Identified! NV - Washoe Co., WhtFem 156UFNV, 25-35, Sheep's Flat Trail, Jul'82 - Mary Edith Silvani

[MelmothTheLost]

I read her post. She was staying with friends. I would guess if she had suddenly got kidnaped, her friends would have noticed, if her stuff was still there, and she was gone. I think everybody is missing my point. Many adults don't keep in contact with their families, but that doesn't mean they can just disappear into thin air, and nobody would notice. Roommates will notice, friends will notice, employers will notice. Somebody will notice.

I may be wrong, but it seems to me that you are seeing the past through today's eyes. 40 years ago there were no mobile phones, social media or email so it was much more difficult for people to keep in contact with family and friends than it is now. At best you wrote a letter or sent a postcard or telegram or made a long distance phone call. All of these (except for the phone call) involved a time delay between sending and receiving, in which time the sender could have been hundreds of miles away from their last known geographic point.

I'd venture to suggest also, though this may be controversial, that 16 year olds back then were much more independent and mature than they are today. Maybe adults were more idealistic or naive. Maybe both young people and adults were much less aware of the dangers out there.

I was struck, when looking at the case of Mt Lemmon Jane Doe (AZ - AZ - Pima Co., WhtFem UP17112, 16-27, found on Mt Lemmon, Apr'72) that in the course of a single decade Phoenix had grown four-fold in population. That's a lot of people away from friends and family and anyone who might have missed them. That was in the 1950s, but I would hazard a guess that Las Vegas was much the same during the 1960s and 1970s. I realise I am an outsider looking in, but I do wonder if some Americans realise just how desolate and unpopulated the desert SW was until recently.

I'm also aware that much of the US operates a fire-at-will culture and legal situation when it comes to workers. Folks who can be fired at will can also leave at will, leaving little trace after they've picked up their final wages.

In any event, isn't the figure of the almost anonymous drifter, with a mysterious past, through remote regions a fundamental part of the American myth of the West?

 

[KaaBoom]

I may be wrong, but it seems to me that you are seeing the past through today's eyes. 40 years ago there were no mobile phones, social media or email so it was much more difficult for people to keep in contact with family and friends than it is now. At best you wrote a letter or sent a postcard or telegram or made a long distance phone call. All of these (except for the phone call) involved a time delay between sending and receiving, in which time the sender could have been hundreds of miles away from their last known geographic point.

I'd venture to suggest also, though this may be controversial, that 16 year olds back then were much more independent and mature than they are today. Maybe adults were more idealistic or naive. Maybe both young people and adults were much less aware of the dangers out there.

I was struck, when looking at the case of Mt Lemmon Jane Doe (AZ - AZ - Pima Co., WhtFem UP17112, 16-27, found on Mt Lemmon, Apr'72) that in the course of a single decade Phoenix had grown four-fold in population. That's a lot of people away from friends and family and anyone who might have missed them. That was in the 1950s, but I would hazard a guess that Las Vegas was much the same during the 1960s and 1970s. I realise I am an outsider looking in, but I do wonder if some Americans realise just how desolate and unpopulated the desert SW was until recently.

I'm also aware that much of the US operates a fire-at-will culture and legal situation when it comes to workers. Folks who can be fired at will can also leave at will, leaving little trace after they've picked up their final wages.

In any event, isn't the figure of the almost anonymous drifter, with a mysterious past, through remote regions a fundamental part of the American myth of the West?

Again I understand that many people don't keep in contact with their families, even today. But that still doesn't mean they can just disappear into thin air, without anybody noticing.

 

[KaaBoom]

No disrespect at all, I realize I’ve been gone from this forum for awhile, but your posts seem to keep pushing your narrative that no one goes missing because someone will report them. The fact is, many people did go missing because no one reported them. Traveling alone or not, people don’t get reported. Your generalization that people just joined communes is irresponsible. Many of us who’ve spent a lot of time, Years even, researching these casing have seen that people were just brushed aside because of LE workload or just not being bothered to do their job. It’s not hard to drop off the grid 40 years ago. But stop forcing your narrative on the rest of us.

