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#Post#: 3445--------------------------------------------------
ALBANY COUNTY JANE DOE: WF, 28-58, found in Fox Park, WY - 2 Au
gust 1999
By: Akoya Date: March 9, 2020, 3:29 pm
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HTML https://i.imgur.com/ktoOFzr.jpg
The victim's partial skeletal remains were located in Fox Park.
It appears that the bones had been at the location for a long
period of time.
#Post#: 3446--------------------------------------------------
Re: ALBANY COUNTY JANE DOE: WF, 28-58, found in Fox Park, WY -
2 August 1999
By: Akoya Date: March 9, 2020, 3:32 pm
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HTML https://identifyus.org/en/cases/9904
Case Information
Status Unidentified
Case number 1999-1505
Date found August 02, 1999 08:00
Date created February 22, 2012 17:14
Date last modified May 18, 2015 08:44
Investigating agency
date QA reviewed February 24, 2012 07:15
Local Contact (ME/C or Other)
Agency Albany Cnty Coroners Ofc
Phone 307-760-4957
Case Manager
Name William Meyer
Phone 307-721-5536
Exclusions
The following people have been ruled out as being this decedent:
First Name Last Name Year of Birth State LKA
Kimberly Allen 1958 Wyoming
Bobbi Campbell 1970 Utah
Hazel Klug 1962 Virginia
Skyla Marburger 1995 New Mexico
Elizabeth Rogers 1931 North Carolina
Patricia Schmidt 1964 Virginia
Martha Shelton 1944 Kentucky
virginia uden 1947 Wyoming
Colleen Voitik McHugh 1963 Illinois
#Post#: 3447--------------------------------------------------
Re: ALBANY COUNTY JANE DOE: WF, 28-58, found in Fox Park, WY -
2 August 1999
By: Akoya Date: March 9, 2020, 3:34 pm
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HTML https://identifyus.org/en/cases/9904
NamUs UP # 9904
ME/C Case Number: 1999-1505
Albany County, Wyoming
28 to 58 year old White Female
Case Report - NamUs UP # 9904
Case Information
Status Unidentified
Case number 1999-1505
Date found August 02, 1999 08:00
Date created February 22, 2012 17:14
Date last modified May 18, 2015 08:44
Investigating agency
date QA reviewed February 24, 2012 07:15
Local Contact (ME/C or Other)
Agency Albany Cnty Coroners Ofc
Phone 307-760-4957
Case Manager
Name William Meyer
Phone 307-721-5536
Demographics
Estimated age Adult - Pre 50
Minimum age 28 years
Maximum age 58 years
Race White
Ethnicity
Sex Female
Weight (pounds) , Cannot Estimate
Height (inches) 62, Cannot Estimate
Body Parts Inventory (Check all that apply)
All parts recovered
Head not recovered
Torso not recovered
One or more limbs not recovered
One or both hands not recovered
Body conditions
Not recognizable - Partial skeletal parts only
Probable year of death 1989 to 1999
Estimated postmortem interval 10 Years
Circumstances
Location Found
GPS coordinates
Address 1
Address 2
City Fox Park
State Wyoming
Zip code 82070
County Albany
Circumstances
Unknown, human female bones located in 1999. Appears bones have
been there for a long period of time.
