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

[CADwrest]

Or maybe.... she got a ride to the hitchin post from her killer, then when she left he was still there and felt she could "trust" him and rode w him again?


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I had that thought, but I don't think so. If he already has her in his vehicle, he has control of her, and letting her out, he risks losing her. And by stopping somewhere where there are people coming and going, he risks someone seeing him with her. I can't see what the killer would possibly gain by that.

 

[cvaldez1975]

I had that thought, but I don't think so. If he already has her in his vehicle, he has control of her, and letting her out, he risks losing her. And by stopping somewhere where there are people coming and going, he risks someone seeing him with her. I can't see what he killer would possibly gain by that.

Yea that makes sense. I know many have become victim that way though, but why take her to a populated area? I was just wondering why that "missing witness" never came forward but maybe he was also a trucker, not from the area and didn't hear about it.


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[CADwrest]

Also a good question. Maybe someone just passing through and never heard anything about what happened?
It's just a theory at this point, though. The later she shows up at Hitchin Post, the more likely she did just walk the entire way. But if she's there much before 9pm, I think it's a strong possibility.

 

[lagann]

The low in Houston on Oct 31, 1980 was 37

Thanks, we were wondering that just yesterday. Just a sweater & carrying shoes when she left truck stop!

 

[proctorelites]

This may have been discussed. I wonder is it possible she got confused about this: Ellis Prison in Huntsville or could she have gotten it confused from Ellis County Jail? It's 2to 2.5 hours north. Did the detectives consider this and ask inmates at Ellis Co. Jail in Waxahachie,Tx.? I know adults that say prison when they mean jail. There's a big difference but some ppl think of jail as jail, regardless of local county or prison. She could've asked someone far earlier and they said "oh you mean the prison" and gotten her all mixed up. That may be random idk. I just wonder did they consider checking the jail inmates there.

I don't know if Ellis Co. (Waxahachie) had a jail built in 1980 or if they were using cells inside the court house? Our local jail was in the back of the courthouse. It was on the back side and labeled as the county jail. In the 90's they built a large jail that stands independent of the courthouse miles away now.

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[carbuff]

I had that thought, but I don't think so. If he already has her in his vehicle, he has control of her, and letting her out, he risks losing her. And by stopping somewhere where there are people coming and going, he risks someone seeing him with her. I can't see what the killer would possibly gain by that.

Unless he didn't start out intending to kill, or hadn't made his intention known. Humoring her for now.



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[CADwrest]

Unless he didn't start out intending to kill, or hadn't made his intention known. Humoring her for now.



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I think that gets to what kind of killer we’re dealing with here. If it’s a guy who is doing her favors thinking he’s going to get something out of it later, and who snaps when she makes clear that’s not happening, then that would make sense.

IMO, I just don’t think that’s what’s in play. She was extensively brutalized in horrible ways for an extended period of time. It would have taken a level of determination and enjoyment of suffering that, I think, the killer would have to have had in advance. I really think the minute she approached him (or vice versa), he had a very clear idea of how he wanted things to go.

 

[carbuff]

I think that gets to what kind of killer we’re dealing with here. If it’s a guy who is doing her favors thinking he’s going to get something out of it later, and who snaps when she makes clear that’s not happening, then that would make sense.

IMO, I just don’t think that’s what’s in play. She was extensively brutalized in horrible ways for an extended period of time. It would have taken a level of determination and enjoyment of suffering that, I think, the killer would have to have had in advance. I really think the minute she approached him (or vice versa), he had a very clear idea of how he wanted things to go.

I was thinking of somebody like Rodney Alcala, who photographed, dated, and socialized with hundreds of women without incident, yet brutally murdered a few. Who knows what set him off.

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[CADwrest]

I did some reading on Alcala today. The sense I got from him was that he was somewhat cautious but would usually kill if he thought he wouldn't get caught. The Wikipedia article states he may have killed between 50 and 130 people, which is a real shame considering many of those happened after he was released from prison.
I definitely see your point. It's easy to imagine a killer like him picking her up, trying to decide if he can get away it, even letting her out at Hitchin Post, and then she lets slip something like "The waitress was asking if my parents know where I am. NO ONE knows where I am!" that seals her fate.

 

[mia g]

OT but interesting.....my husband, daughter and myself were in the Hitchin Post ONE time a long time ago. A year or so later, my husband and I were back through there and stopped to eat. The SAME waitress from a year earlier waited on us and stated......haven't you been here before? You came in about a year or so ago with your daughter!? I was very impressed with her remembering our visit. It would have been about 1990 or 1992. I wasn't aware of Jane Doe then, but wonder if it was the same waitress? She said she had worked there a long time. Amazing memory. FWIW

My mom worked there when I was very small .. not sure what age .. I remember it though but couldn't have been more then 4 as we left the area when I was 4.. at times I was there while mom worked in a play pen. Laura(another wcjd supporter) were tellling Carl how it hadn't ever changed .. I went in there in 2010 and the smell took me back to the years I spent there .. and Laura said "yeah the booth have the same tears".. honestly when we got to the HP and it was being redone.. it broke my heart ( sensible I know it needed revamped after these atleast 40 years) but to me it's like trying to change history ... bittersweet!!


