Identified! CA - Huntington Beach, WhtFem 40UFCA, 18-30, poss name Andrea, Apr'90 - Andrea Kuiper

[zwiebel]

Maybe a greyhound bus station would have them?

 

[MrsTigglesworth]

=PonderingThings;

She carried a smooth black stone, and a motel key inscribed with No. 218. She carried no identification and no credit cards.

RSBM
This was in the very first article post, although I considered storage locker possibilities too... Apparently the detective researched several motels at the time, so it was probably more a door style key, maybe with a hanging orange tag? Ala
http://www.etsy.com/listing/112721903/vintage-hotel-room-key-tag-motel-black?
Would any lockers or padlocks use a normal door size key?

 

[zwiebel]

I forgot about that number. I really can't recall ever using a locker, but I am wondering if it would be likely to have a locker number on the key tag. That would be an open invitations to thieves if a person lost it.

I suppose even if Andrea had left things in a locker, they would be long gone by now, unfortunately. Although......if she left an address, or id inside, would the company be likely to have written there, even if it was just to ask for unpaid fees?

 

[rosesfromangels]

Maybe a greyhound bus station would have them?

Or gym locker from a club even the YMCA, or an airport, or? That key/lock might be a good clue...

 

[Roselvr]

I forgot about that number. I really can't recall ever using a locker, but I am wondering if it would be likely to have a locker number on the key tag. That would be an open invitations to thieves if a person lost it.

I suppose even if Andrea had left things in a locker, they would be long gone by now, unfortunately. Although......if she left an address, or id inside, would the company be likely to have written there, even if it was just to ask for unpaid fees?

She carried a smooth black stone, and a motel key inscribed with No. 218.
I saw another description I think that it was an orange plastic on the key but I have to find it to confirm that

 

[carbuff]

Of course one of the most common reasons for a young woman to be carrying a key to a hotel/motel room is that the guy who rented the room gave it to her so she can meet him there later...not casting any aspersions on Andrea, but it's one way to keep yourself alive on the road.

 

[deca]

Of course one of the most common reasons for a young woman to be carrying a key to a hotel/motel room is that the guy who rented the room gave it to her so she can meet him there later...not casting any aspersions on Andrea, but it's one way to keep yourself alive on the road.

I have thought the same thing. Her youthful face might also have inspired a lot of sympathy from people if she occasionally begged.

Really we have two choices here that I can see: 1. She wasn't on the streets long. 2. She got money from begging/prostitution

 

[MrsTigglesworth]

I kept trying to think why she would accept a stranger's room if she had a hotel, and didn't even THINK that it might have been a not yet accepted invitation!! Good thought. I wonder if the detective searched specifically for a matching key ... Or just for someone at the hotels that may have seen andrea herself??? If we found the matching key, it would be a great lead.

I believe one article said 218 was "imprinted on the key" while a different one said it had an orange tag. Every Y locker I have used requires you to bring your own lock ( usually combination), but I don't know about other places...

 

[zwiebel]

I have thought the same thing. Her youthful face might also have inspired a lot of sympathy from people if she occasionally begged.

Really we have two choices here that I can see: 1. She wasn't on the streets long. 2. She got money from begging/prostitution

I'm going with she hadn't been on the streets long. An experienced sex worker or a kept woman hitching a ride, wearing ankle length black and and hanging out with homeless people, going through bins, just doesn't gel for me.

I think those homeless people who came forward are important. There wasn't a reward, and transients aren't known for inserting themselves into cases under false pretences. I think they came forward because they regarded Andrea as 'one of them'.

 

[killarney rose]

I'm going with she hadn't been on the streets long. An experienced sex worker or a kept woman hitching a ride, wearing ankle length black and and hanging out with homeless people, going through bins, just doesn't gel for me.

I think those homeless people who came forward are important. There wasn't a reward, and transients aren't known for inserting themselves into cases under false pretences. I think they came forward because they regarded Andrea as 'one of them'.

I think this fits with her being a new arrival to town. Perhaps she planned to, or was searching for bilogical family there. Perhaps she found them and was rejected? That would be a good reason for no one coming forward-she was a secret they wanted hidden.

 

[zwiebel]

It does seem that could fit. I get the feeling though that if Andrea had mentioned anything like that to the people she met, that coroner would have chased those bio parents down. If she'd had a hurtful experience with them, she might not have felt able to tell anyone, of course.

My map skills are terrible so can anyone help me out? Andrea was hitching on Pacific but we don't know what direction she came from, but the coroner did pursue leads in Oregon. It looked to me on the map that if a person was hitching from Oregon to CA, Pacific would be the most straightforward way to get there? And Oregon might be a natural stopping off place if a person had come from Seattle?

Please excuse me if I'm totally off here. I'm bad enough with small countries but the huge scale of the US is always catching me out.

 

[CarlK90245]

The quickest most direct route from Oregon to Orange County CA would be I-5, which cuts through the central valley of California. It is about a two-day drive. The central valley is very flat and mostly farmland, and very boring. If she wanted to do the scenic route, she could take Highway 1 (which is called the Cabrillo Hwy in Northern CA, El Camino Real in Central CA, and Pacific Coast Highway in Southern CA). But it would take a bit longer, especially if you're not in a hurry.