Physical
Hair color Unknown or Completely Bald
Fingerprints
Status: Fingerprint information is currently not available
Clothing on body
Clothing with body
Size 16 Bill Blass jeans
Footwear
Reeboks size 41 European 7.5 UK Photo in IMAGES
Jewelry
one silver band with M.S.S. engraved
one silver colored rope style ring with two (2) clear colored
tear drop shaped stones Photos in IMAGES
Dental
Status: Dental information / charting is available and entered
DNA
Status: Sample submitted - Tests complete
#Post#: 3448--------------------------------------------------
Re: ALBANY COUNTY JANE DOE: WF, 28-58, found in Fox Park, WY -
2 August 1999
By: Akoya Date: March 9, 2020, 3:35 pm
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HTML https://i.imgur.com/O8b5nyM.gif
#Post#: 3449--------------------------------------------------
Re: ALBANY COUNTY JANE DOE: WF, 28-58, found in Fox Park, WY -
2 August 1999
By: Akoya Date: March 9, 2020, 3:37 pm
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HTML http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/1175ufwy.html
1175UFWY - Unidentified Female
Date of Discovery: August 2, 1999
Location of Discovery: Fox Park, Albany County, Wyoming
Estimated Date of Death: 1989 to 1999
State of Remains: Partial skeletal
Cause of Death: Unknown
Physical Description
Estimated Age: 28-58 years old
Race: White
Gender: Female
Height: 5'2" to 5'4"
Weight: Unknown
Hair Color: Unknown
Eye Color: Unknown
Distinguishing Marks/Features: Unknown
Identifiers
Dentals: Available. At least one gold filling. Possible history
of orthodontic care.
Fingerprints: Not available.
DNA: Available.
Clothing & Personal Items
Clothing: Bill Blass jeans (size 16) and Reeboks shoes (size 41
European 7.5 UK).
Jewelry: A silver band engraved with "M.S.S." and a
silver-colored rope style ring with two clear teardrop-shaped
stones.
Additional Personal Items: Unknown
Circumstances of Discovery
The victim's partial skeletal remains were located in Fox Park.
It appears that the bones had been at the location for a long
period of time.
Investigating Agency(s)
Agency Name: Albany County Coroner's Office
Agency Contact Person: N/A
Agency Phone Number: 307-721-1880
Agency E-Mail: N/A
Agency Case Number: 1999-1505
NCIC Case Number: Unknown
NamUs Case Number: 9904
Information Source(s)
NamUs
ViCAP
Casper Star Tribune
Admin Notes
Added: 10/25/2014; Last Updated: 2/23/17
#Post#: 3450--------------------------------------------------
Re: ALBANY COUNTY JANE DOE: WF, 28-58, found in Fox Park, WY -
2 August 1999
By: Akoya Date: March 9, 2020, 3:40 pm
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Jewelry - one silver band with M.S.S. engraved
#Post#: 3451--------------------------------------------------
Re: ALBANY COUNTY JANE DOE: WF, 28-58, found in Fox Park, WY -
2 August 1999
By: Akoya Date: March 9, 2020, 3:42 pm
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HTML http://trib.com/news/local/casper/j...cle_5c344f71-66d7-5270-ae0a-ef2a350dd56d.html
John/Jane Does -- including Bitter Creek Betty -- frustrate
Wyoming investigators
By MEGAN CASSIDY Star-Tribune staff writer
Nov 11, 2012
bout 4:35 p.m. on March 1, 1992, a Nebraska trucker pulled into
the Bitter Creek truck turnout on Interstate 80 to switch fuel
tanks. Sipping coffee into the fading daylight hours, Barbara
Leverton’s eyes focused on what appeared to be a couple of trash
bags in the distance.
“Something about the curve,” the now 73-year-old said recently,
suggested the bags were in the shape of a person.
Leverton walked to where she could look directly over the shape
and saw a body lying in the snow at the bottom of the
embankment. The instance predated ubiquitous cell phone usage,
so Leverton radioed — to anyone — what she found. Another
trucker forwarded the transmission to law enforcement.
The woman now known only as Bitter Creek Betty was on her
stomach with her head turned, completely nude.
There are hundreds of women Bitter Creek Betty definitely isn’t.
In the 20 years since her death, officers, forensic scientists
and armchair detectives have painstakingly established this as
one of the case’s certainties.
In 2011, Betty’s information was entered into a national
database called NamUs. The system houses the often scattered
evidence of unidentified victims from various agencies into one
centralized location. It additionally holds a missing persons
database that automatically checks for potential matches with
unidentified remains.
As of August, NamUs has had a direct hand in reuniting 117
bodies with their identities. Despite the exponential
advancements in DNA and other technologies in recent decades,
Bitter Creek Betty and at least 10 other Wyoming Jane and John
Does rest in a nameless purgatory.
