CA CA - Otay, WhtFemale, 14-18, UP16712, homicide, burned, deformed right ear, extensive dental work, Feb'78

[Bit of hope]

Her ear looks to me like a Mozart ear, so named because the composer had them. Needless to say it isn't necessarily connected to abuse or intellectual disability.

Ear deformities are often hereditary but in rare cases are caused by a gestational injury called constriction ring syndrome.

Interesting note...I never heard of it. If you look into it there are many ear (and other) deformities possible. If you realize how many things can go differently during a pregnancy it makes you humble and thank full for the beauty of nature, if your baby is healthy, without deformaties. So what you actually pointed out is that an ear deformatie could also mean a possible hearing problem. Knowing a few people with deformaties, I agree, from experience, it doesn't necessarily say something about your intellectual capabilities.

 

[Melt71]

Just saw this thread... I submitted Wendy as a possible match to DoeNetwork and received a reply that their panel is looking at the possible match.

I agree that between the ear deformity, dental work, hair color, eye color, etc. these two young ladies seem to have a lot of commonalities. Only thing that is somewhat off is height. Wendy was reported as 4'10" at the time of her disappearance and UID was estimated to be a minimum height of 5'0". However, I think the lapse in time between when Wendy went missing and when Jane Doe was found could be enough for her to have grown a few more inches or Jane Doe's recorded height was not accurate due to the circumstances of her discovery (burned remains).

@CaptainJaneway did you ever get a response to submitting Wendy Eaton, who you noted was deaf in one ear and had one ear smaller than the other (your post #27 above)? www.websleuths.com/forums/threads/pa-wendy-eaton-15-media-17-may-1975.64549/page-2

 

[centipede]

New to websleuths but have been rolling this case around in my head for the last two years. I completed a film about this case in 2019, it was mostly speculative, but in making it I spoke with some people from the Otay & San Diego sheriff's department & coroner's office & was able to obtain the coroner & police reports for the case.
Her cause of death listed in those documents is meperidine poisoning. I spoke with family members, 2 medical professionals & one retired police officer who worked near Otay/Chula Vista about this case & all of them were incredibly confused by the meperidine poisoning as cause of death. Meperidine is the generic name for Demerol, it is a narcotic pain reliever that was typically prescribed for surgeries.

 

[Blurgle]

It's used nowadays mainly in a hospital setting but 40 years ago it was a common prescription painkiller available both from physicians and on the street.

 

[centipede]

Here's a newspaper article I found through newspapers.com last year. It's from the Chula Vista Star, March 9th 1978, no new information here but thought it was worth sharing

 

[Bit of hope]

New to websleuths but have been rolling this case around in my head for the last two years. I completed a film about this case in 2019, it was mostly speculative, but in making it I spoke with some people from the Otay & San Diego sheriff's department & coroner's office & was able to obtain the coroner & police reports for the case.
Her cause of death listed in those documents is meperidine poisoning. I spoke with family members, 2 medical professionals & one retired police officer who worked near Otay/Chula Vista about this case & all of them were incredibly confused by the meperidine poisoning as cause of death. Meperidine is the generic name for Demerol, it is a narcotic pain reliever that was typically prescribed for surgeries.

Welcome @centipede, good to have you here. Interesting..the poisoning with meperidine. I wonder how much of it a girl's body can "take", before there is poisoning, with dead as a result. Did you see anything in de casefile about the cause of death. Was it the meperidine or the torture, as far as you know. I hope she already passed when she was set afire. Horrible....

 

[centipede]

Welcome @centipede, good to have you here. Interesting..the poisoning with meperidine. I wonder how much of it a girl's body can "take", before there is poisoning, with dead as a result. Did you see anything in de casefile about the cause of death. Was it the meperidine or the torture, as far as you know. I hope she already passed when she was set afire. Horrible....

Thanks @Bit of hope, the coroners report lists meperidine poisoning as her cause of death. I just skimmed it again to jog my memory & double check that fact, and I think the only injuries she sustained were from the burns too. It's easy to get lost in the gruesomeness & scientific speak of the coroners report so I could be missing something.

 

[Beekarina]

I keep going back to Julie Soracco with this case. @centipede scroll back a page, and let me know your thoughts, if you have a moment.

Her late grandfather was an MD, and didn't want her disappearance reported....

Obviously, there could be other reasons, but a Physician could certainly access Demerol.....

