Identified! FL - St Petersburg, WhtFem 661UFFL, 25-35, in steamer trunk, Oct'69 - Sylvia June Atherton

[PayrollNerd]

I wonder if anyone has worked on Ancestry that would provide any clarity on the branches of the family tree. I don’t have a subscription.

 

[victoriarobinson642]

I wonder if anyone has worked on Ancestry that would provide any clarity on the branches of the family tree. I don’t have a subscription.

I've tried. They all have very common names.

 

[megs1477]

I wonder if anyone has worked on Ancestry that would provide any clarity on the branches of the family tree. I don’t have a subscription.

I have been working on this since it broke. What a twisted rabbit hole! I have also checked in with the Detective. What are you looking for from Ancestry?

 

[PayrollNerd]

I have been working on this since it broke. What a twisted rabbit hole! I have also checked in with the Detective. What are you looking for from Ancestry?

Perhaps a geneaology buff in the family. Maybe her children or grandchildren, or even siblings may have DNA tested, then attached their DNA to a family tree. That could lead to finding her children since that seems to be the hole in the story.

 

[megs1477]

Perhaps a geneaology buff in the family. Maybe her children or grandchildren, or even siblings may have DNA tested, then attached their DNA to a family tree. That could lead to finding her children since that seems to be the hole in the story.

Gotcha. They have located all the other step and half-siblings but these.
Donna's father went back to Illinois (where he is from) after his divorce from her mother in Tucson. I can't find a single record or her or her husband after her marriage record in 1966, which she was 16 and he was 19. I did find one odd want add in the 70s looking for him with an attorney's address in Louisiana.
I just read through all the original news articles and the original detectives were confident the perpetrator was someone she was intimately familiar with. The trunk she was in, they used as a TV stand and her husband previously owned a magic shop (he was obsessed with magic). That along with the fact that I don't think I have ever seen a bolo tie anywhere in this area, how about you @PayrollNerd??? There are a lot of factors that point to domestic violence (JMO) but I don't think her murder will ever be solved, which is why they are looking for the kids.
My hope is that Donna & husband went along with them and took Kimberly and raised her, get remarried and that is why no one can find her.
This lady could not have picked people with more common surnames, Smith, Sullivan, Smith #2, and Brown.

 

[Truecrimewatcher]

I agree that some of the dates must be wrong. On Newspapers.com, under Public Notices for Marriage Licenses, I found a listing for Sylvia June Smith, 37, and Stuart Louis Brown, 43, both of Tucson in the May 20, 1966 edition of the Arizona Daily Star. If above mentioned woman is Sylvia June Atherton then they probably left Arizona in 1966 and not 1965.

 

[SimsGuy67]

Looks like I cannot edit.

They all left Tucson in 195.

Donna Liindhurst gave a ‘cryptic’ message to her grandparents in 1969 that somehow connected to St Petersburg FL.

Kimberly would be 9 in 1969 when her mother was found, and Donna would be 24ish.

I hope they're just having trouble contacting them and that they're ok...

 

[ktemp]

I wonder especially about what happened to her younger daughter she left with. The older one apparently chose to only communicate cryptically ( perhaps out of fear?) with her grandparents and was old enough obviously to just move on with her life if bad things happened and to choose not to communicate with relatives. Not every one communicates with much younger half siblings so it could not even be significant that the older sister just kind of vanished and stopped being in touch. Maybe that's just how she chose to handle it or the was the only way she could. I hope they find out what happened to them, though.

the sister had called around 68 or 69 thinking the brother had been killen in Vietnam and left a message at the grandparents house. it's in the video of the official press conference at around 24 minutes St. Pete ‘trunk lady’ murder victim identified after 53 years, search continues for her 2 daughters

 

[nhmemorymaker]

I agree that some of the dates must be wrong. On Newspapers.com, under Public Notices for Marriage Licenses, I found a listing for Sylvia June Smith, 37, and Stuart Louis Brown, 43, both of Tucson in the May 20, 1966 edition of the Arizona Daily Star. If above mentioned woman is Sylvia June Atherton then they probably left Arizona in 1966 and not 1965.

Just bumping to keep in the light.

 

[PayrollNerd]

Perhaps the two threads can be merged. I'll report on this post and request it.

Identified! - FL - St Petersburg, WhtFem 661UFFL, 25-35, in steamer trunk, Oct'69 - Sylvia June Atherton

Unidentified White Female - The victim was discovered on October 31, 1969 in St. Petersburg, Pinellas County, Florida - Estimated Date of Death: 2-3 days prior. - Cause of Death: Homicide Vital Statistics Estimated age: 25-35 years old Approximate Height and Weight: 5'9"; 130...

www.websleuths.com

 

[Queena]

the sister had called around 68 or 69 thinking the brother had been killen in Vietnam and left a message at the grandparents house. it's in the video of the official press conference at around 24 minutes St. Pete ‘trunk lady’ murder victim identified after 53 years, search continues for her 2 daughters

I think that Donna L passed away in 2000. There's a family tree, but it doesn't have much more information.

 

[Richard]

Sylvia June Atherton, Murdered in October 1969 has been identified as the Unknown Woman in the Trunk.

LINKS:

Over 53 years after a body was found in a large trunk in a Florida field, police say the "trunk lady" has a name

Sylvia Atherton, of Tucson, Arizona, was 41 when she died, officials said. She was a mother of five.

www.wltx.com

Florida Police Identify Slain ‘Trunk Lady’ as Mom Missing Since 1969

Sylvia June Atherton was strangled with a bolo tie and entombed in a steamer trunk.

www.thedailybeast.com

After 53 Years, Police Have Finally Identified The 'Trunk Lady' Found Murdered And Stuffed Into A Case In Florida

Although police have now identified the victim as Sylvia June Atherton and know that she was strangled with a man's bolo tie, they still have no idea who killed her or why.

allthatsinteresting.com

 

[Diane Redfern]

So leaving Tucson Az to go to Chicago:

Sylvia Atherton - dumped in trunk in Florida 1969
Stuart Brown -Sylvia 2nd (?) husband, not father of her kids, dies in 1999 in Las Vegas without record of a wife.
Kimberly Anne Brown, age 5 and Sylvia’s daughter, not located
Gary Sullivan - Sylvia’s adult son, at some point return to father and siblings in Tucson
Donna and David Lindhurst -Sylvia’s adult daughter and husband, Donna not located, David unknown

Left in Tucson with their father, Sylvias first husband:
Syllen and her brother, 9 and 11- children of Sylvia and her first husband

Sylvia June “Jane Doe” Atherton Brown (1928-1969)...

An unidentified white woman, 30 to 35 years of age, was found Oct. 31, 1969, dressed in a flimsy green nightgown, according to The Evening Independent. She was wrapped in plastic and left inside a steamer trunk beneath a tree near the old Oyster Bar Restaurant near 4200 34th St. S. The woman was...

es.findagrave.com

I would really like to know the chronology of her marriages...
I assume Harry Lee Sullivan was the first one, in 1946, when she was 18, and they had two kids, I think, Gary and (possibly) Donna.
I suppose her second husband was Leonard Cheney Smith, but it's pure speculation, he may be Syllen's father, but I'm not sure.
Stuart Brown is referred as her husband when she vanished so I assume he was her 3rd husband and also Kimberly's father.
I would also like to know if Gary gave any explanation about his mother and sisters' whereabouts. And also if David Lindhurst, Donna's husband, is also missing.

EDIT: AZ - AZ - Donna Sullivan Lindhurst+daughter, Kimberly Anne Brown, 19-20 & 3, 5, Tucson, 1969