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http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7384619.htmlTeen's grave a lonely place
Still unidentified after 40 years, she was buried after DNA preserved
By CINDY HORSWELL / HOUSTON CHRONICLE
A cold wind whipped across the brown grass of an 18-acre cemetery surrounded by an
industrial pipe yard and a mountain-sized landfill in east Harris County.
Bill Hall, the caretaker of the cemetery where the indigent are buried, fastened his
jacket tighter as he hunted along rows of small 1-foot-square gray concrete markers.
He was searching for the grave of a teenage girl who died 40 years ago this month.
"There it is!" said Hall, pointing to the block engraved "Unknown Skeleton." This grave
holds the bones of the oldest unidentified body from Texas listed by the National Center
for Missing and Exploited Children.
The teenager's bones were also the second oldest among about 60 that had been
archived in cardboard boxes and collecting dust at the Harris County morgue since
the late 1960s in hopes that technology might one day be developed that could
extract more clues.
"Storing the teen's bones proved somewhat prophetic. It definitely showed foresight,"
said Dr. Jennifer Love, Harris County's forensic anthropologist director. DNA samples
were eventually extracted from the bones in 2003. While DNA testing has become a
staple in crime investigations, morgues did not start doing it until at least 15 years
after the girl's death.
SHE WOULD BE IN HER 50s NOW
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children sent out a flier to commemorate
the 40th anniversary of the teen's bones being found this month. She would have been
in her late 50s now if she were alive.
Two boys hunting rabbits were the first to stumble upon a piece of the teen's skull in
the woods near the Sheldon Reservoir in east Harris County.
That grisly discovery early on the morning of Jan. 23, 1971, began the four-decade long
quest to identify her body.
After the skull was uncovered, investigators returned to the isolated site three more
times to recover more bones that had been scattered by animals. Her body had
completely decomposed while lying there for six months to a year.
They also found her clothing which was typical of that Woodstock era when the Vietnam
War was growing unpopular and 18-year-olds had won the right to vote.
According to photographs, she was decked out in a colorful mini skirt that fit a 24-inch
waist. The skirt's fabric had bold horizontal zigzag stripes of brown, orange and yellow.
She also wore a suede vest with fringe over a dark brown shirt and size-six square-toed
shoes.
"Somebody might still be looking for a missing teen whom they remember wearing an
outfit like this," Love said.
Besides the clothes and bones, investigators know nothing about her. They have many
unanswered questions about what she was doing that night, how she got there, where
she came from and what went wrong.
DNA and dental records from the 1971 case have been entered into the National Crime
and Information Center's database.
In addition, the original autopsy done by then-Harris County medical examiner Dr. Joseph
A. Jachimczyk, might have initially misled those trying to identify the mystery teen. His
report mistakenly classified the teen as "Caucasian."
"But Dr. Jachimczyk was a pathologist, not a forensic anthropologist who would have the
specialized training needed to examine skeletons," Love said.
DEATH CAUSE UNKNOWN
So the same year that DNA was extracted in 2003, the teen's bones were shipped to an
anthropologist, Dr. Harold Gil-King, for an in-depth analysis. Gil-King concluded the girl
was actually a "black-white mixture."
A swatch of curly black hair was found near the girl's bones. However, investigators cannot
say for certain whether it belonged to the teen, an attacker or someone else.
Gil-King also specified a broader range of height (5 foot 1 inches to 5 foot 6 inches) and
age (16 to 19) than Dr. Jachimczyk (5 foot 4 and 18 years old).
Neither cited a cause of death, listing it as "undetermined."
Periodically, the teen's profile has been checked against various DNA databanks with
hopes of getting a hit but always come up empty.
"I'm going to ask them to run it again this month to see if we can get a match," said
Rebecca Sweetman, an analyst who works on cold cases for the Harris County Sheriff's
Office. "Maybe a family member who's been searching for her has added their DNA to
these databanks."
So far the girl's DNA has only been useful in ruling out two other girls who had been
reported missing in Texas and Missouri.
The teen's file also contained a news clipping about the disappearance of 13-year-old
Colette Wilson, one of 13 children of an Alvin dentist. Wilson disappeared from a bus stop
after band practice in 1971, but weeks later her body was discovered with a gunshot
wound to the head near the Addicks Reservoir in west Houston.
REMAINS BURIED IN '04
Meanwhile, the identity of the teen discovered dead near the Sheldon Reservoir remains
a mystery. Her bones were finally placed in a steel casket and buried on Feb. 23, 2004,
alongside 13,000 paupers and about 490 others who have yet to be identified.
Texas ranks second in the nation with the most unidentified bodies with sufficient data to
be listed on the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's registry, said Jerry
Nance, the center's forensic supervisor.
California has 26 cases, followed by Texas with 15 cases and then Florida with 12.
"I think there are people out there who may still be wondering, still searching and thinking
about a missing girl," Love said. "We had someone show up out of the blue last year who
said she'd lost a brother in 1983. We've found someone who is a possible match and are
doing DNA testing. Anything is still possible."
cindy.horswell@chron.com
Topic: Unidentified Female Teen | Sheldon Reservoir | late 1960's (Read 875 times)
