Identified! TN - Nashville, WhtFem 30’s UP10155, Leo pendant, poss from Chilton Co, AL, Mar'98 Diane Minor

[djanga]

Diane’s identification was featured in the news, it is a short video and I think it was cut, but there is another photo of young Diane.

 

[lightofmine99]

It's so crazy that Leo Jane Doe was/is someone that had somewhat of a public presence in life.

Archive of her Doe Network (X)

 

[Friday Fan]

Diane’s identification was featured in the news, it is a short video and I think it was cut, but there is another photo of young Diane.

Full video at the link

Friends remember woman at the center of 26-year-old Nashville cold case as talented singer

“She was very bubbly, very personable, had all kinds of friends and very talented.”

www.wsmv.com

 

[djanga]

According to the new article on News Channel 5 Nashville, her colleagues or friends were wondering where she was and what happened to her, but somebody told them that she moved to Colorado.

Nashville woman identified in 26-year cold case

Family and friends are finally getting answers in a 26-year Nashville cold case concerning a woman named Diane Minor who went missing in the 1990's.

www.newschannel5.com

 

[Interested_But_Confused]

According to the new article on News Channel 5 Nashville, her colleagues or friends were wondering where she was and what happened to her, but somebody told them that she moved to Colorado.

Nashville woman identified in 26-year cold case

Family and friends are finally getting answers in a 26-year Nashville cold case concerning a woman named Diane Minor who went missing in the 1990's.

www.newschannel5.com

LE need to find out who was telling people that Diane moved to Colorado. IMO that's very suspicious.

It's still mind-boggling that someone with so many friends and colleagues wasn't identified. Even if they thought she had moved away, you'd think the discovery of her body would have caught the attention of somebody who knew her.

 

[summergirl1]

It's interesting that she was older than was generally thought, and that her real last name was among the ones previously mentioned as linked to her through genetic genealogy. Sometimes those publicly released last names end up being pretty distant from the person.

 

[Susikatze]

I love this photo of Diane!

Who was Diane Minor, the Leo Jane Doe pulled from Nashville's Cumberland River in 1998

Diane Minor, the woman identified 26 years later as the Leo Jane Doe, was an up-and-coming Nashville singer in the 1960s.

eu.tennessean.com

View attachment 518444

She achieved at least local fame,if not more. Did several records. Lovely voice, catchy, highly professionally done songs.
I really wonder how noone missed her. She may have been estranged from family and hung out with a bohemian type crowd, reminiscing her bygone fame (the man she was seen with wore sort of the same type of eccentric clothing she did).

 

[Interested_But_Confused]

It's possible that Diane just liked the Sylvester & Tweety cartoons, but the Tweety Bird patch maybe makes sense knowing Diane was a singer--perhaps it could have even been a nickname?

Diane had lived in Nashville for a long time and had thousands of dollars worth of dental treatment. Did LE go to dentists in the area to see if any of them recognised Diane and/or their own work? If not, IMO they should have.

The more I think about this, the more I struggle to understand the failure to identify her. Diane wasn't a woman with no friends or family to miss her. She wasn't found hundreds or thousands of miles from where she had lived. She hadn't been in the water long enough to be unrecognisable. Her clothing was quite unique.

Everything makes it seem, on the surface, like it should have been easy.

 

[Susikatze]

And who hated her so much? She was shot, not strangled. If we assume her boyfriend (if we assume the sighting was indeed her and the guy she was seen with was indeed her boyfriend, matching clothing and style and all) did it, that MO would be unusual, though it has happened.
It also was not a robbery, obviously. Who did she associate with in the years before she died? Was she ever involved in any addiction? Did she still have some money from the recordings? I get some "fight over money or drugs/alcohol" vibe here, but of course that may be entirely wrong. We just do not know enough.
When did she lose contact with family and friends?

Jmoo

 

[fsngruv]

It's possible that Diane just liked the Sylvester & Tweety cartoons, but the Tweety Bird patch maybe makes sense knowing Diane was a singer--perhaps it could have even been a nickname?

Diane had lived in Nashville for a long time and had thousands of dollars worth of dental treatment. Did LE go to dentists in the area to see if any of them recognised Diane and/or their own work? If not, IMO they should have.

The more I think about this, the more I struggle to understand the failure to identify her. Diane wasn't a woman with no friends or family to miss her. She wasn't found hundreds or thousands of miles from where she had lived. She hadn't been in the water long enough to be unrecognisable. Her clothing was quite unique.

Everything makes it seem, on the surface, like it should have been easy.

From what I remember of the time, tweety bird, Sylvester, Mickey mouse and tinker Bell were all popular characters to put on athletic type pants. I grew up in the area and remember going to Walmart in 98 and being forced to buy a pair with tinker Bell on them because there were literally no plain athletic type pants. Remember when phrases were printed on the bottoms of pants, if you wanted to be declared "juicy" or not. Just not sure how much tweety has to do with it all, or if the fact those clothes were so popular that they would even be considered eccentric at the time. I haven't been able to confirm it yet, but I believe Diane was born in July, making her a Leo. She also appears to have a couple careers through her life. Makes me wonder if he disappearance was caused by those she lived with. It does seem it should've been solved by now.

As far as the dentists go, there are a ton in Nashville and many may have retired, but I agree, would've been a great lead.