Identified! AL - Lincoln, WhtFem UP10508, 45 - 65, 5 May 2012 - Jean Turner Ponders

[ChatteringBirds]

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

Unidentified Person / NamUs #UP10508
Female, White / Caucasian

Date Body Found: May 5, 2012
Location Found: Lincoln, Alabama

Case Information
Case Numbers
ME/C Case Number: 12MM00396

Demographics
Female
White / Caucasian

Estimated Age Range (Years)
45-65

Height: 5' 6"(66 inches) , Measured
Weight: 116 lbs, Measured

Circumstances
Unidentified Deceased
Date Body Found: May 5, 2012
NamUs Case Created: August 8, 2012
ME/C QA Reviewed: August 9, 2012

Location: Lincoln, Alabama 35096
County: Talladega County
Found On Tribal Land: No

Circumstances of Recovery
Body of decomposed white female discovered in the backyard outside an abandoned property located in Lincoln, Talladega County, Alabama.

Details of Recovery
Inventory of Remains: All parts recovered
Condition of Remains: Not recognizable -
Circumstance Notes
Decomposed body discovered in vacant house

Physical Description
Hair Color: Gray or Partially Gray
Head Hair Description: Brown / Gray
From NCIC entry: "HAIR IS SANDY BUT GRAYING"

Eye Color: Unknown

Clothing and Accessories
Clothing: Pair sweatpants, shirt and panties
NCIC entry: "WEARING DK BLUE SWEAT PANTS AND A NAVY BLUE SHIRT" On the Body
Footwear: Slippers, On the Body

 

[ChatteringBirds]

This case was mentioned on Page 4 of this Websleuths thread as a new case being funded by Othram. Lincoln Jane Doe (2012):
Othram - General Discussion

 

[MarziPanda]

The entry on Othram's website for this woman mentions that she had lung cancer. I wonder if she knew she had it, or if it hadn't been detected yet? There's no cause of death mentioned. I wonder if this could have been a suicide. Maybe she didn't want to go through dying from the cancer and found a quiet abandoned spot to end her life. Of course, it could just as easily have been any number of other causes of death.

Her dentures had 'Powders' on them. A surname? There aren't any missing people in Namus or Charley project with that surname that I can find. There are a few with 'Powers' but none of the women with that surname mention dentures in their profiles.

The Othram entry, which has a lot more information than the namus:

Who is Lincoln Jane Doe (2012)?

 

[Suglo]

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

Unidentified Person / NamUs #UP10508
Female, White / Caucasian

Date Body Found: May 5, 2012
Location Found: Lincoln, Alabama

Case Information
Case Numbers
ME/C Case Number: 12MM00396

Demographics
Female
White / Caucasian

Estimated Age Range (Years)
45-65

Height: 5' 6"(66 inches) , Measured
Weight: 116 lbs, Measured

Circumstances
Unidentified Deceased
Date Body Found: May 5, 2012
NamUs Case Created: August 8, 2012
ME/C QA Reviewed: August 9, 2012

Location: Lincoln, Alabama 35096
County: Talladega County
Found On Tribal Land: No

Circumstances of Recovery
Body of decomposed white female discovered in the backyard outside an abandoned property located in Lincoln, Talladega County, Alabama.

Details of Recovery
Inventory of Remains: All parts recovered
Condition of Remains: Not recognizable -
Circumstance Notes
Decomposed body discovered in vacant house

Physical Description
Hair Color: Gray or Partially Gray
Head Hair Description: Brown / Gray
From NCIC entry: "HAIR IS SANDY BUT GRAYING"

Eye Color: Unknown

Clothing and Accessories
Clothing: Pair sweatpants, shirt and panties
NCIC entry: "WEARING DK BLUE SWEAT PANTS AND A NAVY BLUE SHIRT" On the Body
Footwear: Slippers, On the Body

Thank you for making this thread! There is so little out there about her other than what @othram has on their website. I spent some time last night searching. Didn’t occur to me to start a thread

 

[Subiechik21]

Thank you for making this thread @ChatteringBirds!
Police still trying to ID remains of woman found near Talladega Superspeedway in 2012
The date in this article says she was found on May 4, 2012, I don't know if the article is wrong or NAMUS is wrong.

I looked for "POWDERS" denture manufacturer & there is not a company by that name (this was suggested in the article), so it could be the persons name or maybe the detist that made them. I just saw this story & came on here to find a thread for her, so I have not had time to dive further.

The body was discovered on May 4, 2012 when a sheriff’s deputy was patrolling rural Allred Road in Lincoln. He noticed the front door of a vacant home was wide open and went to investigate. He searched the backyard of the property and that’s when he found the remains of an adult white female.

 

[othram]

The entry on Othram's website for this woman mentions that she had lung cancer. I wonder if she knew she had it, or if it hadn't been detected yet? There's no cause of death mentioned. I wonder if this could have been a suicide. Maybe she didn't want to go through dying from the cancer and found a quiet abandoned spot to end her life. Of course, it could just as easily have been any number of other causes of death.

Her dentures had 'Powders' on them. A surname? There aren't any missing people in Namus or Charley project with that surname that I can find. There are a few with 'Powers' but none of the women with that surname mention dentures in their profiles.

The Othram entry, which has a lot more information than the namus:

Who is Lincoln Jane Doe (2012)?

It appears she might not have died at the house. She was positioned there and there were track marks near by. This suggests that she might have been brought to the house by another person.

