Author Topic: PRINCESS BLUE: F, 15-19, found in Brazoria County, TX - 10 Sept 1990 - Robert E. Lee High School class ring  (Read 331 times)

Scorpio

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http://unidentified.wikia.com/wiki/Princess_Blue

Princess Blue was a teenage girl whose skeleton was found at the side of a road in Texas. She is known by her nickname due to a blue 1975 class ring that she wore.

Case:
Princess Blue's body was found under a pile of brush and a tire by a man who stopped to relieve himself. She wore several rings, including the class ring that was found. She was likely deceased for around a year, which indicated that the ring did not belong to her originally.

She was thought to be Hispanic, but was later found to be White with African-American heritage, most likely having at least one Black grandparent. Because of this, the sketches may not be accurate.

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Scorpio

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http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/137uftx.html

Date of Discovery: September 10, 1990
Location of Discovery: Manvel, Brazoria County, Texas
Estimated Date of Death: 6 months - 1 year prior
State of Remains: Skeletal
Cause of Death: Undetermined

Physical Description
Estimated Age: 15-25 years old
Race: Biracial (White and Black). It is likely she had a parent or grandparent who was Black. Originally believed to be Hispanic.
Gender: Female
Height: 4'10" - 5'3"
Weight: Unknown, but likely slim to medium build.
Hair Color: Unknown
Eye Color: Unknown
Distinguishing Marks/Features: Two fractured ribs; and a defect on a bone beneath her left knee. The victim possibly had a tumor on her knee.

Identifiers
Dentals: Available. There were several teeth with untreated carries, and two amalgam fillings. Tooth #10, an upper left, lateral incisor, which is right next to her two front most teeth was surgically removed prior to death and the corresponding space was partially obliterated by mature bone.
Fingerprints: Not available.
DNA: Available.
Clothing & Personal Items
Clothing: None.
Jewelry: One pearl, beaded bracelet. Six rings. One gold band ring with six clear stones; one silver band with a scroll design; two thin silver bands; one silver-colored ring with a turquoise horse or unicorn. One 1975 class ring, size 9 1/2, of Robert E. Lee High School (now the Margaret Long Wisdom High School), located in Houston. This ring has a blue stone with a silver colored, inexpensive metal band. It is unknown whether or not there were ever engravings on the inner side of the ring's band. The ring was up sized twice, which would have removed evidence of previous engravings. However, it does have an inlaid, "L" which many students chose as an option that year that stands for the school mascot, Robert E. Lee himself.
Additional Personal Items: None.

Circumstances of Discovery

The decedent was located on a pile of debris at the end of a Brazoria County road (101) just east of Highway 288 inside the Manvel city limits on September 10, 1990. The skeleton was found by a man who had pulled off the highway to relieve himself. He stepped behind a barricade and saw a skull in an old tire. No purse, wallet, clothing or hair were located around the skeleton, six rings were on the fingers, and a bracelet around her wrist.

The company that made Robert E. Lee High School's (now Margaret Long Wisdom High School) rings doesn't have records from 1975. The Lee class of 1975 had about 300 girls. Authorities would like to hear from any of the girls who lost a ring or gave it to somebody else, as the female would likely have been too young to have graduated in 1975.

Toxicology tests yielded no trace of opiates in her bone marrow. However, it is unknown whether or not other drugs were present, tested for or could have been tested for.

The female is known as "Princess Blue" for the class ring she wore.

Scorpio

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Victim was wearing a 1975 Robert E. Lee High School class ring. This ring has a blue stone with a silver colored, inexpensive metal band. It is unknown whether or not there were ever engravings on the inner side of the ring's band. The ring was up sized twice, which would have removed evidence of previous engravings.

The ring has an inlaid, "L" which many students chose as an option that year that stands for the school mascot, Robert E. Lee himself.

Scorpio

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1975 Robert E. Lee High School class ring.


