Identified! TN - Knox Co, 'Shotgun Jane Doe' WhtFem 607UFTN, 21-30, Jun'87 - Tena Marie Gattrell

[aThousandYearsWide]

I wonder if authorities can reinterview the two men. I mean how did they even get away with that story? That they picked up a stranger and without knowing her name she agreed to commit a robbery with them. They would AT LEAST know a first name! Strange things have happened. Shirley Wolf and Cindy Collier killed a woman together after only knowing each other for 8 hours! But they at knew each others names beforehand! I hope those guys got arrested for conspiring to commit a burglary.

 

[C. Walter Brown]

No murder or conspiracy charges were brought against the two men or the other woman that was involved. She is only involved in that she lived with one of the men and lied for an alibi. The other woman who lived with the men was later charged with other things unrelated. A few years later she was involved with hanging a man and beating him with a two by four. Now, she is not related in any way to our case but was living with one of the men. I offer this here to simply show the kind of people we are talking about. Both men are still alive but not talking. The two women in the house are still alive, one married about two years later and moved across town. the house is no longer there.

 

[Rockfarmer]

I don't buy the burglary story at all. I think SJD may have escaped them and was on the porch looking for help.

 

[C. Walter Brown]

Agreed.

 

[Eddie99]

With regards to the burglary story.....

I remember reading something that suggested the police pursued a burglary investigation only as a means to bring the two men in for questioning about what had happened. Said another way, they didn't really suspect burglary was the reason she was pounding on the door.

To support this notion..... the place where they were hanging out was very close to this home, where SJD would be killed. I find it difficult to believe that they would attempt something so brazen to a neighbor.

Lastly, I don't recall reading anything about her asking for help, when she was pounding on the door. I also seem to remember reading that the homeowner was on the phone with the police, when she fired through the door.

 

[C. Walter Brown]

There is a press report in the Knoxville News Sentinel that says she yelled, 'he's got a knife." I think I posted the article maybe a year ago.

 

[Roselvr]

I don't buy the burglary story at all. I think SJD may have escaped them and was on the porch looking for help.

I dont buy it either. I think the guy wanted sex, she refused, ran away. Why else would she stand there pounding on the door when the home owner said leave or I'll shoot?

 

[Bargle]

Because they were trying to trick her into opening the door so they could force their way on in. Just because they seemed to be arguing doesn't mean they really were.

 

[C. Walter Brown]

That's possible. But if, like the report says, why would you yell, "he's got a knife!" You yell that on my porch and I'll answer, "you gonna die!"

 

[Roselvr]

32 years unidentified...

 

[RookieInvestigator]

Yesterday I spent a lot of time looking at potential MPs and other things...

I looked at a map again and it appeared they were headed south... Unless they were familiar with the area, there may have been an exit close to the home where she was killed...I looked at the actual street and a desolate home (not sure it's the right house) and it looks isolated...At night it was probably pitch black...What the heck were they doing there...They stole the man's car in VA...They may have needed $...

I started wondering why she was in VA & TN wearing a Dolphins #33 jersey... I believe they were on I-75 which goes to FL...Then I started checking to see who wore #33 in the years leading up to her death...The players were not stars IMO...

This lead me to think she may have known them while they attended college or high school...One player was from CT and went to Yale...I believe another was from MD and may have attended college there...They didn't spend much time on the teams, so why buy the jersey...I thought fans bought jerseys because they liked a particular player...Maybe this wild goose chase was just a coincidence and about fashion...

I'm not sure if this was already mentioned but NAMUS has her height at 5'5" but the police report gave 5'8"...

 

[Roselvr]

Yesterday I spent a lot of time looking at potential MPs and other things...

I looked at a map again and it appeared they were headed south... Unless they were familiar with the area, there may have been an exit close to the home where she was killed...I looked at the actual street and a desolate home (not sure it's the right house) and it looks isolated...At night it was probably pitch black...What the heck were they doing there...They stole the man's car in VA...They may have needed $...

I started wondering why she was in VA & TN wearing a Dolphins #33 jersey... I believe they were on I-75 which goes to FL...Then I started checking to see who wore #33 in the years leading up to her death...The players were not stars IMO...

This lead me to think she may have known them while they attended college or high school...One player was from CT and went to Yale...I believe another was from MD and may have attended college there...They didn't spend much time on the teams, so why buy the jersey...I thought fans bought jerseys because they liked a particular player...Maybe this wild goose chase was just a coincidence and about fashion...

