Resolved WA - Morton, off Hwy 12, Peterman Hill, BlkFem 20-30, UP9208, Apr'11 - NamUs Removed

[sasha17]

I've just submitted the following two missing persons cases.

Caleta has more similarity IMO (MP6803)
View attachment 259511

Porsha (MP5792)
View attachment 259513

Caleta White is now on this UID's ruleouts list on NamUs.

 

[Willow2922]

Caleta White is now on this UID's ruleouts list on NamUs.

Hi I know it’s been quite a few months, but I made an account to post this. I came across this site from googling my sister’s name.

Who do we contact in order to look into this to confirm or rule out a missing person? Porsha is my sister and her case has been cold for years.

 

[bombardier]

Hi @Willow2922 !
What I'd recommend is contacting the 'program specialist' under the 'Contacts' tab of both the UIDs and your sister's NamUs pages; luckily it seems to be the same person, Jessica Hager ([email protected]) . In the past I've sent e-mails along the lines of "Hello, have you ever compared _____ (link the page) and ______ (also linked)? I believe they could be a good match because ____, ____, and _____." I would also add that you are the sister of Porsha, hopefully they will take your request more seriously!
It's the NamUs correspondences job to look over the potential match and contact law enforcement if necessary, but if Ms Hager doesn't get back to you, or sends a generic e-mail, or you feel like it's not being taken seriously, I would contact law enforcement directly if you feel like you're up to it. I cannot find a number for the missing persons unit of Seattle PD (where your sisters case is out of) but I'm sure if you call the general number ((206) 625-5011) and reference the case number as given on NamUs (2006-512410), they will direct you to the right person and you can request that they work with NamUs or through PD to confirm or rule out your suspicion. If they ask about who to contact about this UID, direct them to Kevin Engelbertson at Lewis County Sheriff's office, that's who was in charge of this young lady's case in 2011.
Good luck! I hope you get answers about your sister.

 

[YaYa_521]

Hi @Willow2922 !
What I'd recommend is contacting the 'program specialist' under the 'Contacts' tab of both the UIDs and your sister's NamUs pages; luckily it seems to be the same person, Jessica Hager ([email protected]) . In the past I've sent e-mails along the lines of "Hello, have you ever compared _____ (link the page) and ______ (also linked)? I believe they could be a good match because ____, ____, and _____." I would also add that you are the sister of Porsha, hopefully they will take your request more seriously!
It's the NamUs correspondences job to look over the potential match and contact law enforcement if necessary, but if Ms Hager doesn't get back to you, or sends a generic e-mail, or you feel like it's not being taken seriously, I would contact law enforcement directly if you feel like you're up to it. I cannot find a number for the missing persons unit of Seattle PD (where your sisters case is out of) but I'm sure if you call the general number ((206) 625-5011) and reference the case number as given on NamUs (2006-512410), they will direct you to the right person and you can request that they work with NamUs or through PD to confirm or rule out your suspicion. If they ask about who to contact about this UID, direct them to Kevin Engelbertson at Lewis County Sheriff's office, that's who was in charge of this young lady's case in 2011.
Good luck! I hope you get answers about your sister.

TY for such an informative & helpful reply!

 

[Willow2922]

Hi @Willow2922 !
What I'd recommend is contacting the 'program specialist' under the 'Contacts' tab of both the UIDs and your sister's NamUs pages; luckily it seems to be the same person, Jessica Hager ([email protected]) . In the past I've sent e-mails along the lines of "Hello, have you ever compared _____ (link the page) and ______ (also linked)? I believe they could be a good match because ____, ____, and _____." I would also add that you are the sister of Porsha, hopefully they will take your request more seriously!
It's the NamUs correspondences job to look over the potential match and contact law enforcement if necessary, but if Ms Hager doesn't get back to you, or sends a generic e-mail, or you feel like it's not being taken seriously, I would contact law enforcement directly if you feel like you're up to it. I cannot find a number for the missing persons unit of Seattle PD (where your sisters case is out of) but I'm sure if you call the general number ((206) 625-5011) and reference the case number as given on NamUs (2006-512410), they will direct you to the right person and you can request that they work with NamUs or through PD to confirm or rule out your suspicion. If they ask about who to contact about this UID, direct them to Kevin Engelbertson at Lewis County Sheriff's office, that's who was in charge of this young lady's case in 2011.
Good luck! I hope you get answers about your sister.

I appreciate the information, thank you so much.

Earlier this year, a detective came and took our dna but that was the last we heard. They said they had dental records, but I’m unsure if there were any dental remains, I saw it said just skeletal but I would think they’d be together? Anyway, I truly appreciate it and will definitely look into this.

