Identified! PA - White Haven, 'Beth Doe' & Unborn Baby 169UFPA, 16-22, Dec'76 - #1 - Evelyn Colon

[apearn]

I grew up real rural and yes I can say the locals would tell you were to get rid of a body but ONLY if there was an extreme familiarity. If you didn't grow up with the person you look the other way.... to a degree. Most times your own legal indiscretions would keep you from getting involved.
Now the funny thing about small towns is that people talk. There is not much to chat about:
"Joe - how's your cows?"
"Bob that damn bull got out again"
.....
"So did you hear that Bessie down at the gas station might have seen the guy who dumped that girl in the river?"

I'm wondering when the last time the local papers/ regional papers ran the story. People die, they divorce, they go to jail, they move BUT - in small towns the rumor mill can be very accurate.

 

[apearn]

Has the FBI ever done a profile on this guy?

 

[ChuckMaureen]

Some more thoughts...

It's 7 miles west from 476 to White Haven on 80...

It's 37 miles east from Route 42 to White Haven on 80...

Based on number alone, it is assumed that both of these roads would be E-W, even though they are truly N-S roads.

Looking for West State Route 42 or mistaking I-476 for a State Route? Then agian, I don't know when the NE Extension came into existence.

I dont' remember if this have been discussed already. If so, I apologize.

The I-476 Mid-County Expressway (a.k.a. 'Blue Route') is not THE 'Northeast Extension' of the PA Turnpike, but it is considered a connecting route to it. The Blue Route was not yet completed in 1976 nor was it even known by many at that time but had been proposed in 1929 . It was under construction beginning 1967 but had been held up for many years due to protest from locals along its proposed route and was finally completed in 1992.

 

[apearn]

Carbon County has their deed info online but you can't map the parcels. Some names on there are interesting but nothing was perfect to WSR and they don't have the mailing info available to see if the owners were out of the area or locals.

 

[apearn]

Wait - why is this Carbon County? I'm looking at the map and White Haven says Luzerne.....

 

[CCJD]

She was actually found on the east side of the river (in or near the tiny borough of East Side), which is Carbon County.

 

[ScorpRising]

The I-476 Mid-County Expressway (a.k.a. 'Blue Route') is not THE 'Northeast Extension' of the PA Turnpike, but it is considered a connecting route to it. The Blue Route was not yet completed in 1976 nor was it even known by many at that time but had been proposed in 1929 . It was under construction beginning 1967 but had been held up for many years due to protest from locals along its proposed route and was finally completed in 1992.

Thanks, Chuck. We refer 476 as the NE Extension. From NE PA to Mid County, you have to pay a toll. IMO, once you get through Mid County toll plaza going S it's the Blue Route... I could very well be wrong but that's how I know it.

 

[carbuff]

Or perhaps the killer brought her to, through or captured her at the:

Winnebago Scout Reservation in Rockaway, NJ near NY?

Or perhaps she was giving directions:

West on State Route 4 7

Possible, but it occurs to me that the most common reason one writes on one's palm is because there's something urgent, and no paper handy -- commonly when writing down directions over the phone. And you just make rough notes. (Maybe W(est), S(outh), R(ight), on a road she could remember? Maybe the numbers are how many exits, miles, traffic lights to go?)

I'd like to think it's a clue, but the way she was killed, I doubt very much she had time to write down anything.

 

[kjs75]

I have been reading this thread today and had a few thoughts. First, I agree with the notion that she was most likely foreign. So many years have passed and so many people have been affected by her story (and searched) and we can't put a name to her. Plus the bad teeth could also indicate being raised elsewhere. I also found the article concerning the two Pakistani men that was previously posted here but here is an excerpt:
"Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- A court in Lahore, Pakistan, has ordered that two men have their noses and ears chopped off, after the two were convicted of doing the same to a young woman. The woman and her family had rejected an offer of marriage from Sher Mohammed, the officer who investigated the case said.

The two men attacked the woman, Fazeelat Bibi, 22, on September 28, in the village of Zafarkey, southwest of Lahore, Inspector Hakim Ali said. Along with their cousin Mohammed Ali and two other men, they hid, stopped Bibi on her way home from work, and strangled her with a wire, the officer said.

