Identified! OH - Avondale, UnkFem, remains found in basement, Aug’20 - Neva Johnson

[MadMcGoo]

I don’t follow new cases often and I’m not sure even how to post about them. This is quite an unusual case...

Homeowner says she stayed up all night after skeletal remains found in Avondale home

...female skeletal remains were found in the basement of an Avondale home overnight.

Fire officials responded to a report of “a very old corpse” found by a plumber...

<snip>

Tubbs says she and her daughter bought the house more than 20 years ago.

She says she doesn’t like to go into the basement because it’s dark but still wonders how the body got past her.

 

[MadMcGoo]

Human skeletal remains found in Avondale basement, coroner says

 

[lynchmob67]

Thanks for posting, very strange, scratching my head!

I’m curious as to how a pile of bones could be immediately id’d as female skeletal remains.

[“Fire officials responded to a report of “a very old corpse”... Police say the remains are believed to be several years old, making this a cold case.]
Do they think the corpse had been there for a very long time or it was a very old person?

[Tubbs says she and her daughter bought the house more than 20 years ago.
Also found in the basement was a green bra and a cell phone, according to investigators.]
Hmm, sounds as if this person met their demise after the homeowners moved in!

 

[MadMcGoo]

Yes, very mind-boggling! I happened to see this in my Facebook feed and I had to read it about 5 times to make sure it said what it said.

Never Forget Me

There are some interesting comments on there, mostly speculation, but I'm curious to know more details as they're released.

 

[Mrs. Badcrumble]

Intriguing, indeed. *stroking imaginary beard*

From the second video ***GRAPHIC VIDEO***:

- Records states Louise Tubbs moved in in 2004.
- There's been at least four owners since the 1980s.
- Identification and cause of death could take up to 14 to 16 weeks, so an update can come earliest in December.
​

Also found in the basement was a green bra and a cell phone, according to investigators.

A bit of gallows humour: If it's from before 2004, it could be an old Nokia. All you need to do is brush of the dust, and you're ready to go!
But seriously, I hope the SIM card is in such a condition that they are able to abstract data from it, like contacts, text messages, etc. that could help identify Jane Doe.

ETA: That is, IF the phone is Jane Doe's!

 

[Warwick1991]

Very interesting... It looks like the basement can be accessed directly from outside with a door without going inside the house. That could mean that a body was dumped there in recent years by someone familiar with the neighborhood, possibly without the knowledge of the owners.

 

[Mrs. Badcrumble]

Identification and cause of death could take up to 14 to 16 weeks, so an update can come earliest in December.

Well, here we are. I haven't found any updates yet, but it might just be too early. Still keeping my fingers crossed for a speedy identification!

 

[AnnieOakley]

Well, here we are. I haven't found any updates yet, but it might just be too early. Still keeping my fingers crossed for a speedy identification!

I hope we get an update soon!

 

[MadMcGoo]

Skeletal remains found in Avondale basement identified

The remains were identified as 69-year-old Neva Johnson, according to the Hamilton County Coroner’s Office.
[...]
The coroner says Johnson has a son and daughter, who says she was a bit of a nomad who would disappear from time to time.

The coroner’s office originally thought the bones were a few decades old but found out Johnson last posted on Facebook in 2015.

 

[MadMcGoo]

Rest peacefully now Neva.

 

[MarziPanda]

I wonder if she might have entered the basement by herself (if indeed it's the type of basement one can access via an outside door) to keep warm, and passed away from exposure. But it's weird how there didn't seem to be any clothes with her. On the other hand, if someone killed her and put her there, why would they leave her phone with her? A lot of unanswered questions. RIP Neva.

 

[30Anne]

Strange.... very strange....

 

[Blurgle]

I wonder if she might have entered the basement by herself (if indeed it's the type of basement one can access via an outside door) to keep warm, and passed away from exposure. But it's weird how there didn't seem to be any clothes with her. On the other hand, if someone killed her and put her there, why would they leave her phone with her? A lot of unanswered questions. RIP Neva.

If she died of hypothermia it actually makes sense that she wasn't fully dressed. Victims of terminal hypothermia often undress, then look for somewhere to burrow - say, in a basement 'protected' by nothing but an inadequately secured basement door (which apparently this house did have). She probably undressed outside, and if she did who knows where her clothes are now - carried off by birds, scraped away by a snowplow, thrown away by a neighbour who didn’t recognize the import of the clothing.

We had a lady die of the same thing in my neighbourhood this spring. (They found her at the local bus rapid transit station, naked under a bench. :-( ) Sometimes that happens when the weather turns warm early followed by a bitter, bitter cold snap; homeless people give up their winter clothing too early, and are caught unprepared.