She did not have any head wounds or head trauma and I sure hope she was alert so that she fought back and maybe we'll get DNA from her nails. Also I have wondered if fighting back could be why she was not sexually assaulted. She didn't give him the chance. Certainly one theory that I am sure has been looked at since 1967.
Mrs. Kaldenberg had told the investigating officer that Mary Ellen had suffered from emotional problems because of the death of her father and because of her nose, so much, so, that she had received therapy at a psychiatric clinic once a week and, later, once every three weeks between November, 1965 and April, 1966.
There's a possibility that the person who killed her was also under care at that same facility, maybe even with the same psychiatrist, for their mental health issues, probably serious health issues based on the severity of this crime. She probably got to know him in the waiting room and wasn't aware of his issues.
Since the neighborhood kids had been taking a shortcut through the impound lot gate and then up the embankment across the tracks for years to and from school to home, it's possible that this person also once took this shortcut when he was younger and deemed it a good spot to hide a body. If it was possible to check patient records from back in 1967 and then see if any possible suspects went to a school near the impound lot and lived across the tracks, that might be a lead. The killer could have been a teenager. Police didn't have seven of them take lie detector tests for nothing.
As far as head wounds go, the boys who found her stated they saw visible nasty bruising, caked with a dark substance that looked like dried blood.
These students were teenage boys, one 15, the other two 13 and on their way home from St. Mary Elementary School, 7400 39th Ave, taking a short cut through the lot.
After they saw the body, they ran to a gas station and told the attendant, who didn't believe them, nor did he call police. So, they ran back to the lot and told a water department employee they saw who was locking the gate. He then looked, saw the body and called police.
Interestingly, a tipster who called in to the police stated that another girl had taken Mary Ellen to a Kenosha discount store earlier in the afternoon of her disappearance.
I thought of
Dennis Brantner, who had worked at the
Jupiter Discount Store, 430 Main St. in Kenosha, according to a newspaper article from October 21, 1974 Racine Journal Times. Jupiter Discount Store was just 10 blocks north of where Tina Marie Davidson was found dead. 61 year old Dennis Brantner was recently arrested in Kenosha, WI for the murder of Berit Beck. When I did the math, though, it showed he was only 13 at the time.
It would still be interesting, though, to see if it was that same discount store...and who worked there at the time.
http://i296.photobucket.com/albums/mm176/pleasestandby2/brantner3_zpsnb9oz80s.jpg
The coroner said Mary Ellen had been slashed six times in the neck, once in the back and four times in the body. Two of the body wounds, one under each breast, could have killed her since the tip of the knife blade penetrated the heart. One of the neck wounds also cut the jugular vein and blood loss from that wound could also have caused death. It was believed the weapon was a hunting knife. I think the 12th stab wound was in the forehead, or stomach?
I wonder if the non-slash wounds were in a sign of the cross formation?
On another note, I also thought it interesting that the father of Luigi Aiello (also with the same name) worked for many years at American Brass, right across the street from the Kaldenberg residence. Aiello killed the son of the Kenosha County Sheriff.
http://i296.photobucket.com/albums/mm176/pleasestandby2/gasstationrobbery_zpsqn4pwhav.jpg