When they thought she was dead, they cut off her nose and ears, Ali said.

They mutilated her "to set an example," prosecutor Jahangir said."

This article got me thinking about a couple of things.

First the question was raised a page or two previously as to why she would have been shot in the neck after also being strangled. This article gave me a possible answer to that, her killer thought she was dead after strangling her and she wasn't, which is when she was shot, maybe.

I looked at a map and saw that the I-80, heading back east from where she was dumped leads into New Jersey. I was thinking what would be the best place to carry out a crime like this, and all I could think of was a basement. I can't imagine all this could have been carried out in a motel. The presence of the bedspread, the newspaper, the suitcases etc. made me think of a residence, and the most soundproof kind of place I would think would be a basement.

The lasts few posts in this thread have gotten me thinking in a different direction (the hunting lodge scenario to explain the straw in the suitcase as well as the bedspread..)but I just wanted to post some of my initial impressions. (Hey, if it was in a hunting lodge that could also explain the age of the newspaper..If it was left there from a previous use of the lodge...)
Anyway, thanks for reading my ramblings...if you did If you didn't I completely understand..I get carried away trying to cram my every last thought into a post!
Kerin

 

[apearn]

I was looking at some history for the area and wondered about this article.
http://amp.wpcamr.org/archives/89

I'm wondering if perhaps she was working for one of the mining companies and how (assuming no SS# for new immigrants) they kept track of their employees.
Perhaps the company initials and their ID# (WSR ##)

That seems like it would have been to easy to solve in '76 though.......

There was a lot of Slovak immigration in the 50's (I didn't find and 70's data) and one article said there was some 24 languages spoken in the mines.

 

[shadowangel]

Weren't there, at one time, pics available of the writing on the hand? If anyone can point me in the right direction....

 

[CCJD]

Weren't there, at one time, pics available of the writing on the hand? If anyone can point me in the right direction....

Nope, there is no picture of her hand with the notations on it in her file. :no:

 

[ScorpRising]

I was looking at some history for the area and wondered about this article.
http://amp.wpcamr.org/archives/89

I'm wondering if perhaps she was working for one of the mining companies and how (assuming no SS# for new immigrants) they kept track of their employees.
Perhaps the company initials and their ID# (WSR ##)

That seems like it would have been to easy to solve in '76 though.......

There was a lot of Slovak immigration in the 50's (I didn't find and 70's data) and one article said there was some 24 languages spoken in the mines.

I think it quite unlikely that WSR## would be a mining company id. I can't think of any mining companies that "WSR" would stand for, unless it was a small lesser known operation.

The Slovak's are Eastern European and don't look any different from the rest of the area immigrants. The only way you could distinguish them was by their language. (I grew up in a very small mining town.)

 

[shadowangel]

As I tend to be good at, I picked up a trail of bread crumbs which led me directly into a brick wall. I was hoping to see the letters for myself to see if they were open to interpretation at all.

 

[shadowangel]

I read through the earlier thread on this same case, and realized I had asked the same question before about any photos of the writing on the hand (and CCJD provided the same answer. Deja Vu).
Anyway, here is the story. This all comes from newspaper archives in the Pittsburgh area, I can provide links if anyone is interested.

Walter A Penn... W A P...Depending on the handwriting, could this be the writing on the hand? Could the letter 'P' resemble a lower-case "r"?

Penn was described in late 1976 as a brute of a man. African-American, he was tall and strongly built, with a bald head and large moustache. He had been released in late 1975 for the stabbing/strangulation murder of his pregnant girlfriend in Philadelphia in 1966. After his release, he then shot his new girlfriend, Joan Haidze, in the shoulder in early March of 1976.
By June of 1976, he was dating Frances Hood. In his usual style, Penn shot and stabbed her and then stabbed her 11-year old son. Both survived, but the son was later killed when his bike was struck by a car.
In December of 1976, Penn went on trial for the attack on Hood. When she refused to testify against him, a mistrial was declared on December 8th...And on the 15th the charges were dismissed.
On Monday the 20th, Penn was back in court, this time for violating his parole.

