Identified! CT - East Haven, Frontage Rd behind former Bradlees store, WhtFem 18-28, UP10796, Wrapped in Paint-Spotted Tarp, Aug'75 - Patricia Meleady Newsome

[Bit of hope]

Picture of East Haven Jane Doe where found on August 16, 1975, from New Haven Register story by Meghan Friedmann

What do we actually see? It looks like she is in some waterway? Oh, yes. Sorry.... I remember; she was found in a drainage ditch.

 

[AW23]

What do we actually see? It looks like she is in some waterway? Oh, yes. Sorry.... I remember; she was found in a drainage ditch.

Drainage ditch behind what was Bradlees on Frontage Road, East Haven , CT. CarMax is there now. Glen Robert Askeborn aka Samantha Glenner, born in 1943, convicted of murdering Amy Cave in 1984 in Maine, was associated with the East Haven area at the time (1975). East Haven Police interviewed him in Maine after the Cave murder but according to a newspaper article and a book by Pat Flagg about the Cave murder he did not want to talk about the East Haven case.

 

[imstilla.grandma]

Unidentified: Accord, Ulster County, NY

Remains Found: 09/23/1985 Location: Wooded area behind an abandoned building in Accord, Ulster County.

troopers.ny.gov

 

[Bit of hope]

I'm not sure if there is an insider verification yet (family said they send the info somewhere around November 2021) so maybe they are already.

Trisha Newsom

Patricia Meleady "Trisha" Newsom (born June 20, 1957) was a teenage girl who ran away from boarding school near Monticello, New York around 1974. Find Patricia Newsom Trisha Newsom at NamUs

int-missing.fandom.com

Patricia Meleady "Trisha" Newsom (born June 20, 1957) was a teenage girl who ran away from boarding school near Monticello, New York around 1974.

Monticello is in Sullivan County NY, neighboring Ulster County, the county named in Namus where Patricia allegedly went missing from.

There is a private boarding school in Blairstown, NJ, already existing in the 70's and way before that, but this would be approx. 1 1/2 hour away from Monticello NY. Not really near Monticello IMO.

From FindPatriciaNewsom | Facebook

I (her sister) was also told that Patricia was sent to boarding school because she ‘caused a great deal of troubles’ in the home.

Could it maybe have been a so called therapeutic boarding school for kids with behavioral problems?

Types of Boarding Schools for Troubled Youth - Troubled Teens

Therapeutic Boarding Schools​

Provide clinical inpatient services for students with disabilities or other behavioral/social problems. This includes students dealing with ADD/ADHD, anxiety disorder, substance abuse issues, acting out, and many others. These are the best kind of boarding schools to help turn your troubled teens’ life around.

 

[Bit of hope]

Episode 64: The Unsolved Disappearance of Patricia Newsom

From the link
When I came across Patricia Newsom's case, I didn't think I was going to be able to cover it as there is very little information on her disappearance online. That was until her sister, Maryann Collette kindly agreed to come on this episode and discuss her sisters case. Thank you very much Maryann for participating in todays episode!

 

[Bit of hope]

Some things from the podcast:
* It's vague when exactly Patricia went missing, Namus says 1974 but it could be somewhere between 1971 - 1975.
* Because of that, the age range on the time she went missing is not definite, she is born on June 20, 1957 in Idaho.
* She could have gone missing from a boarding school in either NY, Maine or Vermont (family was living in NJ at the time, IMO a boarding school in NJ shouldn't be excluded)
* (from upthread; it was a "regular" boarding school in the North East)
* Dad was in the navy, mother was a registered nurse.
* The family moved (back) to Philadelphia. PA and lived there from the mid to late 60's.
* Patricia went to a catholic school, likely St. Raymond's in Philadelphia.
* Patricia's mother died in 1968 in Philadelphia and is buried in Pennsylvania.
* Dad remarried in 1970, in 1971 Patricia's half brother is born.
* The family moves to Morganville, NJ and live on the Harbor road. Patricia was around 14-15 at the time.
* From around that time all communication with the family on mother's side ends.
* Patricia didn't get along with her stepmother and was send to a boarding school, estimated around 1974, but it could be somewhere between 1971 - 1975.
* After she went missing, supposedly a runaway, the sister was not allowed to talk about Patricia. The subject was closed.
* Patricia's eyes are hazel/greenish.
* Patricia's social security number was not used after the time she approx. went missing.
* Sister and other family members see a strong resemblance between Patricia and JD "Lady of the Dunes", especially her recon from 2010, made by NCMEC.
* They gave DNA and comparing the two is still in "the pipeline".

 

[Curious_in_NC]

<snip>

Could it maybe have been a so called therapeutic boarding school for kids with behavioral problems?

Types of Boarding Schools for Troubled Youth - Troubled Teens

Therapeutic Boarding Schools​

Provide clinical inpatient services for students with disabilities or other behavioral/social problems. This includes students dealing with ADD/ADHD, anxiety disorder, substance abuse issues, acting out, and many others. These are the best kind of boarding schools to help turn your troubled teens’ life around.

I don't think this was really an option in the 1970s. Some boarding schools were changing from military-model schools to "normal" ones, some struggled or closed. About the only "therapy" any offered was discipline. ADD (now ADHD) wasn't broadly recognized as a disorder before the 1980s. MOO

 

[JrzyGirl70]

@Bit of hope the Boarding School in Blairstown NJ (Blair Academy) is a pretty prestigious school, currently costing upwards of $65,000 a year in tuition, and if you just do the day program there I believe still over $45,000. Definitely not your "therapeutic" type school. Fun fact.. on top of the famous politicians, athletes, musicians that graduated from the school, Bob Guccione the founder of Penthouse magazine is an alumni.

