PA PA - Uniontown, WhtFem 30-45, UP16509, in big rig accident, cigs, keychain, clothes, jewelry, May'86

[MarziPanda]

Since they made such a big news story about digging her up as part of the state she was found in getting a bunch of grant funding for this work, I’d think the investigating agencies would want be able to make announcement. I understand that you do professional work on similar cases in the UK and continental Europe where this isn’t the case, but withholding IDs is kind of the exception in the U.S. and not the norm even when the subject was not previously reported missing or did not die suspiciously (at least for long-term unidentified cases).

I understand there's been lots of publicity and LE will want to make a big announcement but if her family doesn't want her ID released, they should still respect that. I don't know if they have to respect that, by law, but it would be really nasty to release her ID if that's not what the family wants. There have been plenty of long term Does who have been identified without a name release. Lyle Stevik comes to mind, but a few of Othram's solves haven't been publicly named. With the way Marcia King's family was treated after she was ID'd, I wouldn't blame any family for not wanting the ID public.

 

[MelmothTheLost]

Since they made such a big news story about digging her up as part of the state she was found in getting a bunch of grant funding for this work, I’d think the investigating agencies would want be able to make announcement. I understand that you do professional work on similar cases in the UK and continental Europe where this isn’t the case, but withholding IDs is kind of the exception in the U.S. and not the norm even when the subject was not previously reported missing or did not die suspiciously (at least for long-term unidentified cases).

I am not a professional in this line of work but just a volunteer at Locate working on UIDs and, more recently, missing persons in my spare time. So far, almost all our cases are of people missing or found in the UK but we do get involved in cases overseas as well if requested to do so, though to a lesser extent.

There have been various cases in the US of people being identified but not named by the authorities so the identity of this woman being disclosed is not a given. I wonder how well known this particular case really is after almost 40s years. Yes, it's a fairly well known case on here but I don't recall hearing about it elsewhere, eg in podcasts.

ETA that the day job is corporate governance.

 

[Magnum P.E.]

I am not a professional in this line of work but just a volunteer at Locate working on UIDs and, more recently, missing persons in my spare time. So far, almost all our cases are of people missing or found in the UK but we do get involved in cases overseas as well if requested to do so, though to a lesser extent.

There have been various cases in the US of people being identified but not named by the authorities so the identity of this woman being disclosed is not a given. I wonder how well known this particular case really is after almost 40s years. Yes, it's a fairly well known case on here but I don't recall hearing about it elsewhere, eg in podcasts.

ETA that the day job is corporate governance.

I live in the area. Melmoth, the case is not well known at all nationally but is well known locally. Her photo and details of the case have been locally published every few years. No one has recognized her.
Purely speculation on my part: If indeed her identity is now known or is discovered, her family may not want it to be publicized due to embarrassment. In cases like that, the name often leaks out anyway.

 

[MelmothTheLost]

I live in the area. Melmoth, the case is not well known at all nationally but is well known locally. Her photo and details of the case have been locally published every few years. No one has recognized her.
Purely speculation on my part: If indeed her identity is now known or is discovered, her family may not want it to be publicized due to embarrassment. In cases like that, the name often leaks out anyway.

Thanks for your comments. I suspect that most of these cases where people go unidentified for decades are those of people passing through so there's no reason why local people would recognise them. The fact that this woman had hitched a ride with a long-distance lorry driver suggest that this was the case with her as well.

I'm not sure what her family would have to be embarrassed about. Until fairly recently, newspapers and other media were local or regional so there would inevitably be a limit to how widely known her case was geographically.

 

[Magnum P.E.]

I'm not sure what her family would have to be embarrassed about.

I don’t know if they have such women in your country, but in the US there are, or were, women who make a living providing “companionship” (cough cough) to truckers at truck stops, some of which are huge and where dozens of trucks may park overnight. It is a lifestyle that might be embarrassing to surviving relatives. We suspect that may have been her line of work. This is all speculative.
My personal feeling is that the men should be equally embarrassed.

 

[Vivette]

Hope to read her story soon!

