Resolved WV - Harpers Ferry, Appal'n Trl, UnkSexAgeRace, UP75513, male clothes, Saint Mary nklce, Apr'20 - NamUs removed

[Umlaut]

Super helpful to read, Filly! Thanks for all of the background information- especially poignant is to read that “if you die with [the Medal of Immaculate Conception] you will go to heaven.”

Would would the (large) crucifix be from a rosary? Still wondering if the (I contend) man would have carried this crucifix in his pants pocket? Was it too large to have worn as a necklace?

Could the age of the medal help date the deceased? Was wearing this medal particularly tied to Catholics of a certain age?

 

[Filly]

Super helpful to read, Filly! Thanks for all of the background information- especially poignant is to read that “if you die with [the Medal of Immaculate Conception] you will go to heaven.”

Would would the (large) crucifix be from a rosary? Still wondering if the (I contend) man would have carried this crucifix in his pants pocket? Was it too large to have worn as a necklace?

Could the age of the medal help date the deceased? Was wearing this medal particularly tied to Catholics of a certain age?

Now I feel I have to go to Confession. Lol I'm a "cafeteria Catholic". But hey we are like the Mafia. You don't get out.

JMO the age of the medal dating the deceased? Me? I say no because I have been present when friends parents die they take the medal and put it on themselves.

It was a bigger thing in the generations before me so IF you could it would be people presently say around 70 and up. Actually more the WWII generation. Again unless used after adecease.

From what size I am gauging the crucifix that'd be the biggest dang rosary I ever saw. However during Mass I have seen Priest's wearing rapper size crucifixes. Big!.

Bless you for your empathy, and there is still older Parishoner's if you need me to ask anything of I would.

Side note today most Orders of Nuns don't wear habits. Some not even Crucifixes instead a pin. My day they did. My mom's even bigger ones. My Gram's bigger.

Hope it helped. Also not many Religious shops left around for Catholics. Hardly none in Philly at least.

Love and light and peace to you.

 

[Umlaut]

Vintage Montgomery Ward “dress shirt”...this is what I’m picturing although no photographs in news release.

 

[killarney rose]

looks like a 1970's (late) or early 80's tube sock to me.
good sleuthing.

i think the same thing. I was a young adult back then, both the style of the jacket, the tube sock, and the brand of the shirt are from the late 70s- mid 80s.

 

[Umlaut]

A Montgomery Ward logo used from 1968-1980
...I remember buying tube socks in a package like this. There were no other socks for athletic or everyday wear.

 

[JerseyGirl]

I keep thinking back to the popular movie in 1979/1980 was “Saturday Night Fever” and recall John Travolta’s character wearing a cross and other medals. Maybe it was a trend for young men back then?

 

[JerseyGirl]

Evergreen Shopping Plaza in South Chicago, Illinois had both Chess King and Montgomery Ward stores.

Dark days for once-pioneering south suburban mall

 

[Filly]

I keep thinking back to the popular movie in 1979/1980 was “Saturday Night Fever” and recall John Travolta’s character wearing a cross and other medals. Maybe it was a trend for young men back then?

View attachment 267504

Especially Italian guys. Albeit we all wore real gold medals and charms back then. Filly dated the boys from South Philly circa 1978 to about 1982. Religious medals, horns, the malkin? SIC and Dog tags in gold with a diamond dotting an I in your name.

Yep, tube socks here? I am going 1974 to 1978 at least inNE Philly.

Mano cornato? That hand and horn thing. Nothing to do with case. Just my memory, and ummmm what I pawned gold for. Hey, it happens.

 

[Filly]

Just asked Mama Filly aged 83. Also showed her at least what she can SEE.

Reply: "Once a Priest always a Priest". I go "Ma, WTH does that mean?" Tells me if I'd shut up and pay attention I'd get it.

Soooooo if you are defrocked????? you are still a Priest? IMO she thinks it is the clergy and possibly second victim???

 

[Umlaut]

Filly! I like your Ma’s style!

Ma Filly thinks because the crucifix is so large that it must have belonged to a Catholic priest?
Second victim?

Thinking this through-could this crucifix have been a wall decoration? Something you might grab as a talisman (along with your medal?) if you were off on an adventure or were upset, wanted to clear your head and go walking in the woods?
Too large to have been on a rosary?


The jacket, MW shirt, Pumas and Medal were found first. Tube sock(s) and this crucifix found on a reported second visit to the site.

This wasn’t a hiker. Someone who got lost in the woods? Starved? Heart attack? Murdered and dumped? Ugh. So grisly and gruesome to imagine. And why and how were the remains JUST recently discovered?

If we are guessing with the wardrobe that this man disappeared 1979-1980...it took 40 years for the remains to be found? Was the victim (partially) buried? No one’s dog ever hit on a scent or retrieved remains? I need to research the exact area.

 

[CCJD]

Just asked Mama Filly aged 83. Also showed her at least what she can SEE.

