CA CA - Desert Hot Springs, WhtFem 551UFCA, 40-55, Prescription Glasses, Feb'97

[cvaldez1975]

no. my baby is named jacob

Oh I know! Did you go to the Garden of Angels website and read Jacob's story?? Definitely brought tears to my eyes!

 

[carbuff]

Jane Doe Namus link and exclusions. Anne Ferguson is not among them.
https://identifyus.org/cases/7026

Dorothy Chiappuzzo 1938 California
Cynthia Coover 1956 California
Tina D'Ambrosio 1961 Arizona
Carmen Hetrick 1956 Colorado
Sandra Jacobson 1959 North Dakota
Gloria King 1954 New Mexico
Wendy Ratte 1953 California
Patricia Schmidt 1964 Virginia

DNA sample for the Doe is not available but her dentals are quite distinctive.
I didn't find a Namus page for Anne Ferguson.

Jane Doe was wearing a wedding ring. Was AF married?

Billie Willard has been added to the ruleouts list. https://identifyus.org/cases/7026

 

[Redux]

Article that mentions this UID, among others:

http://www.desertsun.com/story/news...iverside-county-unidentified-bodies/24717147/

Just to grab a couple of details from that story in case they ring a bell along the way....

She was white, likely in her 50s or 60s, with hazel eyes and shoulder-length, brown-gray hair. She wore blue jeans, a yellow windbreaker and giant rounded bifocals that made her look like an owl. There was a wedding ring on her finger, cash in her pocket and a clear amber pendant around her neck. Her face was painted with pricey Clinique makeup.

Soon, authorities had swarmed the scene. They found the woman's day camp, a small collection of food and belongings, up the hillside from her body. They combed the camp for answers, but uncovered only riddles.

For example, they found a photograph of a beach, but it looked as if someone had been cut out of the picture, erasing a clue. They found a Hallmark birthday card, but the sender's name had been torn off. And they found an unfinished love letter, written in English and Scottish Gaelic, addressed to no one.

"Dear love of my heart ..." the letter began, before fading into nothing. "A ghraidh mo chridhe." ("O love of my heart.")

Interesting that she was living a transient lifestyle but had the money for (and took the time to apply) Clinique makeup.

 

[luckyseven]

I'm guessing there were no further updates on Margaret Barrett or Anne Frady, then? Those two seem to be big possibilities. Neither of them are added to ruleouts.

 

[carbuff]

People we've suggested who aren't on the ruleouts list:

Anne Ferguson (Frady) http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/1749dftn.html
Rebecca Reid http://charleyproject.org/cases/r/reid_rebecca.html (IMO unlikely because she was apparently kidnapped)
Margaret Barrett (link upthread is no good)

I don't know whether any of them was ever submitted. According to the daughter-in-law, the son submitted DNA, but according to Namus our Jane Doe doesn't have DNA.

 

[Astrophel]

The resemblance between Margaret Barrett and the sketch is uncanny. If she was an escaped inmate, that would definitely explain why she was camping in the middle of nowhere.

I searched for Margaret Barrett's prisoner DOC# in the Nevada Inmate records and found some more information on her. She's listed as having hazel eyes and grey hair - both match our unidentified woman. She was known to use the aliases SARAH CUNNINGHAM, MARGARET BARRETT, PEGGY MARGARET MANNING, RENEE RICHARDSON, MARGARET ANN MANNING, PEGGY BARRETT, MAVIS BARRETT, RENA SERNA and RENEE SERNA. Her crime is not listed, but it does say that she had no prior felonies. She was incarcerated at the Warm Springs Correctional Center in Carson City, Nevada, which was a women's prison at the time. Unfortunately, her height and weight are not listed.

 

[FiveFelines]

There's a rather blurry morgue photo of this woman. It's not graphic, but I won't post it here. It's in another online forum, easily found by googling "riverside jane doe" or "desert hot springs jane doe".

 

[FiveFelines]

The resemblance between Margaret Barrett and the sketch is uncanny. If she was an escaped inmate, that would definitely explain why she was camping in the middle of nowhere.