 

[Bit of hope]

@Bit of hope the Boarding School in Blairstown NJ (Blair Academy) is a pretty prestigious school, currently costing upwards of $65,000 a year in tuition, and if you just do the day program there I believe still over $45,000. Definitely not your "therapeutic" type school. Fun fact.. on top of the famous politicians, athletes, musicians that graduated from the school, Bob Guccione the founder of Penthouse magazine is an alumni.

Thanks for clearing this one up fellow sleuths. I read somewhere (sorry, I can't recall) that boarding schools are (almost?) always private schools. What would be a "regualar" boarding school, like one of her family members stated upthread. Can somebody living in the states elaborate on that?

 

[Curious_in_NC]

Thanks for clearing this one up fellow sleuths. I read somewhere (sorry, I can't recall) that boarding schools are (almost?) always private schools. What would be a "regualar" boarding school, like one of her family members stated upthread. Can somebody living in the states elaborate on that?

There are now a dozen or so public boarding schools, more often called "residential high schools", mostly with two year programs and mostly in Southern US states. The NC School of Science and Math is an example. Others are listed here under "see also": North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics - Wikipedia
I don't think, however, any of these were operating in the 1970s. NCSSM was the first and opened in 1980.

So, I think a "regular" boarding school could have been one of the many private college-prep type boarding schools in New England. I think most were either boys or girls schools until the 1960s with many becoming coed in the 1970s-1980s.There's a list here but it might be a bit of work to narrow down which ones she could have attended in the early 1970s. List of boarding schools in the United States - Wikipedia MOO

 

[CastlesBurning]

Connecticut police dig up wrong body in hopes of cracking cold case

 

[Bit of hope]

Connecticut police dig up wrong body in hopes of cracking cold case

I'm kind of happy, the dug up a male, so it was immediately obvious this were the wrong remains. Very sad that the exact burial place isn't known, because I do believe they want to solve this.

 

[John/Jane Doe]

Connecticut police dig up the wrong body during cold case investigation :: WRAL.com

Police Dig Up Wrong Body In Attempt To Crack Cold Case

Exhumation On Cold Case Murder: For Now, She Remains Buried & Unknown

Police thought they found where the woman known as Jane Doe was buried for the past 47 years, but a cemetery map proved to be "inaccurate."

patch.com

 

[RyGuy611]

Most unfortunate set of circumstances. However, let's hope they can find the man's name while they're at it.

 

[sds71]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1536741064396382209

 

[Susikatze]

I absolutely love how much effort they put into finding her. Many others would say, ok, we do not know the exact location of the burial and the old map is wrong. Then that is that.
But they use georadar to search for her. Lovely

 

[imstilla.grandma]

HAMDEN, Conn. (WFSB/Gray News) - Police in Connecticut are looking to use DNA to crack a nearly 50-year-old cold case. But they first need to recover the victim’s body after digging up the wrong one.

The East Haven Police Department said the issue is the case goes back decades, and the Hamden cemetery records aren’t that great with many unmarked graves.

“We’re going off of basically a handwritten drawing of the cemetery and of the plots. What we’re finding is that there are a large number of unmarked graves, and there is a number of people who weren’t necessarily documented when they were buried,” said East Haven Police Chief Joseph Murgo.

WFSB reports the grass is high inside the old cemetery, and some of the tombstones date back centuries.

In August 1975, police said a woman was strangled with her body found in a ditch where a Carmax dealership is currently located.

“Throughout the years, several generations of detectives investigated the case, but we were never able to identify her. We were never able to lock in on a definite suspect,” Murgo said.

Investigators said they discovered “Jane Doe” was buried in Hamden’s State Street Cemetery. With advances in DNA testing, they’re hoping to crack the case but finding her has been difficult.

“The State Street Cemetery has been abandoned for many years; it has come under fire for keeping really inaccurate records. So, that’s a challenge we’re facing,” Murgo said.

Authorities said they know the woman’s remains are in a specific area, but the casket exhumed on Wednesday contained the remains of a man and not their “Jane Doe.”

“Forty-seven years is a long time to wonder what happened to your loved one, and there is somebody out there that wants some sense of closure. It’s our hope that we’re able to bring that sense of closure to our victim’s family,” Murgo said.

1970s cold case remains open after investigators exhume wrong body at cemetery

Police in Connecticut are looking to use DNA to crack a nearly 50-year-old cold case. But they first need to recover the victim’s body after digging up the wrong one.

www.actionnews5.com

 

[druidsmoon22]

I have been running into more walls. my step mother oddly can’t remember for sure where Patricia went to boarding school or the name. She said she thinks she went to a school in NY somewhere near Monticello. Then left there because she made a friend who had a family in Maine. But my oldest brother recalls sending her a letter and he thinks it was Vermont. Oh. I’m Patricia’s sister.

 

[theshadow45]

Today is Patricia’s birthday.

 

[HmmMysterious]

A new timeline documenting Patricia's life and disappearance has been posted to her Facebook page.

Here's a link to the Google doc: Timeline of Patricia Meleady “Trisha” Newsom

Patricia is confirmed to have disappeared sometime in or after May 1973 from an unknown boarding school in Sullivan County, New York. She ran away with another girl to Maine and was never seen or heard from again.