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

[cvaldez1975]

i really doubt they would do it once. I really think this may be an early Robert ben rhoades victim.

Does anyone have any good information on how many people would do something like this once and then never kill anyone else again?

I used to believe this creep would have been caught after murdering someone else and we just don't know about it. Other cases suggest that these types can kill once and never kill again. Which is great for potential victims but bad for the chances of catching the murderers and bringing them to justice.

 

[Vital Forces]

If LE was on the ball they would have checked this out during the initial investigation in 1980.

They interviewed every prisoner and guard.

i really doubt they would do it once.

I used to think the same thing. What changed my mind was reading about the murder of Amy Mihaljevic. Her killer does not appear to have ever struck again. So I believe it is possible for these killers to strike only once and be done.

 

[paul1980]

It *could* have been Rhoades. Equally, it could be a killer that is not famous. We have to remember to not fall into the "I was almost abducted by Ted Bundy!" trap.

 

[Finders]

I have been reading a ton on Sk's. The majority of crimes like these seem to me from my research to be by someone that impulsively will do it again. I would bet the farm that she wasn't his only victim. I sent a letter to Robert Ben Rhoades asking him if he killed her. No response but he seems to me to be a likely suspect.

 

[Finders]

http://ftp.dot.state.tx.us/pub/txdot-info/trf/crash_statistics/2016/04.pdf

This is a calendar from 2016 showing fatal car crashes in Texas by the day. The reason I am posting this is maybe her parents were lost in car crash. I think she was too well taken care of to have been on her own for long. I'm searching the Rockport/Aransas records to look for accidents 78-late 1980.

 

[paul1980]

Is she local to TX or from another state. I think the witnesses would have commented on an interstate accent.

 

[Onfortuneswheel]

I was browsing the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) page, and I noticed in their visitor policies that visitors today must fill out a form. Perhaps this was not so back in 1980, but let's be real, 1980 wasn't THAT long ago. Additionally, given this was a maximum facility prison housing death row inmates, I'd be surprised if visitors didn't have to get pre-authorization. At the very least, she needed to schedule a time AND produce identification upon arrival...which means she absolutely had to have legal identification.

It's a long shot (and will definitely come with a wait, if it comes at all), but filing a public information request per Texas Code Section 552.201(a) for "any and all visitor logs and visitor requests for November 1, 1980 and November 2, 1980" might be worth a try...

http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/documents/policy/ED1512.pdf

I wondered about that myself and emailed TDCJ last year about visitor logs from that day. The response I received was:

No ma’am, it would not be possible as visitation records are considered confidential.

 

[WalkingTheCow]

Hey everyone. Long time lurker here. I have read a lot about this case. I personally really feel that Robert Ben Rhoades is behind this, but what do you guys think about this guy?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Allen_Shore

I've been reading a lot about him lately, and I think he is a strong possibility. I will list why I believe so.

First, his oldest victim was 21. The youngest was 9. Two were 14 and one was 16. Walker County Jane Doe was around 14-18.

His victims were all petite. Walker County Jane Doe was around 5'5" and 105 pounds.

His victims were all Hispanic. Walker County Jane Doe appears (to me) to be Hispanic.

His first known murder was committed in 1986. It isn't weird to think he committed murders as early as 1980. We know that his last murder was in 1995, but he was molesting girls as late as 2000. If he went five years without a (known) murder from 1995 to 2000, he certainly could have gone six years from 1980 to 1986 without a murder.

Finally, all of his murders were sexual in nature, and involved the use of a ligature. Law enforcement believes there are more victims, and apparently Shore himself suggested that could be true.

Really, the only thing that clashes with Shore's MO was that all of his victims had long hair, flowing down the back. Shore discussed how he enjoyed this. Walker County Jane Doe had fairly short hair.

Should I call it in? They don't have much longer to get to Shore. He gets the needle in under a month.

 

[CarlK90245]

Hey everyone. Long time lurker here. I have read a lot about this case. I personally really feel that Robert Ben Rhoades is behind this, but what do you guys think about this guy?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Allen_Shore

I've been reading a lot about him lately, and I think he is a strong possibility. I will list why I believe so.

First, his oldest victim was 21. The youngest was 9. Two were 14 and one was 16. Walker County Jane Doe was around 14-18.

His victims were all petite. Walker County Jane Doe was around 5'5" and 105 pounds.

His victims were all Hispanic. Walker County Jane Doe appears (to me) to be Hispanic.

His first known murder was committed in 1986. It isn't weird to think he committed murders as early as 1980. We know that his last murder was in 1995, but he was molesting girls as late as 2000. If he went five years without a (known) murder from 1995 to 2000, he certainly could have gone six years from 1980 to 1986 without a murder.

Finally, all of his murders were sexual in nature, and involved the use of a ligature. Law enforcement believes there are more victims, and apparently Shore himself suggested that could be true.

Really, the only thing that clashes with Shore's MO was that all of his victims had long hair, flowing down the back. Shore discussed how he enjoyed this. Walker County Jane Doe had fairly short hair.

Should I call it in? They don't have much longer to get to Shore. He gets the needle in under a month.

Welcome to WS, and thanks for joining the discussion.

My own opinion is that WCJD's killer was a truck driver. That would certainly include Rhodes, but not Shore.

Shore was only 18 at the time of WCJD's murder, and his M.O. was apparently to stalk his victims within his own neighborhood.

WCJD was last seen walking out the door of the restaurant at the Hitchin Post Truck Stop (which is adjacent to the northbound onramp of I-45), and was then found dead the following morning 3 1/2 miles north of there.