I searched for Margaret Barrett's prisoner DOC# in the Nevada Inmate records and found some more information on her. She's listed as having hazel eyes and grey hair - both match our unidentified woman. She was known to use the aliases SARAH CUNNINGHAM, MARGARET BARRETT, PEGGY MARGARET MANNING, RENEE RICHARDSON, MARGARET ANN MANNING, PEGGY BARRETT, MAVIS BARRETT, RENA SERNA and RENEE SERNA. Her crime is not listed, but it does say that she had no prior felonies. She was incarcerated at the Warm Springs Correctional Center in Carson City, Nevada, which was a women's prison at the time. Unfortunately, her height and weight are not listed.

I agree she really looks like our Doe. My only hesitation is that her current age (if correct) is listed as 88, which would make her 70 when this UID was found--well over the estimated age range.

 

[MissingMother]

Sorry I've Been Away So Long - We Had A Pretty Lengthy Wait With CA Over The DNA Kit.
Once The Hubbs Submitted His They Said They Would Call Us - We Waited For Weeks - I
Have No Patience So We Finally Called Them Only To Be Told They Needed The Hubbs
Sister's DNA As Well - So We Went Thru That Process & Again Waited & Waited & Ended
Up Calling Them Yet Again - Now They Stated They Had DNA On The Unidentified Woman
& Would Need Hubbs DNA Submitted To Move Further - Now They Change Their Story &
We Find Out They Have NO DNA On This Woman Other Than Dental & Fingerprints - So
We Were Thrown Back To Square One Like A Kick In The Teeth. We Know Blanche Has
Dental Records Somewhere - But Nobody Seems To Know Where - We Have Personally
Called Every Local Dentist/Health Dept & Come Up With Nothing - & No Finger Prints For
Blanche Can Be Found Either - So The Investigator Handling Blanches Case Was Going To
Visit A Few Places & Get More Info & He Had Been In Contact With The TV Show Cold Justice
& They Were Going To get Involved - Come In & Re-Investigate Everything & Re-Question
People & Get It On Their Show - (After Being Turned Down Several Times By Unsolved
Mysteries) We Thought YES Maybe We Can Finally Get Somewhere! Then Outta The Blue
Im Watching The Morning News & Hear This "Investigator Ricky Seals Found Dead"
They Found Our Investigator Dead....Seriously How Many More Walls Are Gonna Be Thrown At Us???
So We Wait Yet Again....Ricky Was An Awesome Man & Investigator & Truely Knew What
We Were Going Thru On A Daily Basis - Now We Dont Have Him...We Are Suppose To Be
Assigned A New Detective - When I Dont Know. I'm Also Trying To Get It Back On The
News Again To Let People Know She Is Still Missing & That We Have Not & Will Not
Give Up Looking For Her! But I Will Try To Keep You Guys Updated. You Can Keep Up
Fairly Easy By Visiting Any Of The Links Below! Thanks For Everyones Kind Words!
It Gives Me The Umph I Sometimes Need To Keep Putting One Foot In Front Of The Other!

I Have Several Sites Up About Her!

Anne Blanche Ferguson Frady Missing Mother Myspace Page

Anne Blanche Ferguson Frady Missing Mother Facebook Page

MissingMother's Facebook

 

[FiveFelines]

Wow. Sorry you are going through all this, MissingMother!

 

[carbuff]

I'm sorry about your investigator; it sounds like a shocking death. Rest in peace, Mr. Seals.

 

[JayFletcher6493]

Is there any post mortem picture available for this Jane Doe?

 

[skepticalbear]

FiveFelines mentioned this in post #27. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to link to the photo, but if you Google "Desert Hot Springs Jane Doe" you'll find it at the first link toward the bottom of the page. It's not graphic, but it's pretty small and blurry.

 

[Romulus]

https://www.findthemissing.org/en/cases/33482/0 Betsy Cole?

 

[MelmothTheLost]

A ghraidh mo chridhe

That phrase seems to be a quote from the Carmina Gaedelica, Gaelic poetry and traditional stories from the Western Isles collected and edited around 1900 by Alexander Carmichael. You can see the phrase in its context here if you specifically search for it:

http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/cg2/cg2107.htm

This is rather interesting because the CG is a pretty obscure work these days, and the mystery woman spelled the Gaelic words correctly. It seems likely, therefore, that either she had a passing knowledge of Gaelic, enough to be able to spell it correctly (which I suspect the vast majority of non-Gaelic speakers would not unless they had specifically learned the phrase), or she had quite carefully read a parallel text with the words in Gaelic and English side by side for comparison.

