Italy - Prato, WhtFem, hanged, maps of Vancouver & Copenhagen, 13 Nov 2007

[Aurora90]

Or maybe genetic genealogy is the better route.

I know being of East African decent there isn’t much information available due to lack of input from certain demographics communities.is the Polish population similarly impacted?

Maybe @othram can answer that?

 

[MarziPanda]

Or maybe genetic genealogy is the better route.

I know being of East African decent there isn’t much information available due to lack of input from certain demographics communities.is the Polish population similarly impacted?

Maybe @othram can answer that?

It's definitely harder to use genetic genealogy outside of the US. Most of the people who have taken DNA tests and uploaded to GEDmatch are Americans of European descent. So whilst it's not usually difficult to connect the dots between an unidentified white American Doe and their relatives, it's much harder for anyone who will have very few relatives in the US (or few who have tested). So a Polish woman might have only very distant relatives, such as their great great grandmother's brother's great great grandchild, if said brother moved to the US. It's also harder because not every country has accessible genealogy records - it may be hard for a genetic genealogist in the US to find records from 100 years ago in Poland.

But it's not impossible, and the technique has been successfully used in Europe before. At the very least it would likely confirm where she was from.

 

[dotr]

Fwiw, rbbm.

Lasers - International Hyperhidrosis Society | Official Site

Laser Therapy for Underarm Sweating You may be familiar with the use of laser therapy to treat varicose veins, to perform delicate eye surgery, and to remove skin lesions. But did you know that lasers are also used to treat excessive sweating...

www.sweathelp.org

''You may be familiar with the use of laser therapy to treat varicose veins, to perform delicate eye surgery, and to remove skin lesions.
But did you know that lasers are also used to treat excessive sweating (hyperhidrosis) of the underarms (axilla)?''

Diagnosing Hyperhidrosis - International Hyperhidrosis Society | Official Site

If you suffer from excessive sweating, chances are, you suffer every day. You may constantly worry about how much you’re sweating. You may spend hours each day dealing with sweat - changing clothes, "freshening up", wiping, placing napkins or pads...

www.sweathelp.org

"If you suffer from excessive sweating, chances are, you suffer every day. You may constantly worry about how much you’re sweating. You may spend hours each day dealing with sweat - changing clothes, "freshening up", wiping, placing napkins or pads under your arms or in your pockets, bathing, and hiding under dark-colored, bulky clothes. You may have lost friends and opportunities because of extremely sweaty palms, slippery sweaty feet, sweating on your face, or uncontrollable sweating underarms. Afraid of what people will think, you may even make excuses to stay home or choose careers in which you don’t have to interact with people, shake hands, or give presentations. Emotional problems, including depression, social isolation, and decreased confidence, can result.''

 

[Carovb5]

On reddit there was a sleuth who suggested the missing Maria Warmuzek as a possible match with other sleuths answering they look alike. Unfortunately i can’t see the pictures. Anyone saw them or has a working link?

 

[fred&edna]

dbm

 

[Nate_Bro]

On reddit there was a sleuth who suggested the missing Maria Warmuzek as a possible match with other sleuths answering they look alike. Unfortunately i can’t see the pictures. Anyone saw them or has a working link?

I don't see Maria on the Polish missing person site. I wonder if she is still considered missing? That reddit post is a few years old now.

 

[Romulus]

1941UFITA - Unidentified Female​

Reconstruction of the decedent; her sunglasses; her shoulder bag; an article in her possession; handwriting on the Scientific American magazine in her possession.
Date of Discovery: November 13, 2007
Location of Discovery: Via di Cavagliano, Prato, Italy
Estimated Date of Death: Unknown
State of Remains: Unknown
Cause of Death: Suicide by hanging

Physical Description​

Estimated Age: 50 - 60 years old
Race: White
Sex: Female
Height: 160cm / 5'3"
Weight: Unknown
Hair: Blonde
Eye Color: Light
Distinguishing Marks/Features: Unknown

Identifiers​

Dentals: Unknown
Fingerprints: Unknown
DNA: Unknown

Clothing & Personal Items​

Clothing: Dark trousers, sports shoes
Jewelry: None
Additional Personal Items: Black shoulder bag, sunglasses

Circumstances of Discovery​

The woman’s body was found hanging from a tree in a park in Via di Cavagliano, Prato. The following items were discovered in a bag hanging near the woman’s body: Map of Vancouver, Canada, on which the Victoria Conference Centre had been circled, with the words: “Conference 2427 Sept”. The FOSS4G (Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial) Conference was held there on 24-27 September 2007;
A map of Copenhagen Airport;
A copy of “Scientific American” magazine with a request for a subscription related to a postal address in Payson, Arizona, United States;
An article on the use of lasers in dermatology, with an address in Cambridge, UK, written on the back;
Some pages from a magazine with a photograph of the Danish Royal Family;
A Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) luggage label.

