Identified! OH - Eaton, Wht 30-50, UP55702, fingers hooked in small tree, May '68 - Albert Allen Frost

[Mrs. Badcrumble]

This case was recently added to NamUs:

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

Female, White / Caucasian
Date Found: May 25, 1968
Location Found: Eaton, Ohio
Estimated Age Range: 30-50 Years

Case Information

Case Numbers
NCMEC Number: --
ME/C Case Number: 68-7

Demographics
Sex: Female
Race / Ethnicity: White / Caucasian

Possible First Name: --
Possible Middle Name: --
Possible Last Name: --
Possible Nickname: --

Estimated Age Group: Adult - Pre 60
Estimated Age Range (Years): 30-50
Estimated Year of Death: 1962-1968
Estimated PMI: --

Height: 5' 2"-5' 6"(62-66 inches) , Estimated
Weight: 130-140 lbs, Estimated

Circumstances
Type: Unidentified Deceased
Date Found: May 25, 1968
NamUs Case Created: February 27, 2019
ME/C QA Reviewed: --

Location Found
General Location: at the Rear of the F. Time McFall property on Frederick Drive
Eaton, Ohio
County: Preble County

Circumstances of Recovery:
Children playing in a wooded area found a skull that was separated from a badly decomposed body trunk with a left arm intact (the fingers of which were hooked in a small tree). The lower right arm was missing. There was no clothing or jewelry. The skull was 75 feet downstream from the trunk. The entire area had been swept by high water within the previous few days. The decedent may have been deceased up to one year or more.

Details of Recovery
Inventory of Remains: One or more limbs not recovered
One or both hands not recovered

Condition of Remains: Not recognizable - Decomposing/putrefaction

Physical Description
Hair Color: Unknown or Completely Bald
Head Hair Description: --
Body Hair Description: --
Facial Hair Description: --
Left Eye Color: Unknown or Missing
Right Eye Color: Unknown or Missing
Eye Description: --

Distinctive Physical Features
No Information Entered

Clothing and Accessories
No jewelry or clothing were found with the remains

 

[Mrs. Badcrumble]

Looks like Eaton Jane Doe's case is heating up!

SHELBY - Officials are planning to exhume the body of an unknown woman buried in Preble County decades ago in hopes it will solve the case of a Shelby-area woman who went missing 75 years ago.

Shelby police opened the cold case in October regarding Mary Jane Croft Vangilder, who disappeared in 1945.

Shelby police and the Preble County Coroner's Office are hoping to exhume the body of a "Jane Doe" in Eaton, Ohio, within the next few months to have DNA extracted and analyzed by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation.

(Shelby police officer Adam)
Turner said he then contacted Dave Lindloff, coroner's investigator of Preble County, west of Dayton, inquiring about the 1968 "Jane Doe".

"He (Lindloff) was able to find quite a bit of records about her case. The remains of 'Jane Doe' were found by a group of children on May 25, 1968," Turner said. The 'Jane Doe' was buried Sept. 4, 1968, according to investigative reports.

"The physical characteristics, the weight and height, and her age, have similarities," he said of the badly decomposed body of the Caucasian woman found in a drainage ditch.

The "Jane Doe" was 5-foot, two inches and weighed an estimated 132 pound. The remains were deemed to be quite old by the then Montgomery County Coroner's Office in Dayton, possibly up to 10 or 15 years, according to newspaper reports.

Vangilder weighed 155 to 170 pounds as last reported by her family and was estimated to be 5 foot to 5-foot, 7 inches tall, according to Turner's search.

"Jane Doe, when she died was 40 to 50 years old. Mary Jane was 35 years old when she disappeared in 1945," Turner said.

'Jane Doe' to be exhumed in cold case dating to 1945

 

[Gardener1850]

Looks like Eaton Jane Doe's case is heating up!



'Jane Doe' to be exhumed in cold case dating to 1945

Wow! Here is Mary's missing thread: OH - OH - Mary J. Croft Vangilder, 43, Plymouth, 1945

 

[AliceInPain]

left arm intact (the fingers of which were hooked in a small tree

What does that mean? She was tied up to it or held on to it as she died?
Reminds me of a tsunami (2004) victim who was found with her hand holding on to a tree.
Regardless, I hope Mary's and this JDs case can be resolved.

 

[Mrs. Badcrumble]

What does that mean? She was tied up to it or held on to it as she died?
Reminds me of a tsunami (2004) victim who was found with her hand holding on to a tree.

I do not know for sure, but I read it as something similar to the tsunami victim; that her hand/fingers got somewhat tangled in the tree while she was decomposing (sorry for the graphic description!). I am reminded of Cheryl Commesso from when her remains were found and a tree or a plant had grown into her skeletal remains.

 

[Bit of hope]

What does that mean? She was tied up to it or held on to it as she died?
Reminds me of a tsunami (2004) victim who was found with her hand holding on to a tree.
Regardless, I hope Mary's and this JDs case can be resolved.

The skull was 75 feet downstream from the trunk. The entire area had been swept by high water within the previous few days. So maybe she tangled up in the tree because of that.

 

[Bit of hope]

Looks like Eaton Jane Doe's case is heating up!



'Jane Doe' to be exhumed in cold case dating to 1945

Tops! Wonderful they are going to make an effort distracting DNA from this Jane Doe. I'm happy she was buried and not cremated, like they did with unidentified persons in CA.