 

[Subiechik21]

Do we know if by chance this lady had any tattoos or was there too much decomp to tell?
I did a search of dentists named Dr. Powders & despite Google trying to fix my spelling to powers, I found only one & he is in Virginia. (Dr. Kenneth Powders)
I also found a lady who is missing out of Virginia who comes close to the height & weight, but she has tattoos. She has been missing since 2010 & was 45 when she went missing.
Just searching & trying to see what I can find, I will link her NAMUS page below.
The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

 

[othram]

Do we know if by chance this lady had any tattoos or was there too much decomp to tell?
I did a search of dentists named Dr. Powders & despite Google trying to fix my spelling to powers, I found only one & he is in Virginia. (Dr. Kenneth Powders)
I also found a lady who is missing out of Virginia who comes close to the height & weight, but she has tattoos. She has been missing since 2010 & was 45 when she went missing.
Just searching & trying to see what I can find, I will link her NAMUS page below.
The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

Good finds. No tattoos or distinguishing were reported to our knowledge.

 

[Subiechik21]

Good finds. No tattoos or distinguishing were reported to our knowledge.

Thank you! I found another missing person that had dentures when she went missing, but she went missing in 1985. The height & weight are similar as well as having brown hair & dentures, I will post the link here just in case, but I don't think it is our UID.
The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

 

[imstilla.grandma]

Her autopsy revealed a few clues. Her cause of death was lung cancer, and she had a scar from a prior brain surgery.

She was five-feet-six-inches tall and estimated to be between 45 and 65 years old. The coroner was unable to determine the color of her eyes, but said her hair was sandy brown and graying.

“Pretty much every lead you could think of that we ran down was a no-go, we had nothing at the end of it so it was just sitting here, a cold case.”

Then, this summer, someone reached out to a lab in Texas after reading about the mysterious case on NamUS, a “national information clearinghouse and resource center” for missing, unidentified and unclaimed person cases.

“Someone sent us the link,” said Michael Vogen, Director of Case Management, Othram, Inc. “I think they’re from the area and said ‘Hey, this is one I felt wasn’t necessarily getting attention because there’s not a wild story to it necessarily.’”

Othram is a private DNA laboratory built specifically to solve cases like this one.

“Othram is the first and only lab in the U.S. that was built from the ground up to work in a forensic laboratory setting, specifically with forensic evidence. What that means is Othram is able to basically access information from DNA evidence that is unsuitable for evidence at other labs or traditional labs that have worked in this space.”
Cold Case in Lincoln: Forensic lab gives new hope for identifying woman

 

[MarziPanda]

It's odd that her cause of death was lung cancer, but she seems to have been dumped there. A few possibilities come to mind... she and her family being illegal immigrants and someone panicked and dumped her... her being a free spirit enjoying what time she had left, and she died in the company of strangers, who panicked and dumped her... or maybe her child/other family wanted to keep collecting her benefits - which is something we've seen a few times before.

 

[MajorHoople]

It's odd that her cause of death was lung cancer, but she seems to have been dumped there. A few possibilities come to mind... she and her family being illegal immigrants and someone panicked and dumped her... her being a free spirit enjoying what time she had left, and she died in the company of strangers, who panicked and dumped her... or maybe her child/other family wanted to keep collecting her benefits - which is something we've seen a few times before.

"or maybe her child/other family wanted to keep collecting her benefits - which is something we've seen a few times before."

I think you nailed it.

 

[victoriarobinson642]

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)
This woman was added to NAMUS today - missing from the same town and fits all the stats - I would like to hope that she's been ruled out, but I want to make sure.

 

[carbuff]

article from shortly after the remains were found: Body found in Lincoln still unidentified

recent article announcing the Othram connection: Police still trying to ID remains of woman found near Talladega Superspeedway in 2012

According to the articles, Lincoln is the location of Talladega Superpeedway, where many large racing events are held, and there was an event going on when the woman was found. There are a lot more murders, disappearances, and found bodies in the area than I expected.

 

[MarziPanda]

Sometimes, a missing person will be uploaded to namus just prior to them being identified as a Doe. Like the DNA genealogy leads them to that person, they realise that person has been reported missing but the missing persons report is buried in a storage locker somewhere, and they dig it out to upload it. So it's possible that this is Janice and they're still confirming it.

Also equally likely that it's a coincidence and this isn't Janice. I'm not sure the circumstances quite line up. Janice went missing after a party. She was the caregiver to her husband, who reported her missing - but not for a while after she went missing. He is now deceased. There's no mention of the lung cancer that killed our Doe. There's no PMI on the Doe, but it's almost a year between the disappearance and the Doe's discovery.

I suppose it could work if Janice discovered she had lung cancer and didn't want to burden her ill husband, so she disappeared herself - maybe having some fun whilst she still could. Died in a stranger's company, who panicked and dumped her. Or maybe she had lung cancer and didn't tell anyone, she died at home, and someone else took her out and dumped her for whatever reason. It's a bit of a stretch but I suppose stranger things have happened.

 

[othram]

Now identified: Lincoln Jane Doe (2012) is Now Identified?

 

[wary]

So, was ‘Powders’ on the dentures supposed to be ‘Ponders?’ I’d think so. I hope that the typo was made by the denture makers, and not by LE, but there’s occasional mistakes of that sort—like listing someone as 54 inches tall, instead of 5’ 4”

 

[othram]

So, was ‘Powders’ on the dentures supposed to be ‘Ponders?’ I’d think so. I hope that the typo was made by the denture makers, and not by LE, but there’s occasional mistakes of that sort—like listing someone as 54 inches tall, instead of 5’ 4”

Interesting possibility.

 

[victoriarobinson642]

Rest in peace, Jean.

 

[victoriarobinson642]

Missing Person / NamUs #MP34405
Jean Turner Ponders, Female, White / Caucasian
Circumstances of Disappearance
Jean Turner Ponders: Last seen in Marietta, GA Cobb County in March of 2012. Through a phone conversation with family on May 6, 2013, she indicated she may be staying at an extended stay hotel. Has not been heard from since.