So how many people in the US would have a knowledge of Gaelic? Probably not many considering there are fewer than 60,000 fluent speakers in Scotland. Could she have been an immigrant from Scotland?

One place where the language is spoken in North America is Nova Scotia, and particularly on Cape Breton Island and Prince Edward Island, where around 10,000 people still speak it in daily life. Could she have been from Nova Scotia?

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

The other possibillity is that she might simply have come across the phrase in Diana Gabaldon's Outlander novels, four of which were published before 1997. In them, Gabaldon scatters words and phrases in Gaelic, for which she had help and advice from Gaelic speakers.

ETA I wonder about her wedding ring. Did it have a US-style or British-style hallmark (if it had any at all)?

 

[Owutatangledweb]

That phrase seems to be a quote from the Carmina Gaedelica, Gaelic poetry and traditional stories from the Western Isles collected and edited around 1900 by Alexander Carmichael. You can see the phrase in its context here if you specifically search for it:

http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/cg2/cg2107.htm

This is rather interesting because the CG is a pretty obscure work these days, and the mystery woman spelled the Gaelic words correctly. It seems likely, therefore, that either she had a passing knowledge of Gaelic, enough to be able to spell it correctly (which I suspect the vast majority of non-Gaelic speakers would not unless they had specifically learned the phrase), or she had quite carefully read a parallel text with the words in Gaelic and English side by side for comparison.

So how many people in the US would have a knowledge of Gaelic? Probably not many considering there are fewer than 60,000 fluent speakers in Scotland. Could she have been an immigrant from Scotland?

One place where the language is spoken in North America is Nova Scotia, and particularly on Cape Breton Island and Prince Edward Island, where around 10,000 people still speak it in daily life. Could she have been from Nova Scotia?

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

The other possibillity is that she might simply have come across the phrase in Diana Gabaldon's Outlander novels, four of which were published before 1997. In them, Gabaldon scatters words and phrases in Gaelic, for which she had help and advice from Gaelic speakers.

ETA I wonder about her wedding ring. Did it have a US-style or British-style hallmark (if it had any at all)?

I just came across this thread and haven't read through it yet. However, it made me think of the following thread. The girl had on an Irish ring. Sorry, I forget the spelling of it even though I'm Irish.

http://www.websleuths.com/forums/sh...-Middletown-WhtFem-Skeletal-UP14642-18-40-In-

 

[MelmothTheLost]

I did find this woman missing from Nova Scotia:

Leslie Anne Katnick

https://www.services.rcmp-grc.gc.ca...g1HGpthzVGL!-1992037826?case=2013000029&id=14

Missing since - November 2, 1991

Year of birth - 1966

Age at disappearance - 25

Gender - Female

Bio group - White

Eye colour - Brown

Hair - Brown, Long

Height - 178cm / 5 ft 10 in

Weight - 64kg / 141lb

Build - Slender/Thin

Complexion - Light/Fair

Wearing: Large frame glasses

OK, so what does NOT fit are height (she's a few inches too tall) and too young (she went missing in 1991 when she was 25), BUT there are suspicious circumstances and indications of foul play in her disappearance, and if she had been living rough or a transient lifestyle she might have aged more quickly than she otherwise would.

Leslie's Doe Network page : http://doenetwork.org/cases/2320dfns.html

There's very little information about her there, eg information about dentals etc.

Worth a punt?

 

[MelmothTheLost]

IThe girl had on an Irish ring. Sorry, I forget the spelling of it even though I'm Irish.

Claddagh ring?

 

[Owutatangledweb]

Claddagh ring?

u

Yes, thank you!

 

[Owutatangledweb]

What do you think of this guy? Seems he had victim's close to his age; so age him back to 1997. Might need to look at his timeline closely. Nova Scotia or other parts Canada may not be such a reach.

http://www.websleuths.com/forums/sh...nked-to-three-women-who-are-missing-in-the-US