Identified! VA - Annandale, WhtFem ~60, 245UFVA, 'NO CODE, DNR, No Penicillin', Dec'96 #2 - Joyce Meyer Sommers

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This was Annandale Jane Doe's suicide note:

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.

I truly mean no disrespect to AJD, but these are not the last words of an accomplished songwriter. Looking at it as a piece of writing outside of the context of her tragic death...it's just an amateurish modification of a Christian child's prayer, with the metre all messed up. If you read about Connie Converse's life, it's hard to imagine that this is how she would have wanted to be remembered, even if she did want to remain unidentified.

The height is a big discrepancy, too; 5'7-5'10 is tall for a woman, and you can't just decide she probably wasn't tall when her family reported that she was. People lose about 2 inches of height by age 70, not 7-10 inches.
 
snowgoose said:
This was Annandale Jane Doe's suicide note:

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.

I truly mean no disrespect to AJD, but these are not the last words of an accomplished songwriter. Looking at it as a piece of writing outside of the context of her tragic death...it's just an amateurish modification of a Christian child's prayer, with the metre all messed up. If you read about Connie Converse's life, it's hard to imagine that this is how she would have wanted to be remembered, even if she did want to remain unidentified.

The height is a big discrepancy, too; 5'7-5'10 is tall for a woman, and you can't just decide she probably wasn't tall when her family reported that she was. People lose about 2 inches of height by age 70, not 7-10 inches.
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But did her family say she was tall? Where did the 5'7-5'10 come from? Do you know that this came from her family? That's a big generalisation to say that people lose 2 inches of height by age 70. Maybe some do. However, osteoporosis can result is a much bigger height loss, and it's mainly post-menopausal women who are affected.
 
Curious_in_NC said:
Wow. That's a great suggestion. Whether or not it is her, what a fascinating life that Connie Converse had.
Here is her NamUs missing person profile. There are 3 exclusions, one in TN and 2 in VA, so there may have been reason to believe she went in that direction.
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IIRC VA did a big project to compare their MP records against NAMUS UIDs a few years ago. You will see many, many VA ruleouts in the system. IMHO it’s likely there is no actual evidence she went VA direction, but was compared against VA MPs as part of that project.
 
Melt71 said:
IIRC VA did a big project to compare their MP records against NAMUS UIDs a few years ago. You will see many, many VA ruleouts in the system. IMHO it’s likely there is no actual evidence she went VA direction, but was compared against VA MPs as part of that project.
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Thanks for the info. I had seen that pattern in a couple of other cases as well and this explains it. FWIW all four rule outs were found many years before AJD.
ETA there were 3 rule outs (not 4)
 
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KarenI said:
But did her family say she was tall? Where did the 5'7-5'10 come from? Do you know that this came from her family? That's a big generalisation to say that people lose 2 inches of height by age 70. Maybe some do. However, osteoporosis can result is a much bigger height loss, and it's mainly post-menopausal women who are affected.
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The info about Connie's height would have come from whoever reported her missing. I'm assuming that was a family member.

I've never heard that Annandale Jane Doe's autopsy mentioned severe spinal changes due to osteoporosis...typically that's something that would be noted in a Jane Doe's file because it could help identify her.

Personally it's not just the 7-10 inches height difference but also the gap of 20 years and the dramatic difference in writing style/talent that convinces me they were not the same person.

Annandale Jane Doe has always struck me as someone who lived an ordinary life and - like so many older people - struggled with depression and loneliness, with all of her friends and family having either passed away or become estranged from her. As exciting as it would be to discover she was a brilliant singer-songwriter and academic who staged her disappearance and successfully lived under a false identity for decades, I expect her story is a much more ordinary one (but no less tragic).
 
snowgoose said:
The info about Connie's height would have come from whoever reported her missing. I'm assuming that was a family member.

I've never heard that Annandale Jane Doe's autopsy mentioned severe spinal changes due to osteoporosis...typically that's something that would be noted in a Jane Doe's file because it could help identify her.

Personally it's not just the 7-10 inches height difference but also the gap of 20 years and the dramatic difference in writing style/talent that convinces me they were not the same person.

Annandale Jane Doe has always struck me as someone who lived an ordinary life and - like so many older people - struggled with depression and loneliness, with all of her friends and family having either passed away or become estranged from her. As exciting as it would be to discover she was a brilliant singer-songwriter and academic who staged her disappearance and successfully lived under a false identity for decades, I expect her story is a much more ordinary one (but no less tragic).
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Not sure who would have reported Connie as missing. I believe her brother did not feel that it was appropriate to look for her, if she chose to start a new life elsewhere (or end her life). Perhaps another family member eg nephew Tim Converse, did so more recently. No disrespect, but it sounds like you are creating a story of her life, as being an 'ordinary' old lady, just as much as I suspect that this could well be Connie. It would be good to have her ruled out by DNA comparison if either of her nephews was willing.




snowgoose said:
The info about Connie's height would have come from whoever reported her missing. I'm assuming that was a family member.

