Identified! NY - Mount Vernon, WhtFem 51UFNY, 18-25, Left Near Junkyard, Feb'88 - Veronica Wiederhold

[reasypeasy]

Unfortunately, probably not. But let's break it down.
- Unshaven armpits, legs, eyebrows. From a culture that places less importance on this, or didn't have the opportunity to shave, either because she was held captive or lived on the street. But if you have time/resources for manicures, you'd think you would have time/resources for some shaving or tweezing.

Maybe she didn't bother to shave because she always wore trousers/tights/leggings in the cold part of the year?

Edited to add: Also, her eyebrows were only out of fashion in so far as she wasn't plucking the hairs between them. The general bushiness was quite acceptable in the 80s. Think Brooke Sheilds of that era.

 

[FiveFelines]

Yeah, I don't think her eyebrows look super bushy, especially for the 80s.

Unrelated, but she was found on a Sunday (Valentine's Day) and was probably killed on Saturday night/early Sunday morning. If her killer picked her up Fri or Sat, it slightly furthers the theory that she was out at a bar or club when she met him.

 

[carbuff]

Maybe she didn't bother to shave because she always wore trousers/tights/leggings in the cold part of the year?

Edited to add: Also, her eyebrows were only out of fashion in so far as she wasn't plucking the hairs between them. The general bushiness was quite acceptable in the 80s. Think Brooke Sheilds of that era.

Oh, good point. I should have thought of that since I do it myself.

 

[Roselvr]

Unfortunately, probably not. But let's break it down.

- She's in an age range associated with sex work, dancing, or even just night-clubbing. From what I've read here, this area of MV was known for prostitutes, clubs, etc., back then.

- She ate broccoli. Either she was relatively health conscious/watching her weight, ate what was around, or was fed the broccoli by her captor. (If we go by the theory that she was held for a period of time, it makes sense that he would have had to have fed her that—not sure how long stomach contents last.)

- She was probably punched/hit in the face (going by her wound) and restrained. That's not a crime of passion; that's disabling someone and then tying them up. I don't think she knew her killer very well or at all.

- She had cocaine in her system. If she was held for a while, she could have been given it by her captor. Otherwise, could point to either casual "party" use or an addiction. Would be nice to know how much she used.

- Fake nails. Cared about her appearance, whether just because she liked manicures or because they improved her looks for her job (sex work, dancer, etc., as well as beautician).

- Unshaven armpits, legs, eyebrows. From a culture that places less importance on this, or didn't have the opportunity to shave, either because she was held captive or lived on the street. But if you have time/resources for manicures, you'd think you would have time/resources for some shaving or tweezing.

- Shaved pubic area. Not done by her, IMO. If she did it herself, I'm guessing it was job-related.

I'd guess she was either a sex worker or an exotic dancer, but not in MV, and not living on the street. Or simply a "party girl" type who met the wrong man when she was out partying. I think her killer is from the area but that she didn't know him well or at all.

Of course, taking off my "Criminal Minds" hat, I'm not sure this gets us any closer to knowing her identity. :banghead:

Cocaine was pretty common in the 80's

 

[FiveFelines]

Cocaine was pretty common in the 80's

Right, which is why I don't think having it her system automatically implies she was an addict. It could have just been recreational use during a night out.

 

[Tatsachen]

It seems that she's now on the FYI ViCAP page. Hopefully it means that there's a real push being made higher up the chain to give this woman a name.

 

[Roselvr]

It seems that she's now on the FYI ViCAP page. Hopefully it means that there's a real push being made higher up the chain to give this woman a name.

Link to VICAP Unidentified Persons

 

[carbuff]

Wow, I didn't know ViCap included UID listings, or that they were public! Thank you.

 

[EmmaliLucia]

Wow. The ViCap page has some wonky vital statistics.

5'0 to 5'6? That's a huge discrepancy!

 

[Tatsachen]

I think part of the reason they give such a huge range is that one of the identifying features that is most misreported is height, whether purposely or because people are such poor judges of height. Given that they're casting such a wide net in order to find possible matches w/ missing people and runaways, I think it's probably prudent. I think weight certainly suffers from that sort of problem as well.

The fact that they've made the detail about the ligature marks so prominent is important. It may indicate that they think this could be the work of a repeat offender and that they are searching for related crimes in order to solve this. The details of the case certainly seem to indicate that much.

Addtionally, I wonder if the recent audit of mistakes in DNA recording in NY will give or has given investigators reason to re-run the results they originally received. It's unlikely this was one of the few cases impacted by this, but it will probably come up for review anyway. Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/25/n...ndexes-dna-finds-errors-in-profiles.html?_r=0

 

[Roselvr]

My friend & I have been sharing her on our FB page Never Forget Me as well as NJ for the Federal Help Find the Missing Act - Billy's Law

Mount Vernon NY-February 14, 1988

Unidentified Females

She has a new recon in NamUs, which is a photo of that recon. It's not even straight

Carl also made one

 

[FiveFelines]

Saw her on Facebook today (I "like" your page). Time to take another look at her!

 

[Roselvr]

Saw her on Facebook today (I "like" your page). Time to take another look at her!

Thank you so much! We originally started out to feature the cases we follow but have added more as people ask us to take a look at one.

 

[Lucy's mom]

Bumping for this girl!

 

[Houston Mom]

New on NamUs Tina Walls, missing Jan 1987, 60-62 inches, 95-110, and 27 years old. No mention of mole on neck.

 

[FiveFelines]

I see a resemblance with Tina's mouth, but not the rest, particularly the eyebrow area.