Forensic Genealogy​

Investigating Agency(s)​

Agency Name: Interpol
Agency Contact Person: N/A
Agency Phone Number: N/A
Agency E-mail: You can submit a form to Interpol using the website below if you have any information.
Agency Case Number: 2024-IT04

Information Source(s)​

Interpol - Identify Me

https://www.doenetwork.org/cases/software/main.html?id=1941UFITA

 

[ST44]

Hi everyone, I read about this suicide on Reddit a few months ago and it stuck with me. I was not living in Prato at the time of the suicide (I didn't know anything about it) but I do live in Prato now and I was born in Prato.
The only thing I can give a contribution about is about the place she took her life in and what's nearby.

Prato's population in 2007 was comprised in 16% of immigrants, the place where she took her life is not an immigrant area, on the contrary, it's the richest area. Prato has been the Manchester of Italy, a town that since the '70s, thanks to its textile industry, has made many textile entrepreneurs rich and that area is where they would build their houses, it's charming, close to the centre, and near the hills.

There are two things the bug me about this case: she hardly had any belongings and we do not know where she spent the night before. It's unusual because even back in 2007 it was compulsory to register the passports of everyone sleeping in a hotel or a hostel or they would pay heavy fines, so it's unlikely she slept in a hotel in Prato.

The first hypothesis is that she slept in a religious shelter. I took the liberty to ask Gemini where a woman with a housing emergency would go in 2007 and in Florence that place would be the nuns of Madre Teresa but there was no such official place in Prato, the religious affiliated associazione Santa Rita took care of this kind of problems, but in an informal manner so we do not know where they would host women back then.
The place where she took her life is very peculiar, known mostly to locals, it is very close to what was then a franciscan monastery (i cappuccini). It's unlikely that she spent the night there because it was an only men's cloister. Within walking distance though you can find the chiesa di Sant'Anna, which ages ago used to be a monastery for nuns.
Could it be that she asked for help in Florence (maybe in the Suore di Madre Teresa in Florence) and she was directed then to Prato and stayed the night in the old monastery of Santa Rita? No idea. I'm not into religion. But if she was hosted in a religious setting though, then all of the secrecy around the real name of this person would make sense. They don't want to be linked to a suicide, to make public where one of their safehouses is and to have the police investigate the place. They want to keep it quiet. If this woman stayed the night in a religious shelter it means that she was broke and did not have anyone who cared about her, beside the fact that she was sick, had zero chances of survival in Italy and had no means to get back to her own country whichever it was.

The second hypothesis is that she knew or met someone who lived nearby and who offered to host her for the night. Could she have met someone at the conference in Florence? Could she have known someone in Prato from the philatelic world? As of today there's only one philatelic shop left in Prato in the centre (no idea how many were open in 2007).

The third and final hypothesis is that she had no connections at all with Prato. She did not sleep in Prato, she just stopped in town randomly, she walked randomly in despair and she found the right spot for her final act on the hill: calm and peaceful. What makes this the most strange hypothesis is that the place is not easy to find, it feels very specific to a local. Tourist and foreigners don't visit it. Back in 2007 Google maps was not a thing in Italy, ordinary people did not have smartphones with apps. She did not have a map of Prato in her belongings and yet she walked it as if she was a local.

 

[MarziPanda]

Welcome to Websleuths! Thank you for your local insight. I feel like the police would maybe have asked around to see if anyone recognised her, and if she'd stayed at a religious institution, they would probably have spoken up. So I'm leaning more towards her staying with someone she knew who has stayed quiet, or that she didn't stay in Prato at all. Although it's also possible the police never thought to ask the religious settings, or never did much investigation.

I wonder how well known Prato would have been back then for tourists? I wonder if she could have researched nice looking places to end her life, and somehow found Prato. It seems like the sort of place that might be included in a travel book (which would be how you would find these things back then). Tuscany is seen as quite romantic and beautiful so maybe she chose it in advance and memorised her travel plans. Maybe she stayed in another city, left most of her belongings (or binned them) there, and then travelled to Prato on the day. Which would mean she chose the things she kept with her carefully - why those things? To throw the police off? To add an air of mystery? For romanticism? Or just because she decided to carry that bag with her and that's what she happened to have in there?

 

[Romulus]

Hi, I'm Italian, and Prato is almost unremarkable among Tuscan cities—I can assure you. It's famous for its textile industry, its strong Chinese immigration, and little else. Maybe I stumbled upon it by chance, or maybe I knew someone, but I certainly didn't go there for tourism.