Identified! SC - Yemassee, BlkFem 28-35, 347UFSC, scars - thyroid, c-section & hysterectomy, May'95 *GRAPHIC* - Maria Telles-Gonzalez

[kathart001]

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

Exclusions
MP14696 Kathleen Dennis 07/10/1995 Kent MI

>>> Is she excluded? she was listed under comparisons. Kathleen's NAMUS profile doesnt have any scars listed, very similar features

 

[YaYa_521]

>>> Is she excluded? she was listed under comparisons. Kathleen's NAMUS profile doesnt have any scars listed, very similar features

Yes she was. Kathleen is the only exclusion listed.

 

[YaYa_521]

>>> Is she excluded? she was listed under comparisons. Kathleen's NAMUS profile doesnt have any scars listed, very similar features

Please excuse my unintended rudeness. I didn't realize you're brand new to WS. Welcome!

 

[kathart001]

Please excuse my unintended rudeness. I didn't realize you're brand new to WS. Welcome!

it is alright! I didn't realize it said exclusions under comparisons before I posted that haha

 

[MudaMudaMuda]

Lowkey resembles a woman named Amber Gill on reality show Love Island, who was black Caribbean and Spanish White IIRC
I was about to say this woman is most likely black Caribbean/white

 

[Susikatze]

I would not go so far. There are plenty of reasons why a younger woman would get a hysterectomy. Could have had placenta accreta or percreta during delivery. Could have suffered from endometriosis, adenomyosis or myomas. Could be a cervical cancer survivor.

Forced sterilization (and voluntary, too) actually is usually a tubal ligation or tubal severance, not full hysterectomy.

I recently learned about this. Being she seems pretty young to have had a hysterectomy, she could have been a victim of involuntary sterilization. Apparently Puerto Rico has the highest rates of this according to this article. If she was Native American they indured this well into the 80's. I hope I am wrong and her hysterectomy was due to normal circumstances like to avoid complications.

Unwanted Sterilization and Eugenics Programs in the United States

 

[Triss]

Poor woman Someone's getting away with murder. Someone else is missing their mum.

 

[Professor Bell]

On May 24, 1995 an unidentified female was found in a ditch off Cotton Hall Rd in Yamassee S.C. The cause of death was murder by strangulation. She appears to be in her early 30s. It is believed that the murder took place in another location. Authorities say she was found approx 24 hours after death. She was about 5'3 and 118 lbs with dyed reddish brown hair and brown eyes at time of autopsy. She had a 3'' scar on her lower neck from thyroid surgery and a 5'' scar on lower abdomen from a hysterectomy. Ears are double pierced. ME/C case number 9511788 SO case #. She is believed to be of Hispanic descent. Bio-geo DNA method indicates that she may have been Caribbean or South American. Victim was wearing only underwear of Leonisa brand which was distributed in Columbia at the time. Effort was clearly made to hide her identity. It was determined that sexual activity had taken place prior to death. 25 years later, a dead woman remains unidentified in Beaufort County. https://www.islandpacket.com/latest-news/article211854509.html.

 

[Curious_in_NC]

RSBM
Victim was wearing only underwear of Leonisa brand which was distributed in Columbia at the time. 25 years later, a dead woman remains unidentified in Beaufort County. https://www.islandpacket.com/latest-news/article211854509.html.

The linked article says the underwear were from Columbia, SC. Earlier articles quoted upthread said they were from Columbia in South America, which makes more sense.

 

[Professor Bell]

Yeah. The underwear most likely came from Columbia South America.

 

[cvaldez1975]

im willing to bet she herself was from south america. there are many there with afro-carribean ancestry. how very sad, what a beautiful woman.

 

[Susikatze]

If her clothing was bought in Colombia, she was likely Colombian. There are plenty of people with a strong subsaharan African admix among Colombians.

Re her hysterectomy, most hysterectomies now are performed transvaginally, but the case is 25 years old.

 

[chrissyfr]

Bump
I hope she gets identified this year

 

[aThousandYearsWide]

There was a lot of discussion on page 1 of this thread about how her Doe Network casefile mentions that she likely was transported by car for 12 hrs and the question was how are they so certain this was the case? My first thought is maybe they found car carpet fibers on her back. Maybe the fibers were found to be specific to a certain make or model of car (more rare) and they didn't publicize this information so the perpetrator didn't get rid of their car.

