Sorry if this has been brought up before, but found in the same county..and the same year is this girl:
https://identifyus.org/en/cases/1579
3.) Marjorie Christina Luna, age 8, missing from Florida since 1984:/B]
...Her abductor would've needed to get through another state before reaching Tennessee, not to mention the fact that Greenacres City, FL is on the East Coast, meaning the abductor would've needed to travel within Florida a lot to even get to Alabama.
Anubis mentioned this a while back (#34). Anyway, I just can't picture where this poor girl was found. The road is hard to find on online maps (i.e. it's visible on one "topo/terrain," "satellite image" or "map" view but not the other view of the same area). I know where Big Wheel Gap (the actual land formation) is and sometimes there is a road labelled there and sometimes not.
One of the possible reasons the maps are so erratic is that (from looking at the aerial photos) the entire area is spotted with strip mining. It could have literally changed the landscape and cut off the road. Or it could have made living up there unfeasible and the roads are no longer maintained.
In relation to this Doe, whether the place is still around as it was or not, the gap or any road through it would NEVER have been "easily accessible" to anyone that would qualify as a mere "passerby." A truck with 4WD could perhaps make it up there. Some places looked like you might need a smaller 4-Wheeler to pass.
Could she have been found by a mining speculator? Someone going to an old family cememtery?
Or could there be another "Wheel Gap" around Campbell county that it could be? I know there are variations of either "Stone Gap" or "Rock Gap" and other gaps that neighboring counties may have with the same name
She was found by a local looking for Poke Weed to make Poke Salet/Salad who initially found a skull- investigators subsequently found more bones in the vicinity. The area is very rugged and remote and investigators have said previously that they believe someone local or at least familiar with the area is connected to the case. The girl was discarded down a hillside into an abandoned strip mining area. They found less than 1/3 of her bones, which were likely washed away in the exposed terrain.
So the area was being strip mined back then? I could just tell that it had been at some point, but couldn't tell how recently based on the aerial photos.
And I didn't realize that anybody would be hunting for Poke in such an out-of-the-way place. It grows all over the place here (central KY, a little south of Louisville). I have some in my yard now. I collect it for the root, which is supposed to have medicinal properties. It's supposed to be poisonous too, but I ain't dead yet so I guess it can't be that poisonous.
I submitted Marjorie Luna as a potential match through the Doe Network. They told me it had already been submitted to both sets of LE.
Forgive me as this is the first time I’ve ever submitted something – where do I go from here? Should I follow up with the NAMUS contact? DNA is available on both sides for comparison, shouldn’t this be an easy rule out?