FL FL-Janice Elizabeth Norat, 32, Polk County, 19 Jun 1990

[ADKGemini]

Janice Elizabeth Norat – The Charley Project

Janice Elizabeth Norat

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Norat, circa 1990; Age-progression to age 49 (circa 2007)

• Missing Since06/19/1990
• Missing FromLakeland, Florida
• ClassificationEndangered Missing
• Date of Birth10/29/1957 (61)
• Age32 years old
• Height and Weight5'5 - 5'8, 125 pounds
• Clothing/Jewelry DescriptionA white shirt and blue slacks.
• Medical ConditionsNorat was depressed at the time of her June 1990 disappearance.
• Distinguishing CharacteristicsCaucasian female. Black hair, brown eyes. Norat is of Italian descent. She has a wart removal scar on the upper right corner of her lip and may have additional wart removal scars on the top of one hand. Norat's maiden name is Duval.

Details of Disappearance
Norat was employed as a landscaper in the Merchants Walk complex in the 3600 block of south Florida Avenue in Lakeland, Florida. She told her employer that she needed to pick up her daughter, who was at summer day camp, for a doctor's appointment during the morning of June 19, 1990.

Norat was last seen departing from work at approximately 8:30 a.m. She never picked up her child and has not been heard from again.

Her 1982 Ford Fairlane was discovered locked and abandoned in the Albertson's Grocery Store parking lot on June 22, 1990. The business is in the 3600 block of South Florida Avenue, adjacent to the Merchant's Walk complex. There was no sign of Norat at the scene.

One of Norat's daughters believes the occult may have played a role in her mother's disappearance. Her daughter stated she never saw her mother performing occult rituals or wearing robes, but she found several pentagrams in the house after Norat went missing.

Norat's other daughter believes her mother left of her own accord due to the stresses in her life. Authorities, however, believe she was the victim of a homicide.

Authorities said that Norat's husband died in a car accident a few months before her disappearance. At the time of her disappearance, she may have been carrying up to $20,000 in insurance money. She also left behind thousands of dollars in her bank account and never claimed the money.

Norat had a close relationship with her two daughters in 1990. She resided in the 2200 block of Weber Street in Lakeland. Norat was previously employed as a certified nurse's aide. Authorities stated they found significant new evidence in her case in 2007, but her case remains unsolved.

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

 

[SisterGrimm]

Does anyone know if Janice had any siblings? I found a yearbook photo of a girl named Janice Duval (Norat's maiden name) in the year of 1973 at Kathleen High School. I thought it would be interesting to see what she looked like as a kid.

 

[Atombudd]

2007 article Time Not a Healer in Missing Woman Case
LAKELAND - Carla Norat said she desperately needs closure to a mystery that’s haunted her and her family since 1990: the bizarre disappearance of Janice Norat, her mother.
Janice Elizabeth Norat was last seen alive 17 years ago today and new leads suggest what was once a missing person case is now an unsolved homicide, Lakeland police Sgt. Gary Gross said during a Monday news conference. The then-32-year-old mother reported to work at her landscaping job at Merchant’s Walk in Lakeland, Gross said. She told her boss she had to leave to take her daughter to a doctor’s appointment, Gross said.
Carla Norat, 30, remembers waiting at the nearby Kelly Recreation Center in Lakeland for her mother, but she never came. She called her paternal grandfather, Manuel Norat Sr., worried and confused because her mother had not shown up. Carla, then 13, and her 9-year-old sister, Nina, went home with their grandfather that night, not knowing they’d never see their mother again.
The sisters were raised by their grandparents, Carla Norat said. “It’s devastating to not know,” Carla Norat said. “It’s eating me alive.”
On June 22, 1990 - three days after she vanished - police found Janice Norat’s 1982 Ford Fairlane abandoned in the Albertson’s grocery store on South Florida Avenue, just next to Merchant’s Walk, Gross said. “It’s our belief that she didn’t leave on her own accord,” Gross said. Gross wouldn’t provide further details Monday on the evidence police have found that suggests Norat had been harmed, but there are other clues that suggest she may not be alive.
Three months before she went missing, Norat’s husband, Manuel Norat Jr., was killed in a traffic accident in Lake County. Norat’s own father had died about the same time period. Norat received $20,000 in insurance money for her husband’s death. She withdrew thousands of dollars on June 15, 1990 and again three days later, Gross said. But most of the money remains untouched in an account, which has since been transferred to the state, Gross said.
People close to Norat said she was “very upset and depressed” about her husband’s death and had contemplated leaving town without her children. A teary-eyed Nina Norat, now 25, said she thinks her mother was stressed from the death of her father and couldn’t deal with the situation.
But Carla Norat thinks darker forces and the occult could be responsible. Days after Norat went missing, police got a tip that the woman was once involved with the occult, Gross said. The caller told police she had converted to Christianity, but others involved with the occult told her they were going to get her back, Gross said. Carla Norat said she remembers seeing pentagrams around her mother’s house on Weber Street in Lakeland. “My belief is that she died,” Carla Norat said. “I think someone knows, and they need to come forward.”
Heartland Crimestoppers has offered $2,000 for information in Janice Norat’s disappearance. An anonymous donor added another $3,000 Monday morning, Gross said.
The daughters’ DNA has been taken and sent to an FBI lab where it could take six months to a year to get results, Gross said. Carla and Nina Norat’s DNA will be cross-referenced with other DNA files in the system, Gross said. Norat also will be added to a new deck of playing cards, usually given to Polk County Jail inmates, that feature pictures of victims and blurbs of unsolved homicides in Polk County, Gross said. In February, the cards helped solve the 2004 killing of 26-year-old Thomas Wayne Grammer, Lakeland police said.