 

[bombardier]

I appreciate the information, thank you so much.

Earlier this year, a detective came and took our dna but that was the last we heard. They said they had dental records, but I’m unsure if there were any dental remains, I saw it said just skeletal but I would think they’d be together? Anyway, I truly appreciate it and will definitely look into this.

No problem! Did the detective say what person they were comparing against Porsha? Did they say it was this lady found in 2011? And according to her DoeNetwork page, she has dental records and DNA available to test against.
(I know that DNA testing takes forever so it's possible that if they are testing that, it's still processing, but if they have Porsha's dental records, that should have been run quickly )

 

[Willow2922]

No problem! Did the detective say what person they were comparing against Porsha? Did they say it was this lady found in 2011? And according to her DoeNetwork page, she has dental records and DNA available to test against.
(I know that DNA testing takes forever so it's possible that if they are testing that, it's still processing, but if they have Porsha's dental records, that should have been run quickly )

Actually, no she didn’t say anything about this case. We had a SPD business card with her info wedged in our door one morning. We called her and they came and swabbed myself and our mom; basically saying something to the tune of “updating all potential dna matches by way of family members” possibly as a way to establish other dna samples that could be linked to Porsha. That was earlier this year, possibly last year, but for sure during the pandemic. And prior to that, there hadn’t been any updates or anything since MP case was filed with SPD. They told us that because she was 18, there wasn’t much they could do. That’s when we learned they had her dental records. I think they took our dna because they might not have had hers? I’m not sure.

Our brother had just told us all he was expecting his first baby right around Thanksgiving/Christmas in 2005. I was 12 at the time and she was 18. It’s crazy to think she would’ve just “left” during that time, we were all excited about it including her. But I do know she had trauma she could’ve been running away from/coping with. Regardless, I never believed, and still don’t believe, that she “didn’t want to be found.” I always felt she possibly had gotten caught up in trafficking or other horrible situations young women can get caught up in, and it ultimately cost her her life.

I sent an email to the address you posted above with this case, my sisters case, her photo and the original sketch. The sketch was what caught my attention, also the “European w mixed ethnicity; Med to lt brown skin no freckles” because although our mom is Black, my sister was the lightest of us three kids, and was often mistaken as or asked if she was half White (she wasn’t, but I believe her father might have been hence her lighter complexion). And we don’t really know our lineage, could possibly be Somali on our mother’s side or possibly her father’s somewhere down the line, but it has never been verified. Age range matches too: when she was found, would’ve been 24 at the time. She wasn’t tall, no taller that 5’4 if I remember correctly. So I think that’s petite?

anyway, again I appreciate the information you’ve given me and have reached out Jessica Hager. For once, my late night Googling might have paid off

 

[bombardier]

Actually, no she didn’t say anything about this case. We had a SPD business card with her info wedged in our door one morning. We called her and they came and swabbed myself and our mom; basically saying something to the tune of “updating all potential dna matches by way of family members” possibly as a way to establish other dna samples that could be linked to Porsha. That was earlier this year, possibly last year, but for sure during the pandemic. And prior to that, there hadn’t been any updates or anything since MP case was filed with SPD. They told us that because she was 18, there wasn’t much they could do. That’s when we learned they had her dental records. I think they took our dna because they might not have had hers? I’m not sure.

Our brother had just told us all he was expecting his first baby right around Thanksgiving/Christmas in 2005. I was 12 at the time and she was 18. It’s crazy to think she would’ve just “left” during that time, we were all excited about it including her. But I do know she had trauma she could’ve been running away from/coping with. Regardless, I never believed, and still don’t believe, that she “didn’t want to be found.” I always felt she possibly had gotten caught up in trafficking or other horrible situations young women can get caught up in, and it ultimately cost her her life.

I sent an email to the address you posted above with this case, my sisters case, her photo and the original sketch. The sketch was what caught my attention, also the “European w mixed ethnicity; Med to lt brown skin no freckles” because although our mom is Black, my sister was the lightest of us three kids, and was often mistaken as or asked if she was half White (she wasn’t, but I believe her father might have been hence her lighter complexion). And we don’t really know our lineage, could possibly be Somali on our mother’s side or possibly her father’s somewhere down the line, but it has never been verified. Age range matches too: when she was found, would’ve been 24 at the time. She wasn’t tall, no taller that 5’4 if I remember correctly. So I think that’s petite?

anyway, again I appreciate the information you’ve given me and have reached out Jessica Hager. For once, my late night Googling might have paid off

