I wonder why they determined 1990 as the earliest estimated DOD? If the skull was found in 2012, that's 22 years - who's to say it wasn't 23 or 25? I wondered if there is something in the dentals, some material or procedure that wasn't commonly in use prior to 1990. I also wondered if it was just that there was road work or a brush fire, or some topographical reason they feel it could not have been there before then. What else could it be?
I just can't help but wonder about Paula Jean Welden....from 1946!!!
Paula was going to school in Bennington, VT. She left to hike the Long Trail on Glastenbury Mountain. She hitchhiked a ride part of the way. She was seen by another individual on the trail itself. Supposedly she asked that person how long the trail was, and he told her it went all the way to Canada. (Which makes me think she was walking North or northwest.)
Paula has a thread here on WS. Here is the link:
VT VT - Paula Jean Welden, 18, Glastenbury Mountain, 1 Dec 1946 - Websleuths Crime Sleuthing Community
You can see there were discussions on the possibilities that either she ran away, (which if she was seen on the trail, I'd find unlikely), met with foul play, or become lost/disoriented and succumbed to the elements (maybe slipped and fell?). She was last seen at 4 pm. It's possible she didn't realize it would get dark so soon, or that inclement weather was coming, etc. Or perhaps she made it back to a main road, and somehow was struck by a vehicle in the dark. I guess the possibilities are endless.
I just thought I'd throw it out there because if you look at where Bennington is, the Long Trail, and then Danby, it's plausible.
Interestingly, it seems there were some other interesting missing and unidentified cases back in those days. It didn't seem to me like they would all be related, or that they necessarily all involved foul play.
Paula's Charley Project page:
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/w/welden_paula.html