Identified! AR - El Dorado, BlkFem UP2929, 30-50, SS card 'Melvalyn Washington', 9 September 1994 *id'd March 2026 - Melvalyn Doris Jones Washington (42)*

[The4TierBridge]

I dont want to point to the elephant in the room but her being black, middle aged adult and with no obvious foul play involved may have contributed to that sad situation.

jmoo

This death was actually believed to be a homicide. Here’s an article from a women’s magazine from 1995 that mentions the remains being found (and also includes her full name and that fact that she was missing).

https://shareok.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/3f189969-f123-46ec-888c-2ddbf55a72fd/content

They’d told her family and the public the authorities found her bones, just never did any of the confirmatory work.

 

[Susikatze]

This death was actually believed to be a homicide. Here’s an article from a women’s magazine from 1995 that mentions the remains being found (and also includes her full name and that fact that she was missing).

https://shareok.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/3f189969-f123-46ec-888c-2ddbf55a72fd/content

They’d told her family and the public the authorities found her bones, just never did any of the confirmatory work.

Interesting- so she was identified all along but not made public?

 

[The4TierBridge]

Interesting- so she was identified all along but not made public?

The remains were never identified forensically until now and her family was only given custody over them last month. Usually in cases like this the problem is authorities can’t verify the identity documents or can’t find the person’s family in order to collect DNA or whatever other records are needed to make a positive ID here, but for this one I guess they were just lazy or something

 

[Susikatze]

The remains were never identified forensically until now and her family was only given custody over them last month. Usually in cases like this the problem is authorities can’t verify the identity documents or can’t find the person’s family in order to collect DNA or whatever other records are needed to make a positive ID here, but for this one I guess they were just lazy or something

The family was actively looking for her as far as I know - and apparently they were notified back then. So how could they not close the case forensically?
She was not an adoptee or had problematic paperwork or no family to claim her.
Maybe LE focused on the murder and formally identifying her was not priority back then?
Maybe there was problems with the paperwork or structural changes in the office that was in charge or someone handling her case retired and did not transfer the case. Or her files did not make it from paper to digitalizing - we will never find out.

jmoo