Identified! TX - Huntsville, 'Walker County Jane Doe', WhtFem 14-16, 91UFTX, Nov'80 Sherry Ann Jarvis

[BethAnn777]

I haven’t read every post, but the prison parking lot could have just been a place to meet someone. The prison would have been a known location in the town. May have had absolutely nothing to do with the prison itself rather just a place to meet. Especially if someone is hitching a ride it would much easier to get to the prison than a house located in an obscure area.

Maybe it was a good halfway point meeting spot. When I was a kid we used to meet family members that lived 4 hours from us at a halfway point. My cousins would ride back to our house for a visit or vice versa. While the other party drove back home.

 

[daisy6441]

I haven’t read every post, but the prison parking lot could have just been a place to meet someone. The prison would have been a known location in the town. May have had absolutely nothing to do with the prison itself rather just a place to meet. Especially if someone is hitching a ride it would much easier to get to the prison than a house located in an obscure area.

Maybe it was a good halfway point meeting spot. When I was a kid we used to meet family members that lived 4 hours from us at a halfway point. My cousins would ride back to our house for a visit or vice versa. While the other party drove back home.

I’m not sure the prison would be such a good place for that. Would they just let people hang around in the parking lot at night? I think it has a fence around it. If she was meeting someone around there it would be so much easier to meet in town and then go to the second location. Especially since she was hitchhiking and there probably wouldn’t be very many people driving that direction.

 

[T rex]

Could she have been going to the prison cemetery? Halloween night, not caring that it was already late. Maybe she was going to see someone she knew who was executed or died in prison?

EDIT: I located the cemetery and its no where near the prison like I assumed it was. Even today it seems like mostly farm land around the prison. A few houses around but not much else.

I had thought of a visit to the prison cemetery too but now your saying it wasn't even close so I don't know. On the other hand would WCJD have known this or would she assume it was on the prison grounds like we did? The cemetery angle is probably not very likely but still possible I guess.
I was wondering if when she said she had a friend there if she could have been being sarcastic. Sometimes people refer to their enemy as their friend. Could someone have been doing time in this prison that had somehow caused her pain in her life and she was going there to give them a piece of her mind or just to ask them why? Just a thought.

 

[daisy6441]

I had thought of a visit to the prison cemetery too but now your saying it wasn't even close so I don't know. On the other hand would WCJD have known this or would she assume it was on the prison grounds like we did? The cemetery angle is probably not very likely but still possible I guess.
I was wondering if when she said she had a friend there if she could have been being sarcastic. Sometimes people refer to their enemy as their friend. Could someone have been doing time in this prison that had somehow caused her pain in her life and she was going there to give them a piece of her mind or just to ask them why? Just a thought.

I had that thought too so I was looking at major crimes in the Aransas Pass area where the criminals were sent to Ellis. I found a few. One in particular was a woman killed while working at a store. I tried to find out if she had a daughter that age.

 

[Awsi Dooger]

I had never heard of AdvanceDNA until today. It is a private firm, with similarities to public GEDMatch. AdvanceDNA recently solved a 1993 Ohio case of attempted murder using genealogy.

Despite being a private company they take recommendations on Jane Doe cases. If Walker County is going to drag its butt on this case maybe a new aggressive company with high aspirations would like to boost its profile via a solve. This is the related section on the AdvanceDNA website: https://advancedna.org/services

"Decedent Identification

Leverage our team of forensic genealogists to reunite an unknown decedent, such as a John or Jane Doe, with their identity. Our team accepts recommendations from the community, contact us to recommend a case."

 

[T rex]

I had never heard of AdvanceDNA until today. It is a private firm, with similarities to public GEDMatch. AdvanceDNA recently solved a 1993 Ohio case of attempted murder using genealogy.

Despite being a private company they take recommendations on Jane Doe cases. If Walker County is going to drag its butt on this case maybe a new aggressive company with high aspirations would like to boost its profile via a solve. This is the related section on the AdvanceDNA website: https://advancedna.org/services

"Decedent Identification

Leverage our team of forensic genealogists to reunite an unknown decedent, such as a John or Jane Doe, with their identity. Our team accepts recommendations from the community, contact us to recommend a case."

I'm a little confused on this one. Wouldn't they need more than a recommendation from one of us? Wouldn't the investigating agency still have to approve because how would they get the DNA to do it with? Am I missing something here or are they just saying instead of waiting on a request that they will go to LE and make an offer?

 

[Mrs. Badcrumble]

I'm a little confused on this one. Wouldn't they need more than a recommendation from one of us? Wouldn't the investigating agency still have to approve because how would they get the DNA to do it with? Am I missing something here or are they just saying instead of waiting on a request that they will go to LE and make an offer?

I read this as a way for them to market themselves. We as a community have our "superstars", you know, certain cases that have gained more attention than others, like WCJD. By taking on one of these cases (and, not at least, solving them!), AdvanceDNA will gain reputation and publicity enough to be automatically approached by LE and taking on more cases. DDP also encourages recommendations from the community, even if LE still has to approach them and not the other way around. It's about getting their name out there.

 

[daisy6441]

I don't think Walker County is trying to prevent identification. They want it solved just as bad as we do. They have her DNA and its been compared to reported missing persons. We don't know how good the sample was since she was buried for years prior to collection. If anything its likely a lack of funding that has stopped them.

 

[Ibiz]

It's to bad they can't at least use the genealogy websites, and locate some of her relatives.