Victim wore a silver-colored ring with a turquoise horse or unicorn design


A silver ring with a scroll design


Another piece of jewelry

The Victim also wore a gold band with 6 clear stones, 2 thin silver bands and a pearl-beaded bracelet.[/img]

Scorpio

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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.

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

Houston Chronicle (TX)
September 2, 2006
Edition: 3 STAR R.O.
Section: B
Page: 1 Metfront


ANGLETON - A well-worn ring from the 1975 class of Houston's Robert E. Lee High School is the main evidence police have to try to unravel a 16-year-old mystery. It was found on the finger of a skeleton at the end of a Brazoria County road in 1990.


"It's not much to go on," said Manvel police Detective Jay Coffman, "but it's about all we've got."

In the years since the remains were found, investigators have not been able to tell what happened to the female victim, how she got to be on a pile of debris or, more importantly, who she was.

"Somebody's missing this girl," Coffman said, holding the ring. Somebody is missing the ring, too, he said, because he doubts it originally belonged to the victim.

A medical examiner's report estimated that the skeleton found on Sept. 10, 1990, was that of a girl about 17 years old, plus or minus two years, Coffman said. She would have been far too young for the 1975 class ring to be hers.

"It could have been given to her by an aunt, an older sister, by anybody," Coffman said.

Richard Rosser, an investigator with the Brazoria County Sheriff's Department, is working with Coffman to solve the mystery.

"Back then, Brazoria County was a dumping ground for bodies of people killed in Houston," Rosser said. "It seemed like we had at least one a month."

The skeleton was found by an Alvin man who had pulled off the highway to find a place to urinate. He told investigators that he stepped behind a barricade and saw a skull in an old tire.

Investigators have no clues as to how she died. No traces of drugs were found in the bone marrow. Medical examiners estimated she had been dead six months to a year.

The victim was about 5 feet tall, plus or minus 2 inches. Medical examiners said the skeleton was probably that of a Hispanic female.

Investigators looked at dozens of different reports of missing teenage girls, but none seemed to match the skeleton.

Three rings were on the skeleton's fingers. One was silver with a scroll design, another had a turquoise unicorn on it. But investigators think the 1975 Lee High School ring probably has the best chance of leading to her identity.

A jeweler recently told investigators the ring was a size 9 1/2 and had been resized twice. The person it fit was probably about 175 pounds.

An ornate "L" inlaid in the blue stone could have stood for the owner's last name or for Lee High School. The company that made Lee High School's rings doesn't have records from 1975, Rosser said.

The Lee class of 1975 probably had about 150 girls, Rosser said. He would like to hear from any of them who lost a ring or gave it to somebody else.

The skeleton is now at the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth. That facility operates the Texas Missing Persons DNA Database, which, in turn, feeds information about missing persons to the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), operated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

If investigators get new leads, they can try to test the DNA of relatives to identify her.

"We would at least have a name," Coffman said.

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https://identifyus.org/cases/989

NamUs UP # 989

ME/C Case Number: PA90-0334
Brazoria County, Texas
15 to 19 year old White Hispanic/Latino Female

Case Report - NamUs UP # 989

Case Information
Status Unidentified
Case number PA90-0334
Date found September 10, 1990 17:00
Date created April 16, 2008 11:38
Date last modified June 08, 2016 11:16
Investigating agency
date QA reviewed April 17, 2008 05:42

Local Contact (ME/C or Other)

Agency Ofc Of The Brazoria Cnty JP
Phone 979-864-1402
Case Manager
Name Sharon Derrick
Phone 713-796-6858

Demographics
Estimated age Adult - Pre 20
Minimum age 15 years
Maximum age 19 years
Race White
Ethnicity Hispanic/Latino
Sex Female
Weight (pounds) , Cannot Estimate
Height (inches) 60, Estimated
Body Parts Inventory (Check all that apply)
All parts recovered

Probable year of death 1990 to 1990
Estimated postmortem interval 1 Years

Circumstances

Location Found
GPS coordinates
Address 1 CR 101 East of HWY 288
Address 2
City Manvel
State Texas
Zip code 77578
County Brazoria
Circumstances
Skeletal remains of an unknown White or Hispanic female found in wooded area under trash pile. Estimated date of death is 6 months to 1 year; located at dump site off CR 101 and Hwy. 288 near Manvel, TX. Jewelry includes a 1975 Robert E. Lee High School ring with blue stone, and a white gold ring with turquoise unicorn.

