IN IN - Otterbein, WhtFem 55-65, UP58250, right side mastectomy, box in cornfield, Oct'76

[PastTense]

"The Benton County coroner and several other agencies are working to solve a cold case from 1976. Coroner Matt Rosenbarger and several forensic specialists worked on exhuming the remains of the woman...

The woman is is believed to have been white and 60 to 65 years old. At some point in her life, he said, she had had a mastectomy on her right side.

She was found by a farmer in Pine Township, Benton County, in October of 1976 when he was harvesting his crops. “He found a box about 10 to 12 rows in,” Rosenbarger said. The farmer picked up the box and took it home. When he opened it he found the woman dead inside. She had a gunshot wound to her head. “He immediately called police,” he said...

“We are very serious about identifying her,” he said, noting that he is pleased that the process is started. While the investigators in 1976 used all the resources they had, Rosenbarger said science has changed and it is hoped that the newer technologies will be able to provide them with the information they need to identify her."
Benton County coroner, forensics experts working on 1976 cold case

 

[Mrs. Badcrumble]

UP58250 Jane Doe's NamUs link:
The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

 

[dotr]

Benton County coroner is working to identify body in 1976 cold case
“This year, I got an email from a company that works with law enforcement and medical examiners, and coroners throughout the United States called NamUs and they were enquiring about our Jane Doe 1976 case to see if we'd ever identified her.

Rosenbarger teamed up with Dr. Krista Latham and her students at Indianapolis Human Identification Laboratory and Indianapolis Forensic Pathologist Dr. Darin Wolfe to dig up the woman's remains at Sacred Heart Cemetery.

The former county coroner buried her there about a week after she was found and she’s remained there up until Jun. 28, 2019 when the researchers dug her out.

She was buried in a body bag inside a casket. The only remains they found were the body bag and her bones. The casket had decomposed.

Rosenbarger believes with the advancements in technology, they'll be able to identify her.

“As forensic science has elaborated a little bit better, we're hoping that we'll get a better idea that not only a race and potential age range but, you know, the areas of the country where she might have been," said Rosenbarger.

 

[PastTense]

"Curtis Skoog, then a 16-year-old Benton Central High School freshman with a fresh driver’s license, said he knew something wasn’t right when his dad’s pickup truck pulled into the lane of his family’s house the afternoon of Oct. 8, 1976, delivering what turned into an unsolved mystery that would stretch into a fifth decade.

As Skoog tells it, he was on a mower after school, working the yard around the family’s house, about six miles north of Otterbein and about a mile west of the Tippecanoe County line, when his dad, Norman Skoog, pulled up a second time.

The first time, his dad was in the combine, back after attempting to get into about 40 acres of corn along Benton County Road 200 South, a remote spot about a mile-and-a-half from their house. Rain during the week had made harvesting nearly impossible that Friday afternoon.

What’s more, Norman Skoog had nearly run the combine’s corn head into a cardboard box in the end rows, about 15 yards off the gravel road. The box had been too heavy for one person to move, so his dad had recruited Skoog’s grandfather, Everett Daulton, to go back to the field to help lift it out of the mud and into the bed of a pickup truck."
Body exhumed, reopening ’76 cold case of woman found in box in Benton Co. cornfield

 

[MadMcGoo]

Hopefully the company that contacted LE is able to help bring this woman home!

 

[Tabirey]

Hopefully the company that contacted LE is able to help bring this woman home!

I believe that was NamUs and she's been entered in there.

 

[Tabirey]

UNIDENTIFIED
Unidentified Person / NamUs #UP58250Female, White / Caucasian
Date Body FoundOctober 8, 1976
Location FoundOtterbein, Indiana

Case Information


Case Numbers
NCMEC Number--
ME/C Case Number2019Benton001
Demographics
SexFemale
Race / EthnicityWhite / Caucasian
Possible First Name--
Possible Middle Name--
Possible Last Name--
Nickname/Alias--
Estimated Age GroupAdult - Pre 60
Estimated Age Range (Years)55-65
Estimated Year of Death1976
Estimated PMI1 Weeks
Height5' 2"(62 inches) , Estimated
Weight160 lbs, Estimated
Circumstances
TypeUnidentified Deceased
Date Body FoundOctober 8, 1976
NamUs Case CreatedJune 23, 2019
ME/C QA Reviewed--
Location Found Map
LocationOtterbein, Indiana 47970
CountyBenton County
GPS Coordinates (Not Mapped)--
Found On Tribal LandNo
Circumstances of RecoveryBody of the decedent was discovered in a corn field by the person who farms that area.
Details of Recovery


Inventory of Remains--
Condition of RemainsNot recognizable - Near complete or complete skeleton
Physical Description
Hair ColorGray or Partially Gray
Head Hair Description--
Body Hair Description--
Facial Hair Description--
Left Eye ColorUnknown
Right Eye ColorUnknown
Eye Description--
Distinctive Physical Features
Item
Description
Scar/mark
Large scarring due to right side radical mastectomy.

