Identified! OH - Troy, Miami Co., 'Buckskin Girl' WhtFem 133UFOH, 15-25, Apr'81 - Marcia King

[carbuff]

Does there happen to be a girl scout camp anywhere near the place where she was found? Or rather, was there one in 1981?

 

[Magnum P.E.]

But I had to put the photo up anyway just because she was so close. Oh well - The search goes on.

This is so close it is eerie. I think it is worth contacting her and asking her if she knew a girl who dressed and looked like her. If BG was in fact from that area maybe she remembers being mistaken for someone else, or shopping at the same clothing store. Worth a shot, I think.

 

[deirdre1230]

Too strange for words. Could the girl in the yearbook be a relative of BG?

 

[CarlK90245]

Incidentally, NamUs indicates a 7/8" scar under her chin. I believe this is incorrect, as the postmortem photo clearly shows a scar of that approximate size above her chin, and under her lower lip.

 

[nerosleuth]

Does there happen to be a girl scout camp anywhere near the place where she was found? Or rather, was there one in 1981?

Are you thinking that Buckskin Girl may have been involved with the Girl Scouts or with the 4H?

I found a website for the Girl Scouts of Western Ohio.

http://www.girlscoutsofwesternohio....-Events/Girl-Scout-Camping/Pages/default.aspx

There is a girl scout camp in Miami County, Ohio called Camp Rolling Hills. I don't know if Camp Rolling Hills existed in April 1981 when Buckskin Girl was found.

http://www.girlscoutsofwesternohio....ty-Descriptions/Pages/Camp-Rolling-Hills.aspx

There are two other girl scout camps in Western Ohio that existed in 1981 and the camp activities would fit in with the clothing that Buckskin Girl wore.

One is Camp Myeerah in Logan County outside of Bellefontaine, Ohio:

http://www.girlscoutsofwesternohio....Property-Descriptions/Pages/Camp-Myeerah.aspx


The other is Camp Libbey in Defiance County outside of Defiance, Ohio

http://www.girlscoutsofwesternohio..../Property-Descriptions/Pages/Camp-Libbey.aspx

 

[nerosleuth]

But THIS IS NOT BUCKSKIN GIRL.

But I had to put the photo up anyway just because she was so close. Oh well - The search goes on.

Carl, some thoughts about the girl's 1977 high school year book photo.

Back then the school year in Ohio started after Labor Day and ended in early June. Photos of students for the yearbook are generally taken in the fall and photos of special school events are taken during the school year as well. The school year books are distributed to the students about a week or so before the school year ends.

So that would mean that the photo you found in the yearbook was most likely taken during the fall of 1976. Keep in mind that 1976 was the year the bicentennial was celebrated in the United States.

Perhaps this girl in that photo was involved in a school project such as a play in the drama club or a special commemorative event about Native Americans.

Looking at the clothing the girl wore in the school photo, it is possible that she and Buckskin Girl could have been interested in and shopped somewhere for Native American jewelry as well.

 

[CarlK90245]

But when I ran across this girl BJW in the 11th grade section of the 1977 Thomas Worthington HS yearbook (Worthington OH), my heart skipped a beat. :what:

She has it all - High Forehead, arching eyebrows, no cheekbone definition, pointy nose, and round chin. And of course, the pigtails and even a turtle neck sweater. She even has, in her junior and senior portraits, what appears to be a horizontal scar under the right side of her lower lip, just like BG does. (Her 1978 Senior book is in Ancestry, but not Classmates).

But THIS IS NOT BUCKSKIN GIRL. I was able to verify her existence past 1981.

But I had to put the photo up anyway just because she was so close. Oh well - The search goes on.

I double checked this with a LE contact that I have. He was able to find that BJW still uses the same name, and has been paying her utility bills and renewed her driver's license last year. So that is pretty solid that this is not BG.

 

[kpdx]

Hey CarlK, I was able to find a marriage record for BJW in 1990..enough matches on the record that I don't think she is Buckskin. Admire your exhausting efforts, though. Think I might try something similar for Precious SJD.

I think its also helpful to see what she may have looked like (similar to).

 

[CarlK90245]

Hey CarlK, I was able to find a marriage record for BJW in 1990..enough matches on the record that I don't think she is Buckskin. Admire your exhausting efforts, though. Think I might try something similar for Precious SJD.

I think its also helpful to see what she may have looked like (similar to).

It's pretty tough to do when there isn't a postmortem photo to work from or a good-quality facial recon based on a postmortem photo (rather than from a skull).

 

[dotr]

In the early 70's, many people (in large cities) might wear "hippy or native outfits like that and even walk barefoot.
Not having her ears pierced ,suggests to me a girl from a middle or upper middle class British or Western European background.
It is an unspoken, slight social snobbery to not have ears pierced, especially before the age of about 16.

I wondered if this young lady was perhaps part of a school play or theatre performer.

 

[carbuff]

Are you thinking that Buckskin Girl may have been involved with the Girl Scouts or with the 4H?