Possibly referred to as "Princess Blue."

Physical

Hair color Unknown or Completely Bald

Left eye color Unknown or Missing
Right eye color Unknown or Missing


Jewelry
Several rings: Yellow band with 6 clear stones (1); White colored bands (2); White colored band with scroll pattern (1); 1975 Robert E. Lee High School ring (1)
NCIC: 2 THIN WHI GLD BANDS,WHI GLD BAND W/SCR0LL DESIGN,YEL GLD BAND W/6 CLEAR
JWL/ST0NES,PEARL BEAD BRACELET

Dental
Status: Dental information / charting is available and entered

DNA
Status: Sample submitted - Tests complete

Scorpio

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http://brazoriacoghost.weebly.com/princess-blue.html

True Ghost Tales Of Brazoria County

Princess Blue
What was left of her was found in a mound of dead vegetation and trash. Her tombstone was a tire; that's where the skull lay. Beyond it, her skeleton



Princess Blue's Autopsy Report

Here is a copy of the original autopsy report done on Princess Blue in 1990. A Houston reporter, Cra autopsy report:ig Malisow, was gracious enough to provide this for us. Please note that a complete forensics work-up was completed in March of 2007; however, we have not yet been able to obtain a copy of it. There is much updated information in the report, and if we are able to obtain it we will post it on this thread:


History: These skeletal remains of a Hispanic female were found under a trash pile at the dead end of County Road 101, east of Hwy 288, Manvel, Brazoria County, Texas at 5 pm on Sept. 10, 1990. Some property (jewelry) was recovered at the scene with the skeletal remains.

Autopsy: The autopsy was performed in the [HCME's office] by forensic pathologist Eduardo Bellas, MD, at the request of and upon the written authorization of the Hon. Bill Todd, Justice of the Peace, Precinct 8, Brazoria County, Texas, beginning at 2 pm on Sept. 11, 1990.

Extrernal Appearance: The body was that of a totally skeletonized human remains which consisted of the entire skull with nonprominant frontal ridges or mastoid process. The nasal aperture were those of a caucasion configuration and the upper arch was U-shaped, resembling mongoloid character. The cheek bones were not prominent. The orbital sockets were rather square. The right and left sides of the upper jaw were not still fused as was not the transversal suture of the hard palate.

The foramen magnum and the configuration of the base of the skull and the outside of the skull showed no abnormalities. Upon removal of the calvarium, it was found that the clivus was almost totally obliterated and the endocranium appeared to be not remarkable. Natural teeth in good condition in part and some in bad condition were observed. According with the Universal System, teeth 1, 17 and 32 (wisdom teeth) were present and unerupted. Tooth 16 was absent. The corresponding alveolar spavce was totally obliterated by mature bone tissue.

There was a large caries on the buccal aspect in tooth 2 and tooth 5 was missing postmortem. Teeth 3 and 4 were in good condition as well as tooth 14 which had a minute occlusal amalgam. Tooth 6 (upper right canine) had extensive caries at the mesial surface extending to the buccal surface as well as toward the lingual area. Tooth 9 (left upper central incisor) had a recent occlusal postmortem fracture at the tip. Tooth 10 was surgically absent and the corresponding alveolar space partially obliterated by mature bone. In the lower arch, tooth 17 was unerupted and tooth 18 had a minute round buccal amalgam. Tooth 19 had a large occlusal caries extending to buccal, mesial and distal aspects with only 1/3 of the crown surface left. Teeth 2o-29 were present. A large caries on the mesial and buccal surgace of tooth 20 was observed. A small lateral caries was noticed in tghe lateral aspect of tooth 29. Teeth 30 and 31 were in good condition, however, the lateral aspect of tooth 30 was observed with black discoloration of the crown area and conssitent with a distal caries.

