VA VA - Hillsboro, WhtFem 15-18, UP84926, Blue Corduroy Pants, Dec'61

[Oakie]

That kind of repeated beating sounds more like domestic abuse (parent?) than kidnapping.

I agree. And if she'd been beaten to death by an abusive parent, she may not then have been reported as missing. There might be no record of her disappearance.

 

[DS2021]

Finding her burial would definitely be a good next step.

I'm also confused about whether or not this was a sex crime. These articles are giving conflicting information

 

[DS2021]

Hillsboro Jane Doe Richmond Times-Dispatch Richmond, Virginia 03 Mar 1963, Sun • Page 30

She is believed to have come from a southern state due to the way she was dressed.

"The wounds indicate prolonged physical abuse of several days’ duration prior to death and some are suggestive of perverted assault"

 

[DS2021]

Websleuths wouldnt let me post the jpeg so heres a PDF version

 

[HopeRains]

Dec 15/16 = Friday/Saturday; she was found early morning hours (I believe I read around 330 a.m.) Saturday.

From Baltimore Sun, 15 Dec 1961, pg 1 (Baltimore is ~ 75 miles east of Hillsboro, VA)

Hillsboro, VA - estimated population in 2019 was 169

Rt 9 VA/WV Charles Town Pike.

Searching for missing girls/young women during the year 1961 yields quite a few results - there were a few very high profile cases across the country and also regionally. A case or two I downloaded to try to find additional info.

 

[DS2021]

I think we have a few possible scenarios here. The first being that this person had faced prolonged abuse by a partner, that ultimately culminated in her murder.

She may have never been reported missing, or she just may have never made it into NamUs. Another possibility is that she ran off as a teenager and became a victim of foul play years later.

It's also possible that she was the random victim of a predator who held and abused her for days before dumping her.

 

[Zach Ford]

I've tracked down as many newspaper articles as I could about this case, but after a couple of papers ran an initial series of articles in the week after finding the body, I've only seen two follow-ups over the next couple of years where they basically just describe a specific lead that didn't pan out. Many of the articles describe the clothing differently, but it's clear that for the most part it's just a difference in specificity/terminology. Some contradictions are never sorted out, such as different descriptions of the empty pocketbook found at the scene. All of the articles mention old/healed wounds/scabs but don't clarify just how old they were thought to be. While it seems like long-term abuse is implied, the police representative in the 1963 article posted above described “prolonged physical abuse of several days duration prior to death" which makes it sound like it still occurred over a fairly short period. The reference to wounds that "are suggestive of perverted assault” is odd to me since police concluded that no sexual assault/molestation occurred. So what he meant by that, I'm not sure.

 

[Beccalicious]

Bumping

 

[phantomstrider]

Added to the Doe Network Today https://www.doenetwork.org/cases/software/main.html?id=1765ufva

 

[rose_quartz]

It looks like there has been a new development regarding this case! There's a chance this doe may be Elizabeth Ann Smith who went missing at just 16 years.

A day ago, the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office and Durham County Sheriff's Office posted the following on their respective Facebook pages:

"SEEKING RELATIVES - A Mystery That Still Needs Answers

In December 1961, Marvin L. Davis, who later served as Sheriff of Durham County from 1970 to 1977, was a deputy searching for his missing 16-year-old niece, Elizabeth Ann Smith. She had been living in Washington, D.C. when she disappeared without a trace.
His search led him to the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office, where investigators had recently discovered the remains of an unidentified young woman near Hillsboro, Virginia, less than an hour from the nation’s capital. Hoping for answers, Davis sent a letter with photos and dental records. But none came.
A sketch of the unidentified Jane Doe was created, but she was never identified. Elizabeth was never found.
Decades later, these two cold cases have resurfaced. Investigators now believe there may be a connection.
In a renewed effort to solve this mystery, the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office has contacted Durham County authorities to locate any of Sheriff Davis' or Elizabeth’s relatives who may still be in the area.
If you are a relative, know of one, or have any information that could help, please contact Detective J. Garcia at (571)-258-3126.
Even the smallest detail could bring long-awaited answers to a family that has spent decades searching for the truth."

 

[victoriarobinson642]

Oh man, she looks just like the sketch. I wonder where the disconnect was with identifying her.

 

[rose_quartz]

Oh man, she looks just like the sketch. I wonder where the disconnect was with identifying her.

I agree! The resemblance is striking!
I'm wondering the same thing too. Everything seems to line up.

 

[madamx]

OMg It looks just like her. There is no way that can’t be the same girl. I think the sheriff her uncle did find her just something got lost in translation somewhere along the line and she was not identified!!!! Hopefully they identify her this time. That is so sad. I wonder how the uncle felt?

