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#Post#: 3013--------------------------------------------------
PREBLE COUNTY JANE DOE: WF, 30-50 - remains found in wooded area
in Eaton, OH - May 25, 1968
By: Scorpio Date: February 22, 2020, 12:15 am
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HTML https://i.imgur.com/d7d4T3q.png
HTML https://www.namus.gov/UnidentifiedPersons/Case#/55702
Children playing in a wooded area found a skull that was
separated from a badly decomposed body trunk with a left arm
intact (the fingers of which were hooked in a small tree). The
lower right arm was missing. There was no clothing or jewelry.
The skull was 75 feet downstream from the trunk. The entire area
had been swept by high water within the previous few days. The
decedent may have been deceased up to one year or more.
#Post#: 3014--------------------------------------------------
Re: PREBLE COUNTY JANE DOE: WF, 30-50 - remains found in wooded
area in Eaton, OH - May 25, 1968
By: Scorpio Date: February 22, 2020, 12:15 am
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HTML https://www.namus.gov/UnidentifiedPersons/Case#/55702
Demographics
Sex: Female
Race / Ethnicity: White / Caucasian
Possible First Name --
Possible Middle Name--
Possible Last Name--
Possible Nickname--
Estimated Age Group: Adult - Pre 60
Estimated Age Range: (Years) 30-50
Estimated Year of Death: 1962-1968
Estimated PMI--
Height: 5' 2"-5' 6"(62-66 inches) , Estimated
Weight: 130-140 lbs, Estimated
Circumstances
Type: Unidentified Deceased
Date Found: May 25, 1968
NamUs Case Created: February 27, 2019
ME/C QA Reviewed--
Location Found Map
General Location: at the Rear of the F. Time McFall property on
Frederick Drive Eaton, Ohio
County: Preble County
GPS Coordinates--
Circumstances of Recovery: Children playing in a wooded area
found a skull that was separated from a badly decomposed body
trunk with a left arm intact (the fingers of which were hooked
in a small tree). The lower right arm was missing. There was no
clothing or jewelry. The skull was 75 feet downstream from the
trunk. The entire area had been swept by high water within the
previous few days. The decedent may have been deceased up to one
year or more.
Details of Recovery
Inventory of Remains: One or more limbs not recovered One or
both hands not recovered
Condition of Remains: Not recognizable -
Decomposing/putrefaction
Physical Description
Hair Color Unknown or Completely Bald
Head Hair Description --
Body Hair Description --
Facial Hair Description --
Left Eye Color Unknown or Missing
Right Eye Color Unknown or Missing
Eye Description --
Distinctive Physical Features: No Information Entered
Clothing and Accessories: No jewelry or clothing were found with
the remains
#Post#: 3015--------------------------------------------------
Re: PREBLE COUNTY JANE DOE: WF, 30-50 - remains found in wooded
area in Eaton, OH - May 25, 1968
By: Scorpio Date: February 22, 2020, 12:16 am
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[img]
HTML https://www.google.com/maps/vt/data=vsWhRFjsESrVlnD3AtNdhfb3amG_wf5v02AgaFyPp7EdeTFGGF5pieVIKOL6ea3I7gKg8AG9fuF9hrfk63QkUlalr9xRHBeqQdFpAwiD-uklsJ0TFHnFeyGD6b_kba3h77Ptn_C76Uey4NuQEOop8tgbYYmoVViByCNJCC4OdzQaiWGj4FVrdcPWgWXL0Eer8VfYD2-t[/img]
Frederick Dr Eaton, OH 45320, USA
#Post#: 3016--------------------------------------------------
Re: PREBLE COUNTY JANE DOE: WF, 30-50 - remains found in wooded
area in Eaton, OH - May 25, 1968
By: Scorpio Date: February 22, 2020, 12:16 am
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HTML https://www.bestplaces.net/images/city/eaton_oh.gif
Eaton is a city in and the county seat of Preble County, Ohio,
United States approximately 24 mi west of Dayton. The population
was 8,407 at the 2010 census. Eaton's sister city is Rödental
bei Coburg. Wikipedia
#Post#: 3017--------------------------------------------------
Re: PREBLE COUNTY JANE DOE: WF, 30-50 - remains found in wooded
area in Eaton, OH - May 25, 1968
By: Scorpio Date: February 22, 2020, 12:16 am
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HTML https://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/story/news/2019/07/18/shelby-police-exhume-jane-doe-cold-case-dating-1945-disappearance-mary-jane-croft-vangilder/1754859001/
'Jane Doe' to be exhumed in cold case dating to 1945
SHELBY - Officials are planning to exhume the body of an unknown
woman buried in Preble County decades ago in hopes it will solve
the case of a Shelby-area woman who went missing 75 years ago.
Shelby police opened the cold case in October regarding Mary
Jane Croft Vangilder, who disappeared in 1945.
Shelby police and the Preble County Coroner's Office are hoping
to exhume the body of a "Jane Doe" in Eaton, Ohio, within the
next few months to have DNA extracted and analyzed by the Ohio
Bureau of Criminal Investigation.
Shelby Police Chief Lance Combs said this week on the
department's Facebook page that Officer Adam Turner has done a
magnificent job pursuing information regarding the disappearance
of Vangilder.
