 5'1" (155 cm)
Weight: 105 lbs (48 kg)
Missing From: PHILADELPHIA, PA, United States
Non-Family Abduction

Edna was last seen at a relative's residence on June 24, 1975.

Philadelphia Police Department (Pennsylvania) - 1-215-685-1180

Link
http://www.missingkids.com/missingk...aseNum=604667&orgPrefix=NCMC&searchLang=en_US

Richard · Jun 15, 2005

June 24th marks the 25 year anniversary of Edna's disappearance from her Philadelphia, PA hometown. Please think about her and take some time to read about her case.

mere · Jun 15, 2005

I will be thinking of Edna today. A lot of 30 year anniversaries in the past and coming months.

VespaElf · Jun 15, 2005

Its distressing that there are no details!

I mean how do they know it was an abduction and not a runaway who met w/ foul play??

Shes looks older than 15 in the picture..........she could have easily passed for 18.

Anyone know any of the details about the relative's home?

Richard · Jun 17, 2005

I am sure that there are more details available, but one would have to look elsewhere than the internet at this point to find them. Certainly the police have reports and investigation notes. Possibly the local papers did stories on this case in 1975, and after. If one were to look up microfilm or bound copies of those newspapers in a library, then more details could be learned and posted.

Websites like NCMEC and Doenetwork (and others) are usually pretty receptive to new information sent in by researchers, and they will modify their files with what is made available to them.

Richard · Oct 9, 2005

Richard said:
I am sure that there are more details available, but one would have to look elsewhere than the internet at this point to find them. Certainly the police have reports and investigation notes. Possibly the local papers did stories on this case in 1975, and after. If one were to look up microfilm or bound copies of those newspapers in a library, then more details could be learned and posted.

Websites like NCMEC and Doenetwork (and others) are usually pretty receptive to new information sent in by researchers, and they will modify their files with what is made available to them.

Does anyone have access to Philadelphia area Newspaper microfilm files or police reports on Edna's 24 June 1975 disappearance?

Edna went missing very close in timeframe and geographic area as several other children:
Sheila and Katherine Lyon on 25 March 1975 from Wheaton, MD,
Steven Anderson and David Williams on 7 April 1975 from New Lisbon, NJ,
Wendy Eaton on 17 May 1975 from Media, PA,
Tracy Anne King on 8 July 1975 from Littlestown, PA,
Kathy Lynn Beatty on 24 July 1975 from Wheaton, MD

All of the above cases remain unsolved. Except for Kathy Lynn Beatty, all children are still missing. Kathy Beatty was found on 25 July 1975, brutally beatten and sexually assulted, but still alive. She died 12 days later from her injuries. Kathy's killer was never caught or identified, however the rash of unsolved disappearances of children in the Maryland and Pennsylvania area seemed to stop at that point. Knowing that his victim had somehow survived his attack, he may have suddenly left the area.

Could these all of these likely abductions have been committed by the same individual?

meggilyweggily · Oct 9, 2005

I believe that back when I had a NewspaperArchive subscription I tried searching for Edna's name and all the variations on it I could think of, and came up with nothing. Chances are she was written off as a probable runaway at the time, hence no news.

There's no evidence that she didn't run away, though. No evidence, for that matter, that she wasn't abducted by aliens. That's what's so frustrating. The NCMEC has a few near-definite homicides classified as runaways, and some runaways classified as non-family abductions. The "endangered missing" and "long/injured missing" categories are really rubbish files which, as often as not, mean nothing.

Paradise · Oct 9, 2005

Does anyone have access to Philadelphia area Newspaper microfilm files or police reports on Edna's 24 June 1975 disappearance?

Edna went missing very close in timeframe and geographic area as several other children:
Sheila and Katherine Lyon on 25 March 1975 from Wheaton, MD,
Steven Anderson and David Williams on 7 April 1975 from New Lisbon, NJ,
Wendy Eaton on 17 May 1975 from Media, PA,
Tracy Anne King on 8 July 1975 from Littlestown, PA,
Kathy Lynn Beatty on 24 July 1975 from Wheaton, MD

All of the above cases remain unsolved. Except for Kathy Lynn Beatty, all children are still missing. Kathy Beatty was found on 25 July 1975, brutally beatten and sexually assulted, but still alive. She died 12 days later from her injuries. Kathy's killer was never caught or identified, however the rash of unsolved disappearances of children in the Maryland and Pennsylvania area seemed to stop at that point. Knowing that his victim had somehow survived his attack, he may have suddenly left the area

Thanks for bringing that up Richard...PA has a few really old cases, and I've always wondered if they've been related. Also in response to the question about access to microfilms, I live in Reading (about an hour from Philly) and I'd be willing to go down there on a day off to look up some info on her. Also, if you (or anyone else) knows how to go about obtaining a copy of her police reports let me know, I might be able to pick them up while I'm there as well.

Paradise · Oct 9, 2005

Just wanted to add this...I don't think it was in the first post. This comes from the Charley Project...

Thorne was last seen in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on June 24, 1975. She was departing from a horse stable on a relative's property at the time of her disappearance. Thorne has never been heard from again. Few details are available in her case. She is believed to have been abducted by a non-family member.

The fact that she was departing from a relative's property makes me suspect either the relative did something to her and hid it pretty well or someone abducted her on her way home which is what LE is obviously suspecting (I'm assuming she was on foot since it doesn't mention a car). I'd really like to dig deeper into this but I'm not sure how to go about getting her missing persons report?!

