Identified! VA - Annandale, WhtFem 245UFVA, ~60, 'NO CODE, DNR, No Penicillin', Dec'96

[Pseudonymph]

I also think that personality-wise, she was probably a bit of a drama queen. :lol

 

[Tssiemer]

Ohhh yeah I see what you're saying. I'll try to search different parameters.



Question... Back in 1996, what was the popular search engine? Was it yahoo?

AOL lol.


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[Pseudonymph]

I def. used Yahoo in 1996.

 

[Jersey*Girl]

I don't think any of her belongings mean anything. She did not want to be identified, and I think she was serious enough about that to make sure her possessions were untraceable. I am thinking she went to a thrift shop.

The one thing that seems personal is her ring. The glasses are prescription and could theoretically have been traced more thoroughly, but it is probably too late for that now. The two writing samples, though typed, are very distinctive in their phrasing.

I think she has a college education and likes to read a lot, probably mysteries.

I agree...except I do think the clothes could provide an area where they'd have been sold if they were actually manufactured & sold around the date of her suicide. In most higher end stores with an exclusive line, the demographic is considered when clothing styles and colors are marketed and sold. Plus they don't want to barrage the nationwide market, so they tend to sell certain versions in one area, then similar versions but different colors in another area. Etc.

 

[Jersey*Girl]

I also think that personality-wise, she was probably a bit of a drama queen. :lol

She seemed poetic, that's a fosho...

 

[Pseudonymph]

Let's backtrack a bit. What do we know is very likely?

Aside from physical characteristics:

1. Extremely organized and methodical
2. Likely a perfectionist
3. Likely Christian or at least nominally Christian
4. Did not want to be identified
5. Expected to be discovered dead quite quickly
6. Likely an excellent English speaker, probably native
7. Possibly a good typist
8. A child of the Depression, probably born in the 1930s
9. Possibly allergic to penicillin
10. Not a teetotaler
11. Enjoyed comedy, or at least wanted it to be the last thing she heard
12. Probably lived in Virginia or DC area, or had some connection there
13. Chose to die in a specific cemetery near children's graves and mausoleum
14. Was not missed enough to be identified, so likely little family and few close friends
15. Was very intent on killing herself and had possibly researched a failsafe way to do it

 

[EmiLove832]

I don't think any of her belongings mean anything. She did not want to be identified, and I think she was serious enough about that to make sure her possessions were untraceable. I am thinking she went to a thrift shop.

The one thing that seems personal is her ring. The glasses are prescription and could theoretically have been traced more thoroughly, but it is probably too late for that now. The two writing samples, though typed, are very distinctive in their phrasing.

I think she has a college education and likes to read a lot, probably mysteries.

I doubt she purchased her clothing at a thrift shop. It was all one brand that is exclusive to Nordstroms.

I do feel she picked that section of the cemetery for a reason but knowing her desire to stay unidentified I don't think she has a family member buried there. It could be as simple as she always wanted children but never could have them so that area was comforting to her.

The backpack and Minnie Mouse bag could be thrift store purchases but the Minnie Mouse bag is an odd purchase for a woman of her age. If it's true she carried the pills in there, a coin purse would've worked or even a ziplock bag. I really think the Minnie Mouse bag had some meaning to her.




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[rosesfromangels]

Perhaps the Minnie mouse fanny pak was her granddaughters? Or a deceased childs? It had significance, I would think

 

[EmiLove832]

Perhaps the Minnie mouse fanny pak was her granddaughters? Or a deceased childs? It had significance, I would think

The Minnie Mouse bag belonging to a Granddaughter would make sense.

If she had a Granddaughter, she had a child.

I suppose her child could have passed away and the granddaughter went to the surviving parent. If she had a son that didn't have a good relationship with the child's mother, her son passes away and the mother doesn't allow her to see her grandchild anymore.

There are so many scenarios. I can't wrap my brain around no one looking for her unless there was no one to look for her or she came from another country and no one knows she went to the US.

 

[rosesfromangels]

Astridxx - we have to figure out this supposed connection to Universite de Liege. The CSL marking on the glasses is throwing me off. Do we know why Ellen at Porchlight thinks they were tied to the space institute? Just not adding up, but then again, little about this case does.

 

[musicaljoke]

The Minnie Mouse bag belonging to a Granddaughter would make sense.

If she had a Granddaughter, she had a child.

I suppose her child could have passed away and the granddaughter went to the surviving parent. If she had a son that didn't have a good relationship with the child's mother, her son passes away and the mother doesn't allow her to see her grandchild anymore. S.

She had a scar from a caesarean, so quite possibly had a child. If she was despondent because of the death of a child or grandchild, could that grandchild be buried in the cemetery where she committed suicide?

This site lists all the names of those who are buried in the Pleasant Valley Memorial Cemetery in Annandale VA.

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gsr&GSob=n&GScid=51693&

 

[alreetlike]

Perhaps the Minnie mouse fanny pak was her granddaughters? Or a deceased childs? It had significance, I would think

I agree, it seems out of place with her other personal effects so I feel like there must be some significance. Along the lines of a parent keeping their deceased child's favourite stuffed toy or something.

 

[Mouse]

What do you think about maybe a Russian or Romanian decent if not from Belgium? I ask this bc in an area near Annandale there is/was a fair amount of Russian population. I think I read somewhere it was across the Potomac somewhere? Could she have come from another country and settled there by chance. I mean not in the Annandale community per se but rather across the Potomac?

