Houston Mom
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3.5 is almost considered a child's shoe size. If, indeed, the sole size is 3.5 it would be a remarkable coincidence.
I received an email from the case manager. She indicated there is very limited information on the case (probably no information available re the shoe size of the sole found at the scene). She stated she will forward the information re Lorraine Chance to the coroner for further review.
I found a few possibilities. None from the year of the murder, but some from a couple of years before. I went back to 1949.
Jean Spangler, who went missing from LA in October 1949? The teeth caught my eye. (see first attachment) She left in mysterious circumstances but was thought to have been seen alive several months later. Her listing on Charley doesn't have any stats:
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/s/spangler_jean.html
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/436dfca.html
Lillian DeMaris is probably too small:
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/d/demaris_lillian.html
Mimi Boomhower is quite a bit older than the UID is thought to be, but she had a taste for glittery jewelry and has a certain facial resemblance (see second attachment):
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/b/boomhower_mimi.html
Mabel Chambers looks like she might also have a funky bite. She has a fair resemblance through the chin and jaw (third attachment):
https://www.findthemissing.org/en/cases/11013/1/
Floradean Walker matches on stats -- 5'7" and 25-27 years old. She's thought to have gone missing in 1951 or thereabouts but the exact date is apparently unknown. (Fourth attachment.)
https://www.findthemissing.org/en/cases/8609/3/
I'm curious if it was actually known to be a homicide?
I think it most likely was, but the funeral pyre connection made me wonder if this woman could have died and someone decided to do the cremation themselves because they couldn't afford the crematory fees?
I wonder why the killer risked discovery by burning the body since someone could have seen the smoke and investigated. If they had buried her in the woods, she would probably have never been discovered.
Thank you Houston Mom Yes, the shoe size of the sole would be a helpful piece of information for this case. I did a quick internet search re women's shoe sizes during that time and found an article on the blogsite, Dr Nick's Running Blog, in which Dr. Nick Campitelli had an info graph. The info graph mentioned that the average women's size was 3.5 (UK size) which would equate to size 6 today. I'm not sure how UK sizes compare to U.S. sizes
Hmmm, that would assume that the deceased had specifically asked to be cremated rather than buried, because it would have been a lot less hassle to bury someone oneself than to carry out a cremation. And if it was a funerary cremation of a loved one, would you not expect the person carrying it out to do so in a place over which he had control and could therefore ensure that the remains could be retrived and then properly disposed of?
An open pyre cremation is not an easy thing to get right to completely destroy a human body. It requires a lot of fuel, much more than you might expect. Even if an accellerant is used, that typically burns off pretty fast and doesn't do the job. If you have seen the crime scene photos of the Isdal Woman, you will see just how ineffective petrol, paraffin and suchlike can be.
I remember watching on YouTube an episode of one of the US UID/mystery documentary series which featured burned remains found in a skip/dumpster. The body had been almost completely destroyed in that case, but (a) it was a contained space and (b) (IIRC) it was estimated that a good 5 gallons of fuel had been used.
Was just a thought because as far as I could tell it was a preexisting pyre so people were cremating there at some point. I'm not sure if it was illegal at that time or not but it just occurred to me that an illegal but legitimate cremation could be a possibility.
What makes you think there was a pre-existing pyre there? Looking back at the article linked to in the original post, Charles Darnoch admitted he cut the log the woman was found under and that he built a fire for a picnic nearby. If he was out hunting it's likely he'd want to make coffee at some point.