TX TX - Houston, MixedRaceFem 15-17, UP10722, 'He Smurfs Me' TShirt, Oct'12 #1

[Lyssav]

Here are a couple of responses that I received from Dr. Derrick that will hopefully answer some of your questions.

In regard to the second approximation:
"Yes, the approximation looks more White than Black but there are measurements that tell me she has admixture."

Dr. Derrick is very confident that smurfette is biracial-black and white.

"ML12-3150 is very unlikely to have any Asian ancestry and is unlikely to be Hispanic unless it is in name only."

During the examination of the remains there was no finding of any Asian morphology.

 

[Houston Mom]

Brightbird, our gal has a prominent overbite. If you can find open mouth (smiling) photos Dr. Derrick may be able to rule her in/out. So thin nose, overbite, biracial, strong chin, high cheekbones, petite frame (short and size 5), and teenage. Her hair has red dye towards the bottom. She also has osteopenia and is missing a rib.
Two things that stand out to me, but have not been verified, are that her hairline is somewhat low and straight across and her mouth appears to be small. I would be interested it what others think about those observations. Welcome again, Brightbird!

 

[Houston Mom]

I have a tip for all. If you go to User CP you can change the number of posts per page. I have 100. This makes it much easier to search the thread.

User CP, Settings & Options, Edit Options, scroll down to Thread Display Options and Number of posts per page. Here you can change it to 100. I hope this helps!

 

[Lyssav]

Brightbird, our gal has a prominent overbite. If you can find open mouth (smiling) photos Dr. Derrick may be able to rule her in/out. So thin nose, overbite, biracial, strong chin, high cheekbones, petite frame (short and size 5), and teenage. Her hair has red dye towards the bottom. She also has osteopenia and is missing a rib.
Two things that stand out to me, but have not been verified, are that her hairline is somewhat low and straight across and her mouth appears to be small. I would be interested it what others think about those observations. Welcome again, Brightbird!

Dug this up from a conversation with Dr. Derrick:
"ML12-3150 has only 11 thoracic vertebrae and 22 ribs rather than the typical 12 thoracic vertebrae and 24 ribs."

I agree, the hairline definitely stumps me, however she was almost completely skeletonized so the placement of the hairline is probably an educated guesstimate. The mouth is rather small, and actually looks pretty big in the first approximation, but that is probably due to the fact one approximation is smiling and the other is not.

 

[Lyssav]

Houston mom I asked about the mouth and hairline/

"Her mouth is likely small as her face is very narrow skeletally. However, the lips and the hairline are guestimates."

 

[Lyssav]

Got this about the nose.

"Width of nose at nostrils is important but the shape of the tip of the nose is a guess."

 

[True Crime Gal]

I have a tip for all. If you go to User CP you can change the number of posts per page. I have 100. This makes it much easier to search the thread.

User CP, Settings & Options, Edit Options, scroll down to Thread Display Options and Number of posts per page. Here you can change it to 100. I hope this helps!

Thanks! There is also the "Search this Thread" function up near where it says "<< First"--that has been so helpful for me.

Y'all rock! :rockon:

tcg

 

[Houston Mom]

I thought I had posted Lorena Palacios before, but I don't see her on the rule out list or through the "Search this Thread". So here she is!

https://www.ark.org/missing/search....=BRO&eyes=&name=&case_type=&cmd=test&limit=20

 

[Lyssav]

Houstonmom I just got word about Brenda Giron and Isabeth Yanez, both girls were ruled out.

 

[Lyssav]

Keianna Grenz missing from Desoto, TX was found the same month she went missing. Ruled out.

 

[Lyssav]

I told Dr. Derrick about the threads rule out list and how it's pretty big, she said "it's going to get bigger" and then I got a "who is she?" Ahhhhh!! I love this lady.

 

[Lyssav]

This girl reminds me of the second approximation, however her missing date is 10/19/2012. Had to share though.
Celia Maria Miranda
http://www.betsy-v.com/have-you-seen-me-5/

 

[shadowdancer]

The info about the number of ribs and vertebrae gave me a thought. Coupled with the prominent overbite, the 'eye thing', the osteopenic bone and the malformation of the skull base, I think there is a good chance that Smurfette was disabled and/or had learning difficulties or a life-limiting syndrome or any combination of the three.

I have worked (here in the UK) as a home-carer for people with disabilities and I have come across many sad situations where the person's main carer is struggling to cope with the intensive level of care required, and they live a very isolated life where I am one of the few points of contact with the outside world.

I am just pouring out my thoughts here, but I really do think that this type of situation could apply to Smurfette. It might explain why she remains unidentified.

Its food for thought anyway.

 

[EmiLove832]

The info about the number of ribs and vertebrae gave me a thought. Coupled with the prominent overbite, the 'eye thing', the osteopenic bone and the malformation of the skull base, I think there is a good chance that Smurfette was disabled and/or had learning difficulties or a life-limiting syndrome or any combination of the three.

I have worked (here in the UK) as a home-carer for people with disabilities and I have come across many sad situations where the person's main carer is struggling to cope with the intensive level of care required, and they live a very isolated life where I am one of the few points of contact with the outside world.

I am just pouring out my thoughts here, but I really do think that this type of situation could apply to Smurfette. It might explain why she remains unidentified.

