Identified! TN - Jellico, Big Wheel Gap Rd, WhtFem 9-15, 482UFTN, button necklace, bracelet, shoes, Apr'85 - Tracy Sue Walker

[reasypeasy]

Doenetwork now says the necklace and bracelet were made of plastic buttons.
If it looks like a homemade necklace, I think they should definitely post pictures of it!

I spent hours as a kid playing with my grandmother's button jar, which later became my mother's button jar. This is not an uncommon experience. If a kid made a necklace from that jar, chances are I would recognise several of the more distinctive buttons, especially since they would probably have been ones that also appealed to me as a kid. I suspect many women would be able to recognise a necklace made by a child from the contents of a button jar they are familiar with.

 

[Cubby]

bump ..

 

[webrocket]

here is the Namus link for the UID:

https://identifyus.org/cases/1577

Peggy Rahn's name is not on the rule out list. Tamar gave no indication whether she submitted the possible match.

 

[webrocket]

I did not see a link to Namus for this UID so here it is:

https://identifyus.org/cases/1577

since CCD listed the rule-outs in october 2010, Sherry Marler has been added to the list of rule-outs.

 

[CCD]

Just another quick update - Donna Barnhill has been added to the list of NAMUS rule outs. I also re-read the whole thread and a member said she had called in Raylene Helsley and she had been ruled out - can anyone else confirm that?

That being said, I think we are down to the following:
Ellen Akers
Sarah Avon
Tammy Belanger
Charlotte Kinsey
Marjorie Luna
Toni McNatt-Chiappetta
Elizabeth Miller
Cinda Pallett
Dean Pyle Peters
Karen Reinert
Emma Vaughn

 

[not_my_kids]

If Raylene has been officially ruled out, it would be good to get her on the rule out list. The bust of the UID is similar to Raylene in a lot of ways, and even though it is quite likely that her father did kill her, it's also possible that he sold her. And at the time, murder convictions without a body were harder to come by, so why worry about confessing, since he knew that even with a confession, no body meant he'd likely walk on the murder. She was found near a biker camp, IIRC, so it isn't completely outside the realm of possibility. Maybe I can call the detective on the case and ask again if Raylene is a definite rule out or if she was ruled out on the basis of a hunch or a detectives belief. It says on Namus that Raylene's DNA has been submitted, and I don't understand what they mean in terms of the UID's DNA. It says: "full mtDNA profile at NDIS; no STR data obtained after multiple attempts." I have no idea what that means, or if either one is in CODIS.

 

[traacker13]

Is it possible that these two decedents could have been sisters?

One UID was found in Cheatham County, Tennessee in 1981 and one UID was found in Campbell County, Tennessee in 1985.

Is it possible that these girls could be the missing Lyon sisters, Sheila and Katherine Lyon who disappeared from Maryland in 1975?

Katherine Lyon: http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/65dfmd.html
Sheila Lyon: http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/64dfmd.html

 

[CarlK90245]

Is it possible that these two decedents could have been sisters?

One UID was found in Cheatham County, Tennessee in 1981 and one UID was found in Campbell County, Tennessee in 1985.

Is it possible that these girls could be the missing Lyon sisters, Sheila and Katherine Lyon who disappeared from Maryland in 1975?

Katherine Lyon: http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/65dfmd.html
Sheila Lyon: http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/64dfmd.html

There is DNA available for the Lyon sisters. No indication of whether they are in CODIS, but if so, it would presumably be a rule-out by default.

But perhaps they might be Peggy Rahn and/or her friend Wendy Brown Stevenson.