Betty and her fellow Sweetwater County Does are buried, sans
headstones, somewhere underneath a narrow swath of grass that
buffers the road and the named decedents at Rest Haven Memorial
Gardens cemetery.
No protocol in Wyoming requires county law enforcement officials
to report unidentified remains or missing persons to any
statewide or nationwide agency. Therefore no exhaustive list of
remains exists for the state. All records are maintained by the
county coroners’ offices.
The Star-Tribune was able to reach 21 of the 23 coroners in
Wyoming to obtain such lists, and found that there are at least
11 modern, nonprehistoric remains in the state, dating to the
1980s. Five of these remains have been entered into the NamUS
network, two on a volunteer-run “Doe Network,” and two on
Wyoming’s Division of Criminal Investigation website, one of
which was actually found in Colorado. Only one, a Jane Doe from
Sheridan, appears on all three.
Steve Holloway, deputy director at Wyoming DCI’s state crime lab
said state-aided investigations are predicated on reporting from
the counties. There is no protocol for them to perform state
reviews, and no statute requires local agencies to ask for help.
The Wyoming Crime Lab has the only forensic laboratory in the
state, he said, and works closely with several nationwide
networks, such as NamUs and the University of North Texas’
Center for Human Identification.
Holloway said identifying bodies “depends quite a bit” on
whether the local agencies report missing people and obtain DNA
samples from relatives, “so there’s something to identify those
unidentified bodies to.”
A new law may soon give local law enforcement incentives to do
so.
Jan Smolinski, mother of Billy Smolinski, helped her state pass
a law that requires Connecticut law enforcement to take missing
adult cases seriously.
On Aug. 24, 2004, 31-year-old Billy vanished from his home in
Waterbury, Conn. His family was required to wait three days to
report him missing, but after filing the report, Jan Smolinski
said police did next to nothing.
It took four years before his case was filed correctly in the
National Crime Information Center computer index, she said, and
it wasn’t until the FBI was involved that proper reports and DNA
samples were filed.
She’s now looking nationally. “Billy’s Law” would provide grants
to law enforcement to promote reporting to NamUS and NCIC, as
well as linking the two databases.
After her ordeal, Smolinski describes agency reporting as a
complete “disconnect” and feels that simply informing officers
of the new technologies would facilitate sharing information.
“It’s so important to get [identifying information] into the
database,” she said. “NamUs is fantastic … it’s like having a
million eyes looking at it at one time.”
Billy’s Law was passed by the U.S. House in 2010 but was opposed
by a senator from Oklahoma. Its funding has been decreased from
$10 million to $8 million and was recently reintroduced into
Congress. Smolinski said they are now looking for cosponsors,
and are hoping it will be voted on again this year.
One of NamUs and Wyoming’s most recent successes was Rosella
Lovell — a former Jane Doe who was identified through facial
reconstruction, dental records and a dedicated local team.
“We tried a billion different things,” said Albany Coroner
Kathleen Vernon-Kubichek “It was difficult because I really
cared about identifying her. I thought about it all the time.”
Once former Wyoming Crime Lab Director Sandy Mays completed the
facial reconstruction last month and local media published the
work, the calls started coming in.
#Post#: 3452--------------------------------------------------
Re: ALBANY COUNTY JANE DOE: WF, 28-58, found in Fox Park, WY -
2 August 1999
By: Akoya Date: March 9, 2020, 3:45 pm
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continued
“After hearing from all these people that it was the same
person, we were able to get her dental records,” Vernon-Kubichek
said. “Anybody who could have looked at them could tell it was a
perfect match.”
Despite being found just north of her home in Laramie, Lovell
was never connected to the body. She had no family in the area
and was never reported missing.
“It’s always been a big problem for us,” said Janet Franson, the
division director for NamUs in Wyoming and eight surrounding
states. She currently has a case load of more than 900 missing
persons and 200 unidentified remains. “There’s a nationwide law
that covers juveniles … but it’s not against the law [for an
adult] to run away.”
