PA PA - Uniontown, WhtFem 30-45, UP16509, in big rig accident, cigs, keychain, clothes, jewelry, May'86

[CCJD]

How old was he, anyone know?

The driver, Joseph Richards was 34.

 

[Magnum P.E.]

I had some business in Morgantown last night and so drove the presumed route of the truck from Uniontown south. I had no trouble locating the accident site as it has not changed much. It is a right hand turn, sharper than I remembered, and the road goes steeply downhill. The location is at 39-47-05.69 N, 79-49-38.18 W if you want to Google Earth it. A street view is available.
Swerving to avoid a pedestrian would seem to be unlikely to me, as he was traveling south, crossed the centerline, and ended up in the ditch next to the northbound lane with the UID among the coils.

This is about 7.5 miles south of Uniontown, not the 15 reported in the news accounts.

 

[Woodland]

Thank-you for the first hand account of the accident site Magnum P.E. It helps to know what cannot be seen in the photos.

I agree swerving to avoid a pedestrian didn't happen here. That scenario is lacking a few elements. Even if she ran into the ditch to avoid the truck if it was coming at her doesn't explain being able to show the public a morgue photo of her.

 

[ikaffy]

Found this like to the does info

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

By bringing people, information, forensic science and technology together, NamUs helps resolve cases.

www.namus.gov

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs). Ramona Beals

 

[Woodland]

The UID does look like Ramona Beal ikaffy - especially since a year had gone by between RB missing and finding the UID. Both circumstances strange and suspicious, imo.

Do you plan to submit the possibility?

 

[ikaffy]

Someone with more experience can. I am not up to date with all info... Just add my 2 cents to find these people's family's . Being a kid who was a adopted and searched forever 20+ yrs . I want everyone home where they belong

 

[ikaffy]

I also have not seen anything with this Jane doe's eye color, could be a bit helpful

 

[chaddylex]

ikaffy,

The Pennsylvania missing website it says that the UID has brown eyes and Ramona has Blue eyes. Here is Ramona's Charley Page Ramona Lisa Beal – The Charley Project

I think this UID looks a little bit older than 15, but that is just my opinion. (the estimated age is 20-24)

 

[ikaffy]

ikaffy,

The Pennsylvania missing website it says that the UID has brown eyes and Ramona has Blue eyes. Here is Ramona's Charley Page Ramona Lisa Beal – The Charley Project

I think this UID looks a little bit older than 15, but that is just my opinion. (the estimated age is 20-24)

Age is a very questionable thing ... I have a 16 yr old, about 5'5" size 10 shoe.... And everywhere we go people thing she is 12 ... So many of her friends look much older than 16. I would never rule anyone out by age... Eye color yes big factor.

 

[Magnum P.E.]

Age is a very questionable thing ... I have a 16 yr old, about 5'5" size 10 shoe.... And everywhere we go people thing she is 12 ... So many of her friends look much older than 16. I would never rule anyone out by age... Eye color yes big factor.

Medical examiners look at the sutures of the skull to estimate age. This could not be a teenager, the difference is easy to see during the autopsy.
You can get a wide age range in the case of skeletal remains of adults. That is when you see estimated ranges like 20-55. That does not apply here. I will accept that she was 20 to 24, maybe a bit older but no younger.

I spoke to my father about this case today. He remembers it well because it was so odd. FWIW, he and my stepmother know EVERYONE here, and they did not recognize her.

******WARNING, NOT FOR THE SQUEAMISH*********


I have a possible explanation of how she had a truck on top of her but the post mortem pic looks like she is sleeping. The ground is soft there, it was May and it is a drainage swale. Perhaps she was not crushed but was pinned under the truck and suffocated.

 

[Woodland]

***Equally Graphic****

Suffocation is a good explanation if she was found underneath the truck, which does not seem definitive yet with the conflicting info. That would require her head falling into a depression in the ground, large enough to fit her head, at the exact point where she was pinned under the truck.

The reason that would be required is, she was apparently not found until the truck was lifted upright - whether she was inside or outside of the vehicle.

If the truck swept her into the ditch from the road, part of her body would have been visible while still on it's side imo. How would she be lifted high enough for the truck to completely cover her? Gravity would keep her to the ground, and if anything she would slip and be run over by the rear wheels.

I'm not a scientist, but what would have pushed her up the side of the trailer?

 

[Jmoose]

She looks amazingly like Elizabeth Eisel

Elizabeth A. Eisel – The Charley Project

I called this in, but the detective in charge won't be in the office until Monday.

Wow-she sure does look like the unidentified woman!

 

[Magnum P.E.]

***Equally Graphic****

Suffocation is a good explanation if she was found underneath the truck, which does not seem definitive yet with the conflicting info. That would require her head falling into a depression in the ground, large enough to fit her head, at the exact point where she was pinned under the truck.

