Identified! FL - Sumter Co, 'Little Miss Panasoffkee', WhtFem 17-24, 470UFFL, Feb 1971 (Maureen L. Minor Rowan)

[Kitsey]

As someone who has been following and researching this case since 2012, wow! I am glad she finally got her name back, but I guess she was not Greek after all.

IMO I think some of the artists who created her reconstructions were subconsciously influenced by the suggestion that she was Greek. As she is photographed, she wouldn't immediately strike me as being of Greek descent.

 

[killarney rose]

IMO I think some of the artists who created her reconstructions were subconsciously influenced by the suggestion that she was Greek. As she is photographed, she wouldn't immediately strike me as being of Greek descent.

For years I’ve thought she would look like the newer reconstructions, but the younger photos of Cookie look more like those first reconstructions,

 

[Susikatze]

I doubt that her body was stored. She was found with the man's belt around her neck... that seems like "in the moment" passion. If the body was stored, I think he would have removed it.

It appears that Maureen's immediate family had moved from Maine to Florida... and she met this Rowan after she was already down there.
Her parents both died in the 70s and her babies were so very young.... so who would even be trying to look for Cookie??

I guess I am hoping that Maureen's daughters may have some reunions with her mother's relatives in Maine after this.

I believe he murdered and dumped her before he filed for divorce. While they could have been separated after he filed for divorce and he tried to reconcile and she refused and then he killed her, it is way more likely he killed her in October or November and filed divorce right after. He knew it will be granted in absentia. Much more credible if he claimed she just ran away. I believe she was in the water for three months, the body initially sank and after several weeks started to bloat and float up. The cold water and lack of oxygen underwater tend to slow decomposition down a lot.

jmoo of course

 

[Richard]

New details in 'Little Miss Panasoffkee' 50-year-old Central Florida cold case​

LINK:

MSN

 

[Blurgle]

Steven Shelton (FKA Fulton County John Doe, 1996) was ID'd through a fingerprint match in September 2023. No genetic genealogy involved in his case.

As was Philip Kahn. They did attempt to identify him via genetic genealogy, but the combination of being Ashkenazi and having no close relatives at all (apparently because he was the only child of immigrant parents whose entire families perished in the Holocaust) meant they couldn’t make any headway.

 

[Susikatze]

As was Philip Kahn. They did attempt to identify him via genetic genealogy, but the combination of being Ashkenazi and having no close relatives at all (apparently because he was the only child of immigrant parents whose entire families perished in the Holocaust) meant they couldn’t make any headway.

OT: He had a brother but had changed his family name from Ehrlichman to Kahn and was estranged from him.

 

[dotr]

Little Miss Lake Panasoffkee identified after nearly 55 years

She was 21-year-old Maureen L. Minor Rowan of Tampa, a mother of two young children. As for her killer, the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office says her estranged husband, now dead, is a “person of interest."

www.cfpublic.org

 

[iamshadow21]

DBM

 

[dotr]

Except Peggy Johnson wasn't from Canada. And she wasn't identified by isotopes. Her killer disclosed information when drunk that someone passed on to the police.

Murder of Peggy Johnson - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

MOO

Thank you, removed post.

 

[Aluev]

I am Greek and in this photo she does look Greek to me...
Could she have been adopted?

Little Miss Lake Panasoffkee identified after nearly 55 years

She was 21-year-old Maureen L. Minor Rowan of Tampa, a mother of two young children. As for her killer, the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office says her estranged husband, now dead, is a “person of interest."

www.cfpublic.org

View attachment 622657

 

[Kitsey]

I am Greek and in this photo she does look Greek to me...
Could she have been adopted?

There were a lot of adoptions (through dubious moral and legal methods) from Greece in the Cold War period, but most of the adoptive families were Greek American, to my knowledge. To my eye, she could easily be Greek but she doesn’t strike me immediately as Greek, if that makes sense (I’m also Greek). The shape of the nose is different than the newer reconstructions.

 

[nhmemorymaker]

I am Greek and in this photo she does look Greek to me...
Could she have been adopted?

We can see her in the 1950 census with her parents in Maine. (she was born in 1948) It does appear to be her with her biological parents.

and adding: most of her extended family names in Maine/Vermont do not appear to be Greek in origin either.

 

[Lebowski]

going by appearance alone, i agree she could be greek, but she could also easily be any other kind of european descent. i wouldn't trust these old pictures to give an accurate sense of her complexion. and having brown hair and eyes is pretty common among white people of all ancestries.

where did the idea she might be greek come from in the first place? purely isotope data?

