IL IL - Stanley Skridla, 28, & Mary Jane Reed, 17, Oregon, 1948

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The brother of Mary Jane Reed hopes a human skull unearthed during construction of the Byron Generating Station in the 1970s will help solve his sister’s 1948 murder.

According to one expert, it might.

Warren Reed, 67, of Rock Falls, said he received a phone call from a former Ogle County Sheriff’s Department deputy days after announcing on March 16 a $25,000 reward for information about her murder.

“I was surprised when I got the call,” Reed said at a news conference Tuesday. “I didn’t think something would happen that fast.”

Reed said the caller, who did not want his or her name publicized, recalled a skull that was found in the mid to late 1970s during construction of the nuclear power plant, which is about 8 miles north of Oregon on German Church Road.

Deputies took the skull to Northern Illinois University in DeKalb; no other bones were discovered, the caller said.

Now the skull is with the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency. It is that of a Caucasian female and is fewer than 100 years old, Dawn Cobb, human skeletal remains protection act coordinator for the agency, said Tuesday.

Cobb is meeting next week with a board-certified forensic anthropologist who will further examine the skull.

http://www.saukvalley.com/articles/2010/04/07/53739946/index.xml
 
Rle7 said:
The brother of Mary Jane Reed hopes a human skull unearthed during construction of the Byron Generating Station in the 1970s will help solve his sister’s 1948 murder.

According to one expert, it might.

Warren Reed, 67, of Rock Falls, said he received a phone call from a former Ogle County Sheriff’s Department deputy days after announcing on March 16 a $25,000 reward for information about her murder.

“I was surprised when I got the call,” Reed said at a news conference Tuesday. “I didn’t think something would happen that fast.”

Reed said the caller, who did not want his or her name publicized, recalled a skull that was found in the mid to late 1970s during construction of the nuclear power plant, which is about 8 miles north of Oregon on German Church Road.

Deputies took the skull to Northern Illinois University in DeKalb; no other bones were discovered, the caller said.

Now the skull is with the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency. It is that of a Caucasian female and is fewer than 100 years old, Dawn Cobb, human skeletal remains protection act coordinator for the agency, said Tuesday.

Cobb is meeting next week with a board-certified forensic anthropologist who will further examine the skull.

http://www.saukvalley.com/articles/2010/04/07/53739946/index.xml
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Wow..I hope they can determine who this skull belongs to so they can confirm whether the story about the skull that was buried with her was NOT hers is true or not. I stopped checking for updates on this case when they said the case was closed last September (see post #67), even though there were still lots of questions. Thanks for the update.
 
Man, if the skull they just recovered is Mary Reeds', then whose skull got buried with her? Creepy.
 
Mike Arians said:
You may visit the Mary Jane Reed murder web site at www.maryjanereed.com

The web site is updated about every two to three weeks.

At some point soon we believe that this web site will answer all of the questions pertaining to this horrific crime.
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Welcome to Websleuths Mike Arians! I hope you do solve this mystery, it's very perplexing.

There are some of us who have been following this case for awhile now and are hoping that Mary Janes brother is able to get the answers he is seeking. I wish you all the very best, keep on it, I believe the answers will come eventually.
 
Thank you, and all of your members who have been following this case. It pleases me very much that you are staying "Tuned in" as my investigation continues.

I have obtained extensive information over the past eleven years surrounding this double homicide and have found all of the posts by your members quite interesting, several right on target.

I will look forward to informing all of you as the web site is updated.

Thanks for your moral support. Finding the truth in this matter has been a very long, complex and trying battle. I believe the end is near.
 
Mike Arians said:
Thank you, and all of your members who have been following this case. It pleases me very much that you are staying "Tuned in" as my investigation continues.

I have obtained extensive information over the past eleven years surrounding this double homicide and have found all of the posts by your members quite interesting, several right on target.

I will look forward to informing all of you as the web site is updated.

Thanks for your moral support. Finding the truth in this matter has been a very long, complex and trying battle. I believe the end is near.
Click to expand...

I hope you get some answers soon, Mike. I know you and Mary Jane's brother have worked hard on this for so long. Also, thanks for the link to Mary Jane's website that you posted the other day.
 
Mike Arians said:
Thank you, and all of your members who have been following this case. It pleases me very much that you are staying "Tuned in" as my investigation continues.

I have obtained extensive information over the past eleven years surrounding this double homicide and have found all of the posts by your members quite interesting, several right on target.

I will look forward to informing all of you as the web site is updated.

Thanks for your moral support. Finding the truth in this matter has been a very long, complex and trying battle. I believe the end is near.
Click to expand...
Mike, I know you have the support of many people in your quest for the truth, but I have to ask, what is the overall feeling in town as far as that goes? I know how people can be and considering the fact that there are most likely a few at least who don't want the truth to come out, I just thought I would ask.

