Girl with dark long hair and fur coat.

[JOVE23]

I am presuming that the photo of TGFCG was taken between 1968 and 1971. But I don't know for sure. I don't think that the photo is from those that he took in California. But I don't know that for certain either.

Something about WF and TGFCG doesn't match up for me. Almost like TGFCG is WF plus two or three years (or maybe less, like she's lost some "baby fat" in her face or something). The nose for some reason doesn't click for me either, but I would not be surprised if they were one in the same or at least sisters or something.

She's gorgeous, I hope she's still alive somewhere.

 

[CarlK90245]

Something about WF and TGFCG doesn't match up for me. Almost like TGFCG is WF plus two or three years (or maybe less, like she's lost some "baby fat" in her face or something). The nose for some reason doesn't click for me either, but I would not be surprised if they were one in the same or at least sisters or something.

She's gorgeous, I hope she's still alive somewhere.

The yearbook photo was from the 1970 yearbook, so the yearbook photo was probably taken in fall or winter 1969. She would have been about 17 at the beginning of her senior year.

Alcala was on the East Coast until August of 1971. So there is a nearly two-year window for WF to have aged from about 17 to about 19 or 20

 

[JOVE23]

The yearbook photo was from the 1970 yearbook, so the yearbook photo was probably taken in fall or winter 1969. She would have been about 17 at the beginning of her senior year.

Alcala was on the East Coast until August of 1971. So there is a nearly two-year window for WF to have aged from about 17 to about 19 or 20

Fair enough. I definitely see the resemblance, so maybe those 12-24 months can account for the differences in photos 1 and 2.

Frustrating that LE can't get a hold of WF.

 

[rosesfromangels]

Such a haunting photo

 

[CarlK90245]

Just an update on WF:

Back in June of last year, I posted a message on the City-Data online community asking if anyone there would be able to locate WF.

In February of this year, I received an e-mail from a man who said that his father is the cousin of WF. He said that his father is now 92 years old, and neither of them had seen WF or WF's sister since the early 1970's, and he was trying to locate them. He said that the last he heard of WF, she was attending college at SUNY Buffalo in the early 70's. He gave me the names of WF's parents, who are both now deceased. He added that WF's mother passed away in 2006 in Hawaii, and both sisters were mentioned in their mother's obituary.

I looked up her mother and found the obituary with WF and her sister listed as surviving relatives. I did some further inquiry and found several of the mother's prior addresses, including one in a rural town in Western NY. I did a property inquiry on that address and found that the current owners are a husband and wife SO and WO (with the "W" being the same first name as WF's first name). A search on WO revealed that her DOB was in Oct'53, which would have made her 16 years old during most of the 1969-1970 school year.

(All along, I had presumed that the WIHS yearbook showed only seniors, but it is possible that the school portraits were not segregated by grade, and that all classes might have been shown in a single section).

Being pretty certain that I had found WF, I attempted to call her. S.O. answered. I asked if I could speak with WO, and he said that she was "on vacation". I asked if her maiden name was F---. He wouldn't answer, and asked why I was calling. I explained the whole story about Rodney Alcala, and how I believe that WF is one of the persons in Alcala's photo collection.

S.O. gave me his e-mail address, and asked me to send him the whole explanation and photos via an e-mail. He added that if his wife felt like responding, she would. I sent him a detailed e-mail along with the photos of TGFCG, and WF's high school pic. I also indicated that I don't need to know the circumstances under which the photos were taken I told him that just wanted to know if his wife was WF, and if so, whether she was TGFCG. I never received a response.

I am almost certain that WO and WF are the same person. Otherwise, her husband would have simply said that her maiden name was not F---, and he wouldn't have instructed me to send him the e-mail.

But to my great frustration, I still cannot pin down whether TGFCG is WF. :banghead:

 

[hayaletcatcher]

Just an update on WF:

Back in June of last year, I posted a message on the City-Data online community asking if anyone there would be able to locate WF.

In February of this year, I received an e-mail from a man who said that his father is the cousin of WF. He said that his father is now 92 years old, and neither of them had seen WF or WF's sister since the early 1970's, and he was trying to locate them. He said that the last he heard of WF, she was attending college at SUNY Buffalo in the early 70's. He gave me the names of WF's parents, who are both now deceased. He added that WF's mother passed away in 2006 in Hawaii, and both sisters were mentioned in their mother's obituary.

I looked up her mother and found the obituary with WF and her sister listed as surviving relatives. I did some further inquiry and found several of the mother's prior addresses, including one in a rural town in Western NY. I did a property inquiry on that address and found that the current owners are a husband and wife SO and WO (with the "W" being the same first name as WF's first name). A search on WO revealed that her DOB was in Oct'53, which would have made her 16 years old during most of the 1969-1970 school year.

(All along, I had presumed that the WIHS yearbook showed only seniors, but it is possible that the school portraits were not segregated by grade, and that all classes might have been shown in a single section).

Being pretty certain that I had found WF, I attempted to call her. S.O. answered. I asked if I could speak with WO, and he said that she was "on vacation". I asked if her maiden name was F---. He wouldn't answer, and asked why I was calling. I explained the whole story about Rodney Alcala, and how I believe that WF is one of the persons in Alcala's photo collection.

S.O. gave me his e-mail address, and asked me to send him the whole explanation and photos via an e-mail. He added that if his wife felt like responding, she would. I sent him a detailed e-mail along with the photos of TGFCG, and WF's high school pic. I also indicated that I don't need to know the circumstances under which the photos were taken I told him that just wanted to know if his wife was WF, and if so, whether she was TGFCG. I never received a response.