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[CarlK90245]

I posted this on the WWWCJD Facebook page, and am posting it here as well.

I put together this map to illustrate what I believe to be the likely route suggested by Bobby Roach (Owner of the South End Gulf Station), and the likely route actually taken by WCJD.
My possible suggested route is in yellow. My possible route taken is in Red.

These routes are slighty different from the route I suggested in a previous post, and different from the possible route that "Mia G" suggested.

"Mia G" suggested that perhaps B Roach directed her up Highway 19. The South End Gulf Station was on the corner of Old Phelps Road and Sam Houston Ave. So if Hwy 19 had been his suggested route, then she would have immediately headed up Old Phelps Road, which leads directly to Hwy 19. The reports indicated that she headed north on Sam Houston Avenue.

Sam Houston Avenue curves northward, and the simplest route to the prison would require that she go right on 11th Street one block, and turn left (north) on University Avenue, and turn right on Hwy 980, which would take her directly to the prison. I had previously stated that it was 20 miles to the prison. This route would have been 15 miles, and would have taken her about five hours to get there on foot.
But for some unknown reason, it appears that she turned left on 11th, and continued northwest on State Hwy 75 (or alternatively up the I-45 Service Road) and eventually arrived at the Hitchin Post. This route would have been a five mile walk, taking about an hour and 40 minutes.

I have labeled the four key locations - The South End Gulf Station, The Ellis Prison Unit, the Hitchin Post Truck Stop, and the location where her body was found.

I don't believe she caught a ride between South End Gulf and Hitchin Post. She had no reason to go that direction.

I think she just got confused when she got up to 11th street and turned the wrong direction. Or perhaps she decided that it was just too far to walk and she'd be better off trying to find a place to sleep and head there in the morning.

As for the location of the murder, there is nothing between the HP and the dump site. No place to stop to kill her, and the logistics of murdering and raping someone would have been very complicated if done in the seat of an ordinary vehicle. He would have had to drive her to a different remote location, brutalize and kill her, and then return to the same freeway onramp next to the HP and dump her just up the road.

I am pretty certain in my own mind that the killer picked her up at the Hitchin Post, and there is plenty of room in a remote corner of the parking lot for a truck to park away from the other trucks, and not be heard.

If she had resumed her trek back through town after getting directions a second time, the killer (probably driving a car because a big rig wouldn't be driving through town) would need to take her to a secluded place to commit the murder. That secluded place would likely be on the north side of town toward the prison. There is plenty of seclusion in that direction. No need to drive back through town a second time with a body in the car. He would have dumped her there.

And if she just got directions from the waitress, she wouldn't have hitched a ride up N/B I-45. For 1 - it was the opposite direction from where she was headed. And for 2 - the killer would have had to take her well beyond the dump spot. And he then would have had to reverse course, take southbound I-45 back to Huntsville, reverse course again to northbound I-45, just to dump her where he did. Very unlikely.

The only scenario that makes sense is that she didn't leave the HP parking lot alive.

 

[CarlK90245]

In case any of you are in Huntsville, and want to visit WCJD's grave, here is the location of the plot.

If you look at the Google Satellite View of the Oakwood Cemetery on Martin Luther King Drive and 9th Street, you can actually see WCJD's grave stone.

 

[Alleykins]

Thanks, Carl, your scenario makes sense. I wonder if there was someone in the HP that over heard her getting directions, followed her outside and offered her a ride. I'm sure it wouldn't have been too difficult to convince her to accept one if she walked from the Gulf Station to the HP. She was probably exhausted and frustrated at that point.

 

[CADwrest]

If she had resumed her trek back through town after getting directions a second time, the killer (probably driving a car because a big rig wouldn't be driving through town) would need to take her to a secluded place to commit the murder. That secluded place would likely be on the north side of town toward the prison. There is plenty of seclusion in that direction. No need to drive back through town a second time with a body in the car. He would have dumped her there.

And if she just got directions from the waitress, she wouldn't have hitched a ride up N/B I-45. For 1 - it was the opposite direction from where she was headed. And for 2 - the killer would have had to take her well beyond the dump spot. And he then would have had to reverse course, take southbound I-45 back to Huntsville, reverse course again to northbound I-45, just to dump her where he did. Very unlikely.

The only scenario that makes sense is that she didn't leave the HP parking lot alive.

