Identified! NV - Washoe Co., WhtFem 156UFNV, 25-35, Sheep's Flat Trail, Jul'82 - Mary Edith Silvani

[punklove]

Also - in several cases Sells claimed to have consensual sex with a women and was 'forced' to kill her because of some wrong doing on the part of the woman - in one case he said that he had sex with the women then while he went to the bathroom she was trying to steal something from his bag so he killed her - wasn't it said that the Jane Doe more than likely had consensual sex shortly before death?

 

[micheleonelonly]

Also - in several cases Sells claimed to have consensual sex with a women and was 'forced' to kill her because of some wrong doing on the part of the woman - in one case he said that he had sex with the women then while he went to the bathroom she was trying to steal something from his bag so he killed her - wasn't it said that the Jane Doe more than likely had consensual sex shortly before death?

Good thinking. Im not sure using a gun was his "thing," but who knows. He was a sick individual. I cant remember if I have seen him discussed here previously or not...

 

[Ambercat]

Some more information about Tommy Lynn Sells --
Tommy Lynn Sells - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/predators/tommy_sells/index.html
I had always thought he was from Winnemucca, NV, but I guess not.

 

[punklove]

Good thinking. Im not sure using a gun was his "thing," but who knows. He was a sick individual. I cant remember if I have seen him discussed here previously or not...

He used several methods based on what he wanted to accomplish - if he felt sure that nobody was around to hear anything he would often kill with a gun and would use a knife if he felt any noises would alert someone to what he was doing. He often would use multiple weapons in one crime - he killed a family ad used a bat on the child, a knife and the bat on the mother and a gun to kill the father and a bat to beat the newborn baby that was born prematurely due to the distress of the mother seeing her other child being murdered.

He confessed to numerous murders of women and seemed to be someone women trusted him enough to get into the car with him - he apparently was very charming. :S

 

[punklove]

I think I remember something about a baby being found dead in the same general area as the Jane Doe? It always seemed odd to me that they would find a dead baby by itself - He had no problem beating a 3 year old to death in front of his mother or watching the mom give birth due to the stress and then beating it to death.

Hes bragged nonstop about how hes killed a lot of people which makes me wonder if he used the area the JD was found as a dumping ground if he is the murderer?

 

[micheleonelonly]

I can remember the baby case, I think it was just a few months before Jane Doe was murdered. But now I can't seem to find anything on the case. Weird. Not sure if my computer is acting up or what. Darn you, AT&T U-Verse...
If anyone is able to find a link about the dead infant case or a WS thread, please post it!
:banghead:

 

[Charlie99909]

I can remember the baby case, I think it was just a few months before Jane Doe was murdered. But now I can't seem to find anything on the case. Weird. Not sure if my computer is acting up or what. Darn you, AT&T U-Verse...
If anyone is able to find a link about the dead infant case or a WS thread, please post it!
:banghead:

I think we had a link to it early in the thread. We didn't start pickup till I believe page 3 and it took off from there.

The baby was found closer to highway 80 in outside of Tahoe in Feb of 1982 if memory serves.

 

[micheleonelonly]

Found it. On page 4 of this thread. The link:
http://www.co.washoe.nv.us/coroner/unidentifiedremains.htm

Looks like the baby was found in CA, in a trash bag floating in the river (yuck)
Despite being found in CA, our pal Rudy Bein is listed as the case contact in Namus.
https://identifyus.org/en/cases/7400
The poor thing was only 4 pounds, deceased about a week. That's a little baby, and neonatal medicine wasn't very good back then. Preemie born at home way too early? Or perhaps this baby girl was one of a set of multiples? Multiples are frequently born by c-section and are quite small.
The baby was found by an employee of the power co. Does NV Energy (Sierra Pacific as it was called back then) service that area? My Father in Law is a serious old-timer at NV Energy... Hmm, I could try to ask him? :websleuther:
LOL why do I always seem to get a load of energy for my favorite cases late at night?!

 

[punklove]

I think we had a link to it early in the thread. We didn't start pickup till I believe page 3 and it took off from there.

The baby was found closer to highway 80 in outside of Tahoe in Feb of 1982 if memory serves.

He murdered Stephanie Stroh on 1-80 outside of Tahoe - I doubt he had anything to do with the baby but it shows that he killed before in Nevada.

"The roofer, who had drifted into town that summer, was Tommy Sells. By his account, he drove the young woman toward Reno on I-80, pulled off at some point, choked her to death, then dropped her body down a hot spring. Two weeks later, Sells failed to show up at work. He was on the road again. Despite a massive search, Strohs body was never found."

 

[punklove]

Found it. On page 4 of this thread. The link:
http://www.co.washoe.nv.us/coroner/unidentifiedremains.htm

Looks like the baby was found in CA, in a trash bag floating in the river (yuck)
Despite being found in CA, our pal Rudy Bein is listed as the case contact in Namus.
https://identifyus.org/en/cases/7400
The poor thing was only 4 pounds, deceased about a week. That's a little baby, and neonatal medicine wasn't very good back then. Preemie born at home way too early? Or perhaps this baby girl was one of a set of multiples? Multiples are frequently born by c-section and are quite small.
The baby was found by an employee of the power co. Does NV Energy (Sierra Pacific as it was called back then) service that area? My Father in Law is a serious old-timer at NV Energy... Hmm, I could try to ask him? :websleuther:
LOL why do I always seem to get a load of energy for my favorite cases late at night?!