Several things caught my attention here. Penn obviously has penchant for assaults on his girlfriends, including the murder of one who was pregnant. He shot at least two more, and stabbed one of them (and her young son). My first 'trail' on this was the girlfriend who was attacked in March. Beth Jane Doe would have conceived sometime in late March or April....When the local PD tried to find Joan in order to have her testify in her assault case (since the case with Hood had fallen apart) she was nowhere to be found. As far as I could determine, her last name-Haidze-was North African, most likely Lebanese.

After several hours of searching, I discovered that the police had in fact found her, and she testified in early 1977 against Penn.

However, is it possible that Penn had another girlfriend during that time? Could he have discovered she was pregnant, but not by him? (The unborn child was in fact white). Its hard to determine from the articles, but it doesnt appear to me that Penn was held over from the mistrial until the appearance in court on Monday the 20th. I may be mistaken in that, or the reporting may be inaccurate. Penn was from the Philly area originally, living in Pittsburgh after his release from prison....But it certainly isn't inconceivable that he travelled from the west side of PA to the east then back over the course of a weekend.

Food for thought, as the saying goes.

 

[apearn]

I found an article the other day ( a few days ago now) where they exumed her for DNA in 2007. I'm wondering if there are any items left for fiber and other forensic testing, such as the bedspread and suitcases?
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,306440,00.html

I am also wondering about forensic entemology. Was there any notations about bugs on the body to narrow down the time of death?

From http://www.entm.purdue.edu/news/haskell.html
"Bugs tell time

Forensic entomology is the study of bugs found at the scene of a crime to determine how long a victim has been dead. Whether the bugs are buzzing around bodies, laying eggs or found in the pupal stage as they develop from maggot to blowfly can be crucial evidence.

And comparing the age of the fly with its species -- there are urban and rural flies, northern and southern, East Coast and West Coast -- one also can learn where a victim was killed and how far the body was transported before being dumped.

For years, such evidence was ignored, washed away on the autopsy table while investigators focused on rigor mortis and stomach contents to determine the time of death.

"When I was working homicide cases back in the 1970s, I noticed that bugs were usually present on victim's bodies found outdoors," said Joe Bono, recently retired director of the Secret Service Laboratory in Washington, who now serves as an adjunct instructor in forensic and investigative sciences at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. "In those days, we thought little about associating the time of death with the type or amount of infestation."


I found a radius map on the web to find out just how far you could have driven to that area in any specified amount of time. The outside number being 24 hours technically you could have driven from Nebraska if you killed her - dropped her in the trunk and drove for 24 hours.....actually closer since most people would stop to sleep. I used 18 hours (24 hours - 6 to sleep) and 50mph and it really closes the radius in.

Does anyone know the median distance bodies tend to get dumped from their crime scenes/homes? Statistically - what would the median be? I know for kids it's like 1/2 mile or so - pretty close in usually.

Some notes I found today about pregnant women victims: [T]he killings span racial and ethnic groups. In cases whose details were known, 67 percent of women were killed with firearms. Many women were slain at home -- in bedrooms, living rooms, kitchens -- usually by men they knew. Husbands. Boyfriends. Lovers.[2]

 

[apearn]

I was just reading an article about murders of pregnant women and it struck me that perhaps there was a Dr appt that day and perhaps the letters number are a complex/room number. Like (I'm making this up) Ward South Regional - floor 5 room 7?

Just a thought.

Are they/Were they able to do paternity on the infant? I'm wondering what other types of crimes the father may be likely to be involved in before/after this particular event. Do these offenders re-offend (assuming they don't gte caught) or is it likely to be just this particular situation. I'd assume they'd be likely to re-offend with crimes against women and children and thus may have long prison stretches at some point.

Is there any knowledge of a sexual assault? I was looking at statistics on offenders who knew or didn't know their victims and that swung widely based on sexual assault.

 

[apearn]

It occurs to me that he did not come from the south of that river. It makes no sense to go upstream to dump a body and have it wash back down towards you.

 

[carbuff]

One of the detectives in the Morgan Harrington case mentioned something interesting about body dumping -- that while the average is pretty close to the scene of the crime, many murderers are willing to travel considerable distance to dump the body in an area they're more familiar with.

Which again points to somebody with a summer cabin or hunting camp in the area.

 

[apearn]

Has there ever been a profile done of the perp? It would seem to me a pretty specific type of person. Most women victims don't have ears and noses removed.