 

[rosesfromangels]

While anything is possible, I think we are collectively getting closer to figuring out who this girl is. We know she didn't appear to be a homeless, as her person showed no signs of that hard life. We know she was well nourished and had recent, expensive dental work done. Her dental charts showed a history of good care with wisdom teeth extractions, etc. The fact that this well cared for young woman ended up sleeping at a mobile sales persons home, hanging with homeless people, shopping at a thrift store, tells me she had a complete breakdown of some sort. Something traumatic caused her to snap and mourn by cutting her own hair and making a mourning ring. The hair in the pocket is usually a ritual of keeping a baby's lock of hair for good luck, or a deceased loved ones hair...not your own. That is the strange twist with the hair. This young lady either suffered a traumatic loss, or perhaps was having a bipolar episode. Did we know if it was ever established if she'd ever been pregnant? Did she lose a baby and was suffering post partum depression? Was she mourning the end of a relationship? Again, it could have been a bipolar episode.
The question remains why someone wouldn't come forward to claim her. Under what circumstances would a "quite beautiful" (quoted by the detective) young woman not have friends or relatives to claim her? Or, under what circumstances would people not want to come forth out of embarrassment, or? I know of a wealthy family who completely turned their back on their mentally ill son who was living in the streets. "He needs to straighten up and fly right!" Needless to say that never happened, and perhaps that is the case with Andrea.
Who are these people that will not step forward....why?

 

[carbuff]

There are so many reasons why her family could be looking for her and not found her. If she really is from the east coast, they might never have seen a report about a young traffic accident victim in California. If she ran away, LE might have refused to take a report. If they knew she was on the road but doesn't know where she went, they might not have any idea where to start looking. They might be looking in the wrong time, the wrong place, the wrong circumstances. There might be jurisdictional issues or mistaken information between LE agencies that have nothing to do with the family.

And if they parted after a bad fight, with hard feelings, it might have been quite a while before they knew they needed to look.

I wonder if she thought she would find one of her birth parents at that trailer park where the guy took her in for the night, and then when they weren't there (maybe never were there?) she didn't know what to do?

 

[Jerri Blank]

kind of an aside, and i don't mean this in a cruel way, but i am really thrown by the detective describing andrea as "quite beautiful"... if carl's rendering is accurate, which i was confident it was, i dont know if thats how most would describe her. i know beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but in this case it doesnt seem like she was conventionally a "beauty". i note it only because it is tripping me up a little when trying to come up with possible scenarios for her. maybe she was living a little more roughly than i originally thought and for a bit longer?

totally not trying to insult anyone here, i don't think anyone would ever call me a "beauty" either ... except my fiance, who is obligated to ... but they dont go running away in terror when i walk down the street either, so its all relative i suppose?

 

[carbuff]

I've seen the PM photo. She's much prettier than even CarlK's reconstruction. You look at her and you just want to cry.

 

[zwiebel]

I haven't seen the pm photo, but can just imagine that baby-like nose and round face face in death, along with the circumstances of her death. It would make anyone's heart bleed and even to be able to ignore any injuries or natural flaws. Andrea seems to have struck such a cord with people, she must have had some beauty about her. I think it may have been a combination of the physical, her vulnerability and the tragic circumstances of her death.

Is there any possibility Andrea could have been a runaway young adult who left home on such bad terms her family did not expect to hear from her? And that it was only after years had passed they would have reported her missing? Would the report carry the date they last saw her, in that case? Or the date they made the report?

 

[zwiebel]

One thing's for certain, I think. If there is a picture of her out there and we find it, we'll recognise it.

OT but, that UID (living lady) called Linda and Dylansmom34 googling 'missing blonde haired lady' and pulling up a pic of her - how amazing is that? Already tried it for Andrea, by the way. No joy.

 

[carbuff]

I haven't seen the pm photo, but can just imagine that baby-like nose and round face face in death, along with the circumstances of her death. It would make anyone's heart bleed and even to be able to ignore any injuries or natural flaws. Andrea seems to have struck such a cord with people, she must have had some beauty about her. I think it may have been a combination of the physical, her vulnerability and the tragic circumstances of her death.

Is there any possibility Andrea could have been a runaway young adult who left home on such bad terms her family did not expect to hear from her? And that it was only after years had passed they would have reported her missing? Would the report carry the date they last saw her, in that case? Or the date they made the report?

I think that is a very likely scenario. In that case, the dates are likely to be very ambiguous.

 

[rosesfromangels]

I keep going back to the teeth. Would it be beneficial for an orthodontist to look at those charts and note if there is anything special about her work (given the year it was done) that might point to a specific procedure or technique that might have only been done at _______ or pioneered by Dr. _____? I know this is a long shot, but maybe worth a try? I could almost imagine some scenario where we would hear that the porcelain restoration technique (on the back of the teeth) was very unique (I think it was...) and popularized by the students from XYZ dental school in ____. You never know....