MI - Nadine O'Dell, 15, Inkster, 16 Aug 1974

[Mysteries1974]

This location is about 8 or 9 miles from where Nadine was last seen, and it's a straight shot down Michigan Avenue:

"Human bone found in an embankment of a creek in the city of Canton."

Unidentified Person Case

ETA: In 1974, Canton was still very rural.

Can you submit this to namus please?

 

[Mysteries1974]

The bone was found in Wayne county which is where Nadine was last seen.

 

[Ozoner]

Can you submit this to namus please?

I'll try to do that, but it's probably a long shot. Wayne County is heavily populated, so there are a number of missing people, a number of homeless people who die outside each year, etc.

 

[Mysteries1974]

I know but I want to try and do anything I can to close her case. Her parents are deceased and her siblings and boyfriend at the time want answers.

 

[Mysteries1974]

I just hope she can be found. I think she was one of Carl Eugene Watts victims.

 

[Richard]

Left and Center: O'Dell, circa 1974; Right: Age-progressed to 52 years (circa 2010)

Nadine Jean O'Dell
Missing since August 16, 1974 from Inkster, Wayne County, Michigan
Classification: Endangered Missing




Vital Statistics

• • Date Of Birth: March 14, 1958
  • Age at Time of Disappearance: 15 years old
  • Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 5'1"; 105 lbs.
  • Distinguishing Characteristics: White female. Strawberry blonde hair; green eyes.
  • Clothing: White t-shirt with blue faded baggy jeans. She was wearing her boyfriends Taylor High School ring on a chain around her neck.
• DNA: Available

Circumstances of Disappearance
O'Dell was last seen shortly after 09:30, walking down John Daly Road toward Michigan Avenue in Inkster, Michigan on August 16, 1974.
On this day, Nadine was going to baby sit at her boyfriends house. She never showed up at her destination in Taylor.
Her boyfriend was on the way to meet her and arrived 20 later and did not cross paths with her.

Investigators
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:

Inkster Police Department
313-563-9850

Agency Case Number: 05-3632
Doe network Case File 1589DFMI
NCMEC #: 1138429
Please refer to this number when contacting this agency with information regarding this case.
Source Information:
The Doe Network
NamUs

 

[Mysteries1974]

Left and Center: O'Dell, circa 1974; Right: Age-progressed to 52 years (circa 2010)

Nadine Jean O'Dell
Missing since August 16, 1974 from Inkster, Wayne County, Michigan
Classification: Endangered Missing




Vital Statistics

• • Date Of Birth: March 14, 1958
  • Age at Time of Disappearance: 15 years old
  • Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 5'1"; 105 lbs.
  • Distinguishing Characteristics: White female. Strawberry blonde hair; green eyes.
  • Clothing: White t-shirt with blue faded baggy jeans. She was wearing her boyfriends Taylor High School ring on a chain around her neck.
• DNA: Available

Circumstances of Disappearance
O'Dell was last seen shortly after 09:30, walking down John Daly Road toward Michigan Avenue in Inkster, Michigan on August 16, 1974.
On this day, Nadine was going to baby sit at her boyfriends house. She never showed up at her destination in Taylor.
Her boyfriend was on the way to meet her and arrived 20 later and did not cross paths with her.

Investigators
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:

Inkster Police Department
313-563-9850

Agency Case Number: 05-3632
Doe network Case File 1589DFMI
NCMEC #: 1138429
Please refer to this number when contacting this agency with information regarding this case.
Source Information:
The Doe Network
NamUs

Yep that’s her Doe network page

 

[Richard]

Michigan authorities are continuing the search for the remains of up to half a dozen girls in Macomb Township. The young girls, like Nadine O’Dell, went missing decades ago. Authorities believe that convicted predator, Arthur Ream murdered these girls. Nadine O’Dell went missing in 1974, and is now believed to be a victim of Arthur Ream....

LINK:

https://crimeola.com/nadine-odell-missing-arthur-ream/

 

[Nina Michigan]

Michigan authorities are continuing the search for the remains of up to half a dozen girls in Macomb Township. The young girls, like Nadine O’Dell, went missing decades ago. Authorities believe that convicted predator, Arthur Ream murdered these girls. Nadine O’Dell went missing in 1974, and is now believed to be a victim of Arthur Ream....

LINK:

https://crimeola.com/nadine-odell-missing-arthur-ream/

this is a year old.

They no longer link O'Dell and Ream. The search of that area is long over and turned up nothing

 

[Mysteries1974]

I believe Nadine was a Carl Watts victim

 

[Ozoner]

I believe Nadine was a Carl Watts victim

I agree 100%. She disappeared from smack dab in the middle of his stomping grounds, and the circumstances of the disappearance fit Watts's MO to a T.

 

[Mysteries1974]

I agree 100%. She disappeared from smack dab in the middle of his stomping grounds, and the circumstances of the disappearance fit Watts's MO to a T.

I don’t know how I can prove my hunch

 

[Brotherfudz]

Did he have a history of hiding his other victims bodies?