And such could have been the case for Bitter Creek Betty,
Campbell County’s Gravel Gertie or Sweetwater’s Pipeline Pete.
“Those are all people, not numbers,” Franson said. “They belong
to someone.”
Every day, she said, more and more coroners, medical examiners
and law enforcement officials register with NamUs.
“The more entities that we get exchanging information, the more
successful we are in identifying previously unidentified
remains.”
Betty should have been easy to ID.
The several days following the discovery of her body were a fuss
of pokes and prods for Bitter Creek Betty. Although she was
likely dumped as many as five months earlier, the frigid air and
snow preserved her from standard decomposition. Her face was
nearly pristine.
A coroner conducted an autopsy, only after Betty’s body thawed
for 24 hours. As expected, the cause of death was labeled a
homicide. She had been beaten, sexually assaulted, strangled and
stabbed with an ice pick-like tool through the left nostril,
piercing the sphenoid bone.
Forensic teams were able to obtain a near perfect set of
fingerprints, which were submitted to a national FBI database.
After the FBI said it didn’t have a match, the prints were
submitted to all state-level agencies throughout North America;
all came up empty.
The detectives launched an aggressive media campaign throughout
the next weeks and months. They published and broadcast sketches
and eventually actual photos of the victim’s face, after an
artist had colored in her eyes.
“It’s just simple mathematics,” said Sweetwater County Detective
Dick Blust, who worked on the case then and still does. “The
more exposure we can get, the better chance we have of finding
someone who recognizes her.”
Today, Blust still clings to hope that the case can be solved.
His plain, black binder holds meticulous records of the hundreds
of comparisons and subsequent eliminations his team has made
over the years. The entries are brief but absolute.
“On 02/28/93, NCIC generated a possible matchup in the form of a
missing person ... date of birth 06/64. The agency of origin for
the potential matchup was listed as the Mills County, Iowa,
Sheriff’s Office.
“On 03/01/93, Commander Blust contacted Sergeant Clifford
Stegall of the Mills County Sheriff’s Office [Glenwood, Iowa,];
Sergeant Stegall advised that ... had been arrested on several
occasions by the Denver, Colo. Police Department.
“On 03/01/93, Commander Blust contacted Senior Clerk Benita
Quintana of the Denver, Colo/, Police Department., confirmed two
arrests for ... and was able to eliminate her as a possible
matchup through fingerprint comparison.”
Other missing persons proved even easier to eliminate as
matches; they had too many tattoos, a steel rod, or had never
given birth — Betty had a vertical Cesarean scar on her abdomen.
Betty’s most promising feature was her tattoo. The rose on her
breast was distinct, and it not only helped eliminate several
potential missing persons but led police to their only solid
lead throughout the case.
After blasting that rose throughout the media, it paid off in
July 1992. The rose was the work of a Tucson, Ariz., tattoo
artist the tipster said, known for inking truckers and a
calligraphy Kung Fu signature.
Detectives visited the artist, who proved instrumental. He
remembered the woman, he said, and described her as a “leaper” —
one who travels throughout the country hitching rides from
various truckers. She was reasonably intelligent, Hispanic, and
spoke without an accent. He was even able to describe the
clothing she was wearing that day in June 1991: A brown peasant
dress with yellow flowers.
The artist agreed to be hypnotized but still was unable to
recall the woman’s name or any other details.
Blust said there were a number of other times he and the team
were hopeful she was about to be identified. Distraught and
unflinching family members of other missing persons called.
Fingerprints would extend their pain and fail to identify Betty.
For a few, their relatives were later found alive.
To date, no suspects have been named in the case.