I'm glad that SPD is still collecting DNA for MP cases from 16 years ago! That gives me hope that more cold cases will be solved. I am not sure how common it was to collect DNA back in 2005; it's possible they didn't have any of Porsha's, or they had processed it and wanted new familial samples because the technology back in 2005 wouldn't have yielded the cleanest results.
I'd say 5'4" could be petite! I'm not actually sure how they decided this woman was petite because they couldn't guess her height/weight and I don't believe they found clothing (where you could look at the size), so even if Porsha was taller/larger than what they were thinking this woman was, I don't think that rules her out...
Please keep us updated on what comes from your email :^)

 

[Willow2922]

Update: Jessica Hager called just now (honestly wasn’t expecting it so soon btw, so that’s nice) and while she did say she’d forward the case to investigators and they’ll reach out if need be, she did tell me that biometrics should’ve came back as Porsha if it were her. But she also did say that they will update the exclusion list with her name if that ends up being what happens and to look out for it.

Do you guys have a link to this list? I never found it and just reference previous posts.
Thanks!

 

[bombardier]

I'm glad Jessica called you personally!
If you make an account on NamUs (via the Register button on top right), once you are logged in, every person's page should have a 'Comparisons' tab, which lists people who have been manually compared to that person and ruled-out. This is what your sister's looks like; no exclusions yet.

This is what this woman's looks like; currently has 20 exclusions.

in my opinion I take what Jessica said with a grain of salt - if biometrics worked 100% of the time, there wouldn't be 21k missing people still listed on namus, many with no exclusions yet Biometrics also gets complicated when they're comparing against skeletal remains/not complete skeletons, because the height/weight/age etc might be incredibly off. This young lady's race was even misidentified as white until recently.

even if they come back and tell you that it isn't Porsha, I think it's incredibly useful to figure that out! Not only are you advancing this young lady's case, but you are reminding the investigator about Porsha, and maybe next time remains of a young black woman comes through their department, she'll be fresh in their minds and they can compare them without you having to step in and advocate. I've also found that once a missing person gets their first rule-out on NamUs, a couple more usually follow, it sorts of gets the ball rolling.

 

[imstilla.grandma]

File:Lewis County Jane Doe Composite.jpg - Wikimedia Commons

Morton Jane Doe


Woman's skeletal remains still a mystery following suspicious death in Lewis County

 

[imstilla.grandma]

Right: Age progressed to 20 years of age
Name: Tarasha Benjamin
Case Classification: Endangered Missing
Missing Since: June 26, 2010
Location Last Seen: Selma, Dallas County, Alabama
4055DFAL - Tarasha Benjamin

Name: Tyler Marie Thomas
Case Classification: Endangered Missing
Missing Since: December 3, 2010
Location Last Seen: Peru, Nemaha County, Nebraska
4120DFNE - Tyler Marie Thomas

 

[Aurora90]

I don't know if anyone caught the video that these two somali girls put out featuring a lengthy conversation with the detective on this case. I think this girl is 100 percent somali.

Interesting thing to note. Someone commented saying Morton doe reminded them of a somali woman who they knew while working for the government. And that she sort of disappeared. I wonder if this was her considering the possible military connection.

I also wonder so much about this "military connection". He never mentioned it in the video. I wonder if it means it's no longer relevant or it's information that shouldn't be revealed to the public yet...

 

[iulia]

The NamUs page for this UID is down.

 

[bombardier]

Just checked and I don't think any of the NamUs pages of girls mentioned in this thread have also been removed...hmm...

 

[John/Jane Doe]

The NamUs page for this UID is down.

This may mean that this Jane Doe has already been identified.

 

[Aurora90]

That's so good. The detective was reaching out to the somali community. Yay!!!

 

[John/Jane Doe]

The NamUs page for this UID is down.

I hope the Lewis County Jane Doe has been identified.

 

[linkato]

I recently watched

where a local Somali interviews the cold case detective and he there was a man that believed the Jane doe was his sister but when the DNA tests came back it wasn't his sister but rather a 6th gen cousin. I am somali and we are a clan based culture. Most somalis can trace their lineage back to their clan and it is pretty accurate. So I hope the 6th gen cousin connection helped narrow it down for investigators.

 

[Melt71]

Update: Jessica Hager called just now (honestly wasn’t expecting it so soon btw, so that’s nice) and while she did say she’d forward the case to investigators and they’ll reach out if need be, she did tell me that biometrics should’ve came back as Porsha if it were her. But she also did say that they will update the exclusion list with her name if that ends up being what happens and to look out for it.

Do you guys have a link to this list? I never found it and just reference previous posts.
Thanks!

@Willow2922 while this lady may not have been your sister, I do hope your family receives answers from your DNA submission.

Does your sister have her own missing persons’s thread here? If not, could we stay one for her?