The reason that would be required is, she was apparently not found until the truck was lifted upright - whether she was inside or outside of the vehicle.

If the truck swept her into the ditch from the road, part of her body would have been visible while still on it's side imo. How would she be lifted high enough for the truck to completely cover her? Gravity would keep her to the ground, and if anything she would slip and be run over by the rear wheels.

I'm not a scientist, but what would have pushed her up the side of the trailer?

Well, there is no simple answer to this, but bear in mind that the truck came to rest across a drainage swale, which has a shallow v profile. There may have been room under it, but not enough to breathe. If she was inside among the cargo it could have killed her by blunt force to the body while shifting in the crash. If they released some more info we might make some sense of it. Under the truck vs. among the coils inside leads to very different ideas on where she was from.

 

[Woodland]

Sadly, imo, the truck in not straddling the V shaped swale, it's tilted down at the top so is resting fully on one side of the V.

No forgiveness to anyone underneath from what I can see.

More info on where exactly this UID was at the moment of impact will help, however it's great to see the ideas on possible matches flowing and thankfully that's possible.

 

[CarlK90245]

fftopic:

While the UID and Elizabeth [Eisel] look remarkable similar I think poor Elizabeth was likely killed by her ex husband/half brother

You are probably right, but I just saw this story:

Brenda Heist, 53, was reported missing by her husband, Lee, on Feb. 8, 2002, and had been last seen that morning dropping off her two children at school, police said. Heist's car was found a few days later with no apparent sign of a struggle.

Investigators said they received a call on Friday evening that Heist had turned herself in at the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office in Key Largo. A Lititz Borough detective interviewed Heist in Florida and learned that she had left town to join a group of homeless people who were hitch hiking to Florida, police said.

In Florida, Heist lived as a homeless person, sleeping under bridges and tents and eating food that was thrown out at fast food restaurants, police said.

Read More: <modsnip: broken link>

She was going through a divorce at the time of her disappearance, so I'm sure that more than a few of their neighbors probably figured that she was murdered by her husband. Her husband probably spent the last decade insisting to his kids and her family that he really had nothing to do with her disappearance. And they probably spent the last decade never really being sure.

Granted, the circumstances of Elizabeth Eisel are a little different, with her husband/half brother also being responsible for the disappearance of a second woman. But sometimes people do just up and disappear voluntarily, leaving everything (and their families) behind.

Meaghan of Charley Project commented in her blog that if that had been her mother, she wouldn't know whether to hug her or to smack her upside the head.

 

[marycarney]

If you look closely at the picture taken from the back of the truck (with the two men in the foreground) you will notice that the trailer does not rest completely on the ground.

I can see I65 from where I'm sitting now- and have seen enough big rig crashes to last me the rest of my life. There appears to me to be plenty of room beneath the back of the trailer to indicate that she was not crushed but rather asphyxiated by the trailer.

Being found ' in the coils' - does this mean the coiled connectors between the cab and the trailer? If so, how was she not found until the trailer was lifted?

This case is solvable IMHO - someone's missing this woman.

 

[Magnum P.E.]

If you look closely at the picture taken from the back of the truck (with the two men in the foreground) you will notice that the trailer does not rest completely on the ground.

I can see I65 from where I'm sitting now- and have seen enough big rig crashes to last me the rest of my life. There appears to me to be plenty of room beneath the back of the trailer to indicate that she was not crushed but rather asphyxiated by the trailer.

Being found ' in the coils' - does this mean the coiled connectors between the cab and the trailer? If so, how was she not found until the trailer was lifted?

This case is solvable IMHO - someone's missing this woman.

Hiya Marycarney,

Yep, the swale I was referring to is under the trailer, I did not mean the ditch clearly visible on the right. If I get out that way I'll take some pix of the site as it is today. "Among the coils" refers to the cargo of steel coils in the trailer.
Whether she was under the trailer or in with the cargo might have major implications on where she came from.

So might the tax stamp on that cigarette pack, if there was one.

I doubt that she looked like that initially. My guess is that she was cleaned up and made more presentable, as they intended the pic to be shown to the public for ID purposes.

 

[necco]

Respectfully snipped:

So might the tax stamp on that cigarette pack, if there was one.

You. Are. A. Genius.

 

[Magnum P.E.]

Respectfully snipped:


You. Are. A. Genius.

Nah, just persistent. I have a call in to the trooper in charge of this case, and when he gets back to me maybe we will have some clarification.

 

[Magnum P.E.]

I took this photo today at the crash site. It is peaceful, quiet, and pretty. Woods and farms surround it. The only difference I can see is that there was some drainage work done between 1986 and now. The ditch is gone and there are inlets. There is a road to the town of Outcrop to the right through the trees. The swale, which takes the runoff from the road to Outcrop, is still there, in the trees. I will post more pix later.