I'm not sure if this was already mentioned but NAMUS has her height at 5'5" but the police report gave 5'8"...

We did a lot of work on the Dolphins shirt; I'm gonna say in the first 200 posts but I'm not sure about where. I dont think in the first 25. I used to have 100 posts per page, now we're only allowed 20 per page.

She was supposedly wearing a tank top (I think black) with thin spaghetti straps. Supposedly it (andnthe clothes she had on) were pretty worn and not in good shape so they supposedly gave her the Dolphins shirt which just happened to match her pants.

I believe theres also a post on her FB page Mystery of Shotgun Jane, there should be a post (done by someone that liked the page) about the Dolphins shirt that pretty much says what we uncovered here. I can't find it while on my cell, will try to look from my computer when I get home

If you look at the "crime scene photo" of her laying on the porch you can see how worn and dirty her sneakers are. Her bracelet was in pretty bad shape too.

 

[Roselvr]

Ok, here is what I have so far on the shirt all found on page 2.

Going to add my original thoughts from this morning when I was on my other computer.

I don't know if the shirt is of any use to you guys.



Dolphin stats
Miami Dolphins Jersey #32
32 - Benny Malone (1974-8)
32 - Tom Vigorito (1981-5)

My hubby is into the Dolphins, I mentioned these 2 names to him, he's never heard of either of the 2 guys I posted. I'll have to see if I can dig up more when he gets back. IMO, the Jersey will probably identify a few possible states she's been in. My hubby says #32 is one of the Running back's, so I'd have to see if I could figure out which one was notable enough for a shirt.

It's very hard to find Dolphin's stuff where I'm at. My guess would be that back in the late 80's you'd have to be in one of the Southern states to buy one unless the Phins were playing in another state.

Miami did make it to the Super Bowl in 1983 and 1985; against the Redskins in 83 and 49'ers in 1985. Maybe shirts were easier to come by those years??

This was the answer I received about #32 on the shirt. I'm going to see if this person can date it.

The following is a list of players that wore number 32 for the Dolphins in at least one regular season snap:
Joe Auer (1966-67); Hubert Ginn (1970-73); Benny Malone (1974-78); Tom Vigorito (1981-85); Donald Brown (1986); *Pete Roth (1987); Garrett Limbrick (1990); Bruce Alexander (1992-93); Aaron Craver (1994); Cleveland Gary (1994); Jerris McPhail (1996-97); J.J. Johnson (1999-01); Charlie Rogers (2003); Jamar Martin (2004); Jason Allen (2006-)

Ok, based on the players from the 1980's, here is what I found:

Tom Vigorito:
He was a RB, from NJ, went to Univeristy of VA. Looks like he played Miami his entire career.
RotoWire Fantasy Football, Baseball, Basketball and More


Donald Brown:
He was a CB, high school in Maryland, college was University of Oklahoma/University of Maryland:
RotoWire Fantasy Football, Baseball, Basketball and More

Info is confusing because there is a Donald Brown today from University of CT, that is a super star player.

Pete Roth:
He was a FB, went to high school in Illinois, college was N. IL University
RotoWire Fantasy Football, Baseball, Basketball and More

Don't know if any of this helps??? The girl could have gotten the shirt from a second hand store, or from an old boyfriend etc.

The guy got back to me about trying to date the shirt:

Hi Rose,
There really is no good way of telling from looking at the shirt as there was no Dolphins logo (changed in the 70s) on the shirt.

oh well.

 

[RookieInvestigator]

Ok, here is what I have so far on the shirt all found on page 2.

Over the weekend I checked jersey #32 and #33 for some reason...Based on the players I found I looked at MPs in FL, CT, CA, MD & Canada...It looks like someone already thought of it...

I never saw the crime scene photos...I will try to find it...Do you remember where they are posted..That FB page is very informative...It provides more info than NAMUS and Doenetwork...It would be helpful to have a link to the FB or have the additional info added to those sites...

I will say that Knoxville LE/ME are working hard to ID this victim...There are 251 R/Os...I've never seen that many....When she's finally ID I'm sure her family and friends will appreciate all the effort by everyone...

I've visited Knoxville/Gaitlinburg/Pigeon Forge many times...It's a beautiful and fun place for families...It's shocking that this happened in that area....

Thanks for the info!

 

[Roselvr]

Over the weekend I checked jersey #32 and #33 for some reason...Based on the players I found I looked at MPs in FL, CT, CA, MD & Canada...It looks like someone already thought of it...

