Identified! TX - Huntsville, 'Walker County Jane Doe', WhtFem 14-16, 91UFTX, Nov'80 #4 Sherry Ann Jarvis

[Kiranerys]

Considering that it's been nearly a month and no name has been released, it's gonna be another Lyle Stevik, we all know it at this point. Although, I wouldn't be surprised if they chose to do a press conference and (possibly) release her name then. Just look at some of these comment sections on videos about her already.

I think they will release her name one day,it's only been a month that they've had her back after 41 years of missing her, they still need time.

 

[rosesfromangels]

Bite marks are INCREDIBLY unreliable. Think about it, the skin is elastic and twists and stretches in many different ways. The jaw is also flexible and can move in a a variety of ways, overbite, underbite, from one side to the other.

The Innocence Files went into this with a "leading expert" Micheal West who has a ton of false convictions under his belt due to his expert witness testimony and just today TheTrailWentCold discussed how Raymond Rawson helped convict more than one person who was later ruled innocent by DNA testing.

The Innocence Project has a great article about it: Why Bite Mark Evidence Should Never Be Used in Criminal Trials

Well you sound a lot more educated on this than I am! Thanks for providing all this; i will study up.

 

[lonewanderer]

Well you sound a lot more educated on this than I am! Thanks for providing all this; i will study up.

Eye witness accounts are another totally crazy unreliable beast…

But anyways, I have been curious about the bite. I personally think that it happened out of reaction. I think that our girl was defending herself. I mentioned it in an earlier thread, and I just recently heard a (allegedly) true horror story channel where the female victim claimed to have grabbed her male attacker by his “parts” which is what I think our girl likely did. Either a kick or a twist and grab, or something else. I wonder if the bite was more consistent with her being bitten from behind like someone was chasing her as she turned around, or if the bite was more consistent with her lying down or bending?

Also, Henry Lee Lucas is continuously brought up. I wonder if the persons bite mark was lacking a ton of teeth? If you ever see a picture of him smiling, he seems like he would have a very easily and identifiable bite mark (he only had like 3 teeth) so it makes me wonder if there is something to that.

 

[MadMcGoo]

Bite marks are INCREDIBLY unreliable. Think about it, the skin is elastic and twists and stretches in many different ways. The jaw is also flexible and can move in a a variety of ways, overbite, underbite, from one side to the other.

The Innocence Files went into this with a "leading expert" Micheal West who has a ton of false convictions under his belt due to his expert witness testimony and just today TheTrailWentCold discussed how Raymond Rawson helped convict more than one person who was later ruled innocent by DNA testing.

The Innocence Project has a great article about it: Why Bite Mark Evidence Should Never Be Used in Criminal Trials

My thoughts exactly. I don't want to derail the thread but for anyone interested in the "reliability" of bite mark evidence, here's a good read. And here's a case dear to me that hinges on related testimony.

All and all, I hope there is other DNA evidence (or something) in WCJD's case that might lead to justice in her brutal murder.

 

[carbuff]

I was under the impression that they weren't able to match Henry Lee Lucas's teeth marks because he had had significant orthodontic work done in the interim.

 

[Paul B.]

CArl said WCJD was not a Texas native. It reminds me a bit of one of the redhead victims, Michelle Angela Garvey. She made it from New London CT to Houston TX in just days.

 

[Springrain]

I really don't think Henry Lee Lucas killed WCJD. JMO.

 

[rosesfromangels]

I really don't think Henry Lee Lucas killed WCJD. JMO.

Why? I think it was another trucker/slayer, known for that route. Some of her injuries seem consistent with this m.o. This poor girl suffered a horrible death, and I pray we find the maniac that committed this heinous act.

Amateur opinion and speculation

 

[tamsidea]

Looking at the history and thinking about how they will possibly go about catching her killer, I'm struck by a couple of thoughts. If she isn't from Texas, it seems even more random that she would have told the waitress she was from Aransas Pass or Rockport, doesn't it? Or that she would have "a friend" at Huntsville State. I wonder if she had been traveling around for a while and had passed through that area or had hitched a ride with someone who talked about being from there? And, I'm trying to decide if her giving that info to the waitress matters at all in the homicide investigation now. Now that we know she was from out of state, it just seems to gaurantee that her killer was a complete stranger.

 

[lonewanderer]

Looking at the history and thinking about how they will possibly go about catching her killer, I'm struck by a couple of thoughts. If she isn't from Texas, it seems even more random that she would have told the waitress she was from Aransas Pass or Rockport, doesn't it? Or that she would have "a friend" at Huntsville State. I wonder if she had been traveling around for a while and had passed through that area or had hitched a ride with someone who talked about being from there? And, I'm trying to decide if her giving that info to the waitress matters at all in the homicide investigation now. Now that we know she was from out of state, it just seems to gaurantee that her killer was a complete stranger.

Eyewitness sightings are also EXTREMELY unreliable. It may or may not have been her at all.

 

[Springrain]

Why? I think it was another trucker/slayer, known for that route. Some of her injuries seem consistent with this m.o. This poor girl suffered a horrible death, and I pray we find the maniac that committed this heinous act.

Amateur opinion and speculation

I don't think he killed anyone besides Viola Lucas, Kate Rich, Becky Powell, and maybe (big maybe) Laura Burnsley.

