Identified! TX - Huntsville, 'Walker County Jane Doe', WhtFem 14-16, 91UFTX, 1 November 1980 - id'd November 2021 - Sherri Ann Jarvis (14)

[Ajaxkid]

If you look on Historic Aerial Maps: https://www.historicaerials.com/ and search the motel (I just got the coordinates: 30.945168, -95.908123 from Google Maps and put that in), you can see what the motel looked like long ago. It does not have aerial maps for that exact time, but if you look at the one from 1961 and zoom in, you can just see the shape of something to the right of the building (which CADwrest circled). Looks like it could have indeed been a hot tub or small pool. I screen shot it, but I can't seem to do anything beyond a basic post here.

 

[MOTORUNNER]

MOTEL OF MADISONVILLE
Here's another Motel just down the road, looks old and defunct, can't see a pool anywhere but possibly this one?

 

[CADwrest]

I wonder if the brother's first instinct was right, and the motel was actually in Richmond, TX and has been subsequently torn down. Beeville, TX is over 160 miles from the Sugarland Prison, and Madisonville, TX is almost 130. Both of those drives would have been big favors to ask of the stepfather. Richmond is only about 7 miles from Sugarland, though, which wouldn't have been unreasonable.

 

[CarlK90245]

When the brother first told me the story, he drew this diagram of the layout of the motel, and the positioning of their room and the room Kathy was staying in, with respect to the swimming pool.



He said that it might not be exactly like this drawing, but the layout was similar to this.

 

[Vital Forces]

When the brother first told me the story, he drew this diagram of the layout of the motel, and the positioning of their room and the room Kathy was staying in, with respect to the swimming pool.

He said that it might not be exactly like this drawing, but the layout was similar to this.

What does he mean by highway? Does he mean a high-speed road or the Interstate?

 

[CarlK90245]

What does he mean by highway? Does he mean a high-speed road or the Interstate?

Probably the former, but I'm not sure.

 

[MOTORUNNER]

I hope it hasn't been demolished, but it's likely it might have been. There's no old motels left around where I live

 

[zeldazonk1976]

Carl, when did this gentleman say he met Kathy again? Was it the summer prior to her murder? If so, Madisonville being so close to Huntsville would mean Kathy may have been familiar with the area.

 

[CarlK90245]

Carl, when did this gentleman say he met Kathy again? Was it the summer prior to her murder? If so, Madisonville being so close to Huntsville would mean Kathy may have been familiar with the area.

Sometime in 1980 after April. His birthday is April, and he remembered that he was 12 years old at the time. And it was probably summertime, since they were spending most of the day by the swimming pool.

 

[Vital Forces]

The best chance of ever finding her identity would be to offer a sizable reward and targeted advertising of such to 50 - 60 year olds in southeastern Texas. Unfortunately, neither philanthropists nor the government would see it as a good use of money.

 

[paul1980]

What we need is a "Scrooge McDuck" willing to spend their loads of cash on the cause of true crime.

 

[Sierras]

I just came across this a little bit ago. I hope it's okay if I post this link. Missing Persons Of America. "Walker County Jane Doe; A 36 Year Mystery".


http://www.missingpersonsofamerica.com/2016/10/25/walker-county-jane-doe-mystery/

 

[paul1980]

Thirty Seven years ago today she said "who cares?". If only she could see how many of us care nearly four decades later.

 

[taramarie]

Thinking of our girl today and hoping like I do every year that she’ll have her name back before yet another year goes by ❤️


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Cryptic]

I wonder if this poor girl was learning disabled, but not to the extent that she would be classified medically as mentally retarded nor identified as such by the people she met?
The victim asked for directions to the Ellis unit at 6:30 pm and stated that she intended to visit some one there.

The Ellis unit is not only located in a rural area 12 miles north of Huntsville, but it has always been maximum security and currently houses death row. Anybody with even general familiarity with prisons either from relatives or pen pals would know that one just does not show up and expect to visit, especially at 6:30 pm.

Then factor in that she was probably told by several people that it was outside of town, but she continued to walk towards it. One of the links also states that she disliked wearing shoes. Though one need not be slow to dislike shoes, the totality could suggest that she was slow and home bound (barefoot mostly).

Thus, she may have dropped out of school early and not been in year books from her stated home town area. I wonder if any retired social workers from the area would remember a family with a learning disabled daughter who had dropped out of school and was prone to run away?

 

[CADwrest]

I wonder if this poor girl was learning disabled, but not to the extent that she would be classified medically as mentally retarded nor identified as such by the people she met?
The victim asked for directions to the Ellis unit at 6:30 pm and stated that she intended to visit some one there.

The Ellis unit is not only located in a rural area 12 miles north of Huntsville, but it has always been maximum security and currently houses death row. Anybody with even general familiarity with prisons either from relatives or pen pals would know that one just does not show up and expect to visit, especially at 6:30 pm.

Then factor in that she was probably told by several people that it was outside of town, but she continued to walk towards it. One of the links also states that she disliked wearing shoes. Though one need not be slow to dislike shoes, the totality could suggest that she was slow and home bound (barefoot mostly).