I'm stating my opinion. I'm not going to stop. I don't see how somebody can vanish into thin air without somebody noticing. Anything is possible, but that is very unlikely, especially for a female.

 

[booghawk]

So how do you explain the thousands of unidentified bodies? They were all killed by the only person who would have reported them missing?

Noticing someone is missing is one thing, but reporting them missing is another. There are so many reasons why somebody might not report them missing back in those days.

I guarantee a good portion of these UID's have people that are aware that they are missing. They just weren't reported missing. And that was fairly common back then.

Editing to say: I'm not trying to argue, I'm genuinely curious what your thought process is.

 

[KaaBoom]

So how do you explain the thousands of unidentified bodies? They were all killed by the only person who would have reported them missing?

In cases like this I believe most, if not all are killed by their traveling companion, or companions, for whatever reasons. In that case the traveling companions are the only ones who know that something happened. I'm sure there are exceptions, I'm open to hearing examples of other situations. But I'm pretty sure most of these cases will come down to traveling companions, being responsible.

 

[Lewie]

Not showing up to work is common in low paying jobs. We just had a guy who didn’t show up one day, didn’t answer his phone, nothing. We called his gf and she hadn’t seen him either (they lived together) but she wasn’t worried. Annoyed, but not worried. Apparently he takes off all the time and you won’t hear from him for months or years. Yes, we noticed he’s gone. Nobody reported him missing.

 

[KaaBoom]

Not showing up to work is common in low paying jobs. We just had a guy who didn’t show up one day, didn’t answer his phone, nothing. We called his gf and she hadn’t seen him either (they lived together) but she wasn’t worried. Annoyed, but not worried. Apparently he takes off all the time and you won’t hear from him for months or years. Yes, we noticed he’s gone. Nobody reported him missing.

Well there you go. You called his GF. If she doesn't hear from him, at some point, she will probably report him missing. She might also be calling his family too. That is what I would expect to happen.

 

[Lewie]

Well there you go. You called his GF. If she doesn't hear from him, at some point, she will probably report him missing. She might also be calling his family too. That is what I would expect to happen.

No... she left him actually. Wants nothing to do with it. She probably called his parents but it’s normal for him to do this, so no one has any reason to suspect a problem.

 

[KaaBoom]

No... she left him actually. Wants nothing to do with it. She probably called his parents but it’s normal for him to do this, so no one has any reason to suspect a problem.

Well, if something bad has happened to him, do you think it will take 35 years for him to be identified and his family to find out?

 

[Lewie]

Anyhow all, back on track! I think we can almost all agree that SFJD was killed by someone she knew well, but that’s not true in many cases. These people were people, loved and cared for by someone, regardless of whether a report was successfully filed, and they deserve their identities back. Here’s to hoping we get confirmation this week!

 

[Charlie99909]

Anyhow all, back on track! I think we can almost all agree that SFJD was killed by someone she knew well, but that’s not true in many cases. These people were people, loved and cared for by someone, regardless of whether a report was successfully filed, and they deserve their identities back. Here’s to hoping we get confirmation this week!

I’m hoping it’s taking so long because they’ve zeroed in on her killer. They have his DNA as well and it shouldn’t be too long.

 

[carbuff]

Having somebody notice and having that somebody be in a position to report that person missing aren't the same thing. LE agencies vary significantly in whether they will take a report from colleagues or friends. Almost nobody would take a report from minor children. For an adult with no indication of foul play, they might just laugh at you. "Oh, she stood you up? Gee, that's too bad."

Or something like that, I'm not saying anything specifically like this happened. Just the generality that we see again and again where the person was missed and people did try to find them but LE or other agencies were no help.

 

[Alleykins]

Having somebody notice and having that somebody be in a position to report that person missing aren't the same thing. LE agencies vary significantly in whether they will take a report from colleagues or friends. Almost nobody would take a report from minor children. For an adult with no indication of foul play, they might just laugh at you. "Oh, she stood you up? Gee, that's too bad."

