Identified! FL - Palm Beach Co, near State Rd 703, WhtFem 14-15, UP16314, in woods, Jun'74 - Suzanne Gale Poole

[imstilla.grandma]

Dead Florida teen missing for 50 years ID’d. Serial killer cop suspected.

The suspected serial killer, who had worked as a police officer, has been implicated in up to 30 deaths.

www.tampabay.com

Skeletal remains found in 1974 identified as missing teen, possible victim of serial killer

Palm Beach County detectives identified teen girl Susan Poole, whose skeletal remains were discovered tied to a tree in 1974.

www.courttv.com

 

[Friday Fan]

Glad she's been identified.
RIP Suzanne.

From what I've read, these remains were found about an hour away, and Suzanne was purportedly reported missing.
How is it no one connected the dots much sooner, the remains found so close to home? I get today's forensic toolbox is bigger and more sophistocated, but in other cases from the 70s, like Linda Pagano's case in Ohio, agencies sent MP files to OH from all over the country. We know, because Ice was able to get the UP's case file and we saw it. It's how we found Carlene Brown's, from WY, dental records, which were lost. So I'm perplexed how a set of remains found within a short distance, within a relatively short amount of time after the victim went missing, weren't ID'd sooner? The more cases ID'd, the more I've noticed this happening, and I don't get it.

We had a woman who went missing in 1990. Everyone was looking for her. A body was found in next county two weeks later. (Body did not make news headlines at all. Assumed to be an immigrant) Body brought to ME in our county. DNA fortunately was taken by ME. (But no connection was made) Woman sent back to adjacent county and buried there. Not Identified until 2011.

 

[victoriarobinson642]

Rest in peace, Suzanne.

 

[Mysteries1974]

Glad she's been identified.
RIP Suzanne.

From what I've read, these remains were found about an hour away, and Suzanne was purportedly reported missing.
How is it no one connected the dots much sooner, the remains found so close to home? I get today's forensic toolbox is bigger and more sophistocated, but in other cases from the 70s, like Linda Pagano's case in Ohio, agencies sent MP files to OH from all over the country. We know, because Ice was able to get the UP's case file and we saw it. It's how we found Carlene Brown's, from WY, dental records, which were lost. So I'm perplexed how a set of remains found within a short distance, within a relatively short amount of time after the victim went missing, weren't ID'd sooner? The more cases ID'd, the more I've noticed this happening, and I don't get it.

Based on the fact that Suzanne was a teenaged girl who went missing in the early 1970s, I’m going to assume she was probably written off as a runaway and then the case was lost/purged once she turned 18 years of age. This happened a lot and is a big reason for why we don’t know truly how many people are missing in the United States.

 

[victoriarobinson642]

Remains Identified as Broward Teen Missing Nearly 50 Years May Be Victim of Serial Killer

Detectives with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office have successfully identified human remains found as those of a teen missing from Broward County for nearly a half century. PBSO said the remains were found the morning of June 16, 1974, in a swampy area of Singer Island, located in North...

www.nbcmiami.com

The victim was identified as a 15-year-old Susan Poole, who is believed to have disappeared before Christmas Day in 1972 from her home at a trailer park in Fort Lauderdale.

Fort Lauderdale is just over an hour away from Singer Island.

 

[wary]

Remains Identified as Broward Teen Missing Nearly 50 Years May Be Victim of Serial Killer

Detectives with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office have successfully identified human remains found as those of a teen missing from Broward County for nearly a half century. PBSO said the remains were found the morning of June 16, 1974, in a swampy area of Singer Island, located in North...

www.nbcmiami.com

The victim was identified as a 15-year-old Susan Poole, who is believed to have disappeared before Christmas Day in 1972 from her home at a trailer park in Fort Lauderdale.

View attachment 347562View attachment 347563
Fort Lauderdale is just over an hour away from Singer Island.

They say that Schafer, the serial killer, lived near her.

 

[Alleykins]

Based on the fact that Suzanne was a teenaged girl who went missing in the early 1970s, I’m going to assume she was probably written off as a runaway and then the case was lost/purged once she turned 18 years of age. This happened a lot and is a big reason for why we don’t know truly how many people are missing in the United States.

I get that. That's law enforcement dropping the ball, but some of these cases were heavily publicized by local media and I find it mindblowing that friends, classmates, or extended family didn't connect the dots, either.

 

[Green_Turtle]

(Perfect example of “work smarter not harder”... I spent the better part of an hour trying to make out the article in order to type it out... only to find a clear image of the article AFTER I was done typing it up Nonetheless, here is a (hopefully) clearer image of the newspaper article AND a fully typed version of said article. Forgive me if this has already been done...for some reason I thought this poor girl had been identified )

DENTAL RECORDS MAY HELP IDENTIFY SKELETON
“Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Department today will take dental information to Broward County authorities in hopes of identifying the skeleton of a girl found Sunday in a dense mangrove area on Singer Island.