I am almost certain that WO and WF are the same person. Otherwise, her husband would have simply said that her maiden name was not F---, and he wouldn't have instructed me to send him the e-mail.

But to my great frustration, I still cannot pin down whether TGFCG is WF. :banghead:

Wow, great work. Like button is not enough.

And yes if the maiden name wasn't F, he'd of just said that out right, right? That would of been the end of the call right there.

Strange.

 

[cocomod]

Also, if it wasn't her, wouldn't he have just let you know? The good news is that IF this is her, she is still alive and well.

 

[jackornaught]

Awesome job though Carl


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[CarlK90245]

Just received a reply from WF's husband:

Hi Carl

My name is SO, W----’s husband. W---- has had a bad health bout and is now blind due to neglect of diabetes and high blood pressure. Doctors are not sure which got her eyes. She is not going to be much help. One thing I did notice on your picture is eye color.

W----'s are brown, that girl is hazel or green. There definitely is a similarity but I don’t believe its her. When she attended that high school she graduated when she was 16, then went to College in Buffalo. She is not familiar with the name or case.

Sorry I can’t be of more help

Wow. I was as sure as the sky is blue that those were the same person.

Hat tip to WildHuncher and Jove23 for being the contrarians on this one.

 

[hopeandglory]

Just received a reply from WF's husband:



Wow. I was as sure as the sky is blue that those were the same person.

Hat tip to WildHuncher and Jove23 for being the contrarians on this one.

Am I the only one who thinks that sounds like a lie? I just get that vibe from it.

 

[CarlK90245]

Am I the only one who thinks that sounds like a lie? I just get that vibe from it.

IDK if it was a lie. He did say initially when I first called him that she was "on vacation", which probably wasn't true. All along, he has acted like he didn't want to deal with it, and perhaps his wife's condition had something to do with it.

Nevertheless, this doesn't rule her out as TGFCG. Alcala was a film school student, and it is possible that he retouched the photo using the school's equipment. If you zoom in on her right eye, the only green is a very slight unnatural-looking bit of emerald green on the edge of her iris. Much of what makes her eyes look green is the large grey light reflection.

Also, Alcala went by the alias John Berger, so I wouldn't expect WF to remember him by his true name.

I am still leaning towards this being WF, despite what her husband believes. If you zoom in on their upper lips, WF and TGFCG have exactly the same anomaly - two spots right below their philtrum.

But at this juncture, there would be nowhere else to go on this one to prove it for sure.

 

[WildHuncher]

Nevertheless, this doesn't rule her out as TGFCG. Alcala was a film school student, and it is possible that he retouched the photo using the school's equipment. If you zoom in on her right eye, the only green is a very slight unnatural-looking bit of emerald green on the edge of her iris. Much of what makes her eyes look green is the large grey light reflection.

No retouching needed. I think it's very unlikely he ever retouched a picture. Those eyes are brown, hazel, whatever. (Link below to an earlier post.)

Websleuths Crime Sleuthing Community - View Single Post - Girl with dark long hair and fur coat.

 

[WildHuncher]

If you zoom in on her right eye, the only green is a very slight unnatural-looking bit of emerald green on the edge of her iris.

The following is from the Wikipedia article on eye color:

This can sometimes produce a multicolored iris, i.e., an eye that is light brown/amber near the pupil and charcoal or dark green on the outer part of the iris (or vice versa) when observed in sunlight.

Eye color - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hazel_green_eyes_close_up.jpg

It happens, and it produces confusion when people try to describe such a person's eye color.

 

[TB Rhine]

So are we still pretty sure we've identified this girl? Or, for that matter, do we know for sure whether the disabled lady whose husband Carl spoke to was actually the girl in the Yearbook photo? The 'fur coat' image is the one that haunts me the most (along with some of the ones obviously taken in the woods... remote area, etc.) That girl just has a worrying look in her eye.

 

[CarlK90245]

No, we are not sure. WF's husband says her eyes are brown, not hazel. But I'm not calling that a positive rule out. The resemblance is too strong to rule out on that basis.

I do know that the woman whose husband I talked to is the same person (WF) who appears in the yearbook.

But with her being blind now, and unable to see the photos to confirm for herself whether she is the girl in the grey fur coat, there isn't much else we can do.

 

[ATasteOfHoney]

No, we are not sure. WF's husband says her eyes are brown, not hazel. But I'm not calling that a positive rule out. The resemblance is too strong to rule out on that basis.

I do know that the woman whose husband I talked to is the same person (WF) who appears in the yearbook.

But with her being blind now, and unable to see the photos to confirm for herself whether she is the girl in the grey fur coat, there isn't much else we can do.

Confirm through her siblings, perhaps?

I don't buy his story.....nope.

 

[TB Rhine]

Or maybe ask if she ever sat for a photo session with a kind of creepy guy who dressed her in a fur coat and told her to look scared? Seems like you'd remember something like that, even if you couldn't, say, look at a photo of Alcala and confirm with absolute certainty that he was the guy (assuming you still had the use of your visual faculties, of course).

 

[sfbaynancydrew]

Carl, first off, you're awesome. Secondly, I feel like the husband's story is untrustworthy for some reason. What a frustrating lead to chase down!

 

[Lil'E]

Bumping up, I still think she resembles Rose Cole.

 

[manuk]

I'm warming up to the possibility that Girl with the Dark Long Hair and Ellen Hover were the same person.