So today I was having
a look at some unidentified Jane Does when I stumbled upon this one case from
the late sixties in North Carolina.
From what I can tell,
the burned body of a woman was found the day after several people witnessed her
walking towards a church in Wake County. They did not recognize the woman, but
noted the green polka dot dress she was wearing as she walked along ten ten
road. A quarter of an hour later when the witnesses drove back the same way the
woman was nowhere to be found. They noticed smoke rising up from a nearby
field, but assumed the source of it was nothing untoward and probably just a
local farmer disposing of some unwanted materials.
They were shocked when
the following day they heard the news that the burned body of the same woman
they had driven past the day before was found.
I consulted Googlemaps to get an idea of what the location looks like and followed ten ten road
to the nearest church, which appears to be the Holland united Methodist church.
However if you follow
the road along, you can find two more churches including The McCullers
community Baptist church and Highland Baptist church. The Doe network profile
for the unidentified woman states that she was found near the town of Fuquay-Varina
if that shines any light on the matter.
(From the Doe network)
There doesn’t really
seem to be much information regarding this case, and the DN page even states at
the bottom that “The whereabouts of the victim's remains are unknown” – It’s
unclear if this is due to her burning overnight (although they recovered
clothes, makeup items, I imagine bones etc. as well as some hair and fragments
of her clothes obviously) or if her remains were simply lost or whatever. I’m
leaning towards the remains were lost because they have a reconstruction image
of Jane Doe from the newspaper report, and were also able to reveal that she
was around 35 years of age, 130lbs, around 5”4 in height, had dark brown –
black hair with signs of graying,noted a scar on the left side of her lower
stomach and remarked that she had very small ears.
She was thought to be
Caucasian and possibly native American. Her dentals are on record as well as
her blood type, so even though her remains are no longer around, there is still
DNA, dentals and finger prints to go on. The Namus profile checks the “All body
parts recovered” box.
The death was treated
as a murder of course, and there was only ever one suspect who died in 1992.
The DN report doesn’t identify him, but a newspaper article named him as Tobacco
planter called Robert Reagan. Reagan’s family rejects the accusation, pointing
out that he isn’t around to defend himself or stand a fair trial; however the
man himself confessed that he followed the unidentified woman in a car with an acquaintance
to get a look at her, but she disappeared from view.
Apparently Robert
Reagan used to work in Canada and there’s this theory that the two met there
and planned to meet in Wake County and he ended up killing her. I know she was
from out of town and no one recognized her in the local area, but other than
Reagan once working in Canada I’m not sure if there’s anything else that links
Jane Doe to the country. I mean it’s a good idea to extend the search and
circulate the missing posters there of course on the off chance, but there’s
nothing else that I can see that suggests she was Canadian as no one talked to
her and she didn’t have any items on her that would indicate she was.
Now for the items
found with her body:
-She had a transistor
battery
-A pair of tweezers
(“Permo Tweeze” brand)
-A possibly navy hair
net.
-Hair clips (Bobby
pins?)
-A pair of brown and
gold bifocal spectacles.
-A single razor blade folded in paper (Gillette)
-What was probably a
make-up mirror in several fragments.
-Two buttons.
-Various toiletries and
makeup by Helena Rubinstein New York including silk fashion liquid foundation,
overnight cream and “Skin dew “crème.
-What is listed as
“_ilk of _intimate” on the DN profile. A quick search turned up that it was
most likely “Silk of Intimate” a fragrance by Revlon.
(Images Doe network)
-A ballpoint pen cap
with “Unipeco Mt. Vernon N.Y. U.S.A.” inscribed. –Some people imply that this
meant she could have been from or in New York. All a search brings up is a
pencil manufacturing directory website that lists as “Unipen co.” with the
following information: “Union Pencil Co. - AKA Unipeco Mt. Vernon, NY USA”.
-I found a vintage pen
by them for sale on eBay, so that gives us an idea of what it may have looked
like (although there is various colors and designs of course)
Unless the cosmetics
and pen were gifts from New York, it looks more likely that she’d traveled
from there than rather than Canada. A bag isn’t listed on the items found, so unless it was
taken it’s weird that someone would carry those items without a bag of some
sort. Also, if she wasn’t from North Carolina or nearby, where was she staying?
Did she just hop off a train or get a ride or what?
If so why?
And how
did she end up burned alive?
Her case was enteredinto Namus in February of this year.
Note: Strangely, while
searching for more information on this case, I found a similar report, although
considerably more recent. Just 18 miles away in February 2017, again in Wake
County, NC, the body of a burning woman was discovered by disc golf players who
didn’t even realize that the burning mound was a human body and attempted to
put out the blaze. Although completely unrecognizable, the Doe was later
confirmed to be a 59 year old woman identified as Elizabeth Marie Vandenbout,
who had apparently committed suicide. There was reportedly a propane tank at
the scene, as well as a cell phone.
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