UK UK - Manchester, 'Angel of the Meadow' WhtFem Skeletal, 16-30, buried, Jan'10

[ZaZara]

OT Neustadt Jane Doe had blue eyes, Riek Degeling has brown eyes.

About Angel of the meadow:

Angel of the Meadow

In 2010, skeletal remains of a murdered (and likely assaulted) woman were found in Manchester, UK. Will the UK permit advanced DNA testing to identify her?

dnasolves.com

There is no ending and the “Angel of the Meadow” remains unidentified, not because of scientific limitation but because the UK is still working to develop a position on genealogical search for law enforcement investigations . Much like in the United States, there are so many unidentified victims in the UK and much like in the United States, these unidentified persons will often not be identified using traditional forensic testing alone. The UK allows “familial search”, but these comparisons are based on STRs. They utilize very few markers and can generally only detect an exact match, parent-child relationship, or sibling relationship. Investigators compared 400 missing persons without a match and this is a time-consuming and costly venture. I can only hope that in the future, there will be a chance to deploy modern DNA testing to help identify this woman and connect her back to family.

@Al Ka and others: is there any progress/news about the status quo on genealogical searches in the UK?

BBM in red

I have been looking for that list of 400 rule outs but found nothing. AFAIK it hasn't been made public. It is probably safe to say that if we know about a missing woman's case, LE does too and they have checked and no match was made.

After 400 mis-matches, it is about time to get serious about Genetic Genealogy!

The other thing that irks me about this case is that it was likely very local. A woman works in a bar or a kitchen, she is attacked after hours by for instance the owner of the bar, or when she was leaving. Surely there must have been people who missed her in one way or another. She must have lived somewhere and from one day to another she is gone without anyone noticing?

 

[dotr]

• Holly Christodoulou 24 Mar 2024

How dress & pub sign hold key to solving grim 'Angel of the Meadow' murder

A TATTY pinafore dress and discarded shoe belonging to a woman buried in a Victorian slum remain at the centre of a mysterious cold case. In the 1970s or 80s, a young woman was sexually assaulted t…

www.thesun.co.uk

Angel of the Meadow - what we know​

Gender - Female

Age Range - 18 - 30

Ethnicity - Unknown

Height - 155cm - 170cm (5 Ft 1 Ins - 5 Ft 6 Ins)

Date Found - 25 January 2010

Body Or Remains - Body

Circumstances - Found at Angel Meadows car park. Covered by a blue carpet prior to discovery

Eye Colour - Unknown

Clothing - Blue jumper, blue bra

Dress - Green. Pinafore with large buttons & unusual design on the front - This was found near the female

Footwear - 1 X black stiletto found near the female

Possessions - Handbag - found near the female. Plain blue carpet found on top of her. Patterned orange carpet also found with the body.
Source: NCA UK Missing Persons Unit

 

[iamshadow21]

• Holly Christodoulou 24 Mar 2024

How dress & pub sign hold key to solving grim 'Angel of the Meadow' murder

A TATTY pinafore dress and discarded shoe belonging to a woman buried in a Victorian slum remain at the centre of a mysterious cold case. In the 1970s or 80s, a young woman was sexually assaulted t…

www.thesun.co.uk

View attachment 532808

Angel of the Meadow - what we know​

Gender - Female

Age Range - 18 - 30

Ethnicity - Unknown

Height - 155cm - 170cm (5 Ft 1 Ins - 5 Ft 6 Ins)

Date Found - 25 January 2010

Body Or Remains - Body

Circumstances - Found at Angel Meadows car park. Covered by a blue carpet prior to discovery

Eye Colour - Unknown

Clothing - Blue jumper, blue bra

Dress - Green. Pinafore with large buttons & unusual design on the front - This was found near the female

Footwear - 1 X black stiletto found near the female

Possessions - Handbag - found near the female. Plain blue carpet found on top of her. Patterned orange carpet also found with the body.
Source: NCA UK Missing Persons Unit
View attachment 532809

View attachment 532810

View attachment 532811

I really, really wish they would give the angel a recon that wasn't so obviously created from postmortem photography. And not even HER postmortem photography, since she was skeletal!

It's not as bad as some of the worst clay recons, but it's close. The instinct is to recoil from it. And the features look like they're floating above the face because everything else is so blurred out. And the weirdness of some skin being blurred and some having detail makes it look like she has a five o'clock shadow.

They need a better reconstruction that looks like a real living person, not a deceased video game character from ten years ago.

MOO

 

[victoriarobinson642]

I really, really wish they would give the angel a recon that wasn't so obviously created from postmortem photography. And not even HER postmortem photography, since she was skeletal!

It's not as bad as some of the worst clay recons, but it's close. The instinct is to recoil from it. And the features look like they're floating above the face because everything else is so blurred out. And the weirdness of some skin being blurred and some having detail makes it look like she has a five o'clock shadow.

They need a better reconstruction that looks like a real living person, not a deceased video game character from ten years ago.

MOO

I know that Hew Morrison does a lot of UK-based Doe reconstructions. I wonder why they didn't seek him out for this one.

 

[Susikatze]

I really, really wish they would give the angel a recon that wasn't so obviously created from postmortem photography. And not even HER postmortem photography, since she was skeletal!

It's not as bad as some of the worst clay recons, but it's close. The instinct is to recoil from it. And the features look like they're floating above the face because everything else is so blurred out. And the weirdness of some skin being blurred and some having detail makes it look like she has a five o'clock shadow.

They need a better reconstruction that looks like a real living person, not a deceased video game character from ten years ago.

MOO

Fully agree. Prof Wilkinson/Dundee Uni is famous in the UK but tbh all her computer recons look like that. No fan at all. This technology needs a dire update. Very outdated. Her clays are better.
Same for "Fred the Head" an UID from Burton on Trent - his original 1970s pencil reconsruction is very good. The computerized recon also done by the University of Dundee software is horrible and shows features that are simply not there if you look at the very distinctive skull.

 

[MelmothTheLost]

I know that Hew Morrison does a lot of UK-based Doe reconstructions. I wonder why they didn't seek him out for this one.

They may well have asked him but Hew is a freelance who carries out work for various UK police forces, museums and similar, as well as for Locate, but there's only one of him and each image takes a lot of work. Some police forces also have their own in-house capabilities so don't put the work out to other parties.