Hello. I'm new here, so take my sleuthing with a grain of salt.
I just went over all of the articles posted at the website, traced them back to their respective sources and cross referenced all information released to the public at that time. I used to spend my summers about 5 miles from there in Hollywood with my grandpa on his farm, so I know the area fairly well.
There were inconsistencies reported in the articles I could find in several instances; one in where her sweater was found, and one having to do with a car of interest to the case and the biggest of all - was this poor lady murdered?
What is disturbing is according to the latest articles, there seems to be a large question as to whether this beautiful lady was actually murdered, or if she had enjoyed the company of a man and then died of unknown causes. No information leading the casual reader to that conclusion was captured in the papers. It was a huge jump in viewpoint from "all hands on deck" by the police, to this may have been a health issue. The evidence was presented before a grand jury seeking indictment several times. On all occasions, the Grand Jury declined to indict, citing lack of evidence, but did encourage the police to keep looking. Several cursory searches in the same publications turned up no additional information.
So, if it were me, I would petition for another copy of the autopsy (the second one by Dr. C.S. Petty from Baltimore will be more in depth) to see if there is indeed cause for further investigation before I proceed further. The attorneys and sheriffs seem to know more than a few things we don't. The easiest one to prove (should you be able to acquire the autopsy report) would be was the poor soul strangled or not? Most of the older sources say yes, the newer ones seem to think she suffocated somehow.
If you do suspect foul play, I would do the following:
With the loss of State Police records, I would get in contact with the other offices involved in this case at the time: The Baltimore Medical Examiner's Office, the Office of Naval Intelligence, the FBI, State Police in Waldorf and the Maryland State Police Office of identification and Investigation. Someone, somewhere is bound to have more information filed away in triplicate somewhere. If they won't release it directly to you, you could certainly contact the St. Mary's County Sheriff's office. This case was a big deal back in the day. The state attorney general and the Governor were both making inquiries into it. All leave was cancelled for the police and it was an all-hands-on-deck situation.
If I can be of any further assistance, please let me know.
Everyone deserves the truth to be known about how they died. Everyone.