The lower jaw was intact. The two scapula as well as the hip bones were submitted and the fusion between the first sacral vertebra with the sacrum was incomplete in the anterior portion. the configuration of the three bones of the pelvbis were consistent with female-type and the symphysis pubis with numerous pits alternating with the elevations which suggested a very young person. The fusion of the iliac crests of the hip bones was partial in some areas. The sternum was submitted in two pieces and was not remarkable. 22 ribs were submitted. The right first rib aliong with the second right rib showed a hairline fracture measuring 1-3/4 inches in length in the first right rib and 1-1/4 inches in the second right rib. In addition, 1-1/4 inches before the anterior tip of the second rib there was a transveral compression.

The two humeri with the two cubitus and radii were submitted and not remarkable. Similarly, both femurs, both tibias and fibulas were also submitted. The bones of the extremities showed no abnormalities except for a defect in the distal portion of the left tibia extending up to the articular surface and measured one inch in the virtucal dimension and 1-1/4 inches anteroposteriorly. The length of the humeri was 11-1/2 inches each. The length of both femurs was 16-1/2 inches. The length of the tibia was 13-3/4 inches. Also submitted were the seven cervical vertebrae, the five lumbar vertebrae and the eleven thoracic vertebrae. None of the certebrae submitted showed any abnormalities. In addition, multiple bones of the hands and feet were submitted and were not remarkable. The central portion and the two wings of the hyoid bone were identified and intact.

Lab results: Opiate -- bone marrow=negative

Opinion: It is my opinion that the cause and manner of death of the decedent, unidentified skeletal remains of a Hispanic female, is undetermined.

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http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=19045674

Princess Blue

Birth: unknown
Death: unknown
[​IMG]
UPDATE: It was previously ruled that Princess Blue was white/hispanic but when a recent forensic workup was done they determined that Princess Blue was Caucasian, with possible mixed ethnic heritage (it is likely one parent or one grandparent was African-American)

Jane Doe 1975 Robert E. Lee HS. She has a face now! (Texas)

We Need Your Help Please!

I am from a group of people at http://www.websleuths.com/ and http://www.someoneknowsme.com/ who are trying to get information out about an unidentified female we now call "Princess Blue" The reason we call her "Princess Blue" is because when her body was found she was wearing a ring with a blue stone. The ring is a 1975 Class ring from Robert E. Lee (Houston) High School. That school is now called Lee High School.

We believe that it is possible that whomever it was from the 1975 class of REL (Houston) who originally owned this ring may be the key to this Princess Blue's identity.

Recently the "Texas Missing Persons Clearinghouse Online" released new sketches of "Princess Blue" to show what she possibly could have looked like with long and short hair.

I am posting the sketches of "Princess Blue" along with a photo of the 1975 Robert E. Lee High School class ring she was wearing when her body was located in hope that someone may recognize her.

This is a link to her Texas Missing Person Clearinghouse information: http://www.txdps.state.tx.us/mpch/UnidentifiedDetails.asp?id=U0310014

Please contact Manvel Police Detective Jay Coffman at 281-489-1212 or e-mail him at jcoffman@manvelpd.org if you have any information on "Princess Blue" -or- if you may have lost or given away a 1975 Robert E. Lee (Houston. Now known as Lee High School) High School class ring to someone else or had one stolen please contact Jay with that information. You can also contact: Texas Missing Persons Clearinghouse 800-346-3243 Note: You may remain anonymous when submitting information. Agency Case Number: U0310014 NCIC Number: U-940003426 Please refer to the above numbers when contacting any agency with information regarding this case.
---------------------------------------------------------
Princess Blue Articles:

Princess Blue found:

HOUSTON CHRONICLE ARCHIVES

Paper: HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Date: WED 09/12/1990
Section: C
Page: 11
Edition: 2 STAR
Human remains found

Staff

MANVEL - Brazoria County authorities Tuesday were trying to identify human skeletal remains that were found near County Road 101 here.

