Identified! NV - Washoe Co., WhtFem 156UFNV, 25-35, Sheep's Flat Trail, Jul'82 - Mary Edith Silvani

[Charlie99909]

http://www.ktvn.com/story/29597100/washoe-county-deputies-have-new-theory-in-cold-case


Washoe Sheriff is re-examining this case. At the link are pictures of her shoes and her bathing suit. Shoes are yellow, not Keds type like previously described. They have also dropped the European angle. I knew it!

 

[carbuff]

Thanks for posting this!

Those look like Keds or something to me. Basic sneakers. Yellow doesn't make them not Keds.

 

[FiveFelines]

Those look like Keds-type sneakers to me. I'd call them tennis shoes. Her bathing suit is a bit strappier/sexier than I imagined.

 

[Charlie99909]

The Keds type that was always described was a basic canvas with just a rubber sole. It could have always been a description error. Glad to see these are surfacing, hopefully we get a clearer face picture soon and not her compostite.

 

[amateur_sleuth]

Hi! I'm new to this thread, and did a little research on this case. I found this article that has a lot of good information about it: http://www.kolotv.com/crackdown/hea...ar-Old-Murder-317665371.html?device=phone&c=y

 

[amateur_sleuth]

Could this be her?http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/1526dfpa.html
Joanne Williams was a dancer who went missing from Scranton in 1978. LE thinks that the UID was estranged from her family some time before she was killed. The picture of Williams isn't clear, but I can see similarities in the face shape.

 

[allmybecsloveme]

I may have missed something, but the original description at the beginning of the thread says she had on a white lace bathing suit. The new article shows a photo of a blue bathing suit. 😕

 

[Charlie99909]

That video was great, it actually said a few things I had known for a few years. The sexual assault is different because I had been told there was no sign of a struggle and it seemed consensual. There is still a few things that had been withheld in the video implying that she had known her killer.
Seeing the actual crime scene was a change of pace. Interesting to see it right in the tree line, but still seems out in the open.

 

[Springrain]

FWIW, this Jane Doe looks so much like this European lady I know. She is Czech or German, I believe. They look nearly identical--same hair color, eye shape, cheekbones. It's actually kind of alarming.

 

[Springrain]

Bumping.

 

[carbuff]

FWIW, this Jane Doe looks so much like this European lady I know. She is Czech or German, I believe. They look nearly identical--same hair color, eye shape, cheekbones. It's actually kind of alarming.

Yeah, several people have commented on that. It's really quite remarkable.

Of course that doesn't mean she is European; she could be an American or Canadian of Czech or German ancestry.

 

[Springrain]

Yeah, I see in recent articles they seem to have dropped the European angle. They said she was from the US (West, I believe?).

 

[zelda_s]

FWIW I actually see her as distinctly English looking. I'm a UK and US citizen and I often notice subtle differences in the way they look. However it was very uncommon in the early 80s to travel over to the US from the uk. It was reserved for wealthy individuals or those touring with a band or something.

 

[Charlie99909]

It's been so long since I e done any research into the case, I'm drawing a blank. I have a line directly into Washoe County Coroner. Anyone have any questions we should send up?

 

[parakeet]

Bump.

 

[MelmothTheLost]

I just got word from the dentist I know. He writes;

In reviewing the pictures here is what I see:

The two upper lateral incisors appear to be congenitally missing.* These would be teeth numbers 7 and 10.*

That's interesting. Assuming he's right from the information you were able to send him, this is a curious and pretty rare feature (affects only 1%-2% of the population) which is shared by a number of UIDs I've read about, including

(a) Somerton Man,
(b) this UID found at Ludlow in CA - http://www.websleuths.com/forums/sh...ssibly-a-Nurse-Buried-w-WhtMale-UP2578-Nov-80 and
(c) this one from Indiana - http://doenetwork.org/cases/177ufin.html

Given that this is a genetic feature which can be inherited, I wonder if there's any point comparing all of these individuals on the off-chance that they were related, even remotely.

 

[MelmothTheLost]

They only say bikini styled bottoms. What if they were mens bikini bottoms?

To me, as a Brit, this suggests a style of women's underwear giving a particular amount of coverage - not the waist-height jobs favoured by older women nor the really skimpy sort favoured by some young women, but comfortable half-coverage. Ones you'd be happy for your dad, but possibly not your grand-dad, to see on the washing line.

See M&S's knicker page for what I mean.

http://www.marksandspencer.com/l/li...ckbox-12|checkbox-2000|checkbox-10|checkbox-5

 

[MelmothTheLost]

I'm also more inclined to believe the mail-order bride scenario than the prostitute scenario.

To be honest, I think the mail-order bride from Europe thing is a red herring.

The mail-order bride phenomenon has only happened since the collapse of the Eastern Bloc in 1989 as there was no organised emigration from the former communist countries during the communist period except for one or two ethnic groups such as Jews. It came to prominence in the 1990s, and especially after 2000 with the rise of the internet facilitating the trde. Most women seeking to leave their home countries as brides have come from Russia, Belarus and Ukraine.

Western Europe was going through a period of prosperity and optimism during the 1970s, with people in poorer parts of Western Europe having the ability to migrate to richer bits, eg southern Italy to Belgium, if they wished. There was no need for them to seek a marriage in the US.

 

[MelmothTheLost]

If she was Eastern European, there is a good chance she was of the Orthodox religion.

Not necessarily.

Romania, Bulgaria, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Macedonia are Orthodox.

Poland is strongly Roman Catholic, as are Hungary, Croatia and Slovenia.

Of the former Czechoslovakia, the western end (now the Czech Republic) is largely Catholic and Protestant, while the eastern end, now Slovakia) is largely Catholic and Orthodox.

The Baltic states are mostly Lutheran-type Protestant, with the ethnic Russians brought in by Stalin being Orthodox.

The former East Germany was and is mostly Lutheran.

Albania is predominantly Muslim.

Bosnia-Herzegovina was a melting pot of Orthodox, Catholic and Muslim.

 

[MelmothTheLost]

However it was very uncommon in the early 80s to travel over to the US from the uk. It was reserved for wealthy individuals or those touring with a band or something.

That's not really so. Laker Airways started a low-cost service between London Gatwick and JFK in New York in 1977. It went bust in 1982 but its legacy was hugely influential.

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