Identified! IN - Wayne Co., WhtFem Skeletal 491UFIN, 18-22, in woods, opal ring, Dec'82 - Connie Christensen

[victoriarobinson642]

It's interesting that her opal ring turned to have nothing to do with her birthdate. It's too bad they couldn't develop enough evidence to charge the suspect before he died.

Could be the birth date of a family member. I'm certainly guilty of appropriating jewelry from my mom.

 

[Nancy Drew RN]

Could be the birth date of a family member. I'm certainly guilty of appropriating jewelry from my mom.

Her daughter comments on this in a response to a comment on one of her facebook posts—she just says she’s always liked opals, and she guesses that her mom did, too. No known October connection.

 

[imstilla.grandma]

The remains are those of Connie Lorraine Christensen, who was from the Madison, Wisconsin-area community of Oregon, said Lauren Ogden, chief deputy coroner of the Wayne County Coroner's Office.

“Due to the fact that several of Connie’s living relatives had uploaded their DNA to an ancestry website, the genealogists at the DNA Doe Project were able to provide our office with the name of a candidate much more quickly than we expected,” she said.

Ogden said Christensen's now adult daughter was taken last Tuesday to the location where her mother's remains were found so she could leave flowers there. Authorities also gave her a gold ring set with an opal and two diamonds that was found with her mother’s remains.

Missy Koski, a member of the DNA Doe Project, said in a news releasethat she’s proud of the partners’ efforts that restored “Connie Christensen’s name after all this time

Remains found in Indiana in 1982 identified as Wisconsin woman who vanished at age 20

Human remains found in rural Indiana in 1982 have been identified as those of a Wisconsin woman who was 20 when she vanished more than four decades ago, authorities said.

www.tmj4.com

 

[djanga]

New details were released in this article, Connie was 4 months pregnant when she went missing

Remains found in Indiana in 1982 identified as those of Wisconsin woman who vanished at age 20

Authorities say human remains found in rural Indiana in 1982 have been identified as those of a Wisconsin woman who was 20 when she vanished more than four decades ago

abcnews.go.com

Christensen was last seen in Nashville, Tennessee, in April 1982, when she was believed to have been three to four months pregnant, Ogden said. She had left her 1-year-old daughter with relatives while she was away and they reported her missing after she failed to return as planned to Wisconsin.

 

[summergirl1]

It's interesting that while she was a Doe, she was never definitely said to be pregnant despite wearing likely maternity slacks.

 

[pokerowan]

It's interesting that while she was a Doe, she was never definitely said to be pregnant despite wearing likely maternity slacks.

Might have just been written off as leftover clothing from her pregnancy with her daughter. A year wouldn't be a weird time period to keep wearing them for, and they'd be comfortable if she was travelling around.

 

[Quoththeraven]

Nancy Drew RN:

" and that the identification wasn’t made public until this year because of the existence of a strong suspect, who unfortunately (as stated in the linked article) passed away earlier this year. So I’m wondering if Connie left with a known someone and went to Indiana with them, which unfortunately ended very badly for her."

"It looks like her divorce was finalized from her then-husband on 23 Dec 1983. Dane County court records show her husband filed for divorce on 2/24/82."

So, if they have the identity of a strong suspect (though he's dead), does that mean this case is solved? I wonder how come they didn't name him?

 

[imstilla.grandma]

Christensen was last seen in Nashville, Tennessee, in April 1982, when she was believed to have been three to four months pregnant, Ogden said. She had left her 1-year-old daughter with relatives while she was away and they reported her missing after she failed to return as planned to Wisconsin.

Remains found in Indiana in 1982 identified as those of Wisconsin woman who vanished at age 20

Human remains found in rural Indiana in 1982 have been identified as those of a Wisconsin woman who was 20 when she vanished more than four decades ago, authorities said.

www.newschannel5.com

 

[djanga]

More details revealed about Connie’s dissapearance and death

'Bring me some peace': Daughter wants answers in 40-year cold case with ties to Nashville

Remains found in Indiana were identified forty years later, and the homicide case has ties to Nashville.

www.newschannel5.com

Then in December 1982, hunters in Jacksonburg, Indiana, found human remains. Fast forward 40 years, and those remains were identified as Connie Christensen. She died of a gunshot wound and her death was ruled a homicide.
The same source
A month later in April 1982, Connie was in Nashville. NewsChannel 5 found out she may have gotten in trouble for theft in the city. Family wants to fill in a timeline on what happened while she was in town.

 

[dotr]

Dec 6, 2023
Remains found in Indiana were identified forty years later, and the homicide case has ties to Nashville.

 

[djanga]

Two Wisconsin women share memories of sister who disappeared 41 years ago and remains have been identified

WONEWOC, Wis. -- In their first interview, two Wisconsin women are sharing memories of their sister, who disappeared 41 years ago and whose remains have been id

fox47.com

Diann McConnell and Shelley Christensen are two of the nine siblings in their family. In McConnell's home in Wonewoc, she has some of the original woodwork from her childhood home in Oregon, where she lived with her sister Connie Lorraine Christensen

 

[Quoththeraven]

A more indepth article from Wayne County, Indiana stated that an acquaintance of Connie was interviewed by the Illinois State Police was a suspect and he died shortly after the interview. He was 80+ years old.

Woman’s identity confirmed 41 years after her death - Western Wayne News

For more than 40 years, Misty LaBen didn’t know what happened to her mother, who unexpectedly disappeared just after Misty’s first birthday. Connie Lorraine Christensen had left Misty in the care of her aunt, but no one expected Connie not to return. Members of the large, loving family wondered...

westernwaynenews.com

Her family believes she may have made it to the Cambridge City, Indiana bus station right before she disappeared.