The skeleton was found shortly before noon Sunday by a Lake Park father and his two teenage sons, who were looking for driftwood in the area between Lake Worth and SR A1A, about two miles south of Lost Tree Village.

Local police will compare dental charts they made yesterday with similar data on file in the Broward County Sheriff’s Department, to learn if the skeleton is one of several girls reported missing in the past two years.

Police also found a piece of what is believed to be human flesh which may give them the victim’s blood type. However, chemical tests on the material probably won’t be available for about 10 days.

That piece of flesh, the skull and lower jaw - with teeth intact - and a couple of scraps of clothing is about all authorities have to go on in their efforts to learn the girls identity and how and when she died.

So far, police have deterred that the woman was white between 13 and 19 years old at the time of death, was between 4-foot-11 and 5-foot-2 ½ tall, weighed between 83 and 120 pounds and had strawberry blonde hair.

“If we came up with an identification of this (skeleton), it will be a stroke of luck”, Sheriff William Heidtman said yesterday. “The way young girls are hitchhiking today, this girl could have come from anywhere in the country”.

Police also gound [sic] two pieces of clothing - a pullover sweater and a pair of bikini panties - which may have been worn by the victim.

The sweater is black, trimmed at the bottom with a wide band of gray. Full-length gray sleeves protrude from shorter, capped sleeves, giving the sweater the appearance of being a two-piece garment. The panties were described as yellow with yellow metallic stripes.

While police say there is no “apparent evidence” of foul play, there reportedly are holes in the back of the sweater that could have been made by bullets.

“We haven’t been able to determine if they are bullet holes”, Heidtman said. “They could be, but we haven’t found any lead (bullets) at the scene yet.”

The job of determining where the victim died - or was killed - has been made even more difficult because the skeleton was scattered over a relatively wide area.

Police theorize the bones were scattered by animals and birds that found the body in its stages of decomposition. The animals apparently also destroyed any evidence that would tell police if the body had been buried or had decomposed on the surface of the ground.

“Even if it had been buried,'' one detective explained, “It would have been uncovered by animals in the area”.

Because of the destructive ability of the animals - such as dogs, raccoons and land crabs - police aren’t certain where the victim died. However, they believe death may have occurred between eight weeks and eight months before the skeleton was found.

“But, it’s very possible it could have been there much longer than than”, a detective admitted.

The scattering of bones by animals created problems with Martin County authorities last year when they found the remains of two Broward County teenage girls in a remote, wooded area on Hutchinson Island.

Former Martin County Sheriff’s Deputy Gerard? John Schaefer was tried and convicted in the deaths of the two girls, identified as 16-year old Susan Place, of Oakland Park, and 17-year old Georgia Jessup of Ft. Lauderdale.

Schaefer, now serving a life sentence in Raiford State Prison, is appealing the case.”

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What jumps out at me is that the Palm Beach authorities immediately shared the deceased girl’s dental information with Broward law enforcement to see if it matched any missing girls. So why weren’t they able to make the connection?

 

[Mysteries1974]

What jumps out at me is that the Palm Beach authorities immediately shared the deceased girl’s dental information with Broward law enforcement to see if it matched any missing girls. So why weren’t they able to make the connection?

Time difference probably. I’m assuming if they dropped the ball on Susan’s case, it was probably purged/gone by the time Singer Island JD was located in 1974. There was a nearly two year difference between the two dates.

 

[GatorFL]

What jumps out at me is that the Palm Beach authorities immediately shared the deceased girl’s dental information with Broward law enforcement to see if it matched any missing girls. So why weren’t they able to make the connection?

Data sharing was much different in the 70's. That is why Bundy, et al were all so successful as serial killers.

 

[Alleykins]

Time difference probably. I’m assuming if they dropped the ball on Susan’s case, it was probably purged/gone by the time Singer Island JD was located in 1974. There was a nearly two year difference between the two dates.

Purged or not, you'd think an actual person at the police department would have stored her case in their memory banks. Im' not saying memorized word for word, but even vaguely. Or upon hearing about the discovery of remains that it wouldn't have rung a bell, sparking curiosity, at the very least. Two years isn't that long of a time span that an individual officer/detective/investigator would have also purged their brain.

 

[Mysteries1974]

Purged or not, you'd think an actual person at the police department would have stored her case in their memory banks. Im' not saying memorized word for word, but even vaguely. Or upon hearing about the discovery of remains that it wouldn't have rung a bell, sparking curiosity, at the very least. Two years isn't that long of a time span that an individual officer/detective/investigator would have also purged their brain.