The remains were found Monday by a person looking for bottles and cans along the road, about a mile east of Texas 288, authorities said. The remains were taken to the Harris County medical examiner's office for examination.

Officials said they had not determined the sex, age or cause of death.
--------------------------------------------------------
HOUSTON CHRONICLE ARCHIVES

Paper: HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Date: FRI 09/14/1990
Section: C
Page: 15
Edition: 2 STAR
Remains those of woman

Staff

MANVEL - Human skeletal remains found near here are those of a young white or Hispanic woman between the ages of 16-22, police Chief Tommie Tolson said Thursday.

The skeleton was found Monday by someone looking for bottles and cans near a private trash dump on County Road 101, about a quarter-mile east of Texas 288.

The dead woman had a silver ring with a turquoise unicorn on her right hand and a pearlescent bead-type bracelet on her right arm, authorities said.

A Harris County medical examiner's report also concluded that she had knee problems, Tolson said. Tolson asked that anyone with information about the woman's identity call Manvel police at 489-1212 or the medical examiner's office.
---------------------------------------------------------
Ring is top clue:
http://manvelpd.cityofmanvel.com/news/ring_top_clue.htm
---------------------------------------------------------
Please see http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=48232 for our discussion and complete details of this case.

Princess Blue on someoneknowsme.com: http://someoneknowsme.com/upload/index.php?showforum=2

Princess Blue's My Space Page: http://www.myspace.com/uidprincessblue

Princess Blue on Proboards: http://uidprincessblue.proboards80.com/
http://someoneknowsme.com/upload/index.php?showforum=2


New Articles on Princess Blue dated June 7, 2007

http://www.myfoxhouston.com/myfox/p...n=2&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.2.1

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/metro/4870484.html

http://www.kten.com/Global/story.asp?S=6626525

http://www.click2houston.com/news/13462498/detail.html


Burial:
Non-Cemetery Burial
Specifically: The skeleton is now at the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Forth Worth

Created by: LoveToHelp
Record added: Apr 22, 2007
Find A Grave Memorial# 19045674

Scorpio

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A jeweler recently told investigators the ring was a size 9 1/2 and had been resized twice. The person it fit was probably about 175 pounds.

Scorpio

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http://www.lee75.org/class_inmemory.cfm

Robert E Lee High School
Class Of 1975

In Memory
Jill Achterhof (Deceased Year Unknown)
Leslie Alexander (Deceased Year Unknown)
Kevin Bacon (Deceased Year Unknown)
Clint Barnhill (Deceased 1978)
Jim Baumgardner (Deceased Year Unknown)
Dani Bretz (Holeman) (Deceased 2013)
John Brodnax (Deceased 2012)
Patrick Conner (Deceased 2011)
John Gibson "Gib" Craig, Jr (Deceased 2013)
Eleanor Cruikshank (Moore) (Deceased 2012)
Erin Donohue (Baldwin) (Deceased 2014)
John Elliott (Deceased Year Unknown)
Lydia Ellis (Deceased Year Unknown)
Mark Freeborn (Deceased Year Unknown)
Steven Hicks (Deceased Year Unknown)
Tom Jordan (Deceased Year Unknown)
John Todd Kinsler (Deceased Year Unknown)
David Lattimore (Deceased 2015)
Mike McCord (Deceased 2013)
Evelyn Miller (Deceased Year Unknown)
Peggy Jane Miller (Deceased 2014)
Chuck Moody (Deceased 2000)
Mimi Paine (Deceased Year Unknown)
David Plumb (Deceased Year Unknown)
Cindy Ponder (Deceased Year Unknown)
Robert Prestridge (Deceased Year Unknown)
Lisa Roach (Rogers) (Deceased 2013)
Eddie Stewart (Deceased 2011)
Jan Tolman (Nourse) (Deceased 1997)
Stuart Walker (Deceased Year Unknown)
Harry Wilkins (Deceased 1991)
Aaron S Williams (Deceased 2010)
Dave Wilson (Deceased 2008)
Cindy Wurth (Deceased 2011)