Thus, she may have dropped out of school early and not been in year books from her stated home town area. I wonder if any retired social workers from the area would remember a family with a learning disabled daughter who had dropped out of school and was prone to run away?

The only issue there is that she's also been described as street-wise, and gave off a feeling like she could pull off a con. That doesn't really jibe with her being learning disabled, IMO.

 

[Gardener1850]

I wonder if this poor girl was learning disabled, but not to the extent that she would be classified medically as mentally retarded nor identified as such by the people she met?
The victim asked for directions to the Ellis unit at 6:30 pm and stated that she intended to visit some one there.

The Ellis unit is not only located in a rural area 12 miles north of Huntsville, but it has always been maximum security and currently houses death row. Anybody with even general familiarity with prisons either from relatives or pen pals would know that one just does not show up and expect to visit, especially at 6:30 pm.

Then factor in that she was probably told by several people that it was outside of town, but she continued to walk towards it. One of the links also states that she disliked wearing shoes. Though one need not be slow to dislike shoes, the totality could suggest that she was slow and home bound (barefoot mostly).

Thus, she may have dropped out of school early and not been in year books from her stated home town area. I wonder if any retired social workers from the area would remember a family with a learning disabled daughter who had dropped out of school and was prone to run away?

She was likely a young teen and a likely a runaway from out of the area. Why would you expect her to know the prison hours or anything about it? It wasn't like she had internet to look it up. Not knowing what someone has to do to visit a prison doesn't make a person "learning disabled"-- it indicates she was young and didn't have the info or resources needed to plan out a visit to the prison in advance and that possibly she had never been there before. She also might have left home without telling anyone where she was going. Imagine you are a teen and you want to go visit a person in prison and your family would disapprove of that. You don't ask them questions like "what are the visiting hours?" if you want to run away and not be tracked down. She might have thought she could run away, visit someone in prison, and go back home without her family knowing where she went. As for the shoes-- they were wedges. Have you ever walked really far in wedge shoes? They are not comfortable. Her feet probably hurt. This doesn't indicate anything about someone being "home bound". This indicates she didn't wear the right shoes for running away. IMO, the total picture looks like a young teen who made an impulsive or last minute decision to go somewhere and didn't have the right shoes or enough info before setting out. JMO.

 

[Cryptic]

She was likely a young teen and a likely a runaway from out of the area. Why would you expect her to know the prison hours or anything about it?

Because she repeatedly told people that she was going to the Ellis unit (maximum security prison outside of Huntsville) to visit someone. So yes, it is not unreasonable to expect that somebody would have general knowledge of a place they intended to visit.

Not knowing what someone has to do to visit a prison doesn't make a person "learning disabled"--

No..... but walking towards a prison after 6pm after being informed that it was many miles away and expecting to be allowed to visit person 'p' (not having general information of the place she intended to visit) might indicate that the person is learning disabled.

Sh. Imagine you are a teen and you want to go visit a person in prison and your family would disapprove of that. You don't ask them questions like "what are the visiting hours?"

Actually, I would probably ask that question to the person I intended to visit. Assuming she had been in contact with the person (not an unreasonable assumption).

My guess is that most prisoners are eager to receive visitors, espescialy if the visitor is a young lady, and they would have given her very exacting information on visiting hours, registration procedures etc. to insure that she was not turned away.

As for the shoes-- they were wedges. Have you ever walked really far in wedge shoes? They are not comfortable. Her feet probably hurt. This doesn't indicate anything about someone being "home bound".

I never said it indicated she was homebound. Rather, I said "could suggest". One of the links stated that witnesses related that she did not like wearing shoes. This implies a little more than "these particular shoes don't fit well".

As a side note, I cared for pre-teen once who did not like wearing shoes, did a lot of stuff on impulse and had little knowledge of anything beyond her immediate experience. Yes, she spent a lot of time at home (until it went downhill). She was also slow.

No...this does not mean that all such people are slow.

 

[MOTORUNNER]

I know TX has a large Latino/Latina population, does anyone think WCJD could be latina? I know it really makes no difference or adds anything to this case, going through a lot of Corpus Christi yearbooks I'm seeing a lot of hispanic women.

 

[CADwrest]

No..... but walking towards a prison after 6pm after being informed that it was many miles away and expecting to be allowed to visit person 'p' (not having general information of the place she intended to visit) might indicate that the person is learning disabled.

We don't actually know what she was told about the walk to the prison. She just got directions from Gulf Oil without a map, and apparently thought it was doable. That makes me think the distance wasn't described except in a general way at that point ("Here's the directions, but that prison's miles away. You've got a long walk."). Once she got the map at Hitchin' Post, though, I think she got a better idea of how far it really was (and remember that she'd already walked a considerable distance by then). I think that's why she started looking for rides and/or a truck to sleep in after that.

One of the links stated that witnesses related that she did not like wearing shoes. This implies a little more than "these particular shoes don't fit well".

Keep in mind, though, that was referring to "Kathy." We don't know for sure if she was, in fact, WCJD.