 

[Nina Michigan]

Did he have a history of hiding his other victims bodies?

I believe he did. If memory serves, Lilli Marlene Dunn was supposed to be another of his victims, she was never recovered.

What happened to Lilli Dunn after she went missing from her Southgate home in 1980?

 

[Richard]

this is a year old.

They no longer link O'Dell and Ream. The search of that area is long over and turned up nothing

From the linked article (May 2018):
"They first started looking into the possibility when Kimberley King’s case was reopened. Now, investigators believe that King, Kim Larrow, Kellie Brownlee, and Nadine O’Dell were killed by Ream, and buried in that same site."

Investigators seldom declare someone to be a suspect and then publicly change their minds a few months later. The fact that they did not find remains in their search area could simply mean that they were a few feet off in their efforts. Their failure to uncover evidence forensically linking a suspect to a crime does not eliminate him.

 

[Nina Michigan]

Or, I was involved in the Kim King investigation and might know something that wasn't featured in the press. ~shrug~
Sister of girl missing 40 years thinks podcast sparked new search

 

[rosesfromangels]

Did he have a history of hiding his other victims bodies?

Take cadaver dogs to his old back yard, under the house, all around the property. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are answers there.

Amateur speculation and opinion only

 

[Ozoner]

Take cadaver dogs to his old back yard, under the house, all around the property. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are answers there.

Amateur speculation and opinion only

It's possible. However, many parts of western Wayne County were still very rural in 1974. Urban sprawl was just getting started. It would have been very easy for Watts to find an isolated burial site without even crossing the county line.

 

[Alphafuzz]

I grew up in Taylor. I was 12 in 1974. At that time as you headed towards Taylor there were fairly large open areas scattered with deep drainage ditches due to wetland type conditions. I owned horses and can tell you a good part of the year going off road would often suck the boots right off your feet. Not pertinent if she was abducted off John Daly but it's not really known, right?

Beech Daly and Inkster back then were barely paved two lane roads with remaining sections of oiled or graveled driving surfaces as you headed away from Inkster and Garden City towards much more rural Taylor Township and Romulus. I'm not sure about John Daly but she'd have had to cut over to either Inkster or Beech Daly at Annapolis if she was heading to Taylor and deal with the I-94 freeway overpass. She may have went to the much higher travelled Michigan Avenue as well. In my mind picturing the many times I walked along those Taylor and surrounding roads with a very deep gravel shoulder and a smattering of farms and homes many set way back from the roadside. I ran into trouble from men in cars several times walking and riding my bike alone there as a teenager in the seventies.

Michigan at John Daly to where I lived off Beech Daly at Northline is around ten miles which seems an unlikely walking distance. North Taylor from there would still be about seven miles I think. My 4-6 years older brother, sister, and their friends all hitchhiked which was very common back then. I walked and biked everywhere and it wasn't uncommon for someone known or unknown to pull over and offer me a lift. It seems feasible to me that facing a seven to ten mile walk a ride might have been accepted even if hitching wasn't a regular thing for her. This makes me think perhaps she knew the person.

Where exactly or thereabouts in Taylor was she headed? The areas up towards Van Born and Ecorse roads were much more densely populated and usually paved. If a ride was accepted or forced the freeway may have been taken making a possible search area vast. Out my way there were large fields and beyond that dunes, ponds, woods, and further out Metroparks with even more dense woods, marshes, ponds, and streams bordering mown common areas. Mostly all isolated two lane or unpaved roads. Places I frequented extensively on bike, foot, and horseback where I rarely encountered anyone.

I'm newly registered just to offer what I could since I'm from there. I've been reading this site for a long time but I am admittedly knowing and reading about this case for the first time. My recollections from decades ago might not be perfect but I feel they are mostly pretty good. I lived there until age 30 and my entire family still lives there. I hope you find my description of the time and place somehow illuminating.

By the way regarding the basement question I can't recall anyone except my brother that had a basement with the exception of knowing that areas of much older multilevel homes in peripheral areas like Wyandotte and a small area of North Taylor around Pelham Road, Ecorse Road, Hipp Street had them. I'm supposing it was a somewhat expensive and perhaps unwise choice because of the area ground moisture. We mostly had cinder block/brick ranches with a crawlspace and newer additions in the 70's were also single level but cheaper slab homes. Crawlspace usually is dirt floor.

 

[Alphafuzz]

If she wasn't seen after walking away on John Daly towards Michigan Avenue that's the opposite direction and seems likely to have been picked up soon after. Michigan Avenue literally dead ends into I-94 which goes north right by Macomb Township and Arthur Ream's property. That seems a very likely possibility even though the search turned up nothing. I read about a Sears, Michigan property too. Have they searched that thoroughly? Michigan Avenue turnabout heads you west to the 96 exchange and two highways that go right up the center of the state. The Macomb Township property is not very far at all compared to that one though and is a straight shot there on 94 and fast trip even at the old 55 mph speed limit of that time.

It was already 80° and mostly sunny at 10am that day heading to a high of 89°. Humid. No rain or wind. It was a Friday.