Something about her reminds me quite a bit of my Polish mother-in-law. It's a combination of the hair, the choice of clothing and sizes, the particular sense of humor exhibited in the choice of tapes--it all just reminds me quite a bit of my mother-in-law.

Also...O/T, but I have to say this because it's been driving me crazy: it really bugs me that whoever took the photos used the pencil as a means of showing relative size. I know it was done with good intentions, but...we have no way of knowing how long that pencil is. It's been sharpened, and who knows how many times it's been in a pencil sharpener? It just doesn't do anything at all to give us a sense of scale to have a random sharpened pencil in the photos for comparison. If you're going to do that (and it's a good idea to include something to show scale and help judge relative size), and you don't have a ruler handy, for heaven's sake, use something that is always a known, standardized size, like a dollar bill. Then you can easily do the calculations to see if that Minnie Mouse bag is really as small as it looks, because every dollar bill in the world is a set, known size. (Well, I won't be doing the calculations, but someone good at math could.)

 

[alreetlike]

Also...O/T, but I have to say this because it's been driving me crazy: it really bugs me that whoever took the photos used the pencil as a means of showing relative size. I know it was done with good intentions, but...we have no way of knowing how long that pencil is. It's been sharpened, and who knows how many times it's been in a pencil sharpener? It just doesn't do anything at all to give us a sense of scale to have a random sharpened pencil in the photos for comparison. If you're going to do that (and it's a good idea to include something to show scale and help judge relative size), and you don't have a ruler handy, for heaven's sake, use something that is always a known, standardized size, like a dollar bill. Then you can easily do the calculations to see if that Minnie Mouse bag is really as small as it looks, because every dollar bill in the world is a set, known size. (Well, I won't be doing the calculations, but someone good at math could.)

Quite agree! A ruler, a certain size shoe, anything that has a definite length.

 

[Mouse]

Also, re: the "now I lay me down to sleep" parody poem:

I don't know if it's been mentioned, but I found some discussion of this on a suicide discussion forum (there's a couple of mentions of WS there, so maybe it's already been discussed here):

http://alt.suicide.methods.narkive.com/IUL5uri9/one-of-ours

(It's not a thread, but a compilation of posts from various threads, apparently.)

The next-to-last post:

zea 4 years ago
On May 20, 5:36 pm, "Lorelai"
Post by Lorelai
"Now I lay me down to sleep
Soon to drift to the eternal deep
and though I die and shall not wake
Sleep sweeter will be than this life I forsake."

Aww. I like that better than the one I usually hear:

"Now I lay me down to die,
I pray tomorrow there'll be no 'I';
I hope to die before I wake,
and that there is no soul to take."

Those make me feel like these two adaptations of the well-known children's prayer must be something that's passed around in the online suicide-discussion world, maybe. Or possibly printed in some of the "Legalize Suicide" literature by The Hemlock Society or something similar--

In the same thread, the earlier post by Lorelai (the one that Zea is quoting) mentions something about "methods mentioned in The Final Exit also being available in the methods files" (presumably files that members of that particular alt.group would have access to), and she also says something about Annandale Jane Doe and Mary Anderson possibly being of a socioeconomic class that would have both computers and access to Usenet. Annandale Jane Doe wore trifocals, and the middle ("tri") part of the prescription is generally for the mid-range computer distance. Everyone will eventually need bifocals or reading glasses, but not everyone will need the trifocal part--those who use computers tend to need it more, or earlier. (source: I paid for my BA by working as an optometric assistant.) Which makes me wonder if our Jane Doe had a job working with computers. Although, in a government-employment dominated area, that doesn't really narrow it down much. But computer discussion forums, alt.groups, and Usenet in the early-to-mid 90's would indicate more than just casual familiarity with computers and the internet for the time.

 

[Tamerlan]

The fannypack could be used to carry her medications close and available. My guess is that JD used to wear it on her waist, that is why the belt became worn and had to be repaired. Where did she get it from is a different question, maybe from some little girl related to her, maybe not. But if she needed medications on a regular basis, it could be caused by some grave illness, which lead her to suicide. The REI backpack also looks pretty worn, it has stitching on one side. Can we assume she had it on her for years? On the other hand, loafers are not too comfy footwear for long walks or traveling.
I am of Russian origin myself, and this lady does not look Russian or Romanian to me.

 

[Pseudonymph]

It would be interesting to know if the notes came from a typewriter or a word processor or computer.

 

[belfastgirl73]

It would be interesting to know if the notes came from a typewriter or a word processor or computer.

I read somewhere typewriter. I've also read in quite a few places that some of the methodology she used were set out in a book called "The Final Exit", so it appears she gave it a lot of forethought.

 

[belfastgirl73]

I was visiting my mother's grave recently & what caught my eye was a small area of the graveyard that was identified as a remembrance garden for babies. I assume somewhere the cremated remains of stillborn, miscarried babies etc could be scattered, but there were no names or identifying markers. Made me wonder if perhaps there was a similar area in the cemetery where she died.

Something about this ladies last hours fills me with sadness. I wish we could give her her name back. Most likely though she wouldn't have wanted anyone looking!

 

[belfastgirl73]

Could some kind soul please post the link to her namus page? I can't seem to find it. Thank you.:blushing: