Found Deceased PA - White Haven, 'Beth Doe' & Unborn Baby 169UFPA, 16-22, Dec'76 *Evelyn Colon* *Arrest* #3

[Wossy]

Thanks. I deleted the portion of the article about Maggie. My intent was to update the thread with some composite drawings of "Beth Doe" that I had seen in my second link. Unfortunately, I couldn't get them to copy, from that site, and so searched elsewhere, finding them in the first linked article.

It has been over 44 years since Beth's body and that of her unborn daughter were found and over 16 years since I first posted her story here on Websleuths, yet she remains unidentified. Hopefully some day, she will be identified.

You're a good person for still trying to help her get identified all these years later. It's definitely one of those cases that once you hear and learn about you cant really forget.

 

[Richard]

Marker for Beth Doe (in foreground) – in this spot rests both her and her unborn daughter. Baby Jane Doe’s marker (in background) is an unrelated case that has been resolved...

LINK:

Beth Doe

 

[apearn]

There was a race horse names Mr WSR who raced at Penn National (about 85 miles from White Haven) in April 10, 1976

There has to be some records of these horses and owners but I am coming up short.

 

[MadMcGoo]

There was a race horse names Mr WSR who raced at Penn National (about 85 miles from White Haven) in April 10, 1976

There has to be some records of these horses and owners but I am coming up short.

View attachment 284760

I’m thinking that might be WSB. Interesting angle nonetheless!

 

[apearn]

I’m thinking that might be WSB. Interesting angle nonetheless!

I think you are right and I get more results with WSB. That horse was all over southern PA and Maryland racing. I'm wondering if she went to a race or if she maybe worked the horse circuit.

Hykes I'm assuming was the jockey.

 

[apearn]

That horse and the people associated were working in the general area where Beth was found. Other than the straw in the suitcase(s) I wonder if there are any other reasons to believe she could have been associated.

Her isotope info puts her down in the eastern Tennessee general state area. That's heavy horse country from what I know of it.

 

[GaPeaches92]

Hykes I'm assuming was the jockey.

I am thinking Hykes is a trainer or owner name since Smallwood is listed for both Chrissy's Turn and Brandy Star.

 

[Doeologist]

Here's a WV report that says Jenny Lynn Hykes was the leading female jockey in 1976. (Second paragraph in column beside picture of 77 leader)

Spirit of Jefferson Farmers Advocate January 26 Page 9

 

[Merete]

Does anyone know if Laura Maria Hernandez has been excluded? i know she is listed as missing in dec. 1980. But her family first reports her missing in 1993. It could be interesting if she was from the EU. I can see she has a daughter who set up her on websleuths recently. And she seeks answers in her mother's thread. I have therefore chosen to ask in this thread.

 

[dotr]

Does anyone know if Laura Maria Hernandez has been excluded? i know she is listed as missing in dec. 1980. But her family first reports her missing in 1993. It could be interesting if she was from the EU. I can see she has a daughter who set up her on websleuths recently. And she seeks answers in her mother's thread. I have therefore chosen to ask in this thread.

Welcome to Ws Merete!
Ws thread..
NM - NM - Laura Hernandez, 25, Clovis, Dec 1980

 

[Doeologist]

Hernandez looks like an Hispanic from New Mexico although she could pass for Mediterranean.

I've exhausted all the Naturalization records for Tennessee and ran through all the bordering states, except Missouri and Arkansas, for the isotope matches, based on the reports (Virginia records were spotty), and have looked at all the similar New York arrivals with sponsors from the SE. The Naturalization records are free on familysearch but I use Ancestry because you can plug in year of arrival +/- for your search, and it's easier to eliminate candidates with that site.

I couldn't see why she wouldn't apply for Naturalization but I only have one working candidate — a Sicilian woman born in 1951 who arrived in 69, petitioned in Atlanta, GA in 72, declared to be married with a child, witnessed by the father-in-law, a farmer. But the admin of the family's Ancestry Tree (a grandson of one of the two or three sons, I presume) is unaware of her. She's untraceable after the Naturalization in 72.

I don't know if this isotope map might be useful since we don't have Beth's.
https://www.researchgate.net/figure...cipitation-a-and-river-water-b_fig2_227704728

 

[Wossy]

I wonder if she came here after the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia Its in Central Europe and would fit in the 5-10 year timeline of her arrival here in the US. If not during that time it wouldnt have been long after.

Also this might sound rude but I am gonna go ahead and say it. How is it we can find out who the father of a child is in 1 30 minute episode of shows like Maury, but its been over 40+ years and we still dont know who the father of her child is.

 

[Doeologist]

I don't think they have a definite origin from the analysis. First they said Balkans and then they said Czech, Polish, Mediterranean, Italian or Jewish. (I think they must have discovered she had a Jewish diet from the analysis, sans shellfish perhaps.)

Here are some European isoscapes for the usual strontium and hydrogen/oxygen for comparison. They'd have to have matches from multiple isoscapes to come up with a likely place of origin. But I think I can see some matches, on both maps, in Poland, Italy and the Balkans, with Czechoslovakia. It then depends on how the rankings are done. Is it size of area? Is it population size?... (They said Tennessee but, at least as far as the Naturalization records go, I've given up on that. I'm now going with border states where the isoscape linked above shows.)

Figure 1 from Strontium isotopic signatures of natural mineral waters, the reference to a simple geological map and its potential for authentication of food| Semantic Scholar

Cold case files: Forging forensic isoscapes

 

[Doeologist]

Regarding the Jewish possibility: Assuming that it's based on dietary isotopes, then she may more likely be a Muslim in Europe instead of a Jew. I should probably have just gone with the Mediterranean possibility and looked at Turkey, for example.

I think they picked the Czech Republic first because of the large area of high strontium, indicated by blue and grey on the map, but that blue/grey area is laced throughout Europe and the middle range orange for stable hydrogen, found throughout the Czech, is also all over the Mediterranean. (Unfortunately, they don't have a hot spot pointing to a birth city area like in the Isdal Woman case, so other unnamed countries might be in order.)

I went back to try Turkish girls in the southwest and I already found one in Florida to work on, and her high school picture is the spitting image of BD.

 

[Earth]

Regarding the Jewish possibility: Assuming that it's based on dietary isotopes, then she may more likely be a Muslim in Europe instead of a Jew. I should probably have just gone with the Mediterranean possibility and looked at Turkey, for example.

I think they picked the Czech Republic first because of the large area of high strontium, indicated by blue and grey on the map, but that blue/grey area is laced throughout Europe and the middle range orange for stable hydrogen, found throughout the Czech, is also all over the Mediterranean. (Unfortunately, they don't have a hot spot pointing to a birth city area like in the Isdal Woman case, so other unnamed countries might be in order.)

I went back to try Turkish girls in the southwest and I already found one in Florida to work on, and her high school picture is the spitting image of BD.

The Ottomans invasions mean that quite a lot of south-Eastern Europeans have Middle Eastern heritage (the opposite is also true when Ottomans took women to stock up their harems, which is why a lot of Syrians and Turks can look European). I'm not quite certain how large the Muslim population was in south-Eastern Europe after the Ottoman Empire collapsed in 1922 (although it slowly lost territory in that area for several years prior to World War One) and I am also unsure as to the Muslim population in the coastal regions, but I would say that if our Jane Doe is of Muslim descent then she could very well be from somewhere in Yugoslavia or Albania (most likely the latter country).

 

[Doeologist]

Well, the Turkish look-a-like from the Southeast (Florida), lucky for her, was a fail. Former-Yugoslavians used to be my go-to. At this point, I could keep looking at the Naturalization records and disregard just the American isotope information. (I trust the science but I don't have a lot of confidence in the interpretations of the data by the scientists.)

But I'm thinking she might not have petitioned for Naturalization because you usually have to wait a couple of year to petition, and be a resident for 3-5 years to become a citizen. She may not have had time or she might not have been allowed.

There's not a lot else to do then, if anything. The Passenger Immigration records stop at 1957 and she would have arrived around 1966 so it's a dead end as far as other records, other than year book pictures if she went to school but you can only search by place and age, not place of birth or even gender.

 

[carbuff]

That part of Europe around Czechoslovakia has a lot of mixing of ethnicities and cultures. There were political changes and military operations going back and forth for centuries, so you'll find almost any religion and background somewhere in the region. (My grandmother was Bohemian.) So she could be Muslim or Orthodox or Catholic or any of a dozen varieties of Protestant. There are even some Hussites left in Moravia.

 

[Doeologist]

This link has the 2000 obituary for the “husband” of the Sicilian immigrant in the Atlanta area. His two sons have middle names Aldo and Francesco. The mother is not listed as surviving, or at all, and the father owned a truck stop.

http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/clarke/obits/athensdailynews/2000/02aug00.t

The nephews on Ancestry know nothing about this aunt. Now they’ve finally added her to their family tree. And I still consider her a working candidate.

 

[Oakie]

That link doesn't work.

 

[Doeologist]

It's the third obituary. I'll see what I can find on the sons.

http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/clarke/obits/athensdailynews/2000/02aug00.txt