 

[luxISlight]

An article from December 3, 1984 talks about how she was concerned about child abductions and had her daughters do a video.
3 Dec 1984, 9 - The Tampa Tribune at Newspapers.com

This article is the obit for her father and does list a sister by the name of Beverly
26 Feb 1990, 54 - The Tampa Tribune at Newspapers.com

 

[luxISlight]

15 Mar 1990, 82 - The Tampa Tribune at Newspapers.com
clipping of her husbands passing

I feel awful for her family, the "girls" lost their dad and then 3 months later their mother disappeared.

 

[luxISlight]

Anyone think this could be a match? The artist rendering is similar, age isn't far off, height and eye color are a match although the hair color is different. The UP has a scar that wasn't mentioned for Ms. Norat.

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

By bringing people, information, forensic science and technology together, NamUs helps resolve cases.

www.namus.gov

 

[spartanx]

Could the pentagram thing be real? I find it strange, really, a working woman with children who is into that... I think it's for lonely or vulnerable people, since anything stimulates them or serves as company or consolation... I think it was a robbery in this case. If she had 20k, it's tempting for anyone... I feel sorry for her children... they are always the ones left suffering after their mother's departure...
whatever the case
Rest in peace

 

[Vee97]

Could the pentagram thing be real? I find it strange, really, a working woman with children who is into that... I think it's for lonely or vulnerable people, since anything stimulates them or serves as company or consolation... I think it was a robbery in this case. If she had 20k, it's tempting for anyone... I feel sorry for her children... they are always the ones left suffering after their mother's departure...
whatever the case
Rest in peace

I find the time line quite curious;
June 15th 1990 — She withdraws money
June 18th 1990 — She withdraws money
June 19th 1990 — She disappears
The money supposedly totaled $20,000.
This sounds planned to me, the Albertson’s was located on 3625 S Florida Avenue in Lakeland. An article states that the Albertson was turned into a Dollar Tree which it is currently. If you look at the map that parking lot is right next to
Interstate-37 and Interstate-570. It is possible she bought another vehicle from somebody (newspaper ad possibly) and left her vehicle in that parking lot day of then jumped on the interstate in the new one. Or she bought the car the day before on the 18th and left it parked in that parking lot overnight. (Considering it seems she was planning to leave it’s probably the latter.)

 

[spartanx]

I find the time line quite curious;
June 15th 1990 — She withdraws money
June 18th 1990 — She withdraws money
June 19th 1990 — She disappears
The money supposedly totaled $20,000.
This sounds planned to me, the Albertson’s was located on 3625 S Florida Avenue in Lakeland. An article states that the Albertson was turned into a Dollar Tree which it is currently. If you look at the map that parking lot is right next to
Interstate-37 and Interstate-570. It is possible she bought another vehicle from somebody (newspaper ad possibly) and left her vehicle in that parking lot day of then jumped on the interstate in the new one. Or she bought the car the day before on the 18th and left it parked in that parking lot overnight. (Considering it seems she was planning to leave it’s probably the latter.)View attachment 539292

if you are right it could have been planned... but then this mother had two personalities? or two faces...

 

[Vee97]

if you are right it could have been planned... but then this mother had two personalities? or two faces...

One of her daughters thought she had ran away due to the stresses in her life. Makes me wonder.. if my mom had disappeared, even if she was highly stressed, I don’t think I would’ve assumed she just ran away. There had to have been other things that happened in the past that would make the daughter assume she just ran away. She must have either talked about it or ran away in the past. The other daughter thinks it may have been the occult, so I’m skeptical either way but I’m leaning more towards she ran away and encountered trouble at some point. It says that she loved her daughters deeply, she might’ve ran away to “clear her mind” and the only reason she never contacted them again is because she became a Doe in another state? I think she might’ve had two different personalities as you said.

 

[Vee97]

Accidentally posted twice.