Richard · Oct 9, 2005

Paradise said:
... I'd really like to dig deeper into this but I'm not sure how to go about getting her missing persons report?!

According to the Doenetwork, the Philadelphia Police have this case - so one would probably have to contact them concerning obtaining a missing persons report. I don't know how helpful they would be, or if you have to submit a special form to obtain such a report. Since the purpose of submitting a missing persons report is to eventually Locate that person, it would seem that the police should want to make the widest distribution of that report possible.
Even knowing whose farm she was departing from, what route she might have taken, who worked at that farm, etc might help.

Paradise · Oct 11, 2005

I wonder why doenetwork doesn't give the information that she was leaving a realtive's horse farm. Obviously there aren't going to be horse farms in center city....so this had to have happened on the outskirts of Philly. I know they try to keep as much information from the public as possible so that if someone would come forward they'd be giving real information and not just something they read online but it makes it so much harder to try to solve this or at least work out the details. :banghead: Anyway, that was my rant. I'm going to try to contact them and get her report. I should be able to get this right? Is this public information?

mere · Oct 24, 2005

Richard said:
Does anyone have access to Philadelphia area Newspaper microfilm files or police reports on Edna's 24 June 1975 disappearance?

Edna went missing very close in timeframe and geographic area as several other children:
Sheila and Katherine Lyon on 25 March 1975 from Wheaton, MD,
Steven Anderson and David Williams on 7 April 1975 from New Lisbon, NJ,
Wendy Eaton on 17 May 1975 from Media, PA,
Tracy Anne King on 8 July 1975 from Littlestown, PA,
Kathy Lynn Beatty on 24 July 1975 from Wheaton, MD

All of the above cases remain unsolved. Except for Kathy Lynn Beatty, all children are still missing. Kathy Beatty was found on 25 July 1975, brutally beatten and sexually assulted, but still alive. She died 12 days later from her injuries. Kathy's killer was never caught or identified, however the rash of unsolved disappearances of children in the Maryland and Pennsylvania area seemed to stop at that point. Knowing that his victim had somehow survived his attack, he may have suddenly left the area.

Could these all of these likely abductions have been committed by the same individual?

The Doe Network has listed 2 unidentified young females from Pennsylvania. They were found prior to 1975, but I wonder who they were. Neither victim was buried. You can see the details under Hot cases.

Richard · Jan 11, 2006

Edna Christine Thorne
Missing since June 24, 1975 from Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania.
Classification: Non-Family Abduction

Vital Statistics
Date Of Birth: February 25, 1960
Age at Time of Disappearance: 15 years old
Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 5'1; 105 pounds
Distinguishing Characteristics: White female. Brown hair; brown eyes.
Dentals: Available

Circumstances of Disappearance
Thorne was last seen at a relative's home in Philadelphia, PA on June 24, 1975. She has never been seen again.

Investigators
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:
Philadelphia Police Department 215-685-1180

NCIC Number: M-857652106
Please refer to this number when contacting any agency with information regarding this case.

Sources:
The National Center For Missing and Exploited Children
The Doe Network: Case File 74DFPA

Link:
http://www.doenetwork.us/cases/74dfpa.html

Hollow · Jan 12, 2006

I found an article last night on NewsLibrary from 2000 that mentions Edna briefly (very briefly) They spelled her last name Thorn and said she had departed from horse stables when she disappeared.

Paradise · Jan 12, 2006

So far from what I've found, she was departing from her relative's house and her relative had horse stables on their property. I'm kind of thinking it was an aunt or uncle, but I'm not sure. I wish there was more information released about her.

Hollow · Jan 14, 2006

Ok, you guys are going to think I'm the biggest crazy person for posting this. I kept thinking if my name was Edna, I wouldn't go by that (no way) so I was googling the name Christine Thorne and I found one on this horse site. Probably not her, but it has an e-mail. You have to scroll way down and look for the name Christine Thorne. Double triple dare everybody to e-mail her.:crazy:

http://www.crossedsabers.com/NEWS/Disaster_Planning.htm

Hollow · Jan 14, 2006

And since I look really nutty now, there's an Edna Thorne on this church site listed under " Communication-Zone Representatives "

http://www.unitedchurchgander.ca/Admin2005.htm

PonderingThings · Jan 14, 2006

Edna at age 15 on left, Age progressed to 43 on right

If Edna is alive today she would be almost 46 years old. To me, its unlikely that this woman would still be using her real name. Instead, if she wanted to be "lost" she would have taken a married name, or another name if abducted.

However anything is possible!!!

Personally I don't think you are crazy as I frequently *try* to find people alive, even if they've been missing for a long time.

If Edna was using her middle name of Christine, then she may be known as Chris Thorne.

PonderingThings · Jan 14, 2006

Well Hollow, just to show you that you are not the only person who is nuts, I sent an email to your Christine Thorne who loves horses.

I explained why I was contacting her, and gave her the reference to this site. I figure the worse thing she could do is ignore us. The best thing would be to send back a quick email saying, yes its me, or no it isn't.

Will let you know if I hear anything.

Your friend in nuttidom

PonderingThings

PonderingThings · Jan 14, 2006

Hollow I checked my email and I have already received a reply from Christine Thorne. What a nice person!

Although its not her, she does hope that we (someone) finds her! She sent back a very nice email.

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