The Lost and the Found

http://www.officialcoldcaseinvestig...ed-in-Brazoria-County-Texas-September-10-1990

Houston Chronicle (TX)
June 8, 2007
Edition: 3 STAR
Section: B
Page: 3


MANVEL - Investigators hope new forensic drawings can lead to identification of a young woman whose skeletal remains were found 17 years ago, dumped behind a road barrier near Texas 288 in Brazoria County.


"Even if it didn't clear the case, we want to have her identified," said Manvel Police Sgt. Jay Coffman. "It could mean closure for her family."

Coffman has never had a name to call her by. To the state, she is case number U03-10-014. One Internet forum, Some oneKnowsMe.com, has named her Princess Blue, for the blue stone in the class ring she wore from Houston's Robert E. Lee High School.

"We would love to know her real name," Coffman said.

Investigators originally thought she might be Hispanic, but a recent forensic analysis conducted by the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification determined that she was probably Caucasian with some possibility of African-American ancestry.

Using information from the new study, Texas Rangers forensic artist Suzanne Birdwell created two new drawings of what she may have looked like - one with long hair and one with short hair.

Investigators think she was between 4-foot-11 and 5-foot-3 and had a slight to medium build. When she died she was probably 17 to 21 years old.

Police have no idea of how she died or how her remains came to be where they were found. A motorist relieving himself behind the barrier at the end of County Road 101 just east of Texas 288 spotted her skull on Sept. 10, in 1990. The spot is barely visible from 288.

No clothes were found with the body. Investigators think she was dead six months to a year before her remains were found.

Because she was probably born sometime between 1968 and 1973, the Lee High School class of 1975 ring wouldn't have originally been hers.

Just how she got it remains one of the many mysteries surrounding the case. The original owner could have given it to her. She could have found it or stolen it or bought it in a pawn shop. It could even have been put on her finger after she died.

The body had other jewelry - a silver-colored ring with a turquoise horse or unicorn, three silver-colored bands, one with a scroll design, and a gold-colored ring with six clear stones. She also wore a pearl-type beaded bracelet.

The case is one of many listed on the Texas Department of Public Safety's Missing Person Clearing House Web site: www.txdps.state.tx.us/mpch/.

Anyone with any possible information are asked to call Coffman at 281-489-1212 or Brazoria County Sheriff's Investigator Richard Rosser at 218-756-2218.