Newborn babies often lose weight about being born or she could have lost weight through the dying process - she was 16 inches long

I doubt she was a multiple since that person would have to explain the absence of the child - you cant go from having 2 babies to 1 without someone noticing it.

The baby was nude so the person that put the baby in that bag had no feelings for her at all so I doubt it would be a parent that had something go wrong that they wanted to cover up (baby died, killed baby by accident, ect). Someone that cared for her would have dressed her as a final act of love.

 

[Ambercat]

Newborn babies often lose weight about being born or she could have lost weight through the dying process - she was 16 inches long

I doubt she was a multiple since that person would have to explain the absence of the child - you cant go from having 2 babies to 1 without someone noticing it.

The baby was nude so the person that put the baby in that bag had no feelings for her at all so I doubt it would be a parent that had something go wrong that they wanted to cover up (baby died, killed baby by accident, ect). Someone that cared for her would have dressed her as a final act of love.

Do we know if she was alive when she was born?

 

[Ambercat]

:bump: I am wondering, since Amanda Meyers was identified (http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=61888) and like this UID, she supposedly had Eastern European dental work, if it is possible that she is more local than originally thought?

Yesterday, I was talking to my dad about Amanda Meyers, and he told me that, recently, he had to get a permanent dental bridge that he had since the mid to late 1960s replaced. The original bridge was from a dentist in downtown Los Angeles who was close to where he worked at the time. When it was removed, his current dentist asked him where he had it done because it looked like something from "Romania or Russia" and did not look like it was done domestically. Why I am bringing this up here is because I am really starting to think that dental work might not be that good of an indicator.

 

[Charlie99909]

If you go back far enough in the thread I had her dental records cross verified by an independent dentist who saw nothing to even show her work was done abroad. He was even confused as to why it would be considered "European" and appeared pretty standard. When we go back far enough it was the coroner who assumed she was European based off of her inoculation scar and dental work. Both are iffy at best.

 

[Charlie99909]

About You Magazine published an article about Linda Reynolds that briefly mentions our Doe. Published in January of '12.

http://www.aymag.com/AY-Magazine/January-2012/Murder-Mystery-In-All-the-Wrong-Places/

"In September 1982, the FSPD received a flyer from the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office in Reno, Nevada. The picture was of an unidentified homicide victim who bore a resemblance to Reynolds, but her dental records didn’t match the Jane Doe."

 

[carbuff]

If the investigation was as incompetent as the autopsy, she could have lived half a mile down the road and they wouldn't have found her.

I bet she's from right in town, and when they showed her picture around, they missed half the places she might have worked. Or showed it to the guy who killed her, and he said, "Nope, nobody like that here," and that was all there was to it.

 

[Ambercat]

If the investigation was as incompetent as the autopsy, she could have lived half a mile down the road and they wouldn't have found her.

I bet she's from right in town, and when they showed her picture around, they missed half the places she might have worked. Or showed it to the guy who killed her, and he said, "Nope, nobody like that here," and that was all there was to it.

Or maybe they only asked around in Washoe County and didn't ask in Carson City or Douglas County and she was from one of those. :waitasec:

 

[micheleonelonly]

If the investigation was as incompetent as the autopsy, she could have lived half a mile down the road and they wouldn't have found her.

I bet she's from right in town, and when they showed her picture around, they missed half the places she might have worked. Or showed it to the guy who killed her, and he said, "Nope, nobody like that here," and that was all there was to it.

Well, I have asked my mom about this case, at the time she was (I believe) working at a grocery store in Reno, or possibly the VA hospital. That doesn't matter, I guess. My family has been in Reno since before my maternal grandfather was born, so she knows a lot of people. She didn't recall ever hearing about this case. She did remember a lot about the Jaycee Dugard case out of South Lake Tahoe, so that kinda tells me this was never very well publicized.

 

[carbuff]

Well, I have asked my mom about this case, at the time she was (I believe) working at a grocery store in Reno, or possibly the VA hospital. That doesn't matter, I guess. My family has been in Reno since before my maternal grandfather was born, so she knows a lot of people. She didn't recall ever hearing about this case. She did remember a lot about the Jaycee Dugard case out of South Lake Tahoe, so that kinda tells me this was never very well publicized.

Thanks. I was afraid of that...

 

[Charlie99909]

Well, I have asked my mom about this case, at the time she was (I believe) working at a grocery store in Reno, or possibly the VA hospital. That doesn't matter, I guess. My family has been in Reno since before my maternal grandfather was born, so she knows a lot of people. She didn't recall ever hearing about this case. She did remember a lot about the Jaycee Dugard case out of South Lake Tahoe, so that kinda tells me this was never very well publicized.

It's funny because I'm gearing up to move back to Reno in a week, I was living in citrus heights. Everyone there knows of the East Area Rapist from the 1970's. When I lived in Reno before only a handful of people remembered this Doe, let alone only a few unsolved homicides from the late 70's and early 80's.

 

[Charlie99909]

It's funny because I'm gearing up to move back to Reno in a week, I was living in citrus heights. Everyone there knows of the East Area Rapist from the 1970's. When I lived in Reno before only a handful of people remembered this Doe, let alone only a few unsolved homicides from the late 70's and early 80's.

As time permits, I go to the library and dig out more microfilms. I tend to check in increments of 1 year, 5 year, and 10 year anniversaries for this Doe. So fr I have not turned any new articles in the papers about her in the subsequent decade after her discovery. But it once again goes to prove that possibly there wasn't enough coverage of her to get solid leads.