There was no place between those locations where the killer would have been able to park a vehicle so that he could commit the assault, torture, rape, and murder without risking been seen by a passing motorist. The assault against her would have been difficult to pull off on the side of a highway, and the evidence suggested that her body was thrown into the position in which she was found. (probably from a vehicle that was high above the ground)

The killer would have needed privacy in an enclosed area to perform the act. A truck's sleeper compartment would have provided that privacy. An ordinary vehicle would not have afforded that level of privacy.
IMO, the Hitchin Post parking lot was the only place between the HP and the dump site where the murder could have occurred. And there was plenty of space for a trucker to park his vehicle in a far corner of the lot, away from the other trucks.

All of that would make Shore an unlikely suspect, because even if he had a vehicle, he didn't have the type of vehicle that would have enabled him to commit the crime without notice.

 

[zeldazonk1976]

Damn those pesky statutory exceptions and government deference!!!!!!!!

 

[paul1980]

I wonder if the killer got sexual excitement from torturing her?

 

[Finders]

I bet he did.

 

[CarlK90245]

I wonder if the killer got sexual excitement from torturing her?

Yes, most definitely, IMO

 

[Bit of hope]

I wonder if the killer got sexual excitement from torturing her?

I think so yes, but why you are asking this question? Do you have any thoughts/background wondering to ask this? What are your ideas?

 

[paul1980]

I'm trying to get a picture of the killer. Though it won't help getting WCJD her name.

 

[malaika]

I think so yes, but why you are asking this question? Do you have any thoughts/background wondering to ask this? What are your ideas?

I was thinking the same thing. And to me , it seems pointless to try to figure out the killer's motivation. It's not like it's likely to help identify this poor girl at this point.

.... Not trying to be nasty, but I don't see the point of spending a lot of energy trying to figure it out. Because the motivation was internal; who knows why he [or she] did it. Maybe maybe the girl refused a sexual advance, maybe she tried to steal money from them, maybe she witnessed them doing something illegal... But then again, maybe they were on drugs and thought she was a zombie they had to kill. Or maybe they were bona fide crazy, and thought that Bugs Bunny or Mickey Mouse told them to do it... My point is, with this case being 30+ years old, I don't know that discovering the specific motivation will really make any difference in identifying this poor girl... which is the point of this forum.

Again, not trying to antagonize, but it seems sordid to me to be so fascinated with the killer's motivation.

 

[paul1980]

I didn't mean to be sordid, Just in some cases, if you can figure out the killer it can help.

 

[carbuff]

Welcome to WS, and thanks for joining the discussion.

My own opinion is that WCJD's killer was a truck driver. That would certainly include Rhodes, but not Shore.

Shore was only 18 at the time of WCJD's murder, and his M.O. was apparently to stalk his victims within his own neighborhood.

WCJD was last seen walking out the door of the restaurant at the Hitchin Post Truck Stop (which is adjacent to the northbound onramp of I-45), and was then found dead the following morning 3 1/2 miles north of there.

There was no place between those locations where the killer would have been able to park a vehicle so that he could commit the assault, torture, rape, and murder without risking been seen by a passing motorist. The assault against her would have been difficult to pull off on the side of a highway, and the evidence suggested that her body was thrown into the position in which she was found. (probably from a vehicle that was high above the ground)

The killer would have needed privacy in an enclosed area to perform the act. A truck's sleeper compartment would have provided that privacy. An ordinary vehicle would not have afforded that level of privacy.
IMO, the Hitchin Post parking lot was the only place between the HP and the dump site where the murder could have occurred. And there was plenty of space for a trucker to park his vehicle in a far corner of the lot, away from the other trucks.

All of that would make Shore an unlikely suspect, because even if he had a vehicle, he didn't have the type of vehicle that would have enabled him to commit the crime without notice.

But does anything rule out the possibility that she made it to her destination, met her friend or went to a Halloween party or whatever, and ran into trouble after that? In that case she could have been killed almost anywhere before being dumped.

 

[CarlK90245]

But does anything rule out the possibility that she made it to her destination, met her friend or went to a Halloween party or whatever, and ran into trouble after that? In that case she could have been killed almost anywhere before being dumped.

The timeframe pretty much rules out anything except walking from the South-End Gulf Station to the Hitchin Post. The two locations were five miles apart. According to Google maps, it takes 1 hour and 45 minutes to walk from one location to the other. She was at the SEGulf at about 6:30 PM, and at the HP "later that evening", still asking directions to the Ellis Unit.

And if she was already at her ultimate destination of Huntsville, she would not still be asking directions to the prison at SEGulf and HP.

Had she walked back toward the prison, nearly 15 miles from the Hitchin Post, it would have been an additional 5-hour walk. She might have been headed for a place in the vicinity of the prison, but she still would have had to walk or hitchhike most of that distance.

So suppose that after leaving the HP, she continued toward the prison and ran into trouble along the way. Her route would have taken her all the way through the well-populated city of Huntsville, and along the 10 miles or so of rural area between Huntsville and the prison. There would have been no need to take her body back through town, past the Hitchin Post, onto northbound I-45 and then dump her 3.5 miles north of that. It would have been more simple to dump her body in the rural area between Huntsville and the prison.

 

[CarlK90245]

And to continue on that thought - If she had hitched a ride toward the prison, would the driver kill her immediately while in town on Haloween Night (with plenty of potential witnesses walking the streets), and then turn back the opposite direction of where they were heading? Or would he have immediately turned around in the opposite direction of where she was heading before killing her?

Probably neither. He would have at least taken her to a remote area before attacking her, and that remote location would have been a much more preferable dumping spot, rather than alongside I-45.