 

[victoriarobinson642]

We can see her in the 1950 census with her parents in Maine. (she was born in 1948) It does appear to be her with her biological parents.

and adding: most of her extended family names in Maine/Vermont do not appear to be Greek in origin either.

I traced her lineage back a few generations, and it seems like her family was Quebecois on one side and recent Irish immigrants on the other.

 

[MagicCityMan]

So glad this case was solved. I was at times skeptical that it ever would be. As far as the isotopes are concerned I echo a lot of the sentiments on this thread...complete junk science that seems to rarely if ever be accurate. Even if she was of Greek descent, the isotope tests would still be inaccurate since they indicated she was actually born and raised in Greece which she obviously was not. This has to be extremely difficult for her children to wrap their heads around at this time so my thoughts are certainly with them and any other family she has remaining.

 

[summergirl1]

Steven Shelton (FKA Fulton County John Doe, 1996) was ID'd through a fingerprint match in September 2023. No genetic genealogy involved in his case. Sadly, he's still unclaimed as LE can't locate his next of kin.

Very glad to hear of Maureen's identification, but very disappointed that LE hadn't once thought to recirculate her autopsy fingerprints since 2006 (as I read further upthread). They could have ID'd her way back in 2013 if they'd just run another check.

The specific fingerprint identification program they submitted the prints too wasn't acquired until February according to the article below, so I wonder if they could have ID'd her in 2013?

'Little Miss Lake Panasoffkee' identified; person of interest identified, officials say

A young woman killed more than 50 years ago and left in a lake beneath an overpass – known as "Little Miss Lake Panasoffkee" – has been identified, officials with the Sumter County Sheriff's Office said.

www.fox35orlando.com

 

[MelmothTheLost]

The better question is when has an a long term doe been identified by isotope testing?

Isotopes are not intended to specifically identify a deceased individual (because they can't do that) but to provide pointers to law enforcement as to where to look for a persons origins and more recent travels.

 

[iamshadow21]

Isotopes are not intended to specifically identify a deceased individual (because they can't do that) but to provide pointers to law enforcement as to where to look for a persons origins and more recent travels.

That's the intention, but the results seem to be wrong more than right, so the result is actually derailment of an investigation. Like this, and Evelyn Colon, where investigators were told to look for an international connection that didn't exist. It's time for it to be consigned to the history books. It's not helping, and it is actually harming.

MOO

 

[The4TierBridge]

The better question is when has an a long term doe been identified by isotope testing?

#UP14649, a case involving partial and dismembered skeletal remains from 2016 in Columbus, Ohio, was resolved in 2020 after they did oxygen isotope testing from bone that found the person was likely very specifically from Corbin, Kentucky, and then were able to match the victim to a known missing person who had moved from there to Ohio and confirm it after DNA testing using the parents who actually still lived there;

Human remains identified in Mercer County - Sidney Daily News

CELINA — Mercer County authorities have identified the human remains found near Coldwater Creek on Jan. 3, 2016. Mercer County Sheriff Jeff Grey held a news conference Tuesday to announce the bones belonged to Ryan R. Zimmerman, 22, of Columbus and formerly of Corbin, Kentucky. Zimmerman had...

www.sidneydailynews.com

Oxygen Isotopes Help ID 2016 Human Remains

In May 2017, the Sheriff’s Office requested ISO Forensics to pull oxygen isotopes from the remains to predict areas of the United States that the victim could be from.

www.forensicmag.com

Transition, Rejection, and Murder: A Miami Valley Murder Mystery

One of the Miami Valley's most bizarre murder mysteries began with a young man’s search for his sexual identity, and ended in transition, rejection, and murder.

www.whio.com

Ryan Zimmerman – The Charley Project

This is the only one I can think of where the isotope testing itself was the main driver behind a case resolution. Plenty of others have had correct predictions though. I think it is a useful tool when used with caution.

 

[nhmemorymaker]

I traced her lineage back a few generations, and it seems like her family was Quebecois on one side and recent Irish immigrants on the other.

tis what I found as well. There are many Greek communities scattered around New England, so I was trying ot find any possibilities of connections. But I too, only found Irish and Canadian.... so very common in Maine.

What I still do wonder, given that Maureen's family moved to the greater Jacksonville area at some point, she was in Florida when she met her husband. So, its not as if they were all the way up in Maine at the time of her disappearance.
What did they think of this husband?
WHY didn't THEY put in a missing person's report?
Did they spend time with Maureen's two children?

They both died in the 1970s (I believe 1973 and 1979) so they did not have time to live with the ongoing saga of this unidentified woman. But still.... where were they???

And has anyone picked up the specific details of WHY LE can declare the ex a POI???
It might feel obvious to us... but he would not have been identified until she was, so what are the details???