Scar/mark
Surgical scar to the mid-line of the abdomen from the base of the sternum to the umbilicus (approx 8cm in length).


Clothing and Accessories
Item
Description
Accessories
Beige Antron Slip size 40. Brand name Sliperfection.
On the Body

Accessories
Beige panty girdle.
On the Body

Clothing
Double knit pant suit consisting of a two-tone green front button down jacket and solid green slacks (size 22 1/2) no brand name noted.
On the Body

No exclusions or reconstructions

 

[Mrs. Badcrumble]

Benton County Jane Doe is DDP's new case!

 

[dotr]

Benton County Jane Doe (1976)
Benton County Jane Doe

Discovered
October 8, 1976

''Benton County Jane Doe was a woman whose remains were found in cardboard box in a cornfield in 1976. Police believe the remains were in the cornfield for about 12 hours, since the box was not wet and it had rained prior.
Characteristics
Upturned nose with a bump beneath the bridge.

• Large ears.
• Calloused hands.
• She had a radical mastectomy.

Clothing and accessories

• Beige 'Antron' slip.
• Beige panty girdle.
• Green double knit pant-suit with buttoned down jacket.''

 

[carbuff]

Good news they're taking her case. Hopefully they'll be able to find who she is and then find her killer.

 

[victoriarobinson642]

This is one of my pet cases - I'm glad to see DDP taking it on!

 

[JovanSrna]

This is one of my pet cases - I'm glad to see DDP taking it on!

Same. It's an interesting set of circumstances and the reconstruction is memorable too.

 

[onceuponadecember]

This is definitely unusual - I have a feeling that the killer may have done something to her (that something..), it seems strange that she would’ve been kept for around a week after she died.

 

[Laughing]

Wait what -- a slip and a pantsuit? What? Just to be clear, I do own & wear slips but not with pants/

Was this a camisole & (male) LE weren't sure what to call it?

Did I read size 22 1/2 pants, weight of 160 pounds, height 5'2", a rather stocky lady but taller than my MIL!

Curious things about this curious case.

jmho ymmv lrr

 

[carbuff]

I'd guess it's probably what we would call a camisole now. I don't recall hearing that term used much in the 70s. They were just short slips.

 

[Laughing]

Please skip if you're squeamish -- wonder if whoever left the remains there -- planned for the farmer to drive the corn header into the out-in-the-weather cardboard box?


image from caseih.com

No idea what brand of equipment this farmer used, but any harvester is an implement that must be used carefully to be safe.

Essentially laying down in front of one -- very dangerous.

The remains would have been in much different condition if that farmer hadn't noticed the box.

jmho ymmv lrr

 

[Jerri Blank]

Please skip if you're squeamish -- wonder if whoever left the remains there -- planned for the farmer to drive the corn header into the out-in-the-weather cardboard box?

View attachment 315217
image from caseih.com

No idea what brand of equipment this farmer used, but any harvester is an implement that must be used carefully to be safe.

Essentially laying down in front of one -- very dangerous.

The remains would have been in much different condition if that farmer hadn't noticed the box.

jmho ymmv lrr

That was my first thought. it would certainly make it even harder to solve this mystery.

 

[Jerri Blank]

Wait what -- a slip and a pantsuit? What? Just to be clear, I do own & wear slips but not with pants/

Was this a camisole & (male) LE weren't sure what to call it?

Did I read size 22 1/2 pants, weight of 160 pounds, height 5'2", a rather stocky lady but taller than my MIL!

Curious things about this curious case.

jmho ymmv lrr

i wasn't around in the 70s, so folks can correct me if this is wrong, but my assumption was that 22 1/2 was not equivalent to today's 22. when i have purchased vintage clothes before, something that is a size 14 fits more like a modern size 8.

 

[Jerri Blank]

Surgical scar to the mid-line of the abdomen from the base of the sternum to the umbilicus (approx 8cm in length).​

is this describing an emergency csetion type scar? or something else?

 

[annemc2]

Surgical scar to the mid-line of the abdomen from the base of the sternum to the umbilicus (approx 8cm in length).​

is this describing an emergency csetion type scar? or something else?

Just a psych nurse so my surgical knowledge is (intentionally) limited but I'm guessing that's way too high up to get good access to the uterus. I'll bet somebody here knows, though!