I never saw the crime scene photos...I will try to find it...Do you remember where they are posted..That FB page is very informative...It provides more info than NAMUS and Doenetwork...It would be helpful to have a link to the FB or have the additional info added to those sites...

I will say that Knoxville LE/ME are working hard to ID this victim...There are 251 R/Os...I've never seen that many....When she's finally ID I'm sure her family and friends will appreciate all the effort by everyone...

I've visited Knoxville/Gaitlinburg/Pigeon Forge many times...It's a beautiful and fun place for families...It's shocking that this happened in that area....

Thanks for the info!

I looked on the FB page for the pic but I'm not seeing it. I have a copy on my computer that I can add to a photo album here if we still have them.

 

[Roselvr]

I just looked on my computer, I dont have it. I'll look on my Mac to see if I have it there. NamUs used to have the photo I'm talking about, it was put on her FB page but Amy Dobbs, who was Shotgun's LE back then didn't like all the photos being there so she removed them from NamUs, she wanted Shotgun's page taken down too.

Over the weekend I checked jersey #32 and #33 for some reason...Based on the players I found I looked at MPs in FL, CT, CA, MD & Canada...It looks like someone already thought of it...

I never saw the crime scene photos...I will try to find it...Do you remember where they are posted..That FB page is very informative...It provides more info than NAMUS and Doenetwork...It would be helpful to have a link to the FB or have the additional info added to those sites...

I will say that Knoxville LE/ME are working hard to ID this victim...There are 251 R/Os...I've never seen that many....When she's finally ID I'm sure her family and friends will appreciate all the effort by everyone...

I've visited Knoxville/Gaitlinburg/Pigeon Forge many times...It's a beautiful and fun place for families...It's shocking that this happened in that area....

Thanks for the info!

The rule outs are due to people here and a few if us (me and like 5 other gals) sending them in back in 2013 to about 2015; we used to work in a private FB group.

NamUs was totally different; it was still pretty new, not every MP had DNA. We used to help by finding the families to get their DNA added to their loved ones cases. We also used to find people posting on FB that they had a missing loved one, we would enter them.

Now you can't do what we used to do with finding cases that need DNA because it's not needed. Most have DNA now. The most you can do is still find people posting about their missing loved one to enter them or have them make an account to do it. They need the MP report

 

[RookieInvestigator]

I just looked on my computer, I dont have it. I'll look on my Mac to see if I have it there. NamUs used to have the photo I'm talking about, it was put on her FB page but Amy Dobbs, who was Shotgun's LE back then didn't like all the photos being there so she removed them from NamUs, she wanted Shotgun's page taken down too.




The rule outs are due to people here and a few if us (me and like 5 other gals) sending them in back in 2013 to about 2015; we used to work in a private FB group.

NamUs was totally different; it was still pretty new, not every MP had DNA. We used to help by finding the families to get their DNA added to their loved ones cases. We also used to find people posting on FB that they had a missing loved one, we would enter them.

Now you can't do what we used to do with finding cases that need DNA because it's not needed. Most have DNA now. The most you can do is still find people posting about their missing loved one to enter them or have them make an account to do it. They need the MP report

You don't have to go through the trouble of finding it...The FB page gives enough detail....If it was readily available, I would've taken a look...

That's great that you and others were instrumental in getting so many potential matches tested! I figured WS played a huge role...

 

[carbuff]

Roselvr has done some fantastic work over the years. Standing ovation!

 

[sloane7777]

Just curious Rose What was Amy's issue with the photos I don't see how it could impede the investigation ? I mean we know how she was killed !!

 

[RookieInvestigator]

I wonder if authorities can reinterview the two men. I mean how did they even get away with that story? That they picked up a stranger and without knowing her name she agreed to commit a robbery with them. They would AT LEAST know a first name! Strange things have happened. Shirley Wolf and Cindy Collier killed a woman together after only knowing each other for 8 hours! But they at knew each others names beforehand! I hope those guys got arrested for conspiring to commit a burglary.

You are correct they should the re-interview both men...The way the reports on NAMUS described it, LE was considering charging the woman that shot this UP...If I read it correctly...

LE can actually charge both with murder...Perhaps then they can see if they will give up more details or get charged with her murder...They would probably have to convince the DA to get on board with it...

Recent cases where they've done that...

CHICAGO ARTICLE

KC ARTICLE