#Post#: 3453--------------------------------------------------
Re: ALBANY COUNTY JANE DOE: WF, 28-58, found in Fox Park, WY -
2 August 1999
By: Akoya Date: March 9, 2020, 3:45 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
HTML http://z13.invisionfree.com/PorchlightUSA/ar/t19389.htm
HTML http://www.laramieboomerang.com/articles/2...b2809098775.txt
Det. Cpl. William Meyer uses latest technology to reopen Jane
Doe cold case
BY AARON LeCLAIR / lbedit7@laramieboomerang.com Saturday,
September 29, 2012
Investigators found jewelry with the skeletal remains of a
woman, Jane Doe 1999 that they hope will help identify here.
This ring has two zirconias in an unusuall pattern on the top.
Courtesy photos
If she could speak, Jane Doe 1999 might tell you her hopes and
dreams.
She might share the excitement she felt when her first-born
child said Mommy, or she might talk about landing her first job
after school.
She might also tell you what happened when, more than 20 years
ago, someone took her life and dumped and scattered her body in
a mountainous area west of Laramie.
The remains of Jane Doe 1999, which a hiker found, belong to
this woman.
And Det. Cpl. William Meyer of the Albany County Sheriff's
Office is trying to figure out who she is.
Meyer was able to reopen the case recently because of advances
in technology that are helping law enforcement across the
country open and close cases that would have remained unsolvable
without them.
DNA helps reopen case
Last year, Meyer reopened the Jane Doe 1999 case in which a
woman's skeletal remains were found in a remote, mountainous
area near Fox Park on Aug. 3, 1999.
Back then, an autopsy had determined that Jane Doe 1999 was a
white female between 24 and 58 years of age.
Because it was skeletal remains, there's only so much you can
get from an autopsy, so there's some broad range for ages and so
forth, Meyer said.
Evidence at the scene also suggested that Jane Doe 1999 was
about 5-feet, 2-inches tall and had a larger-than-average build.
Because the remains were bones, determining the time of death
was difficult, Meyer said.
The time of death could have been a period of one and a half to
two years prior to 99 upwards to eight to 10 years prior to
that, he said.
The case went cold in 1999 because the sheriff's office had no
leads or avenues to explore with the scant autopsy and site
investigation evidence, Meyer said.
Now, however, with recent advances in technology, especially
when it comes to DNA profiling, Meyer said he had enough tools
at his disposal to reopen the case last year.
Just yesterday, I got a DNA profile back for her, he said. I
sent a femur and rib bone down to (the University of North)
Texas (Center for Human Identification). They do DNA withdrawal.
The DNA of DNA
The Center for Human Identification contains a genetics lab
staffed with forensic anthropologists, a fingerprint examiner
and an odontologist that generates DNA profiles and other
evidence.
It's a complete genetic lab to where DNA profiles can be
obtained on buccal swabs that are taken from family members,
said Janet Franson, a Laramie native who lives near Roundup,
Mont., but works for the Center for Human Identification. You
get half of your DNA from your mother and half of it from your
father.
With unidentified remains, DNA profiles are also generated from
some type of biological evidence, such as human bones.
Once obtained, DNA profiles are entered into the Combined DNA
Index System which is the FBI's program for support of criminal
justice DNA databases and compared to reference profiles.
The law enforcement agency that sent evidence into the Center
for Human Identification is also notified of the results,
Franson said.
DNA profiles have been a huge step in investigating unidentified
remains. Law enforcement only had dental records to identify
remains before DNA technology got up to speed in the 2000s.
For years, that's all we had, Franson, a former police officer
in Lakeland, Fla., said of dental records. It's taken a long
time for DNA to really catch on and for law enforcement agencies
and labs to be able to use it.
Franson said DNA profiling brought a homicide case to trial in
2006 that she had worked on as a police officer in 1984.
Cases are being cleared some cases 40 years old. There's a lot
of missing people out there, she said. I'm just really happy the
technology, especially the DNA technology, has come so far that
it really is helping.
The Internet's role in investigations
The Internet helped Meyer reopen the Jane Doe 1999 case.
One of the large tools I've been using is a website called NamUs
(National Missing and Unidentified Persons System), he said.
It's a website where individuals can enter both missing people
and unidentified people.
A national, centralized repository and resource center for
missing persons, NamUs's missing persons database contains
information about missing people that can be entered by anyone.
