NC NC - Fuquay Varina, WhtFem 35-45, 474UFNC, burned alive, may be Canadian, bifocals, Apr'68 (Myrtle Holcomb of Florida, born in 1919)

[summergirl1]

CRIME HUNTER: Canadian Jane Doe slain in 1968 remains a mystery | Toronto Sun
Robert Reagan was a local tobacco picker who had done the back-breaking work in Canada as well.

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)
Cosmetics/Hygiene items to include:

• Skin Dew crème for dry skin, overnight medicated cream ($1.25)
• Silk Fashion liquid makeup ($1.75, introduced in 1967) - all manufactured by Helena Rubenstein, NY, NY;
• A glass top with "_ilk of _ntimate" - manufactured by Revlon, which is believed to be Silk of Intimate perfume.
• Some metal tubes or containers which could have been used for lipstick/eyeliner.
• Hair clips and a possible greenish-blue hair net.
• A wire frame for standing make-up mirror and some glass remnants of mirror

Sounds like this guy was a "migrant farm worker"

All of these cosmetics just don't seem to go with someone who would follow a migrant farm worker all the way from Canada!
And they think this because locals didn't recognize her??? She could have been from Raleigh??

Those are not "cheap cosmetics"
Sounds like she was someone who was with the "wrong guy" for whatever reason, but I don't think she met this guy in Canada!

Canadian eh??
Name Robert A Reagan
Sex Male
Age 74y
Death Date Apr 1992
Death Place Raleigh, Wake, North Carolina
Marital Status Widowed
Occupation Carpenter,Home Construct.
Race White
Ethnicity American
Birth Year 1917
Burial Place Fuquay Varina, N. C. (Died where he was born!!)
Cemetery Wake Chapel
Residence Place Apex, Wake, N. C.
Address: Ten Ten Road (Sounds like he didn't go very far at all!!)
Birth Date 1917
Birthplace Person Co., N. C.

(Removed a few details, such as street number and birthdate)

Robert Reagan has been mentioned previously.

 

[Friday Fan]

Robert Reagan has been mentioned previously.

Yes, he's the suspect, but there was a wild Canadian goose chase.


He may have spent some time in Canada, but he was born and died in North Carolina.

She was from Florida.

Sometimes there is a "foreign" link, but all too often, there are quick assumptions about foreign connections when something isn't solved. "Because this woman was a stranger....... it's possible that she came from Canada"

The Toronto Sun even called her "Canadian Jane Doe"

In this case, I don't think his time in Canada was a factor.

Because this woman was a stranger to neighbors, investigators think it is possible that the woman came down from Canada to meet with the suspect.

474UFNC

 

[summergirl1]

She came from Florida, not Canada..

Cold case closure: 1968 murder victim identified using hair sample, DNA technology

The Wake County Sheriff’s Office, in partnership with forensic genealogists and the SBI, used advanced DNA testing on a preserved hair sample to finally identify the victim of a 1968 homicide as Myrtle Holcomb.

www.wral.com

 

[Friday Fan]

I wish we knew more about Myrtle. What she really looked like in real life as opposed to post-mortem. Her nose shape is probably due to nasal flaring. She was almost 59 and relatively stylish.

 

[Nate_Bro]

Canada wasn’t assumed just because she was a stranger. It was considered because the main suspect had worked there and there were no local missing women who fit. and police believed their meeting wasn't random. Later evidence, including the Holcomb ID linked to him in 2004, shows he possibly did have some connection to her, even if Canada wasn’t where she came from.

 

[MelmothTheLost]

I wish we knew more about Myrtle. What she really looked like in real life as opposed to post-mortem. Her nose shape is probably due to nasal flaring. She was almost 59 and relatively stylish.

I think she was 49, born in 1919. Still older than the estimate but by not so much.

ETA that she was clearly older than she looked, which is somewhat surprising since people decades ago tended to look older than their age due to having harder lives and doing much more manual work.

 

[Friday Fan]

I think she was 49, born in 1919. Still older than the estimate but by not so much.

ETA that she was clearly older than she looked, which is somewhat surprising since people decades ago tended to look older than their age due to having harder lives and doing much more manual work.

Never mind, my math in my head. was bad. If she had been born in 1909, she would have been 58. So she was 49ish. I get messed up someone was born in the (1910-1919) My bad. Gosh. She was a few years younger than my grandmother who was born in 1911. My grandmother always looked like a "grandma" to me. My grandma never dyed her hair.

It appears Myrtle dyed her hair dark based on the re-created post-mortem by the funeral home with dark hair, but pale, almost white make-up. The funeral home made her up to help ID her, but unfortunately, she looked more like Michael Jackson. I don't think she looked like this in real life. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/278225316/jane-doe

 

[The4TierBridge]

She was found in 1968. So, she would have been 59ish. She was a few years younger than my grandmother who was born in 1911. My grandmother always looked like a "grandma" to me. It appears Myrtle dyed her hair dark based on the re-created post-mortem by the funeral home with dark hair, but pale, almost white make-up. The funeral home made her up to help ID her, but unfortunately, she looked like Michael Jackson. I don't think she looked like this in real life. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/278225316/jane-doe

1968 - 1919 = 49
I think your math may be confused.

I agree that the embalming attempt made her look less recognizable though.

 

[Friday Fan]

1968 - 1919 = 49
I think your math may be confused.

I agree that the embalming attempt made her look less recognizable though.

I edited my post and redid my math. Yes, 49 or 48 (Depending on her BD)