Resolved GA - Butts Co, Human Remains in Suitcase along I-75, Dec 2017 - Name withheld

[Al Ka]

BUTTS COUNTY, Ga. - The Georgia Bureau of Investigation has now put a face on a suitcase full of bones found last year in Butts County.

A forensic artist has created a sketch of what an unidentified woman might have looked like.

Last December, a suitcase full of bones was discovered in the woods along I-75 in Butts County.

A forensic anthropologist determined bones were those of an African American female but age range is wide. Investigators say she could have been anywhere from 19 to 45-years-old. She had a broken ankle at some time in her life.

So far, investigators call it an undetermined death.

They aim to find out who she was and they hope artist Kelly Lawson's sketch will jog some memories

https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/gb...e-remains-were-discovered-last-year/739093853

 

[Al Ka]

Link to Namus has been posted upthread, but just posting details for reference. Also profile has been amended about a week ago but probably not by much.

NamUs UP # 17583
Case number 2017-1033601

Date found: December 28, 2017

Demographics
Estimated age - Adult
Minimum age - 19 years
Maximum age - 45 years
Race - Black/African American
Sex - Female

Body
One or more limbs not recovered
One or both hands not recovered

Body conditions: Not recognizable - Partial skeletal parts only

Location:
City - Jackson
State - Georgia

Circumstances: Bones found on side of road off of interstate

Medical
Skeletal findings : Well healed fracture on distal (lower) right tibia and fibula
Antemortem loss of teeth 1, 15, 31
Diastema (Gap) between teeth 8 and 9 (front teeth)

Fingerprints Status: not available
Dental Status: charting is available and will be entered later
DNA Status: Samples submitted - Tests not complete

https://identifyus.org/en/cases/17583

 

[cvaldez1975]

did rosselys ever break her ankle?

BUTTS COUNTY, Ga. - The Georgia Bureau of Investigation has now put a face on a suitcase full of bones found last year in Butts County.

A forensic artist has created a sketch of what an unidentified woman might have looked like.

Last December, a suitcase full of bones was discovered in the woods along I-75 in Butts County.

A forensic anthropologist determined bones were those of an African American female but age range is wide. Investigators say she could have been anywhere from 19 to 45-years-old. She had a broken ankle at some time in her life.

So far, investigators call it an undetermined death.

They aim to find out who she was and they hope artist Kelly Lawson's sketch will jog some memories

https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/gb...e-remains-were-discovered-last-year/739093853

 

[cybervampira]

did rosselys ever break her ankle?

I see some scarring on the right ankle in this picture, maybe from a surgery?

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...95229185905.1073741831.100007363277098&type=3

 

[rats]

I’m so glad she has a recon now.

 

[American Noir]

Holy cow! That gave me chills.

I see some scarring on the right ankle in this picture, maybe from a surgery?

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...95229185905.1073741831.100007363277098&type=3

 

[Gardener1850]

My attempt at a side-by-side:

Do we still think this could be Rosselys?

 

[cybervampira]

My attempt at a side-by-side:

Do we still think this could be Rosselys?

I don‘t know. The temple looks about right but the chin looks different.

Here‘s a photo where Rosselys has her hair pulled up. In the drawing, the chin seems shorter.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...53774110048.1073741836.100007363277098&type=3

 

[Gardener1850]

I don‘t know. The temple looks about right but the chin looks different.

Here‘s a photo where Rosselys has her hair pulled up. In the drawing, the chin seems shorter.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...53774110048.1073741836.100007363277098&type=3

I was thinking the same thing. Her chin in not quite the same and nose is slightly different. I wonder why the artist made the drawing with her hand on her chin? It makes it harder to see the face shape of the UID. JMO.

 

[Bit of hope]

Maybe I'm naïve but the first thing police would do is checking the available databases Charley, Namus and Doe....

 

[Gardener1850]

Maybe I'm naïve but the first thing police would do is checking the available databases Charley, Namus and Doe....

I think that depends on how determined they are to get the person identified and how much extra time they have. So many times I read that the detective on an unidentified cold case spent their personal time trying to solve the case. It takes a lot of work to look up cases and figure out if someone's circumstances fit. For example, Rosselys is missing from Florida and was not in NAMUS until very recently--our members here figured out she was missing and reported it. Cybervampira emailed the Butts Co LE in charge of this case about Rosselys before Rosselys had a NAMUS file. Even now that she has a file it only says she is missing from Florida and nothing about her husband and missing daughter. Her husband was in Georgia not long after she disappeared. But Georgia LE would not know that unless they searched and found the thread here or dug into her life and looked up her court records and social media. Or if someone sent them the info like Cybervampira did. Many NAMUS files have minimal info. You have to look elsewhere to find out circumstances.

By the way, this UID still does not have DNA complete-- currently it says "Samples submitted - Tests not complete".

https://identifyus.org/en/cases/17583

I am hoping when the tests are complete there will be a match. Sadly, there are many missing like Rosselys where there is no DNA, no details on the file or they are not in NAMUS or any database.

 

[Gardener1850]

Do we know how old they think these remains are? There is no probable year of death or postmortem interval in the NAMUS file.