NamUs provides users with a variety of resources, including the
ability to print missing person posters and to receive biometric
collection and testing assistance.
Other resources include links to state clearinghouses, medical
examiner and coroner offices, law enforcement agencies,
victim-assistance groups and pertinent legislation.
The website's unidentified persons database contains information
entered by medical examiners and coroners. Anyone can search
this database using characteristics such as sex, race, distinct
body features and dental records.
Lastly, NamUs's newly added unclaimed-persons database contains
information about deceased people who have been identified by
name, but for whom no next of kin or family member has been
identified or located to claim the body for burial or other
disposition.
Only medical examiners and coroners can enter information into
the unclaimed persons database; however, the database is
searchable by the public using a missing person's name and birth
year.
Franson, in working for the Center for Human Identification, is
the regional system administrator of NamUs.
NamUs started back in 2007, she said. NamUs is kind of like
one-stop shopping to put in information not only on missing
persons, but also on unidentified remains.
The NamUs computer makes matches every day, identifying remains
and bringing closure to one family after another's search for
their missing loved ones, Franson said.
We're making more and more every day, she said. The computer,
once we get the information, searches 24/7/365.
Meyer said he periodically checks NamUs for possible matches to
the information he has on Jane Doe 1999.
It will give me thousands of matches to where I can contact
other agencies across the country, he said. That's stuff that
just wasn't there in 1999.
By uploading the Jane Doe 1999 evidence on NamUs, Meyer said he
has received phone calls from people who ask if the remains
belong to their missing wife, daughter or sister.
I get phone calls from individuals from other states who say, I
have a missing loved one; can you tell me if this gal you guys
found in '99 is my loved one, he said.
The investigation continues
Two weeks ago, Meyer said he took a cadaver dog up to the spot
near Fox Park where the remains of Jane Doe 1999 were found.
The cadaver dog hit on a couple more spots, he said. We plan on
going up before the snow flies this year and try to do some
digging and sifting to see if we find some more stuff.
Based on the evidence and circumstances at the scene, Meyer said
Jane Doe 1999 died in a suspicious nature.
In addition to skeletal remains, the sheriff's office has found
jewelry a silver band with the initials M.S.S. on the outside
and teardrop cubic zirconia ring at the scene that belonged to
Jane Doe 1999.
While he might not be able to solve what happened to Jane Doe
1999, Meyer said he hopes he can at least identify her.
Whether or not a crime is solved, because of the time period and
lack of evidence, is one thing, he said. My goal is just to get
them identified.
Editor's note: Sunday's edition of the Laramie Boomerang will
have a story of another Jane Doe being investigated by the
Albany County Sheriff's Office. A woman's body was discovered in
the area of the Dry Gulch Fire on land owned by the Bureau of
Land Management in October 2010.
HTML http://www.laramieboomerang.com/articles/2...b2809098775.txt
#Post#: 3454--------------------------------------------------
Re: ALBANY COUNTY JANE DOE: WF, 28-58, found in Fox Park, WY -
2 August 1999
By: Akoya Date: March 9, 2020, 3:46 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
HTML http://z13.invisionfree.com/PorchlightUSA/ar/t19389.htm
HTML http://www.fbi.gov/wanted/vicap/unidentifi...f9-9d6d0c018125
On August 1, 1999, the Albany County Sheriff's Office recovered
skeletal remains in a wooded area near Fox Park, Wyoming. It is
estimated the remains were present at the site for 2 to 10 years
before being discovered. The following items were found with the
skeletal remains: a ring with clear tear-drop inserts; a ring
with the initials "MSS" engraved on; and a white Reebok shoe,
women's size 7.
Victim had a gold filling; may have worn braces. Regarding
clothing, the victim wore a size 16 Bill Blass denim jeans, a
brown belt, and white Reebok court shoes (estimated women's size
7).
Age: 28 to 58 years old Hair: Blonde, brown
Height: 5'2" to 5'4"
Sex: Female
Race: White
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