 

[annpats]

This lady has the most peaceful, beautiful photos from a post-mortem I've ever seen.

Her face looks totally a peace. She doesn't even look like she's dead.

What an angel.

RIP.

 

[Disleuth]

I thought that in the morgue photos she looked clearly African/Caribbean/mixed race, so I included African-American and Hispanic women as well as dark Caucasians. Most of them were very sketchy on the details and only a couple have NAMUS listings.

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/v/vanburen_edna.html -- she's a bit too old, but what little you can see in the photos doesn't look 45.

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/s/simms_johanna.html -- how would she look with her hair left curly and henna'd?

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/p/prince_shelli.html -- seems like the right style but is a larger woman? Also a bit young.

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/w/williams_mary.html -- something about the face...

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/v/vicent_tracie.html -- this woman has relatives in Virginia, worked as a prostitute, had children though no mention of surgery/C-section

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/w/wilson_raechelle.html -- this woman is too young and too tall, but her face is similar and she has a vague disappearance date in Kansas, which would be a bit over 12 hours away

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/s/scheer_lisa.html -- I thought she had a certain facial similarity, though she disappeared a year before

She s puerto rican according to her geneolgy exam

 

[CarlK90245]

I haven't followed that case recently, and I am unaware of a genealogical assessment for that case. If she is Puerto Rican, then you are right. She would be an American citizen. But all I said was "Caribbean", which would include many countries that aren't American territories. Lilawattie Buerattan was from Guyana, If i recall correctly.

 

[codelette]

bump.
I recently learned about this case. I received a call from a detective a few days back, my sister and I match the victim through our maternal side. As I understand from conversations we might have a great grandparent (or great great grandparent) in common.
1) My sister and I are 100% Puertorican, from the east coast.
2) The lingerie brand caught my attention. The Leonisa underwear brand was pretty popular in PR back in the 90s and only sold via consignment. It was also quite pricey, like VS.
3) I called my grandmother (she is 98) to ask her if she knew of anyone missing amongst our extended family. No luck.
4) My biggest hunch is that this young woman was visiting Florida from the island. Possibly the Jacksonville (about 2-3 hrs to Yemassee) or the Kissimmee area. There are big Puertorican population movements to and from those areas.

I think she hasn't been identified because there is a language/information barrier between the States and PR. Not everything that's aired on continental Telemundo/Univision is aired in PR. I've been thinking about suggesting the investigator to reach out directly to the Puertorican press.

Any other suggestions from you websleuths?

 

[ntt1]

bump.
I recently learned about this case. I received a call from a detective a few days back, my sister and I match the victim through our maternal side. As I understand from conversations we might have a great grandparent (or great great grandparent) in common.
1) My sister and I are 100% Puertorican, from the east coast.
2) The lingerie brand caught my attention. The Leonisa underwear brand was pretty popular in PR back in the 90s and only sold via consignment. It was also quite pricey, like VS.
3) I called my grandmother (she is 98) to ask her if she knew of anyone missing amongst our extended family. No luck.
4) My biggest hunch is that this young woman was visiting Florida from the island. Possibly the Jacksonville (about 2-3 hrs to Yemassee) or the Kissimmee area. There are big Puertorican population movements to and from those areas.

I think she hasn't been identified because there is a language/information barrier between the States and PR. Not everything that's aired on continental Telemundo/Univision is aired in PR. I've been thinking about suggesting the investigator to reach out directly to the Puertorican press.

Any other suggestions from you websleuths?

If there a specific area/city/town in Puerto Rico that your family might be centered around, I think it is definitely worth trying to get it in the press there.

Do you have a good knowledge of the maternal side to your family tree? From the sounds of it, the match does sound relatively close. If the investigators have the admixture report it might be easier to narrow down the father. There's always a possibility of an NPE (non-paternal event) though.

 

[codelette]

If there a specific area/city/town in Puerto Rico that your family might be centered around, I think it is definitely worth trying to get it in the press there.

Do you have a good knowledge of the maternal side to your family tree? From the sounds of it, the match does sound relatively close. If the investigators have the admixture report it might be easier to narrow down the father. There's always a possibility of an NPE (non-paternal event) though.

So I luckily have a 2C1R that has been working really hard on the family tree and she has been able to narrow the search to a specific ward in our hometown with the help of the detective. Looks very promising, the connection they've identified connects our hometown and NY. I hope this is the way to finding out her identity.