I've never heard that Annandale Jane Doe's autopsy mentioned severe spinal changes due to osteoporosis...typically that's something that would be noted in a Jane Doe's file because it could help identify her.

Personally it's not just the 7-10 inches height difference but also the gap of 20 years and the dramatic difference in writing style/talent that convinces me they were not the same person.

Annandale Jane Doe has always struck me as someone who lived an ordinary life and - like so many older people - struggled with depression and loneliness, with all of her friends and family having either passed away or become estranged from her. As exciting as it would be to discover she was a brilliant singer-songwriter and academic who staged her disappearance and successfully lived under a false identity for decades, I expect her story is a much more ordinary one (but no less tragic).
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Curious_in_NC said:
@snowgoose you have pretty much convinced me of the mis-match. The height and the note definitely seems unlikely written by her. Also I can't see Connie traveling around with a Jeff Foxworthy tape as a prized possession, no matter how much her life may have changed.
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I keep imagining what it must have been like to be her as she walked through the dark towards the childrens burial plot.

Was she hurting so badly she had to end it all?

Was she excited to reunite with a passed loved one?

I can only imagine the simultaneous fear, excitement, and sense of relief she must have had going through her mind.

I wonder if she rehearsed it? I wondered if she ever walked there late at night before, and was not able to go through with it?

I can only imagine….
 
Since she was found in the infant section of the cemetery I wonder if they checked the parents of the children buried there. She had a c-section scar. On her Doe Network page it mentioned that she wasn't near any particular grave and the section she was in was recent burials. She seemed to want to stay anonymous so I doubt she would be close by a Grave if it were her own child/relative.
 
aThousandYearsWide said:
Since she was found in the infant section of the cemetery I wonder if they checked the parents of the children buried there. She had a c-section scar. On her Doe Network page it mentioned that she wasn't near any particular grave and the section she was in was recent burials. She seemed to want to stay anonymous so I doubt she would be close by a Grave if it were her own child/relative.
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I agree that she probably was not related to any of those children. I was just thinking about her this morning for some reason. I have never felt like the place she chose to die had anything to do with a family connection or feeling like she'd caused the death of a child buried there. (Some suggestions have been that she could have been a medical professional.) She may have simply considered it a peaceful place from which she could depart this world without being discovered before she had passed on.

Many people, including myself, consider cemeteries peaceful places. They often have a quiet and secluded feeling about them. I grew up in a family where we visited cemeteries often, and my relatives were spread out over a number of cemeteries all over my rural county, and as a child I found cemeteries somewhat soothing and peaceful. The inhabitants were at rest, their troubles all behind them. It could be that Annandale Jane Doe was familiar with this cemetery, (could have had adult relatives in it somewhere or she could have been a a person who likes moseying through cemeteries reading epitaphs on gravestones) and knew about the children's section. Since children don't pass on as often as adults do, this would have maybe been a place to commit suicide where there was less risk of anybody coming to dig a grave and finding her and calling for help. I know she had a DNR bracelet but that doesn't mean her wishes would have been respected or even noticed in the heat of the moment if somebody found her and started CPR.
 
dogperson said:
I agree that she probably was not related to any of those children. I was just thinking about her this morning for some reason. I have never felt like the place she chose to die had anything to do with a family connection or feeling like she'd caused the death of a child buried there. (Some suggestions have been that she could have been a medical professional.) She may have simply considered it a peaceful place from which she could depart this world without being discovered before she had passed on.

Many people, including myself, consider cemeteries peaceful places. They often have a quiet and secluded feeling about them. I grew up in a family where we visited cemeteries often, and my relatives were spread out over a number of cemeteries all over my rural county, and as a child I found cemeteries somewhat soothing and peaceful. The inhabitants were at rest, their troubles all behind them. It could be that Annandale Jane Doe was familiar with this cemetery, (could have had adult relatives in it somewhere or she could have been a a person who likes moseying through cemeteries reading epitaphs on gravestones) and knew about the children's section. Since children don't pass on as often as adults do, this would have maybe been a place to commit suicide where there was less risk of anybody coming to dig a grave and finding her and calling for help. I know she had a DNR bracelet but that doesn't mean her wishes would have been respected or even noticed in the heat of the moment if somebody found her and started CPR.
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The section of the cemetery is called Babyland and has a sign so it wouldn't have been hard for her to find. I'm glad I'm not alone with thinking cemeteries are strangely one of the most peaceful places on earth. My uncles passed before I was born and I grow up going to a cemetery visiting the uncle who was buried locally on his birthday every year. They really are so beautiful. I loved the graves with the photos. I haven't heard the medical professional theory before but really like that idea. I totally understand it as I am in the veterinary field. You can get really attached to patients. It would also explain her high end clothing as medical salaries tend to be on the higher end depending on what she did in the field.
 
There was some detail of her clothing that made some of the people in the first thread think she might have been a nurse. The watch, maybe?

Maybe once she decided to end it all, she took all the money she had left and used it to buy a nice outfit to die in. If she wrapped up all those loose ends and told people she was leaving, they wouldn't notice her as missing because they would expect her to be gone. I'm not explaining that very well...
 
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