Jacksonburg to Nashville

maps.app.goo.gl

 

[imstilla.grandma]

At 20-years-old, Christensen was a mother, a daughter and one of nine siblings.

"She left on her daughter's first birthday and I remember her saying goodbye," Shelley Christensen.

"When she left, we didn't know where she was going," Diann McConnell explained.
At 20-years-old, Christensen was a mother, a daughter and one of nine siblings.

"She left on her daughter's first birthday and I remember her saying goodbye," Shelley Christensen.

"When she left, we didn't know where she was going," Diann McConnell explained.

Missing Wisconsin woman's remains identified; Homicide remains unsolved

The family is hoping to fill the gaps between when Connie Lorraine Christensen left Wisconsin through her time in Nashville.

www.wkow.com

 

[Quoththeraven]

IMO, with a Wisconsin acquaintance of the Christensen family as a suspect who was questioned by the police, one wonders if he was traveling with Connie. Assuming she was traveling back home by bus from Nashville, I noticed that she may have traveled through New Albany, Indiana, if the busline went through there on a route to Cambridge City, Indiana. Online records (links below) show Connie's husband, Jeff, also living in New Albany, Indiana 2000-2002.

Did Jeff Holpin have family ties down there back in 1982? Did the family acquaintance also have ties to that area? If so, could Connie maybe have gone there to visit relatives on her way back home?

If Connie and the family acquaintance/suspect were traveling by bus, I doubt if they could have walked the 40 degree, 2.4 hour, 6.2 mile distance in high-heeled wooden clogs from the Cambridge City bus stop to Martindale Creek near Jacksonburg. Somebody familiar with the area had to have driven her there.

Her pregnancy, Jeff's filing for divorce from her 17 days before she left and the family acquaintance/suspect all factor into her death, IMO. I wish the ISP would release more information on the suspect and how they determined he was in Indiana with Connie. All roads lead to Indiana.

Sources:
James H. Holpin’s obituary lists his half-brother, Jeff (Beth) Holpin (Elizabeth Ann) living in Indiana at the time of his death. Wisconsin State Journal Madison, Wisconsin · Thursday, July 06, 2000, page 10
Source: Newspapers.com

2001 2002 Jeff Holpin 4028 Summer Pl, New Albany, Indiana
US Phone and Address Directories, 1993-2002

Source: Ancestry.com

Nashville to Cambridge City

maps.app.goo.gl

 

[Quoththeraven]

There’s also another unsolved murder/missing person case of an 18 year old Green Bay, Wisconsin woman, Jeanne Marie Melville, who also went missing September 24, 1970, from a Richmond (Wayne County), Indiana bus station just 15 miles east of Cambridge City, Indiana on the same bus route.

She was found October 11, 1970, in a cornfield just off Frazers Road in Arcanum, Darke County, Ohio, just 28 miles northwest of the Richmond, IN bus station, but her nude body wasn’t identified until July, 2009, 39 years later.
A wig was found near the body, along with a strange ring, silver in color, with raised studs lining the outside.

An article from the Palladium-Item newspaper Richmond, Indiana · Thursday, October 29, 1970 stated she was wearing the ring and wig when found. Source: Newspapers.com

Perhaps we have a Wayne County, Indiana serial killer at work?

Jeanne Melville’s death still a mystery almost 50 years later - Daily Advocate & Early Bird News

DARKE COUNTY — On Sept. 24, 1970, Phyllis Nichols of Wayne Lakes drove to the Greyhound station in Richmond, Indiana to pick up her niece, Jeanne Marie Melville, who was due to visit from Green Bay, Wisconsin. She waited, but her niece never showed. A few hours later, Nichols returned to the bus...

www.dailyadvocate.com

Poster - Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost

www.ohioattorneygeneral.gov

Jacksonburg to Arcanum

maps.app.goo.gl

Link to the Melville case on Websleuths:

Found Deceased - WI - Jeannie Melville, 18, Green Bay, Aug 1970

Just came across this girl's link on Charley Project - http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/m/melville_jeannie.html - and for some reason, it really caught my attention. Jeannie grew up in the same era as my mother, and her photo looks like that of countless girls in my mother's hs yearbook...

www.websleuths.com

 

[imstilla.grandma]

Misty LaBean spent her whole life wondering why her mother left her family when she was only a year old.

Connie Christensen’s disappearance 40 years ago from Wisconsin wasn’t out of the blue for the rest of her relatives: She had left before, running away when she was a teenager and even doing a stint at a carnival.

“After my own kids were born, I was like, how could she have left me like that?” LaBean told CNN. “I would never do that to my kids.”

Her whole life, LaBean only heard whispers about her mother. The rest of her family was hurt and reluctant even to talk about Christensen, believing she’d chosen to walk away at just 20 years old.

All that time, though, there was something else LaBean didn’t know: Strangers hundreds of miles away were hunting answers to the very same mystery.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/09/us/missing-mom-dna-identification/index.html

 

[SimsGuy67]

It's unfortunate that I didn't find this before her identification, but I found a forward facing photo of Connie's reconstruction.

Reconstructed face may help authorities identify woman

Clipping found in Dayton Daily News published in Dayton, Ohio on 2/24/1983. Reconstructed face may help authorities identify woman

www.newspapers.com

 

[Romulus]

But...this case is still open in Namus?

UP4842

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

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

www.namus.gov

 

[SimsGuy67]

But...this case is still open in Namus?

UP4842

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

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

www.namus.gov

This happens with NamUs sometimes. Connie's identity is confirmed, but for some reason her NamUs is still up. An example of this I remember is Susan Hoppes/Windy Point Jane Doe. I recall her NamUs being up for years after her identification.