 

[Roselvr]

Personally not seeing it. Her eyebrows & face give me nightmares. My gut has always said she's NY/NJ local. I swear I met her

 

[Al Ka]

I have found article from 29th Oct 2014 with recon I have not seen yet. I am not sure how it was done but it looks very realistic, almost as photo, with freckles etc visible. She looks so sweet there.

http://www.hellbeasts.com/images/NYJaneDoe.jpg
http://www.hellbeasts.com/?p=8100

Interestingly enough under the article there are comments from now retired Mount Vernon detective of this case.

I’ve been obsessed with this case since it was assigned to me in 2003. I discovered DNA that had been preserved under her fingernails in 2004, 16 years after the fact, that had been secured at the Medical Examiners Office. As a result, a suspect was developed in 2010, 3 months after I retired but nothing was done to close this case. Further, through my investigation, I believe that Jane Doe is Cathleen Martin who went missing in Cape May NJ in mid 1987. Cathleen’s family and husband also believes Jane Doe to be Cathleen and yet and nothing further after I retired has been done. For those interested, please read the article that Adriana posted above (thank you so much Adriana)and anyone with any info please free to contact me via info@majorcaseinvestigations.com or through my website http://www.majorcaseinvestigations.com.

Cathleen’s family has and is willing to provide additional DNA samples to be tested as Exemplars with Jane Doe. However; considering certain government red tape bureaucracies, The Weschester County Forensics Lab will not forward Genome pro-filer / co-filer data on Jane Doe to be tested by an independent lab nor will they do it themselves. They basically looked to avoid court testimony, considering the level of contamination in the way it was collected. Remember the DNA was collected in 1988 when technology didn’t exists. And therefore, they don’t want to be put in the hot seat as no labs do. The only hope is for an independent lab to compare the samples and offer an opinion. 8 out of 13 DNA allels match to blood relatives which suggests a strong family relationship. Now we need for an expert to explain the reason as to why the other allels didn’t spike, which the answer is simply due to a mixture / contamination. Thanks for your input and interest.

I am unable to see when exactly he made those comments but it must have been quite recently (past few month as article is from 29th Oct 14), which might be even after Cathleen Martin appeared on Namus rule out list?


Updated:
The following people have been ruled out as being this decedent:
First Name Last Name State LKA

• Barbara Aleksivich - New York
• Mary Bostwick - New York
• Judith Brown - New York
• Rosemary Buck - New York
• Cynthia Constantine - New York
• Valarie Cuccia - New York
• Edna Kaminski - New York
• Edna Kaminski - New York
• Sylvia Lwowski - New York
• Sylvia Lwowski - New York
• Tammy Mahoney - New York
• Tammy Mahoney - New York
• Cathleen Martin - Pennsylvania
• Tammie McCormick - New York
• Kelly Morrissey - New York
• Audrey Nerenberg - New York
• Cindy Rowles - New York
• Denise Sheehy - New York
• Valerie Smith - New York
• Linda St. Germaine - New York
• Sheryl Tillinghast - New York
• Karen Wilson - New York
• Karen Wilson - New York

and one more article, quoted by detective above and posted there by someone called Adriana
http://www.practicalhomicide.com/current/MtVernonJaneDoe.htm

The victim’s body was discovered at 11:54 a.m. on Feb. 14, 1988, opposite 22 Carlton Ave., in a desolate, industrial area. A large German shepherd stood guard behind a fence nearby.

An autopsy found the woman had bruises above the left eye and ligature markings around her neck, wrists and ankles. She had been killed roughly six to 12 hours before that, and moved to the location sometime after 10:20 a.m.

Investigators believed the woman might have been an exotic dancer, and checked Westchester and New York City topless bars, underground sex businesses and organized crime-owned hangouts for clues.

Mount Vernon police consulted with Interpol, the Royal Canadian Police and the case was even on Brazilian television. Dozens of missing persons cases were compared. They checked dental records, fingerprints and tattoos.

Then, a possible connection to other deaths cropped up. An unknown serial killer murdered three Yonkers women: Maria Ramos in 1989, Tawanda Hodges in 1991 and Kimberly Moore in 1996. Like the woman found in Mount Vernon, those three victims’ bodies had been posed by their killer. Police were convinced the Mount Vernon body might be the fourth.

In April 2010, however, the Yonkers women’s killer, Francisco Acevedo, was identified through DNA evidence. His DNA did not match the Mount Vernon Jane Doe, and investigators learned Acevedo had been in custody in Connecticut at the time she was killed.

Mount Vernon detectives were left without a suspect.

the lead was developed after he left the department: DNA taken from under Jane Doe’s fingernails pointed to a Massachusetts man.

Adinaro said detectives have not interviewed the man because they learned from Massachusetts authorities that he was in jail at the time the Mount Vernon victim was slain, and the DNA match was only partial.

Ossipo argued evidence collected in 1988 — when DNA technology was not as precise — might create a partial sample or one that might be tainted. He said to his knowledge the man was not in jail at the time in question.

“Someone should have talked to him,” Ossipo maintained.

After The Journal News began making inquiries about the case this summer, the Major Case Unit re-launched its investigation into the death: re-interviewing witnesses — including the worker who found Jane Doe’s body — and entering her information into two national unidentified victims networks.

No new clues have developed.

ETA: just if it is not clear from short quotes above Yonkers women’s killer, Francisco Acevedo is not the same person as their Massachusetts suspect.

 

[Roselvr]

Thank you for the link. I replied to George about Cathleen; invited him here but I'm not seeing my comment. Will try again

 

[Houston Mom]

Cathleen Martin is on the rule out list.

https://identifyus.org/en/cases/10229