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http://www.lee75.org/class_classmates_missing.cfm

Missing Classmates

Patricia Sue Anderson
Allen Baker
Marianne Baker (Piepenburg)
Greg Bancroft
Sandra Barbee
Brenda Barfield
Libbie Barnes (Vaughan)
Dorothy Beane
Sammy Bell
Martin Bennett
Amie Black (Koffman)
Grant Bradshaw
Dale Bratton
Jean Marie Brown
Daniel Bullard
Karen Burleson
Jon Bynum
Larry Chandler
Fu-Lung Chang
William Chaves
Bettina Colvin
Christopher Conn
Richard Cortez
Cheryl Cosby (Benskin)
Kim Craft (Johnson)
Susan Cragwall
Robert Crockett
Elizabeth Daily
Dennis Dann
Charles Davison
Melanie Day
Thomas Deuble
William Dickson
Michael Dunham
Howard Edick
Robert Elam
John Elder
Joel Elliott
Elanda English
Frank Espiritu, Jr
Hilary Evans
Stanley Evans
Harry Fikaris
Julianne Fowler
Paula Freeman
Meredith Fry (Walker)
Richard Gambrell
Tony Gee
Christina Gibson
James Gibson
Howard Gilliland
Elizabeth Godfrey
Craig Goeser
Juan Gonzalez
Tim Goostree
Debbie Sue Green
Mary Greenwell (Trentham)
Timothy Haley
William Haley
Mary Hance
Kevin Hardy
Sandra Harrigan (McGown)
Catherine Harris
Edward Hart
Cheryl Hartman
Deborah Hartman
Duncan Hawthorn [​IMG]
Rosa Hernandez [​IMG]
Merry Hightower [​IMG]
Brad Hofstetter [​IMG]
Steve Host [​IMG]
Michael Howard [​IMG]
William M Howell [​IMG]
John Hull, Jr [​IMG]
Frances Hunter [​IMG]
Regina M Hunter [​IMG]
Michael J Hurst [​IMG]
Barry I Hyder [​IMG]
Donald D Ireland [​IMG]
Annette James [​IMG]
Edward P Jameson [​IMG]
Laura L Jeffries [​IMG]
Valerie Johnson [​IMG]
Sheryl D Kelly [​IMG]
Diana M Kirby [​IMG]
Karen Klipper (McBride
Jeff Kulik[​IMG]
Debra Lamotta[​IMG]
Robert Lancer[​IMG]
Marcela T Larsen[​IMG]
Melinda Larsen (Walters)[​IMG]
Ross Lemex[​IMG]
Robert R Lessenger[​IMG]
Raymond Lim[​IMG]
Jeffrey B Linn[​IMG]
Jeff Lynn[​IMG]
Cheryl Lynn Maxwell[​IMG]
Cheryl L May[​IMG]
Matthew Edwin McCracken[​IMG]
John F McCuistion[​IMG]
Deborah McDonald[​IMG]
Cheryl R Medlin[​IMG]
Larry Merrick[​IMG]
Donna L Miller[​IMG]
Mark E Moeller[​IMG]
Robert Moore[​IMG]
Kevin Morton[​IMG]
Stephanie Ann Moy (Mason)[​IMG]
Bill Newkirk[​IMG]
Terry J Nielsen[​IMG]
Mary Jo Orlando[​IMG]
James S Overby[​IMG]
Christi Overturf[​IMG]
Earl Parker[​IMG]
Mark Penick[​IMG]
Lisa Petersson (Evans)[​IMG]
Pam Pool[​IMG]
Marsha Pounds[​IMG]
Tomas K Presley[​IMG]
Marla P Reece[​IMG]
Sandra L Reed[​IMG]
Keith A Reeder[​IMG]
Thomas E Richardson[​IMG]
Timothy E Ricks[​IMG]
Hope L Rodriquez[​IMG]
Robert E Rollins[​IMG]
David P Ross[​IMG]
Cheryl Russell[​IMG]
Brenda L Scott[​IMG]
Kathy Scully (Owen)[​IMG]
John Sharley[​IMG]
Vincent A Sicola[​IMG]
Rebecca S Simpson[​IMG]
George Sledge[​IMG]
Naomi Mae Smith (Haney)[​IMG]
Carol Spoor[​IMG]
Lisa M Springer[​IMG]
Harry Steinfeld[​IMG]
Debra S Swartz[​IMG]
Billy G Sweazer[​IMG]
Brad Thomas[​IMG]
Tammye K Traylor[​IMG]
Tamara E Turner[​IMG]
Barbara D Upton[​IMG]
Michael A Vargas[​IMG]
D Vatcharasumpun[​IMG]
Randy L Venable[​IMG]
Thomas L Villanueva[​IMG]
Julie Vinas[​IMG]
David W Voudrie[​IMG]
Mark L Walker[​IMG]
Alfrida Washington[​IMG]
Charlie Watkins[​IMG]
Stephen Watts[​IMG]
Susan Wenglar (Mucci)[​IMG]
Stephen D Wherry[​IMG]
Paula D Whitlock[​IMG]
Kent W Whittington[​IMG]
Robert W Williams, Jr[​IMG]
Michael Winborn[​IMG]
Judy A Young[​IMG]
Karen Zastro (Gilbert)[​IMG]