 

[carbuff]

about Demerol: Demerol Uses, Dosage, Side Effects & Warnings - Drugs.com

Back when I was in college (mid 1970s), Demerol tablets were sometimes used for back trouble and extreme menstrual pain. One of the girls in my dorm had a relative who was a dentist who would prescribe it for us without asking many questions. It wasn't very tightly controlled.

 

[centipede]

I keep going back to Julie Soracco with this case. @centipede scroll back a page, and let me know your thoughts, if you have a moment.

Her late grandfather was an MD, and didn't want her disappearance reported....

Obviously, there could be other reasons, but a Physician could certainly access Demerol.....

Thanks, for linking Julie's case, I hadn't heard about it before & there is definitely a similarity in the age, height & appearance. The 8 hour distance between Placerville & Chula Vista is quite a bit, on the forum post about Julie's case her sister mentioned Julie would hitchhike so it's not impossible for her to end up on the opposite end of the state, heading towards the boarder.

I've been thinking about the specifics of Proctor Valley rd, where her body was discovered, since visiting in January last year & speaking with some family friends who have lived near where she was found since the 70s (who had never heard of her case). Even in 2019 Proctor Valley is still a very rural, unincorporated area, there are some houses near the start but once your on, it's nobody for miles. It's roughly 8miles of dirt road mainly used for hiking and dirt bike riding, and was difficult to drive down in my tiny car. Especially in the 70s when it would have been even less developed than it is now, it seems like a place only people familiar with the area would know was there. If anyone was around El Cajon, Chula Vista, Jamul or the other surrounding communities around the late 70s- early 80s I'm sure we would find your insight very helpful.

(recent google earth photo of Proctor Valley)

 

[centipede]

about Demerol: Demerol Uses, Dosage, Side Effects & Warnings - Drugs.com

Back when I was in college (mid 1970s), Demerol tablets were sometimes used for back trouble and extreme menstrual pain. One of the girls in my dorm had a relative who was a dentist who would prescribe it for us without asking many questions. It wasn't very tightly controlled.

Thanks @carbuff & @Blurgle for this Demerol info!

 

[centipede]

I keep going back to Julie Soracco with this case. @centipede scroll back a page, and let me know your thoughts, if you have a moment.

Her late grandfather was an MD, and didn't want her disappearance reported....

Obviously, there could be other reasons, but a Physician could certainly access Demerol.....

I think Julie's family history would also make sense of Doe's root canal & extensive dental work described, she was taken care of. I wonder if there is any of Julie's dental information documented too.

 

[centipede]

I heard about the identification of Orange Socks as Debra Louise Jackson last night & it really impacted me. Her murder was only a year after this Jane Doe. What lead to her identification was the police commissioning a new forensic reconstruction of her, which her sister saw and believed it to be her sister Debra.

I think it's vital to get a new reconstruction of this Doe, the two existing are very old and do not resemble each other. If anyone has resources on how to make this happen please let me know, is it best to speak with the Otay county sheriff's office or Coroner's office, or just reach out to the forensic artist directly? When I spoke with both the coroner and sheriff, neither could find documentation of where she may have been buried, I spoke with another department that deals with those affairs as well (I'm forgetting their name right now) and they were also at a loss. Hopefully they have postmortem photos of her to draw from, because I don't think they would go through the trouble of finding her body and disinterring it.

 

[Victoria Chambers]

I heard about the identification of Orange Socks as Debra Louise Jackson last night & it really impacted me. Her murder was only a year after this Jane Doe. What lead to her identification was the police commissioning a new forensic reconstruction of her, which her sister saw and believed it to be her sister Debra.

I think it's vital to get a new reconstruction of this Doe, the two existing are very old and do not resemble each other. If anyone has resources on how to make this happen please let me know, is it best to speak with the Otay county sheriff's office or Coroner's office, or just reach out to the forensic artist directly? When I spoke with both the coroner and sheriff, neither could find documentation of where she may have been buried, I spoke with another department that deals with those affairs as well (I'm forgetting their name right now) and they were also at a loss. Hopefully they have postmortem photos of her to draw from, because I don't think they would go through the trouble of finding her body and disinterring it.