Now that you say it, it is strange. If it was a classified as a runaway situation, it might’ve been closed initially as well though. Take Wendy Huggy for example, she was listed as a runaway and her case was closed two weeks after she went missing in 1982. It took a few years before anyone decided to investigate it again.

 

[Friday Fan]

Purged or not, you'd think an actual person at the police department would have stored her case in their memory banks. Im' not saying memorized word for word, but even vaguely. Or upon hearing about the discovery of remains that it wouldn't have rung a bell, sparking curiosity, at the very least. Two years isn't that long of a time span that an individual officer/detective/investigator would have also purged their brain.

Sadly, Susan was likely classified as a runaway, since she was 15, a HS dropout, and not living at home. (Couch surfing between her family's trailer and a friend's apartment). I could see police thinking that it was a typical, "found a guy and got married" or "this kid wants to be an adult"...That was the mindset back then.

I'm a year older than Susan and that was how it was back then.

It appears her family had limited means to pursue any follow up. (If it had been my parents, they probably would have gotten ahold of the media and created a stink). It's easy to purge a file when you do not have a squeaky wheel pursuing it.
By runaway, it meant that if the police found her, she had parents and an address.
They then would return her home instead of allowing her to live on her own.
I highly doubt if there was a search or anything.

Police never searched for runaway teens back then.
I know someone who died as a runaway..Possibly murdered, but charges were never filed
She ran away with a BF who was in a motorcycle gang.
Police were not looking for her

 

[imstilla.grandma]

Remains Of Teen Missing Since 1972 ID'd, May Have Been Murdered By Serial Killer Cop | Oxygen

The remains of a Florida teen killed nearly a half-century ago have finally been identified and investigators believe a serial killer cop could be responsible.

www.oxygen.com

Genetic genealogists from Texas-based Othram Inc. have helped the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office identify the girl, previously known only as “Singer Island Jane Doe.”

Florida Jane Doe IDed after nearly 48 years may be victim of serial killer cop Gerard Schaefer

Susan Gale Poole, whose remains were found in a mangrove swamp two years after she vanished, is believed to be a possible victim of serial killer Gerard John Schaefer, a former police officer and deputy.

www.kiro7.com

 

[Beekarina]

How very sad. She also looks so eerily like a friend of mine from Florida....hopefully no connection, but wow....

Frustrating this went unsolved for so long, but good work Othram!

 

[Alleykins]

We had a woman who went missing in 1990. Everyone was looking for her. A body was found in next county two weeks later. (Body did not make news headlines at all. Assumed to be an immigrant) Body brought to ME in our county. DNA fortunately was taken by ME. (But no connection was made) Woman sent back to adjacent county and buried there. Not Identified until 2011.

That type of ineptness blows my mind, too. Even if the discovery of the body wasn't publicized, the ME, being from the same county as the missing person, you'd think they'd have had a list of local missing people. Or picked up the phone and called around to different police departments and said, "Hey, are you missing a person with XYZ characteristics?" If they did take those steps, and it didn't click with the reporting agency, then LE dropped the ball.
I'm also thinking if they'd publicized the discovery of the body, someone in the community or family would have suggested the possible match.

 

[Alleykins]

Sadly, Susan was likely classified as a runaway, since she was 15, a HS dropout, and not living at home. (Couch surfing between her family's trailer and a friend's apartment). I could see police thinking that it was a typical, "found a guy and got married" or "this kid wants to be an adult"...That was the mindset back then.

I'm a year older than Susan and that was how it was back then.

It appears her family had limited means to pursue any follow up. (If it had been my parents, they probably would have gotten ahold of the media and created a stink). It's easy to purge a file when you do not have a squeaky wheel pursuing it.
By runaway, it meant that if the police found her, she had parents and an address.
They then would return her home instead of allowing her to live on her own.
I highly doubt if there was a search or anything.

Police never searched for runaway teens back then.
I know someone who died as a runaway..Possibly murdered, but charges were never filed
She ran away with a BF who was in a motorcycle gang.
Police were not looking for her

Yes, I get the whole run away thing, it still happens with teens today, sadly.

 

[HmmMysterious]

I enhanced a photo of Susan and her sister.

Source:

 

[wary]

The description of Gerard Schaefer’s crimes and suspected crimes has me convinced that he murdered her. The location is right. The time of her disappearance is exactly when he seems to have gone on a killing spree. The modus operandi is the same—wired to a tree in the wilderness.

 

[othram]

How very sad. She also looks so eerily like a friend of mine from Florida....hopefully no connection, but wow....

Frustrating this went unsolved for so long, but good work Othram!

We are working to get our tech out to as many folks as possible. I think in the next 12 months you will see exponential improvement in these older cases.