I found a website for the Girl Scouts of Western Ohio.

http://www.girlscoutsofwesternohio....-Events/Girl-Scout-Camping/Pages/default.aspx

There is a girl scout camp in Miami County, Ohio called Camp Rolling Hills. I don't know if Camp Rolling Hills existed in April 1981 when Buckskin Girl was found.

http://www.girlscoutsofwesternohio....ty-Descriptions/Pages/Camp-Rolling-Hills.aspx

There are two other girl scout camps in Western Ohio that existed in 1981 and the camp activities would fit in with the clothing that Buckskin Girl wore.

One is Camp Myeerah in Logan County outside of Bellefontaine, Ohio:

http://www.girlscoutsofwesternohio....Property-Descriptions/Pages/Camp-Myeerah.aspx


The other is Camp Libbey in Defiance County outside of Defiance, Ohio

http://www.girlscoutsofwesternohio..../Property-Descriptions/Pages/Camp-Libbey.aspx

Thanks! Yes, I noticed the girl in the yearbook photo is wearing the kind of outfit a girl scout troop would put together for the kind of Indian days we used to do back in the dark ages. The tunic was handmade, with quite a bit of work put into it, which is also common to 4H/Girl Scouts/Campfire Girls (really a feel of Campfire Girls to it). The clean cut scrubbed midwestern look also points to something cleancut like scouting or 4H.

I'm not sure it's going to lead me anywhere, but I'm going to poke in the newspaper archives...

 

[CarlK90245]

I re-did two versions of how she might look with her hair down.

ETA: Added second version.

 

[carbuff]

In the early 70's, many people (in large cities) might wear "hippy or native outfits like that and even walk barefoot.
Not having her ears pierced ,suggests to me a girl from a middle or upper middle class British or Western European background.
It is an unspoken, slight social snobbery to not have ears pierced, especially before the age of about 16.

I wondered if this young lady was perhaps part of a school play or theatre performer.

Ear piercing was quite rare between the coasts and large cities, and also certain immigrant groups, in the US in the 70's. When I wanted to do mine in 1972, my grandmother told me it would make people think I was a gypsy or an Italian. (Sorry, I don't mean any ethic slur by that remark -- although she did, I'm afraid...) Girls with pierced ears weren't necessarily thought of as "easy," but it was part of a city sophistication that was viewed as heading down the slippery slope toward "easy."

The only girl I can remember having pierced ears in my high school class was definitely on the, um, adventurous side, in many senses of the world.

 

[dotr]

Ear piercing was quite rare between the coasts and large cities, and also certain immigrant groups, in the US in the 70's. When I wanted to do mine in 1972, my grandmother told me it would make people think I was a gypsy or an Italian. (Sorry, I don't mean any ethic slur by that remark -- although she did, I'm afraid...) Girls with pierced ears weren't necessarily thought of as "easy," but it was part of a city sophistication that was viewed as heading down the slippery slope toward "easy."

The only girl I can remember having pierced ears in my high school class was definitely on the, um, adventurous side, in many senses of the world.

Ha!, O/t about 1972 I wanted to pierce my ears and wasn't allowed because it was "cheap-looking", so I miserably tried to do it myself with ice and a pin! Hey kids, don't try this at home, "you'll shoot yer eye out"!

 

[carbuff]

Ha!, O/t about 1972 I wanted to pierce my ears and wasn't allowed because it was "cheap-looking", so I miserably tried to do it myself with ice and a pin! Hey kids, don't try this at home, "you'll shoot yer eye out"!

LOL, you reminded me that a bunch of the popular girls had a sleepover party where they were doing their ears that way. One of the mothers caught them at it and everybody had to let theirs heal over. But their injuries were greatly admired for a couple of weeks...

 

[malaika]

I re-did a version of how she might look with her hair down.

Thank you, Carl, I literally was just headed to this thread to ask you to do that exact thing! I think people may be getting carried away and putting too much energy into the braided hairstyle, the clothes. It could be that the clothes and hairstyle BG was found wearing were just what she chose to wear that day. Long hairstyles don't really have as much indentification value as short styles, because a person with long hair can style it many different ways, while a shorter hairstyle offers less styling freedom.

 

[CarlK90245]

I really do wish we had better photos of some of these older cases...when I bumped Vali's photo up against the autopsy photo of BG, they looked strikingly similar to me. I didn't see her cheekbones as being as pronounced, but I don't doubt that Carl has a lot more experience at this than I do. So, back to the drawing board....

Here are a couple of better photos of Vali Davis.

These are her Sophomore and Junior year photos from the 1971 and 1972 Cascade HS (Clayton IN) yearbooks. Unfortunately, the 1973 book wasn't available.

https://www.findthemissing.org/en/cases/10533/0
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/d/davis_vali.html

Unlike BG, Vali has very broad cheekbones.

 

[dotr]

I re-did two versions of how she might look with her hair down.

ETA: Added second version.

Just wanted to say, that this is a wonderful composite- which sort of caught my breath to see and to feel this unidentified girl as human being.Hoping this girl is identified in the near future, she really needs to be home, wherever that may be.

 

[CarlK90245]

Here's another girl from Dunbar HS in Dayton OH who I ran across in my yearbook searches. If not for the weaker dimpled chin and scar on the left cheek, I would have thought she was definitely BG.

 

[dotr]

Here's another girl from Dunbar HS in Dayton OH who I ran across in my yearbook searches. If not for the weaker dimpled chin and scar on the left cheek, I would have thought she was definitely BG.

The most similar imo, so far- they could be sisters!