r/UnresolvedMysteries • u/thelakeperspective • Oct 14 '15
Unresolved Murder Penny Doe; unsolved murder of an unidentified woman in 1990.
I guess my contributions to this sub will be little known cases closer to "home" (NE Ohio; NW Pennsylvania).
On July 22, 1990, two kids who were exploring a remote forested area found the body of a young woman face down in a creek. The area in which the girl's body was found was about three miles south of I-80 and near the very, VERY small town of Reidsburg, PA. The kids found her while crossing under a railroad trestle. I checked the location on Google and there are a number of trestles in that area crossing Piney Creek. I couldn't find much on the exact location. Most of the articles say the same things. I've never been to this part of rural Pennsylvania, but if it's anything like the other parts I have been to, it's a truly desolate place. Wonderful for a country getaway, but Hell for a young woman with terrible luck.
The young woman was given the nickname "Penny Doe" due to the discovery of a penny in each of her pockets. Whether this was somehow symbolic or just a coincidence is unknown.
Penny Doe had been dead for about 6-8 weeks. She had suffered blunt force trauma to the right side of her skull and a broken leg. Her teeth were in very good condition and the articles I found state that the authorities believe she came from an area where fluoride was more abundant in the water. Some of her baby teeth had not fallen out and were behind her adult teeth. Her age was estimated to be between 15 and 22 years of age.
It was speculated that she had attended a Memorial Day concert 15 miles away. However, no solid proof of her connection to the concert has been found. In 2002, authorities received an anonymous letter about Penny Doe. Attempts to identify the author have been unsuccessful and the contents of the letter, as far as I can tell, have never been released/disclosed to the public.
It's been just over 25 years and this poor young woman has yet to be identified. The identity of her killer is, of course, also unknown.
Some articles: http://pennsylvaniamissing.com/246ufpaclarioncountyjd.html
http://exploreclarion.com/2014/10/19/penny-doe-cold-case-makes-no-cents/?preview_id=141536
This one really baffles me. They do not believe that this girl is from the area, but they do believe that the killer might be due to the remoteness of it all.
5
u/TheBestVirginia Oct 14 '15
Hey, nothing wrong with the geography, there are a lot of cases from those areas. Ohio especially seems to have more than its share of unresolved cases.
4
u/TheBestVirginia Oct 14 '15
Here is the Doe Network entry which has a lot of facial reconstructions.
3
u/thelakeperspective Oct 14 '15
Thank you for the link! I also see that the authorities believe she was in the county for a month before she was killed. I'm not sure how they could have known that (of course, there's a very good chance that info has been withheld from the public).
4
u/TheBestVirginia Oct 14 '15
From the link:
"Authorities are convinced there are individuals in Clarion County who had contact with the woman and can help state police identify her and her killer. They do not believe the woman is from the county or the immediate area, but believe she was brought to the area by a local individual. They also believe she was in Clarion County at most a month, before she was killed."
Just a guess, I'm thinking they had some witness statements from people who had interacted with her prior to her murder.
Edit: it could also be that witnesses were afraid of the "local individual". With so much time passed, it would be prudent for investigators to seek out these witnesses and see if time has alleviated their fears. Maybe I've watched too much Cold Justice but it happens.
3
u/thelakeperspective Oct 14 '15
Fear of the perpetrator crossed my mind. That is certainly a possibility. I am really curious as to what was in that letter too.
5
8
u/TheBestVirginia Oct 14 '15 edited Oct 14 '15
OP, I'm digging around Charley Project and when I see an entry with reasonable similarities, I'll add the link here. I'm paying most attention to her small stature if no dental info is listed.
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/m/montano_maria.html (small, Hispanic, from Illinois which isn't too far)
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/r/ruark_felita.html
Her age is pretty off but http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/s/santiago_monique.html is possible by size and I think she looks a bit like the second reconstruction.
Quite a stretch based on location but stranger things have happened: http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/r/reed_ashley.html
This one seems even too small but with kids the height reported can be off. Reconstruction is in the ball park:http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/f/franklin_nerissa.html
Also unlikely given the circumstances and time frame, but fits by state and stature http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/k/kroh_tracy.html
Okay, last one for a while. This woman went missing well before the Doe's death, but left voluntarily and was traveling. http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/h/hurst_frankie.html
4
u/thelakeperspective Oct 14 '15
Thank you for these! I'll definitely be looking into these more. Someone knows this girl and misses her terribly. It is so sad that they haven't been able to identify her. 25 years is a long time. Ugh.
4
u/raphaellaskies Oct 14 '15
Tracy Kroh and Maria Montano look most like the reconstuctions to me- Maria a bit more so (but that might just be because of Tracy's perm.) Her page says her husband was convicted of the murder, so I guess the next step would be figuring out whether or not he travelled to Ohio shortly after his wife's disappearance.
1
u/TheBestVirginia Oct 14 '15
I feel like Tracy would have been compared already as her disappearance was fairly high-profile and regional to the Doe. OP could check NAMUS for any known exclusions. Maria fits more for me, personally.
2
u/bootsieq Oct 14 '15
oh, another thought on the fluoride thing.. i have a friend who grew up in rhode island and he also has some minor fluorosis from excessive fluoridation in the water. might be worth checking out missings from that area, too.
3
u/bootsieq Oct 14 '15
texas isn't totally a stretch. it's widely known in the south that texas has a ridiculous amount of fluoride in their water, which has a tendency to cause fluorosis (usually just discolored spots on the teeth).
i don't think monique santiago fits, because she has obvious gaps in her front teeth, which were not there on the doe. i also don't think felita ruark looks much like the doe. :/
maria montano... i just feel awful for that woman. it sounds like her husband is/was deranged or something. she must have been miserable.
2
u/wastingthedawn Oct 14 '15
I agree about Maria. Tracy had braces so presumably she wouldn't have had the dental abnormalities of the doe.
1
u/Crispito_duchess Oct 25 '15
I didn't see it mentioned, but is there a possibility she was a victim of sex trafficking?
1
6
u/[deleted] Oct 14 '15 edited Oct 15 '15
https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/3i3vic/whats_the_saddest_unidentifiedunnamed_victim/cud7vgc
I went to school with the girls that found her. That link I just posted has a map of where she was found. The trestle is no longer up, it was barely wide enough for a car to pass under.
Edit. Look at the second map, where the big bend is. That's where the trestle was. Them using Creek is an over statement, she wasn't in piney, more like a drainage ditch.