Hi Sleuths. I wanted to share what I have personally learned from making a few inquiries into this Jane Doe. Some of you may know that I strongly believe this Jane Doe to be Shirley Leona Sprang. I still do believe that. I realize that others do not and that's fine, but I do want to share a small bit of information that I have gathered, which I find quite perplexing, actually.
The following information exists in the history of this thread from previous mentions about Shirley, but I will briefly recap the relevant portion here for the sake of convenience, since it can be overwhelming to keep track of the many potential matches we discuss.
Documentation in Shirley Leona Sprang's Missing file states that she hailed a Taxi and left her home in Two Rivers, WI on June 16, 1990 after an argument with her mother. Her family never saw her or heard from her again, although for some unknown reason Law Enforcement in Lincoln, NE had some type of contact with her on Dec 19, 1996. This second date establishes that she was alive at least up until December of '96.
As you all know, that last date logically conflicts with the date of this Jane Doe's death. If both dates were correct it would mean that she committed suicide on December 18th, and the next day -- the day her body was found -- she communicated with Law enforcement in Lincoln, Nebraska. Absurd, of course.
It has been surmised that, if the two individuals are one and the same, perhaps one of these dates was entered incorrectly. And of course, that is entirely possible, as I'm sure most of us have seen such errors in other cases we have worked.
So, back sometime last year I contacted Lincoln, Nebraska PD and spoke with a very helpful officer. I inquired as to that documented contact with Shirley which was said to have occurred on Dec. 19 of '96. Did they have any record of that? And if so, what type of contact was it? The officer checked their system, which had all records computerized and going back as far as at least 1980. There was no record of any contact with a Shirley Sprang in 1990. There was never ANY record of a Shirley Sprang in their system at all. If they had had ANY contact with her they would have had her name, birthdate, and address on file...even if she was just driving through.
The documentation in Shirley's missing file noted a contact with "Law Enforcement" in Lincoln, NE. Law Enforcement is a somewhat general term, as it could apply to the Sheriff's office, Drug Enforcement, even the FBI. However, one would usually associate it with the police Department. So, at least, I feel fairly comfortable in ruling out the Lincoln PD. If I remember correctly, when I spoke with the Detective in WI, he didn't know who they meant by "Law Enforcement" either. I never did check with the Sheriff's office, though. But wouldn't the police and Sheriff have access to the same records? And document into the same file?
Say I got arrested by the police in Lincoln, NE. If I later got pulled over by a Lincoln/Lancaster County Sheriff's Deputy and they called in my ID info, they wouldn't be left ignorant of my arrest, right? Does anybody here know how that works? I'm just trying to find a way to verify that documentation, which appears to be the ONLY thing that indicates that Shirley was even alive in 1996. If that documentation is in error then theoretically she could have left in that taxi in 1990 and committed suicide -- or was murdered -- that very night and her body has never been found. Obviously, were that the case, my ID of her as being this Jane Doe would be entirely incorrect. I don't believe that's the case really but those of us who connected SS with this Jane Doe did so BECAUSE of that Lincoln NE contact date...by noticing that it was only one day off from Annandale Doe's date of death.
Okay, and to add to the mystery of Shirley Sprang: I found one of her nephews on Facebook (again, last year) and inquired as to his Aunt's status. I didn't say anything about her having gone missing. And neither did he. His response was that she died a long time ago. At some point she was reported missing, and the detective working her case still believes that to be true. So why would the nephew know that she was dead if the rest of the world still thinks she's missing?