 

[HopeRains]

Mr. Davis died while in office as Sheriff. Per his bio, it appears he was born in Granville County. I will say this, he revolutionized/implemented some pretty cool things with LE in NC. One would imagine some info is available within ancestry - many people, particularly older people, follow Facebook - they should also share/post with Granville Co LE even though he grew up in Durham.

And Justice for All | » Marvin L. Davis, Durham County Sheriff, 1970-1977

 

[Zach Ford]

Great update! Sounds like they might be on to something, but I did note that Davis gave his niece's height as 5'4" to 5'5". All the information I've seen about the Hillsboro Jane Doe pretty consistently puts her height at 5'1". But who knows how well-informed he was about his niece's details?

 

[Zach Ford]

I did a fairly quick search on Ancestry.com to see if anything was readily available on Elizabeth Ann Smith; I think it's going to take more genealogical digging than I frankly have time for to get a solid answer on her, especially given the common name. I didn't see any newspaper articles from 1961 on her going missing, which isn't surprising. I easily found that one of Marvin Davis' sisters, Peggy Lou, indeed married a man named William N. Smith, Jr. in 1944, but I could find no evidence of a child, though I don't claim to have made an exhaustive search of NC birth records. I didn't find any likely candidates for Peggy or Elizabeth in the 1950 Census, either. Mr. Smith must have purged the brief marriage from his life story, for his father's 1948 obituary lists him as living at home in Pennsylvania, with no mention of a wife, and moreover in 1950 he married someone else in Arlington, VA and claimed it was his first marriage. In his 1950 application for Pennsylvania veteran's compensation, spouse and minor children are "none". (Based on the information given by Davis, Elizabeth would have been born circa 1945). On the other hand, a 1968 obituary for a Davis family member still calls Peggy Lou "Mrs. Peggy Lou Smith." I couldn't find a divorce record, but again, I did not make an intensive search. I am sure there are various family situations where Elizabeth could have come into the world and acquired the "Smith" name, but it will take a dedicated researcher to sort this one out!

 

[atomicsciencegal]

OMg It looks just like her. There is no way that can’t be the same girl. I think the sheriff her uncle did find her just something got lost in translation somewhere along the line and she was not identified!!!! Hopefully they identify her this time. That is so sad. I wonder how the uncle felt?

That distinctive nose matches exactly. How did this get missed all these years?!

 

[Zach Ford]

I poked around Ancestry a little more and did find Elizabeth Ann Smith in the 1950 census, living with her grandparents in NC. Also found what I presume is a family story about her mother Peggy in 1947: "Divorced and living at parents home with children Marvin Hudspeth and Ann Smith. Left for work one day, never returned nor heard from again." While the family may not have heard from mother Peggy again, there seems to be quite a bit of genealogical information about her life after that point, so there's not really two missing people in the family. The family situation certainly clarifies how Elizabeth Ann could have vanished without much notice in 1961, i.e. mom long out of the picture, rest of her mother's family still in North Carolina, dad possibly or possibly not involved in her life. Since Dad was living in Arlington, VA in the 50s, I'm guessing that's what might have brought her to DC, but it's only a guess.

 

[Zach Ford]

I poked around Ancestry a little more and did find Elizabeth Ann Smith in the 1950 census, living with her grandparents in NC. Also found what I presume is a family story about her mother Peggy in 1947: "Divorced and living at parents home with children Marvin Hudspeth and Ann Smith. Left for work one day, never returned nor heard from again." While the family may not have heard from mother Peggy again, there seems to be quite a bit of genealogical information about her life after that point, so there's not really two missing people in the family. The family situation certainly clarifies how Elizabeth Ann could have vanished without much notice in 1961, i.e. mom long out of the picture, rest of her mother's family still in North Carolina, dad possibly or possibly not involved in her life. Since Dad was living in Arlington, VA in the 50s, I'm guessing that's what might have brought her to DC, but it's only a guess.

Smith's family dynamic gets more intriguing the more I find. Sheriff Davis says that she went missing from his brother's home in D.C., and it didn't take me long to find that his brother Robert Ross Davis moved to D.C. around 1949 and was one of the leading ballet dancers with the Washington Ballet in the 1950s and 60s. (So Smith's father living in Arlington in the 50s may have had nothing to do with her move to the D.C. area after all.) Robert Davis apparently didn't get married until 1975, so Smith must have been living with a bachelor ballet dancer uncle only 11 or 12 years older than her. Again, not especially surprising that such a family situation meant that she could vanish easily.

 

[Amy Bertsch]

Elizabeth Ann's grandmother died in September 1961 and her older brother Marvin had graduated from high school the year before and joined the military, so perhaps her uncle Bobby was the closest family member to give her a home.