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/r/rahn_peggy.html
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/s/stevenson_wendy.html

Neither Peggy nor Wendy have DNA or Dentals available according to DoeNet:
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/2241dffl.html
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/2242dffl.html

And like the Lyon sisters, neither are listed on the NamUs exclusions lists.

https://identifyus.org/cases/1577
https://identifyus.org/cases/1582

Tamar spotted Peggy Rahn as a possible to the Campbell County Jane Doe, and started this Possible Match thread:

Possible Match TN- UID Female 482UFTN, Campbell County, 1985 to: FL- Peggy Rahn, Pompano Beach, 1969


The similarity in facial shapes between Peggy and the Campbell County Doe is amazing.

http://doenetwork.org/cases/482uftn.html

... and here is the side-by side of Wendy Brown Stevenson to the Cheatham County Doe
offtopic: with regard to this thread)

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/566uftn.html

The problem is the timeline. For these Jane Does to be Peggy and Wendy, they would have had to have been dead for 15 and 12 years, respectively. The postmortem interval for the Campbell County Jane Doe is 1-4 years, so I can see that perhaps they made an error in the PMI in this case. However, the Cheatham County Doe is estimated to have been dead only a few months. I doubt that they would make that big of an error in this case.

 

[traacker13]

Wow - Peggy Rahn does resemble the reconstruction! I am trying to see Wendy Stevenson in the reconstruction but I am having difficulties with the chin lines. I think Wendy's chin line is pointed where the UID's chin line is more squared. The eyes also seem closer together on the UID and Wendy's seem further apart.
I agree about the timeline too - I think it would be a stretch.

I also notice that Peggy Rahn and Katherine Lyon resemble each other a lot IMO!

 

[CarlK90245]

Here's the morphing overlay of Peggy Rahn to the Campbell County Doe:

Campbell County Peggy Rahn - YouTube

 

[Zanko]

Does it say that Peggy Rahn has a DNA sample? The physical comparison between the photo of Peggy and UID 482UFTN is very compelling, but the time line is so off. Wouldn't Peggy have been old enough to be UID 482UFTN's mother? Or have I somehow gotten things confused. If Peggy has MtDNA this horrible possibility could be ruled out. But --wow, how close of a physical match can you get?

 

[CarlK90245]

Does it say that Peggy Rahn has a DNA sample?

According to DoeNet, they don't have fingerprints, dentals or DNA on Peggy Rahn.

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/2241dffl.html

Wouldn't Peggy have been old enough to be UID 482UFTN's mother? Or have I somehow gotten things confused?

If the postmortem interval (i.e., 1-4 years) was accurate, yes - she would have been too old.

In order to make the case that this is Peggy, the presumption would be that the PM interval was underestimated.

But we just recently saw a person ID'd (Beddie Walraven) whose skull was found in the California desert in 1971 with an estimated PM interval of 1-10 years. It turned out that she died in 1946 (i.e., 25 years prior).

Identified! CA - Baker - Female Skeletal Found in Desert Jan 1971 - Beddie Walraven (Died 1946)

 

[CarlK90245]

I found these three articles (Dated 09-Jan-1970, 29-Jan-1970, and 13-Feb-1970) in Ancestry.com.

Interesting that the suspect, Kenneth Guy Shilts of Battle Creek MI was arrested in Alabama a couple of months after the disappearance, which occurred in southern Florida. He carried a diary which contained an entry "Peggy and Wendy - Pompano Beach". The Charley writeup on the two girls focuses on Gerald Schaefer Jr. as the probable perp.

But if Shilts is the perp, it is not inconceivable that he transported at least one of them up to Tennessee, considering that he was known to be a drifter who traveled state to state.

ETA:

Here's another from the Kingsport Times dated 12-Feb-1970

 

[Zanko]

Thanks for the articles CarlK90245. Let us know if you find anything more about the drifter and what came of that.

 

[CarlK90245]

Thanks for the articles CarlK90245. Let us know if you find anything more about the drifter and what came of that.

He died in 1991, but no mention of whether he was convicted of any of the 50 molestations of which he was suspected.

http://www.histopolis.com/Grave/Detail.aspx?GraveID=736835184

 

[tamar]

just catching up on this thread... I didn't submit Peggy as a possible match (at least I can't find a record in my emails of any submission). I didn't get much of a response when I posted the original thread, which I figure was due to the significant difference in the estimated date of death. However, seeing Carl's overlay gives me pause-- the resemblance is just so compelling. Also, the age range for the UID is 9 to 14 years so the gap could be reduced with the possibility that Peggy was held for a long period and then murdered.