The guy was beyond a compulsive liar. He confessed to literally thousands of murders that he factually could not have done, in exchange for attention, cigarettes, and strawberry milkshakes. He was a murderer, but has never actually been proven to be a serial murderer. Detectives would tell him information about murder cases that only the killer would know so he could "confess" and then they'd close the case. A great example is Debra Jackson fka Orange Socks, who of course was also found in Texas, a year and a day before WCJD, murdered under strikingly similar circumstances. Lucas was provably across the country, working in Florida, when Debra was killed 1500 miles away, but he still confessed to it after being shown crime scene photos and given details of Debra's murder. And Debra's murder was the one that got him put on death row (before the sentence was commuted by Gov Bush, because it was obvious that he could not have killed her). I'm sure we all know this story, but I always feel the need to bring it up when talking about Lucas, because imo it is the prime example of his lying and the consequences it had, for him and for others. He also confessed to a boatload of other UID and former UID murders he couldn't have or was extremely unlikely to have committed (off the top of my head, Carol Ann Cole, Marilee Bruszer, Tammy Jo Alexander).

I agree that there are high chances that it was a trucker who killed WCJD, probably someone in the vein of Robert Rhoades. I feel she may have been killed in a parking lot mostly abandoned due to it being nighttime (possibly a truck stop parking lot, possibly even the Hitchin Post), or an empty country road.

 

[PuzzlinEvidence]

Looking at the history and thinking about how they will possibly go about catching her killer, I'm struck by a couple of thoughts. If she isn't from Texas, it seems even more random that she would have told the waitress she was from Aransas Pass or Rockport, doesn't it? Or that she would have "a friend" at Huntsville State. I wonder if she had been traveling around for a while and had passed through that area or had hitched a ride with someone who talked about being from there? And, I'm trying to decide if her giving that info to the waitress matters at all in the homicide investigation now. Now that we know she was from out of state, it just seems to gaurantee that her killer was a complete stranger.

Assuming there was no witness misidentification, the Rockport/Aransas Pass thing could still be explained by some sort of misunderstanding, e.g. the girl meant that's where she had just come from, rather than place of origin. But it's still difficult to explain the prison as a destination.

Unfortunately it seems like one of those cold cases that realistically won't be solved without a DNA (don't think they have any?) hit or an out-of-the-blue confession.

 

[Paul B.]

@Springrain It is forty one very long years and our presumed trucker if he was middle aged in 1980 is now certain to be elderly if not having gone to meet Old Scratch.

 

[PuzzlinEvidence]

I agree that there are high chances that it was a trucker who killed WCJD, probably someone in the vein of Robert Rhoades. I feel she may have been killed in a parking lot mostly abandoned due to it being nighttime (possibly a truck stop parking lot, possibly even the Hitchin Post), or an empty country road.

I agree with this, and I've wondered if Rhoades has ever been ruled out? It seems like she was picked up not long after leaving the Hitchin Post, so a trucker in the area seems plausible.

 

[Springrain]

@Springrain It is forty one very long years and our presumed trucker if he was middle aged in 1980 is now certain to be elderly if not having gone to meet Old Scratch.

He would at the very youngest be in his 60s, probably at least 70s or 80s, if he is still alive. High chances whoever he is, he's gone. I'm trying to maintain hope that they can find him alive and charge him.

I agree with this, and I've wondered if Rhoades has ever been ruled out? It seems like she was picked up not long after leaving the Hitchin Post, so a trucker in the area seems plausible.

I wonder too. I don't really feel it's him, but it is a possibility for sure. I think the only way to really rule him out would be if he was definitively proven to not be in that area during the time of the murder.

That being said, I don't think WCJD completely fits his MO, since she was murdered shortly after witnesses saw her, and Rhoades seemed to prefer keeping the girls and women he killed captive and raping them for multiple weeks, or longer, rather than just presumably a few hours. But I definitely think there is a high likelihood she was killed by a trucker.

 

[Beekarina]

Assuming there was no witness misidentification, the Rockport/Aransas Pass thing could still be explained by some sort of misunderstanding, e.g. the girl meant that's where she had just come from, rather than place of origin. But it's still difficult to explain the prison as a destination.

Unfortunately it seems like one of those cold cases that realistically won't be solved without a DNA (don't think they have any?) hit or an out-of-the-blue confession.

Hopefully they have more information about her killer(s) than they have released. I agree with you on her having just passed through Rockport/Aransas Pass area, and maybe a sign or having stayed the night there or something so it was in her mind as a response when asked. That seems logical enough.

 

[Beekarina]

I think the initials, her age, etc were probably shared as a way to give everyone who cared some basic information, and personally I was most sad to learn how young she actually was. Chasing down her name seems another way to victimize her when her family has so explicitly asked for privacy. Those individuals should take that energy to another unsolved case, IMO.

 

[shadowdancer]

I think the initials, her age, etc were probably shared as a way to give everyone who cared some basic information, and personally I was most sad to learn how young she actually was. Chasing down her name seems another way to victimize her when her family has so explicitly asked for privacy. Those individuals should take that energy to another unsolved case, IMO.

Where is this info? I would especially like to know what her age was.

 

[luulabobss]

Where is this info? I would especially like to know what her age was.

This information was posted on the Who Was Walker County Jane Doe? Facebook page, I believe Carl replied to a comment on the initial post about her identification - it was not a post in itself.

 

[Wossy]

<modsnip: Quoted post was removed> As far as rather they have any DNA evidence on the killer, the very last thing the Doenetwork mentions on her profile is the testing of DNA on her shoes and what was found has never been reveled to the pubic. That is usually a sign that what they found could lead to the identification of the perpetrator. Similar to the letter sent to law enforcement in 2002 about Penny Doe.