Identified! MS - Lincoln Co, Wht/MixedFem 16-35, UP4769, poss from New Orleans, freckles, scars, mole, Sep'89 - MELINDA LOU BARNHOUSE

[EmiliaRT007]

I wonder what her story was.
The picture of her in the grey t-shirt looks to be mid- to late 80s (?) so if she was estranged from her family it can't have been for too long.
Also wondering how a pm photo can look so entirely different from the real person, usually you can tell.
RIP Melinda Lou <3

I think sometimes all you see is the body, and not the soul that has flown up and away. The PM photos just show what’s left here of the person. After postmortem changes take place they start to look less like themselves and more, well, dead. Sometimes looking at pictures of people postmortem just kind of sets it in stone that this is what will happen. Sometimes they JUST died and you can see a little bit of life still lingering in. I’m curious about the story too.

I’m always curious about UIDs. They just sit there in the morgue, their only identification being some numbers in a system, usually a nickname, and that’s it. We end up nicknaming UIDs, it just really humanizes them IMO. The UIDs are like our friends! We care very much about them, and want them to be respected as much as we respect them. We give them our own nicknames too, just like buddies in a friend group. That’s why it’s so important when we really know who they are.

I really do wonder about Melinda’s life. Was she really only 18? She looked about 22-ish if I had to guess. Also PS she looked like a Melinda, lol.

 

[Friday Fan]

I'm not sure of her age, but there is a good chance she was significantly older than her pictures. Often the picture we see is of a person when they were last in school or at a significant event etc. They may have been gone from their families' lives for years before they were killed and any surviving picture would not be recent.

I'm just stating the odds, because it often seems to be with UIDs. The only remaining picture is often outdated.