 

[MelmothTheLost]

I don’t know if they have such women in your country, but in the US there are, or were, women who make a living providing “companionship” (cough cough) to truckers at truck stops, some of which are huge and where dozens of trucks may park overnight. It is a lifestyle that might be embarrassing to surviving relatives. We suspect that may have been her line of work. This is all speculative.
My personal feeling is that the men should be equally embarrassed.

I have to say I don't know the scale of truck stop/motorway services prostitution in the UK. I imagine it happens but probably not on the same scale as in the US since drivers are covering shorter distances and many are back home within 12 or 24 hours so aren't away from home for days at a time except when driving internationally.

Also, some truck stop areas are attached to motorway and other service areas which are also used by the general public and I would expect (but maybe am mistaken) that management at those facilities would be pretty hot on dealing with any sex work on site. Things may be more relaxed in HGV-only stops. However, CCTV is ubiquitous at service and stop areas for security reasons (we have a lot of problems with the hijacking of HGV loads) and may have some effect on sex work on sites generally.

ETA - if the age estimate for this UID is accurate, would she fall within the typical age range for truck stop sex work?

 

[Magnum P.E.]

ETA - if the age estimate for this UID is accurate, would she fall within the typical age range for truck stop sex work?

I must say that I have no (cough cough) first hand knowledge of the typical age range. And we don’t know at all that she was in that line of work. She may have just been a free spirit who caught rides with truckers.
I have been to a few big truck stops while on vacay (I am not a trucker), never noticed any extracurricular activity. One particular truck stop, a Buc-ee’s in South Carolina, was so large that policing prostitution would be very difficult. It was on a plot of land as big as a village.
One Buc-ee’s has 120 fuel pumps, to give you an idea.

 

[MelmothTheLost]

I must say that I have no (cough cough) first hand knowledge of the typical age range. And we don’t know at all that she was in that line of work. She may have just been a free spirit who caught rides with truckers.

I was thinking in terms of when a woman might be burned out by sex work, either because of the drug use which so often goes along with it or because her luck runs out and she is killed or so badly beaten up that she can't continue with the work. Also, I assume there is a point when her looks degrade to the point where she no longer gets business. I'm thinking back to the sex worker victims of the Yorkshire Ripper, the oldest of whom were in their early to mid 40s.

Actually I think you are probably right about her just catching a ride with a trucker, ie not being a sex worker but maybe being prepared to trade sex for the ride if necessary. I know that the 1970s were the heyday of hitching but I imagine there were still plenty of people who continued to do so into or through the 1980s, especially if they had been doing for years and getting away with it.

 

[summergirl1]

I am not sure of what/how many surveillance cameras there would have been at truck stops back in the 1980s in the US.

 

[MelmothTheLost]

I am not sure of what/how many surveillance cameras there would have been at truck stops back in the 1980s in the US.

Few to none, I would imagine.

 

[tarabull]

Truckers call those types of "companions" "lot lizards"
just saying.

 

[MelmothTheLost]

Truckers call those types of "companions" "lot lizards"
just saying.

I know, but it's not a term I like using.

 

[killarney rose]

I must say that I have no (cough cough) first hand knowledge of the typical age range. And we don’t know at all that she was in that line of work. She may have just been a free spirit who caught rides with truckers.
I have been to a few big truck stops while on vacay (I am not a trucker), never noticed any extracurricular activity. One particular truck stop, a Buc-ee’s in South Carolina, was so large that policing prostitution would be very difficult. It was on a plot of land as big as a village.
One Buc-ee’s has 120 fuel pumps, to give you an idea.

The Buc-ees in AL do not allow semi trucks at all on their property. There are multiple signs saying this. No commercial vehicle(trucks). Autos only. I just checked online. This is a company wide policy with them.

 

[Magnum P.E.]

The Buc-ees in AL do not allow semi trucks at all on their property. There are multiple signs saying this. No commercial vehicle(trucks). Autos only. I just checked online. This is a company wide policy with them.

I looked it up, and it’s a company wide policy! I always assumed it was a truck stop!
Well, there is always Pilot/Flying J.