Its food for thought anyway.

I 100% agree with you. I said the same thing to Ladylolly a few days ago. With the malformation of her skull, missing ribs and vertebrae I think it's very likely she was disabled. The condition of her teeth make me wonder if she was neglected by her caretaker.

If she was in fact disabled, her caretaker(s) could've been receiving disability payments/SSI.. Something along those lines.

Do we know how she died? I can't remember reading a cause of death.

If she died of natural causes or if an altercation caused her death, they may have disposed of her body knowing the chances of her being identitied were slim so they could continue receiving benefits.

Also, since I read this thread I've thought a lot about Smurfette's outfit. By no means am I being insensitive but realistic about what teens wear today. I can see a cool dressing teen wearing the smurf tee with cute jeans and blue tennis shoes to match the shirt, but the khaki cargo pants throw me off. They are not a current style. I remember that style being sold at Kohl's at least 5 years ago. The pants are most likely be hand me downs. I'm not saying Smurfette wasn't "cool" but I do wonder about the outfit. I have a 15 year old niece that isn't obsessed with fashion yet she wouldn't wear that outfit. Just trying to gauge what mature level Smurfette was.

Although, if was not mature for her age the pink thong would be a strange choice of underwear.

 

[Lyssav]

I was thinking the same thing about the shirt, it seems young, too young for someone thought to be 15-17. I know when I was between the ages of 15-17 you wouldn't catch me wearing any shirts with cartoon characters, it is just "too young" looking for my mentality back then. But you're right the thong throws that whole idea out the window. A while back I was at the beach and a little girl was wearing the smurfette shirt, she couldn't have been any older than 12. IMO the pants make sense, if she was enrolled in school the khaki cargos were likely part of a uniform.

They were not able to determine the cause of death, due to her being almost completely skeletonized. Her being disabled or having some sort of disease has always been on my mind. I keep thinking Scoliosis, which depending on the form could have been very mild an gone unnoticed.

 

[Migmuu]

I was thinking the same thing about the shirt, it seems young, too young for someone thought to be 15-17. I know when I was between the ages of 15-17 you wouldn't catch me wearing any shirts with cartoon characters, it is just "too young" looking for my mentality back then

I don't really think the Smurf shirt means much; a lot of the girls back in high school wore (tight) shirts and sweaters with cartoon characters on them. Complete with thongs. I'm 19 myself and have a hoodie with Mickey Mouse and another with Eeyore. (Then again, I live in South Florida and those are the only two 'winter' tops I have, lol).

I think the clothes Smurfette wore look a lot more like what you'd just throw on to run errands, go to the beach, exercise etc. Definitely not the kind of clothes you'd wear if going out to meet friends or something.

 

[Migmuu]

Lyssav, can you ask Dr. Derrick 1) whether the missing ribs/vertebrae can be attributed to scavenging or something other than a physical defect, and 2) what kind of skull, rib and vertebral malformations Smurfette had? I would, but I don't know what her email is. : (

 

[Lyssav]

She described the missing thoracic vertebrae and ribs as an abnormality(not due to scavenging)Most people have 12 thoracic vertebrae and 24 ribs while smurfette only had 11 thoracic vertebrae and 22 ribs

 

[mandiedq]

She described the missing thoracic vertebrae and ribs as an abnormality(not due to scavenging)Most people have 12 thoracic vertebrae and 24 ribs while smurfette only had 11 thoracic vertebrae and 22 ribs

I just spent some time researching how rare it is to have only 11 thoracic vertebrae as it seems the # of ribs corresponds to the number of vertebrae. Here is what I found:

The presence of 6 lumbar vertebrae has been reported many years ago [8], with 3% having 6 lumbar, 10% 4 lumbar, 7% 13 thoracic and 3% 11 thoracic vertebrae [7].

The footnotes above are citations which are here:

7. Pilbeam D May 15 2004 The anthropoid postcranial axial skeleton: comments on development, variation, and evolution. Journal of Experimental Zoology Part B Molecular & Developmental Evolution 302(3):241-267
8. Webber R 1956 The lumbar nerves in a body with six lumbar vertebrae. Anat rec 126:123-126

This is from a paper titled "Six Lumbar Vertebrae: A Case Study" by Thomas Findley, MD PhD

So, to put it in perspective, Celiacs affects 1% of the population. In theory, you are 3 times more likely to have 11 vertebrae than Celiacs. (Yes, I know other factors are involved, yadda, yadda, yadda...just painting a picture.)

 

[Brightbird]

I totally agree that the t-shirt isn't very telling. At age 30, I'm sitting here right now in a mickey mouse t-shirt which I just wear around the house. Also, with her small stature maybe she found it harder to find clothes that fit well and sometimes resorted to less than her ideal choice.

I did some very basic research on the skeletal abnormality and my impression was that it could range from no notable physical effects through to significant disability. But I too was wondering if something happened while she was under care. My hope with that is that if she had a disability that warranted care, social services will eventually notice she is missing. I wonder if they have enquired with local children's hospitals about current or past patients with her condition - 11 thoracic vertebrae and 22 ribs. I'm probably too hopeful because I think they would have followed that up if it were that simple. Iirc her teeth were in poor shape so she most likely hadn't receive a lot of health care in recent years.