Reply: "Once a Priest always a Priest". I go "Ma, WTH does that mean?" Tells me if I'd shut up and pay attention I'd get it.

Soooooo if you are defrocked????? you are still a Priest? IMO she thinks it is the clergy and possibly second victim???

Or a Deacon or a Brother (neither are ordained).

Second victim? If these remains go back to the '70s and I let my mind run wild, there's the unsolved murder of Sister Roberta Elam in '77. A Postulant Nun (pre-novitiate and had not taken her vows). Over 200 miles from Harper's Ferry but, again, mind running wild.
Case reopened in 1977 killing of postulant nun

WV - WV - Sr Roberta 'Robin' Elam, 26, Wheeling, 13 June 1977

 

[Filly]

Filly! I like your Ma’s style!

Ma Filly thinks because the crucifix is so large that it must have belonged to a Catholic priest?
Second victim?

Thinking this through-could this crucifix have been a wall decoration? Something you might grab as a talisman (along with your medal?) if you were off on an adventure or were upset, wanted to clear your head and go walking in the woods?
Too large to have been on a rosary?


The jacket, MW shirt, Pumas and Medal were found first. Tube sock(s) and this crucifix found on a reported second visit to the site.

This wasn’t a hiker. Someone who got lost in the woods? Starved? Heart attack? Murdered and dumped? Ugh. So grisly and gruesome to imagine. And why and how were the remains JUST recently discovered?

If we are guessing with the wardrobe that this man disappeared 1979-1980...it took 40 years for the remains to be found? Was the victim (partially) buried? No one’s dog ever hit on a scent or retrieved remains? I need to research the exact area.

Definitely will check with my Ma when she awakes.


Y'alll are on to something here.

 

[Filly]

Case reopened in 1977 killing of postulant nun

WV - WV - Sr Roberta 'Robin' Elam, 26, Wheeling, 13 June 1977[/QUOTe


Wow, never do I recall reading or knowing about Sister Elam. Devastating.




Here we have Mt. St. Joseph in my area. Begged fillly Jr to go to the Mount. Excellent education. Uh-huh nope. Does not matter. Sister Elam does.

Going to ask the very few women I know who joined the convent.

You all are good souls for digging in!

 

[Dejavuicutooo]

I think it is the mortan aitlinger guy in 2015 too

 

[yurintroubl]

Case reopened in 1977 killing of postulant nun

WV - WV - Sr Roberta 'Robin' Elam, 26, Wheeling, 13 June 1977[/QUOTe


Wow, never do I recall reading or knowing about Sister Elam. Devastating.

Filly - There's an excellent case overview of the Sister Roberta Elam case on the Mysterious WV Youtube channel HERE.

As for this UID - I've got a feeling it's the remains of somebody who picked up a hitchhiker and was killed for their vehicle. My logic being that the religious items may point to a good samaritan type (possibly sheltered upbringing) trying to help "somebody in need" who repaid the kindness with violence. The fact that these items point to an even older generation may speak to them belonging to the decedent's parent or grandparent. This falls in line with early 80's clothing combined with a 50's-era necklace.
This may not be somebody from anywhere nearby. The heavy coat points to somebody traveling North to South. I'd be looking for somebody that lost their parent(s) in the late 1970s/early 80s in Pennsylvania, Ohio, somewhere north - heading for a fresh start somewhere warmer but never made it. Also possible this person would have few ties to the area they are departing following the passing of their guardian(s) = delayed reporting of a missing person and their movements unknown.

Just spitballing.

 

[Umlaut]

^I like your thinking here! This is just so eerie.
Doesn’t look like there’s a matching description in NAMUS, either for a male of this era (if we are going by the theory that this person went missing in 1979-82). I’ve looked.
Sad to think that this person may never have been reported missing. So, no next of kin? Plausible then that the person had no parents, was single, maybe an only child?

 

[Susikatze]

I am Jewish and not Catholic, but I remember that some organization sent out Miraculous Medals (some light material, aluminium) out by the thousands by mail to random addresses. Even to non Catholics (my mom is not Catholic and got one). Maybe 15 years ago. With a description that it has healing powers and who dies with it goes to heaven.
It is not a special item and easy to come by.

 

[Umlaut]

But the clothing and the state they are in : heavily degraded make me entirely discount anyone from 2000s or really any time much after 1980s.

 

[Umlaut]

Sorry was trying to quote dejavu who mentioned Morton.

 

[Coffee56]

I believe this is from the late 70s/early 80s but not ruling anything out.

Derek Lueking?

I found a pic of a him wearing a larger crucifix/cross on his missing FB page but it doesn’t look right zooming in.

Find Derek Lueking

Appalachian Unsolved: Derek Lueking, Missing in the Smokies | wbir.com

ETA clothing doesn’t look like a match. He might have had extras but probably not shoes.

Derek Joseph Lueking – The Charley Project