I am wondering about Aesha Muhammad-- missing since 2000: https://www.findthemissing.org/en/cases/24975/

But I don't know enough about her case to know if she could have ended up in Georgia from Philadelphia. From looking at her thread it sounds like they know who killed her (her son witnessed it) but person has not been named or charged: https://www.websleuths.com/forums/s...sha-Muhammad-23-Philadelphia-30-November-2000

But 17 years seems like too long of a time for the suitcase to go undiscovered. There should have been HWY cleanup crews through there at least once a year. It might have gone unnoticed for a year or two at most in my opinion. Perhaps it was placed there a long time after the crime when someone was cleaning out a storage unit? What do you all think?

 

[cybervampira]

Do we know how old they think these remains are? There is no probable year of death or postmortem interval in the NAMUS file.

I am wondering about Aesha Muhammad-- missing since 2000: https://www.findthemissing.org/en/cases/24975/

But I don't know enough about her case to know if she could have ended up in Georgia from Philadelphia. From looking at her thread it sounds like they know who killed her (her son witnessed it) but person has not been named or charged: https://www.websleuths.com/forums/s...sha-Muhammad-23-Philadelphia-30-November-2000

But 17 years seems like too long of a time for the suitcase to go undiscovered. There should have been HWY cleanup crews through there at least once a year. It might have gone unnoticed for a year or two at most in my opinion. Perhaps it was placed there a long time after the crime when someone was cleaning out a storage unit? What do you all think?

Hard to say.

If the remains really are several years old, I found another missing black female with a tooth gap. Arnika Miller, missing from Topeka, Kansas, since 2010:

http://www.blackandmissinginc.com/cdad/index.cfm?MissingInfoID=693
But it‘s a long stretch and I doubt keeping remains in a storage unit over several years would go unnoticed. The only idea I can come up with going unnoticed is keeping a body in a freezer (like Richard Kuklinski did).

 

[coffeeandacig]

But 17 years seems like too long of a time for the suitcase to go undiscovered. There should have been HWY cleanup crews through there at least once a year. It might have gone unnoticed for a year or two at most in my opinion. Perhaps it was placed there a long time after the crime when someone was cleaning out a storage unit? What do you all think?

If you drive through Georgia, you'll find out the sides of the highways look like garbage dumps. Sad, but true. Wonder if the state ever cleans it up.

 

[Al Ka]

Maybe I'm naïve but the first thing police would do is checking the available databases Charley, Namus and Doe....

I really doubt LE is using Charley or Doe network unless it is very old or dormat case. They have their own databases and information. We also can't forget that what we, public see in NamUs is not what LE sees.

With regards to sketch - I would not rule out that it still could be Rosselys. Skeletal remains cases are one of the hardest to solve, not much to go on and also margin for error on many aspects (age, weight, height, time frame etc) is quite wider than in quickly (full body) recovered UIDs.

Rosselys is mixed race (tic), she has a gap in front teeth (tic), location albeit a bit far is where her perp was (tic) and that ankle injury on the same right feet as Jane Doe is just eery (tic).

 

[Al Ka]

One more thought - I wonder why some of her limbs were not recovered if she was concealed and closed in suitcase... unless ...

 

[Snoopster]

I don‘t know. The temple looks about right but the chin looks different.

Here‘s a photo where Rosselys has her hair pulled up. In the drawing, the chin seems shorter.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...53774110048.1073741836.100007363277098&type=3

Thanks for this.
When they find skeletal remains, they don't have much to inform them about soft tissue, other than race. If they assumed an African American black woman, rather than a hispanic/black woman (partially black, partially Spanish heritage) they would assume a wide nose and wide lips. What matters is if the bone structure fits.

 

[cybervampira]

Video interview with sketch artist at link.

Forensic artist details victim found in suitcase in sketch based on bones

[...]

"In some cases I'll have some hair left with the body, or some clothing left with the body that can give me little hints in that case. But in this particular instance, I had nothing, I just had the bones," said Kelly Lawson, the Forensic Artist with the GBI, who drew the sketch.

So how did Lawson come up with such a descriptive sketch.

"There are certain tell-tale signs in the skull. There are little notches right on the inside of the eye socket that can tell me what direction the eyes are turned there's a little stem in the bottom of the nose that allows me to see if the nose point up like mine, whether it points straight up or whether it points down. The thickness of the lips, usually falls about the same length of the actual enamel on the person's teeth," said Lawson.

It was the gap in the teeth, in particular Lawson says that most defined this woman, between 19 and 45 years old, anywhere from 5 feet to five foot 8 inches tall.

"I put her hand up there to draw attention to the fact that her teeth were very unique and I actually had those teeth to look at, which is rare because a lot of times the teeth will be missing."

A year and a half earlier, 45 minutes on the other side of Atlanta, a DOT worker had discovered the first suitcase to be found with bones inside.

This sketch, made by another artist was released months later, but still no victim has been identified.

Lawson says she prefers all her work to be in color, and reflective of the life that once was.

"She deserves the best I have to give, it's not enough for me just to do a black and white straight on drawing. I want to do something that gets people's attention, because the more people that see it the better."

http://www.wspa.com/news/forensic-a...-suitcase-in-sketch-based-on-bones/1147275973

 

[Gardener1850]

Wrong case, Cybervampira. That is the other Georgia woman found in a suitcase in July 2016. Her thread is here: https://www.websleuths.com/forums/s...tal-UP-15616-20s-in-suitcase-off-I-985-Jul-16

 

[cybervampira]

Wrong case, Cybervampira. That is the other Georgia woman found in a suitcase in July 2016. Her thread is here: https://www.websleuths.com/forums/s...tal-UP-15616-20s-in-suitcase-off-I-985-Jul-16

Yes, the article is about both of them. Sketch artist is the one for this UID.