I feel out of my element when dealing with LE or ME so I avoid it unless all (or most) identifiers line up, but if anyone else would like to take this ball and run with it, please feel free.

This little girl has gone unidentified long enough and perhaps it is as simple as a mistake in the time line that has kept her nameless all these years.

p.s. I also think it is noteworthy that Katherine Lyon and Peggy Rahn so strongly resemble each other. Same age, same coloring, same hair style, both from southern states, only 6 years between abductions, etc...

 

[tamar]

that smiling photo of Peggy in that article should be added to the Doe Network and Namus pages.

 

[CarlK90245]

I just spoke with Lee Jantz of the Univ of Tennessee, Knoxville. She is the NamUs case manager for this case.

I asked her how certain they were about the postmortem interval. She says that the skull had been there for at least a year and a half. The bones were dry and had no odor, and there was a wasp's nest in the cranial vault (which would be unlikely with fresher remains). She said the upper-end of the timeframe (i.e., 3-5 years) was based on the relatively good condition of the bones. They were not badly weathered.

She said that they had thought they had a match to a "Kentucky girl" (who I am presuming to be Ann Gotlib) based on an image overlay of the skull to her photo, but when they got dentals to compare, she turned out not to be a match.

I gave her the names of Peggy Rahn, and the Lyon Sisters (Sheila and Katherine), and told her that the timeframes were probably too long based on what she had just told me.

She took the names down and said that she would check them out. Even if they are unlikely, they should be positively ruled out anyway.

She says that she hasn't had time recently to look into these cases. She is a college professor, and there are exams currently taking place and students chomping at the bit to find out how they did on the exams. But when the rush is over with, she will look into these submissions, and a couple others that I submitted a couple of weeks ago on a different UID.

She also said that contrary to what is said in this Jane Doe's NamUs file, they have both Nuclear (nucDNA) and Mitochondrial (mtDNA) on her. However, since the nucDNA profile was extracted at Bode Laboratories (a private company), they cannot enter it in CODIS. CODIS only accepts DNA profile information from Univ of North Texas and the various state labs. Consequently, nucDNA comparisons are done manually, and mtDNA comparisons are handled in CODIS.

 

[Irish_Eyes]

That's a good bit of useful info, about CODIS and private DNA labs.

 

[pepagirl]

Has anyone ever proposed David Warner for this UID? I know he's male, but bigger mistakes have been made. The timeline seems pretty close and the areas are only an hour and a half apart. Thoughts?

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/4361dmtn.html



David Warner
Missing since March 2, 1983 from Jefferson City, Tennessee
Classification: Endangered Missing



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Vital Statistics

Date Of Birth: January 30, 1971
Age at Time of Disappearance: 12 years old
Distinguishing Characteristics: White male. Blond hair; dark eyes. Slender build.
Clothing: Blue jeans, a black and white Pittsburgh Steelers sweatshirt and tennis shoes.
Dentals: Buck teeth.
Medical: Epilepsy
AKA: Little David


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Circumstances of Disappearance
On March 2, 1983 David Warner planned to go to a function at a small independent church a few doors up the street from his Beeler Avenue home. David walked up to the church but didn't go in, then, he went on up the street. He went to Druther's Restaurant in Jefferson City, and got a hamburger. Later, he watched TV at a friend's house until 19.00, then told the friend he was going to his house, about 30 yards away.

The next morning his family discovered he was not at home, although his bed covers were bundled up in a way that could be viewed as a ploy to make it appear he was in bed.
At first, police thought David had gone off with some friends, or maybe run away.
Authorities launched a massive search, but no trace of David was ever found.
Foul play is suspected.