My ex-father-in-law told me some 25 years ago that he had in fact been questioned in regard to this crime and had he not passed away last year I would be contacting him now to refresh my memory on what all occurred at that time. I know it freaked me out, and no, I don't think he had anything to do with it. At least I surely hope he didn't, but if he did he's faced his judge. To be honest, just the fact that he reminisced about it with me one night assures me that he wouldn't have been speaking of it if that were the case. And the way he told the story was more along the lines of how it freaked him out that he was even questioned about it in the first place.

Mary Jane's brother deserves to know who took the life of his sister and the fact that he's had to wait this long is inexcusable. I am certain that he has met with some resistance in his search for the truth, I know how certain individuals can be in that town (no offense, Oregon is a wonderful town and I mean no disrespect in saying that. But there also used to be a very strong sense of the 'good old boys club' and I doubt that has yet disappeared entirely. Granted it's been 20 years now since I left the immediate area, yet I am still very close in proximity and I am still in contact with the friends I have up there.)

I pray that the answers come soon, even if those who were responsible are now gone. Warren still deserves to know so he can truly lay her to rest. That has to haunt him. And I commend you in your efforts to assist him in doing so, I mean that with all my heart. You are kind of his knight in shining armour.
 
Thank you for very much for your kind commets. You have hit the nail pretty squarely on the head as far as the tempo in the community revolving around my quest for the truth. That does appear to be changing though and I believe that has a great deal to do with the creditability of our experts.

I interviewed an older gentleman several years ago in Rockford, who owned a radio or tv repair shop on the west side. He sounds alot like the fellow you mentioned above, not sure, but he was nice man and I'm certain he had nothing to do with the crime. He did have some interesting history of some of the "Good Old Boys" in 1948 though that he shared with me.

Again, thank you for your support. Feel free to contact me at my e-mail address, should you wish to do so. It is at the bottom of the "Reward" page on the web site.

I am working on a final fact page page for the site. Once completed and posted, I'm sure it will be a simple matter of connecting the dots for any reader, to determine what actually happened back in 1948 and who killed Mary Jane and Stanley Skridla.
 
Mike Arians said:
Thank you for very much for your kind commets. You have hit the nail pretty squarely on the head as far as the tempo in the community revolving around my quest for the truth. That does appear to be changing though and I believe that has a great deal to do with the creditability of our experts.

I interviewed an older gentleman several years ago in Rockford, who owned a radio or tv repair shop on the west side. He sounds alot like the fellow you mentioned above, not sure, but he was nice man and I'm certain he had nothing to do with the crime. He did have some interesting history of some of the "Good Old Boys" in 1948 though that he shared with me.

Again, thank you for your support. Feel free to contact me at my e-mail address, should you wish to do so. It is at the bottom of the "Reward" page on the web site.

I am working on a final fact page page for the site. Once completed and posted, I'm sure it will be a simple matter of connecting the dots for any reader, to determine what actually happened back in 1948 and who killed Mary Jane and Stanley Skridla.
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Hi Mike, hope all is well with you. I have been checking the website periodically and will continue to do so in anticipation of this upcoming fact page.

~TCO~ Keeping the faith
 
Bumping for Mary Jane Reed and Stanley Skridla.
 
What a very strange case. Never heard of Oregon before. Hope to hear more updates soon.
 
Mike, if you happen to see this, I was just wondering what is the deal with the nails that were found in the bag with her remains? How weird is that? It just doesn't make any sense to me that they would even be there.
 
Just finished reading all the posts here and everything else I could find on this case. Very interesting reading.

About the missing skull and the replacement, I wonder if another head was substituted by the funeral home so that it would appear Mary Jane was intact when a family member came into identify her. Maybe it was an old skull they just happened to have laying around, and forgot to remove it. I read that only MJ's hand was exposed for viewing. Sister in law left, bag got zipped up, and that was that, nothing intentional or done to mislead. JMO.

Perhaps the skull found in the 70s belongs to this lady: Amelia J. Zelko killed in 1957. She was from Joliet, IL, about 100 miles from Oregon. Closest missing person that would fit the approx. age and time period, pre-1970. Her age is listed as 47, a little old, but age could be off.
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/1253dfil.html
 
FYI There has been recent updates added to the www.maryjanereed.com web site. Please click the link titled "Investigative Overview". It will ask you for a password, the password is "oldsmobile"

The link is a bit cryptic as far as using actual names and speciffic dates, but most will get the gist. Hopefully this will aswer many of the questions that several of you have had over the past several years.
 
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