I think that scenario makes perfect sense.
OK, let’s consider the hitch-hiking theory from Gulf station to Hitchin Post debunked, unless we later find out a time she was at the Hitchin Post that would obviously be impossible if she walked. All it really added was another potential witness anyway.
I was thinking her choice of footwear adds to the evidence that she had planned very poorly for this trip, but that might not be fair if she’d been a runaway for a long period of time and those were the only shoes she had. Also, she clearly doesn’t know the prison’s location except in a very general sense (I’m thinking she’d never heard it described except as “near Huntsville&#8221, so she probably wasn’t expecting a 15 mile hike.
Carl, you occasionally drop additional pieces of information beyond what is generally known about the case (her having a confident air about her, her body being in a position suggesting it was thrown, etc.) I was wondering if you knew whether she had purchased anything at either location. She doesn’t seem to have been carrying any food with her, and given the time of night and the fact that she’d just taken a five mile walk, she had to have been famished. If not, I think that probably shows that she didn’t even have any money with her.

 

[PrincessUnidentified]

I was looking at her case recently. What happened to the girl named as "Cathy/Kathleen" in a photo? Are there any ways that we could find clues in that direction? Possible to get a sheriff to call a school to check? I'm pretty sure someone knows her out there- just like Tammy Alexander. They just don't know that she's been dead.

 

[Alleykins]

I'm wondering if there were any payphones nearby, either inside or out, that she could have used, and if so, if they're call history was checked.

 

[CarlK90245]

I was looking at her case recently. What happened to the girl named as "Cathy/Kathleen" in a photo? Are there any ways that we could find clues in that direction? Possible to get a sheriff to call a school to check? I'm pretty sure someone knows her out there- just like Tammy Alexander. They just don't know that she's been dead.

The WC Sheriff doesn't seem too interested in the Kathy angle. They told the guy who came up with the photo that unless they can come up with a full name, there isn't much they can (or are willing) to do.

I'm wondering if there were any payphones nearby, either inside or out, that she could have used, and if so, if they're call history was checked.

Great thought. But if they haven't done that yet, they probably wouldn't be able to get that info now.

 

[CarlK90245]

I was thinking her choice of footwear adds to the evidence that she had planned very poorly for this hike.

I doubt that the platform sandals were her only footwear. She probably wore shoes, and had the sandals as spares.

Carl, you occasionally drop additional pieces of information beyond what is generally known about the case (her having a confident air about her, her body being in a position suggesting it was thrown, etc.) I was wondering if you knew whether she had purchased anything at either location. She doesn’t seem to have been carrying any food with her, and given the time of night and the fact that she’d just taken a five mile walk, she had to have been famished. If not, I think that probably shows that she didn’t even have any money with her.

Those two tidbits were the only things that we got from the detective, and that her hair was not as long as I (or the other artists) had depicted a few years ago.

 

[Onfortuneswheel]

I put together this map to illustrate what I believe to be the likely route suggested by Bobby Roach (Owner of the South End Gulf Station), and the likely route actually taken by WCJD.
My possible suggested route is in yellow. My possible route taken is in Red.

These routes are slighty different from the route I suggested in a previous post, and different from the possible route that "Mia G" suggested.

"Mia G" suggested that perhaps B Roach directed her up Highway 19. The South End Gulf Station was on the corner of Old Phelps Road and Sam Houston Ave. So if Hwy 19 had been his suggested route, then she would have immediately headed up Old Phelps Road, which leads directly to Hwy 19. The reports indicated that she headed north on Sam Houston Avenue.

Sam Houston Avenue curves northward, and the simplest route to the prison would require that she go right on 11th Street one block, and turn left (north) on University Avenue, and turn right on Hwy 980, which would take her directly to the prison. I had previously stated that it was 20 miles to the prison. This route would have been 15 miles, and would have taken her about five hours to get there on foot.
But for some unknown reason, it appears that she turned left on 11th, and continued northwest on State Hwy 75 (or alternatively up the I-45 Service Road) and eventually arrived at the Hitchin Post. This route would have been a five mile walk, taking about an hour and 40 minutes.

I have labeled the four key locations - The South End Gulf Station, The Ellis Prison Unit, the Hitchin Post Truck Stop, and the location where her body was found.

I don't believe she caught a ride between South End Gulf and Hitchin Post. She had no reason to go that direction.

I think she just got confused when she got up to 11th street and turned the wrong direction. Or perhaps she decided that it was just too far to walk and she'd be better off trying to find a place to sleep and head there in the morning.

Have we considered the possibility that she may have asked directions to Wynne Prison Farm and it was incorrectly included in the report as Ellis Prison Farm?

Her route would make a lot more sense.

 

[Onfortuneswheel]

Have we considered the possibility that she may have asked directions to Wynne Prison Farm and it was incorrectly included in the report as Ellis Prison Farm?

Her route would make a lot more sense.

Or perhaps maybe someone mistakenly gave her directions to the Wynne Unit and she went into the Hitching Post when she realized she was led to the wrong prison unit.