 

[proctorelites]

I still don't underatand that myself. GEDmatch reached out to Walker Co. LE and if I understand that right That's all GEDmatch reported: we've reached out to walker county law enforcement regarding walker co jane doe..period. we still dont know why GEDmatch does not have the case for DNA matching etc. If I understand this right GEDMatch just had a major donation and surely LE knows this case will be funded really quick.
Can anyone enlighten me?
Edit to add: this information is incorrect see post 719 of this thread for clarification per @CCJD

 

[CCJD]

I still don't underatand that myself. GEDmatch reached out to Walker Co. LE and if I understand that right That's all GEDmatch reported: we've reached out to walker county law enforcement regarding walker co jane doe..period. we still dont know why GEDmatch does not have the case for DNA matching etc. If I understand this right GEDMatch just had a major donation and surely LE knows this case will be funded really quick.
Can anyone enlighten me?

It was DNA Doe Project that received the large donation, not GEDmatch. Also, Margaret Press said on the DDP FB page that WCJD has not been offered to them, they would gladly take her but it sounds like others are working on her. (Post 719 of this thread).

 

[proctorelites]

It was DNA Doe Project that received the large donation, not GEDmatch. Also, Margaret Press said on the DDP FB page that WCJD has not been offered to them, they would gladly take her but it sounds like others are working on her. (Post 719 of this thread).

Thank you

I still don't underatand that myself. GEDmatch reached out to Walker Co. LE and if I understand that right That's all GEDmatch reported: we've reached out to walker county law enforcement regarding walker co jane doe..period. we still dont know why GEDmatch does not have the case for DNA matching etc. If I understand this right GEDMatch just had a major donation and surely LE knows this case will be funded really quick.
Can anyone enlighten me?
Edit to add: this information is incorrect see post 719 of this thread for clarification per

Thank You! I edited my post to reflect the post 719 info so I'm not spreading inaccurate info.

 

[oviedo]

I have read through most of the pages and this one is still shocking to me - how can a parent not know their child? Even if she was a runaway - is there no one recognizing her? It is just so sad to me.

 

[Paul B.]

Maybe the family - or a childhood/school friend of WCJD - are looking for her but haven't connected the dots.

 

[Ginger21]

Debra Jackson aka Orange socks died only a few hours away from where she went missing from and it wasn't until this year (maybe late last year I can't remember 100%) that her sister put the pieces together.

 

[daisy6441]

I think WCJD might have been on her own at the time she disappeared or was living with someone who wasn't a parent.

 

[Batgirl 2.0]

Hello, I don't post very often and though I'm fascinated with this case, I can't keep up with reading all of the posts. So I apologize if anyone has already mentioned this, but I wanted to see what you all think.

Does anyone think that WCJD could have been going to visit Bennie Ray Dupnik, Jr. in prison? I'll abbreviate his name as BR. BR was born in 1961 in San Patricio Co. I found a blog with a posting from someone in the area who knew him and who stated that BR was a deck hand from Aransas Pass:

Port Aransas, Texas

The poster said that most teenagers at the time knew BR well and that he had only been living in Aransas Pass for a few weeks at the time of the murder of a woman named Shorty on May 25, 1978 (BR would have been 16 at the time). BR was apprehended for the crime within minutes and taken into custody. BR was convicted of capital murder in 1979 and was sentenced to life in prison.

The poster stated that he ran into BR a few years later at the Ferguson Unit of the TDCJ in Huntsville. According to Google Maps, the Ferguson Unit is 24.5 miles, or 28 minutes, northwest of the Ellis unit. It appears to be right off of I-45/75. IIRC, WCJD's body was found right off of I-45/75 (which was in a direction away from the Ellis unit).

This is all pure speculation, but I wonder if BR could have originally been assigned to the Central Unit in Sugarland. At one time, the Sugarland prison was the central intake prison and housed first offenders and white males prisoners under 25 years of age. The TDCJ assigned some prisoners to the Central Unit so that the prisoners resided closer to their former homes and could keep in touch with their families.

This leads me to the Cathy/Kathy story of the young girl who in the summer of 1980 was trying to hitch a ride to the Sugarland prison. Maybe (speculation, here!) she knew BR from Port Aransas and was told that he was in Sugarland but by that time he had been transferred to Huntsville.

Maybe WCJD really was from the Rockport/Port Aransas/Aransas Pass area.

 

[detective24-7]

Maybe the family - or a childhood/school friend of WCJD - are looking for her but haven't connected the dots.

The more I research jane doe cases and the cases that eventually get identified, the more I learn it's not always due to lack of care, concern, and awareness of the parents and family, but more either a police report wasn't filed due to LE thinking it's not warranted or because the family thought when they went away that they were doing well and just didn't care to stay in touch.

I often wonder if the composite sketch of WCJD is accurate enough for a loved one or former classmate/friend to see it and remember/associate her. I admire and appreciate the time and skill that goes into creating those. But when I saw what Debra Jackson really looked like compared to her composite sketch, I could see a faint resemblance but don't know if I would pick the two to be a match - but that's probably just me.

 

[cherrymeg]

The more I research jane doe cases and the cases that eventually get identified, the more I learn it's not always due to lack of care, concern, and awareness of the parents and family, but more either a police report wasn't filed due to LE thinking it's not warranted or because the family thought when they went away that they were doing well and just didn't care to stay in touch.

I often wonder if the composite sketch of WCJD is accurate enough for a loved one or former classmate/friend to see it and remember/associate her. I admire and appreciate the time and skill that goes into creating those. But when I saw what Debra Jackson really looked like compared to her composite sketch, I could see a faint resemblance but don't know if I would pick the two to be a match - but that's probably just me.

This makes a lot of sense. WCJD seemed to have good teeth and like she was cared for. Are there other possible depictions of her? I don't mean the morgue photos but how she would have looked alive.

 

[cherrymeg]

Her eyebrows are interesting in the morgue photo. Her nose looks petite even if her face is swollen.