"And although frankly the chances are remote that this is our
missing person, our sincerest hope is that if nothing else, it
might provide closure for this or another family with a missing
loved one," Combs said.
The Shelby area missing woman was born Mary Jane Croft on Nov.
19, 1911, in Fairmont, W.Va., then became Mary Jane Vangilder on
Jan. 29, 1929, when she married her husband, James. The couple
had five children, but it appears James' abusive behavior forced
her to move to Ohio sometime in 1943, according to
investigators.
Mary Jane got a job as a forklift operator at the Wilkins Air
Force Depot in Shelby and lived in Plymouth. Her granddaughter
Mindy Wilson said her grandmother did not own a vehicle, so she
got rides to and from Shelby from helpful coworkers.
Despite the separation after moving to Ohio, Mary Jane
maintained contact with her children. She would mail war bonds
to her children, as well sending as letters and clothes, her
granddaughter said.
But in 1945, things changed again. Mary Jane sent a letter to
West Virginia, asking her children to send the war bonds back to
her home in Plymouth. They complied, but a few weeks later, she
appeared to have sent them her final war bond, with no
explanation, the News Journal has previously reported.
That was the last time the family heard from Mary Jane.
Turner discovered in his research that Mary Jane filed for
divorce on Feb. 12, 1945, in Huron County. It appears she quit
her job about a month later. The divorce was granted in November
of that year.
Turner suspects that since she was a woman from another state
who had no family in the area, Mary Jane's disappearance at
first went unnoticed.
On Wednesday, Turner, who obtained a master's degree in
criminal justice and forensic science from St. Leo University in
St. Leo, Florida, said if the "Jane Doe" body in the pauper's
grave in Mound Hill-Union Cemetery in Eaton is not Vangilder, he
will not give up his search for her.
"We will find out who it is when DNA is taken from this Jane
Doe...," he said. "When you look at the technology that's
happened in just the last couple of years with private DNA
databases like Ancestry and MyHeritage, they are solving cases
based off information in those databases. When the DNA is taken
from this Jane Doe, it will be entered into the national system
through the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation. They will
handle that. And if there is a 'hit' on the DNA from Mary Jane's
daughter and her grandchildren, we will know there is a
possibility. The DNA will have to be compared side by side,"
Turner said.
"If it's not Mary Jane, there's going to be another 'hit.' If
there's not a hit there, I think we can find out who that Jane
Doe is with the help of those databases," Turner said.
Turner said he was led to Preble County after he was looking
through the website, "Find A Grave."
He searched "Jane Does" and changed the parameters to search for
"unknown remains found after 1945," then printed off a list and
went through each name one by one. Turner located a newspaper
article detailing an unidentified body found in Preble County in
1968.
He reached out to the National Missing and Unidentified System
(NAMUS) which is a federal data base that works to match
unidentified remains and missing persons.
"That is an open website. Anybody can do it — coroner's offices,
law enforcement, family and friends can enter their loved one
into this data base. I reached out to them and said, 'Hey put me
in contact with somebody from Preble County and see if I can get
some more information,'" he said.
Turner said he then contacted Dave Lindloff, coroner's
investigator of Preble County, west of Dayton, inquiring about
the 1968 "Jane Doe".
"He (Lindloff) was able to find quite a bit of records about her
case. The remains of 'Jane Doe' were found by a group of
children on May 25, 1968," Turner said. The 'Jane Doe' was
buried Sept. 4, 1968, according to investigative reports.
"The physical characteristics, the weight and height, and her
age, have similarities," he said of the badly decomposed body of
the Caucasian woman found in a drainage ditch.
The "Jane Doe" was 5-foot, two inches and weighed an estimated
132 pound. The remains were deemed to be quite old by the then
Montgomery County Coroner's Office in Dayton, possibly up to 10
or 15 years, according to newspaper reports.
Vangilder weighed 155 to 170 pounds as last reported by her
family and was estimated to be 5 foot to 5-foot, 7 inches tall,
according to Turner's search.
"Jane Doe, when she died was 40 to 50 years old. Mary Jane was
35 years old when she disappeared in 1945," Turner said.
The Shelby officer said Lindloff has been helping him on this
cold case.
"The stars are aligning on this case because of Lindloff,"
Turner said. The City of Eaton has waived the cost of the
exhumation. The only cost the city will incur is to buy a new
casket for 'Jane Doe,' because she is more than likely buried in
a cardboard box which obviously would be disintegrated," he
added.
BCI will perform the DNA tests for free, Turner said, crediting
Lindloff's footwork for assisting him with contacting the
necessary agencies and getting a search warrant.
Turner said it may take BCI a couple months to determine who the
"Jane Doe" in Eaton is, due to their busy caseload.
The son of a Shelby funeral director, Turner said he doesn't
give up easily. "I'm just now starting to go to outlying states.
There are 50 states with hundreds of thousands of these unknown
cases....," he said.
"I'm just getting started," Turner said, showing a 4-inch
notebook of documents he collected. "This is book No. 2."
Turner said he is getting hopful that Vangilder's daughter and
granddaughter, who have worked tirelessly on their own to try
and find out what happened to their mother and grandmother, will
find closure.
Anyone with information about Vangilder is asked to contact
Turner at 419-347-2242
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