Or something like that, I'm not saying anything specifically like this happened. Just the generality that we see again and again where the person was missed and people did try to find them but LE or other agencies were no help.

Plus, it was easy to lose touch with someone before the internet, there wasn't social media & email, only expensive long distance calls and snail mail. And if you lost that person's address and phone number, you lost that person. However, it didn't mean they were missing, especially if that person was known to move around a lot.

 

[Nancy Drew RN]

This is a great article about Robert Rhoades/hitchhiking in the 1980s. The author set out at 15 in 1985, with her 21 year old boyfriend. They argue, then she was on her own, no real destination, going in circles. No companion to keep track of her. Irregular/limited contact with her family, who had no idea where she was most of the time. It's a great portrait of the kind of situation I think a lot of our Does were in.

I do think this Doe could have known her killer, but not necessarily that she knew him well. The Green River Killer, for example, had some outdoor places that he favored, and sometimes brought victims (and romantic partners) to those locations. I could also see a casual acquaintance, maybe a short-term travel companion or someone she had met at the lake earlier that day, who convinced or forced her to take a walk. Covering up her face could indicate some personal attachment, or be meant to delay discovery of her death--which worked. On the other hand, if this guy's DNA has never before pinged with a known criminal's or samples from other victims, then that might be a vote for a more personal situation. Maybe a questionable boyfriend/pimp, motel-living kind of deal? If you've ever read Green River, Running Red by Ann Rule, that describes many, many ladies who were victims of Gary Ridgeway. Note: I'm not saying that our Jane Doe was one of his victims, just that it was a fairly common situation, and someone in that situation would be very vulnerable and also difficult to identify.

In the end, this is all idle chatter on my part, since we'll soon know who she is, which is amazing.

 

[leilarose68]

I’m hoping it’s taking so long because they’ve zeroed in on her killer. They have his DNA as well and it shouldn’t be too long.

They're confirming WCJD's identity via an Ancestry DNA kit so it could potentially take 8 weeks...

 

[leilarose68]

Please please vote for Officer Stephanie Bourgeois as she is a finalist in contention to win a $5k grant for DNA Doe Project! **You can vote 1x everyday until Friday!**

[Click the blue link to Vote & then Scroll Down to SUBMIT your vote] (Why We Serve 2018 | Aftermath Services)

Post by DDP, please share on facebook if you can!: DNA Doe Project

Remember, we can all vote once a day until Friday!

 

[rats]

They're confirming WCJD's identity via an Ancestry DNA kit so it could potentially take 8 weeks...

And then they have to upload to GEDmatch which usually takes a few days, but could take even longer because they're trying to work with their database (they're combining it all into one giant database, because currently it's two: regular GEDmatch and GEDmatch Genesis. They're making everything Genesis.)

Please please vote for Officer Stephanie Bourgeois as she is in contention to win a $5k grant for DNA Doe Project! **You can vote 1x everyday until Friday!**

[Click Here ---> to Vote & then Scroll Down to SUBMIT your vote] (Why We Serve 2018 | Aftermath Services)

Post by DDP, please share on facebook: DNA Doe Project

Very good point, we should all be voting, especially since Sheep Flat Jane benefitted so much.

 

[MelmothTheLost]

Please please vote for Officer Stephanie Bourgeois as she is a finalist in contention to win a $5k grant for DNA Doe Project! **You can vote 1x everyday until Friday!**

[Click Here ---> to Vote & then Scroll Down to SUBMIT your vote] (Why We Serve 2018 | Aftermath Services)

Post by DDP, please share on facebook if you can!: DNA Doe Project

Thank you to everyone who has voted already to support this important work <3

Unfortunately, for whatever reason, the voting button does not work for me in any browser.

 

[leilarose68]

Unfortunately, for whatever reason, the voting button does not work for me in any browser.

Are you sure you didn't just forget to submit? You click on Stephanie's VOTE button and then scroll down towards the bottom of the page and press the orange SUBMIT button and then your vote is casted.

 

[carbuff]

There are some other very worthy projects on there too...