 

[Bit of hope]

This case was recently added to NamUs:

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

Female, White / Caucasian
Date Found: May 25, 1968
Location Found: Eaton, Ohio
Estimated Age Range: 30-50 Years <probably between 40 - 50 according to Adam Turner, police officer>

Case Information

Case Numbers
NCMEC Number: --
ME/C Case Number: 68-7

Demographics
Sex: Female
Race / Ethnicity: White / Caucasian

Possible First Name: --
Possible Middle Name: --
Possible Last Name: --
Possible Nickname: --

Estimated Age Group: Adult - Pre 60
Estimated Age Range (Years): 30-50
Estimated Year of Death: 1962-1968 <Quite old, 1o - 15 years maybe before 1968, so year of dead could be as early as 1958, 1953 and anything in between>
Estimated PMI: --

Height: 5' 2"-5' 6"(62-66 inches) , Estimated
Weight: 130-140 lbs, Estimated

Circumstances
Type: Unidentified Deceased
Date Found: May 25, 1968
NamUs Case Created: February 27, 2019
ME/C QA Reviewed: --

Location Found
General Location: at the Rear of the F. Time McFall property on Frederick Drive
Eaton, Ohio
County: Preble County

Circumstances of Recovery:
Children playing in a wooded area found a skull that was separated from a badly decomposed body trunk with a left arm intact (the fingers of which were hooked in a small tree). The lower right arm was missing. There was no clothing or jewelry. The skull was 75 feet downstream from the trunk. The entire area had been swept by high water within the previous few days. The decedent may have been deceased up to one year or more.

Details of Recovery
Inventory of Remains: One or more limbs not recovered
One or both hands not recovered

Condition of Remains: Not recognizable - Decomposing/putrefaction

Physical Description
Hair Color: Unknown or Completely Bald
Head Hair Description: --
Body Hair Description: --
Facial Hair Description: --
Left Eye Color: Unknown or Missing
Right Eye Color: Unknown or Missing
Eye Description: --

Distinctive Physical Features
No Information Entered

Clothing and Accessories
No jewelry or clothing were found with the remains

Thanks for making this thread Mrs.B. I felt free to add some additional info you retrieved.

 

[Mrs. Badcrumble]

Thanks for making this thread Mrs.B. I felt free to add some additional info you retrieved.

And thank you for the contribution! There doesn't to be much to go on for this Jane Doe apart from the sparse information on her NamUs page, so I am glad she's getting some exposure due to Mary's investigation. If JD turns out not to be a match to Mary, she will still (hopefully) have a DNA profile in the system and could match with another mp.

 

[Bit of hope]

It seems logical to start with missing woman from Ohio, so Mary J. vanGilder could be a good one. I think there are no other "fitting" missing females from Ohio, listed at Doe Network. Maybe at Charley's but I didn't look there yet. DNA would help so much.

 

[Bit of hope]

I found this missing woman on Charley's who could fit. Height is 5'8 - 5'10, but this could easily be an estimate. In 1968 she would have been 60, be if she died around 10 to 15 years before this Jane Doe was found, she fits in the age range.

Bertha Marie Tidd Newell – The Charley Project

Her case remains unsolved and is no longer on file with any law enforcement agency due to the passage of time since her disappearance.

 

[Mindy71]

Mary Jane is my grandmother, we are still hoping that one day we will find out what happened to her

 

[Bit of hope]

Mary Jane is my grandmother, we are still hoping that one day we will find out what happened to her

Hi Mindy71, welcome. So sorry, for you and your family, that you have to endure her missing and not knowing for so long. I see you posted in your grandmothers thread on WS as well.

 

[Mindy71]

Yes, it's very hard of not knowing where her body lays

 

[carbuff]

Here's an article about the exhumation, with some interesting photos, and some background information about Ms. VanGilder:

‘Jane Doe’ exhumed at Mound Hill Cemetery - Register Herald

 

[Mindy71]

No results thus far from this Jane Doe. Waiting patiently.

 

[Mrs. Badcrumble]

Bumping with a mention of Jane Doe in an article from last August (bbm):

[The Preble County Coroner’s Office] will be exhuming the remains of a “Jane Doe” buried in Eaton in hopes of solving a missing persons case from the Mansfield area in the late 1940s

Her remains were found in a creek bed near Eaton in 1968.

If it’s not the woman from the missing persons case, Preble County investigators said they could tap into other resources, including ancestry websites, to get a positive ID.

Area investigators turn to genealogy companies to help solve cold cases

It pleases me to hear that they'll not give up on her even if it turns out she's not Mary Jane Croft Vangilder.

 

[Mrs. Badcrumble]

MWV was present during the excavation of Eaton Jane Doe in August 2019. Her segment starts at the 2.43 mark. Neither the skull or the mandible was present, and it is thought that they have been donated to school in the area at the time. The rest of her remains have been sent away in order to obtain a viable DNA sample, but this has been unsuccessful so far

***PM IN VIDEO*** (skeletal remains)

 

[taramarie]

Redgrave Research is taking on this case!

Preble County "Penny" Jane Doe, Eaton Ohio 1968 - Redgrave Research Forensic Services LLC

 

[Susikatze]

I honestly doubt the UID is Mary Jane.. her height is described as "short", but 5'4" is not particularily short in my book, just average. I am 5'5" and nobody would say I am "short".

And MJVG disappeared from 160 miles away and also the time difference is more than 20 years.... while the coroner said the PMI of Penny Doe was 12 months, maximum up to 15... yes, anything is possible but I really really doubt it is her.
I cannot believe there are no other missing women in that area in the 50's and 60's..

Looks like someone has a very strong interest in making Penny into "Mary Jane"... Really, why?