DNA DOE PROJECT are on Facebook and they seem to be the group who are the driving force behind numerous recent Doe's being identified. Lavender Doe, Orange Socks, Corona Girl, Lime Lady, Clark County John Doe and many more! They have forensic artists Carl Koppleman and Nathalie Murray on board and They also have numerous UID cases being worked on right now, but also they ask the page members to suggest cases to add to their ever growing list. I'm not quite sure on how they go about deciding who is eligible and who is put forth first as such. But they are basically asking for more and more people to submit DNA to Gedmatch etc and are then using familial DNA techniques for IDing purposes. Some people are more than eager to help in this way- I think most are prepared to do it without a second thought that perhaps their own family members could subsequently be caught for any historical, be it major or petty crimes whereby the culprits have left DNA.. some people ought to be shaking in their boots whilst their siblings are too busy submitting DNA to notice Haha! I've said it all along.. all newborns should be systematically swabbed and entered into the database. That would solve more than cold cases, ie. The whole world would see a significant drop in any future major criminal activities, murders, abductions, children not knowing who their parents are. It would save billions of pounds of future Government funding, put an end to funding the massive costs of trying to solve not just backlogs of cases but future ones too! X

 

[Victoria Chambers]

For future reference only.. as with San Diego County JD78, 2 other notable missing females both whom have a deformed ear whereby 1 is noticeably lower than the other are 15yr old Barbara Louise Cotton 1981 and 17yr old Sandy Pathresa Rea 1984. X

 

[Al Ka]

I heard about the identification of Orange Socks as Debra Louise Jackson last night & it really impacted me. Her murder was only a year after this Jane Doe. What lead to her identification was the police commissioning a new forensic reconstruction of her, which her sister saw and believed it to be her sister Debra.

I think it's vital to get a new reconstruction of this Doe, the two existing are very old and do not resemble each other. If anyone has resources on how to make this happen please let me know, is it best to speak with the Otay county sheriff's office or Coroner's office, or just reach out to the forensic artist directly? When I spoke with both the coroner and sheriff, neither could find documentation of where she may have been buried, I spoke with another department that deals with those affairs as well (I'm forgetting their name right now) and they were also at a loss. Hopefully they have postmortem photos of her to draw from, because I don't think they would go through the trouble of finding her body and disinterring it.

Check with coroner if there is post mortem photo of her head/face or any photo of her skull. I think even exray of the skull would be good enough to work with. If any of those exists than new sketch of her can be arranged.

 

[Al Ka]

Here's a newspaper article I found through newspapers.com last year. It's from the Chula Vista Star, March 9th 1978, no new information here but thought it was worth sharing

Thank you for finding this. Really horrific how she was beaten. I think it is only article around which describe in detail her injuries. I do wonder now if her front tooth (already weakened by root canal treatment) was chipped just before her death during the final beating.

 

[Al Ka]

Wider approximate area where she was found by jogger running in Sunnyside. It seems to be close to Highway 125. I am not sure though if that highway existed in 1978.



And more closer look at that area of Sunnyside, 2 miles east from San Miguel Road, he was jogging on Proctor Valley Road in the area where is now San Miguel Ranch. The area does not seem as desolate as further in Otey, even though Proctor Valley Road was probably still dirt road at that time.





Here is the same image of closer area but with the landscape



Link to map - Google Maps

Edit to add: Proctor Valley Road is very long and yes it continues into national Park and desolate rural area and I think only that part has urban legend of paranormal, ghosts and spookyness attached to it for over decades. I first thought she was found dumped there but after checking the map, it was not there where she was found.

Adding few links to urban legend/ghosts stories of Proctor Valley. Check the comments too - Proctor Valley Road Ghost Haunt Spirit - San Diego Haunted Locations
- Proctor Valley | Hidden San Diego

And quote:

Not scary enough for you? Then, how about the tale of the Haven Bakery . . . formerly in Jamul, at the other end of Proctor Valley Road, but now long gone, the bakery was run by a father with a young daughter. One day, the father comes home to the bakery from a business trip and discovers his daughter hanging by her neck from the ceiling in the basement, dead. He snaps and goes completely insane, kills all of his workers in the restaurant, stacking their bodies in the restaurant bathroom, and then hangs himself as well. Before the place was torn down in 2008, it was rumored to have been extremely haunted, particularly the bathroom and basement. The basement was rumored to contain the ghost of the little girl. Regardless it was a popular place for high school students to go at night and graffiti. Supposedly the true story is simply that a poor girl fell down the basement stairs and died later at the hospital, but a bakery massacre is much more terrifying. It might now be a Walgreens in Jamul, although no clue if it's still haunted by the ghost of the young girl.

- - Proctor Valley Road - Weird California

Would be interesting to find out in which year this Bakery massacre happened.

 

[Bit of hope]

Here is her unidentified wiki file. Nothing new.

Otay Jane Doe

 

[Al Ka]

FB page has been created for this Jane Doe. Please join and share -

Who Was Otay Jane Doe 1978?