This is the list of missing classmates who can't be found.

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D Vatcharasumpun[​IMG]
Randy L Venable[​IMG]
Thomas L Villanueva[​IMG]
Julie Vinas[​IMG]
David W Voudrie[​IMG]
Mark L Walker[​IMG]
Alfrida Washington[​IMG]
Charlie Watkins[​IMG]
Stephen Watts[​IMG]
Susan Wenglar (Mucci)[​IMG]
Stephen D Wherry[​IMG]
Paula D Whitlock[​IMG]
Kent W Whittington[​IMG]
Robert W Williams, Jr[​IMG]
Michael Winborn[​IMG]
Judy A Young[​IMG]
Karen Zastro (Gilbert)[​IMG]

This is the list of missing classmates who can't be found.

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http://www.houstonpress.com/news/cold-case-6540443

Cold Case
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2007 AT 4 A.M.
BY CRAIG MALISOW



Photos of the rings appeared years after the body was found.
Sue Birdwell for the Texas Rangers

What was left of her was found in a mound of dead vegetation and trash. Her tombstone was a tire; that's where the skull lay. Beyond it, her skeleton.

The man had pulled over to relieve himself. Standing by a low-slung barbed-wire fence at the end of the road, he thought he spotted an old bottle. He wound up nearly stumbling into bones.

It was September 10, 1990, about 5 p.m. About 30 yards away, cars flew down Highway 288 — drivers like him, leaving their jobs in Houston, returning to the peace of rural Brazoria County.

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He had been on his way home to Alvin when the need hit outside Manvel, and he scanned the roadside for a private place. At County Road 101, a mostly unpaved and minor trail between two major exits, he had swung left, across the median, through northbound traffic, and driven to where 101 dead-ended on the east side of 288. Here he was surrounded by pasture ringed with tall trees, with nothing to disturb him except the dragonflies overhead, big as buzzards.

Once home, he told his wife about the bones. They decided to call the Brazoria County Sheriff's Office, which notified the Manvel Police Department, a small unit working out of a trailer behind City Hall. The case wound up in the hands of Chief Tommie Tolson.

At the scene, Tolson found no purse, wallet, clothing or hair around the skeleton, but there, on her finger bones, were the rings, and a bracelet around her wrist. Whoever she was, she liked to wear a lot of jewelry: a silver-colored ring with a turquoise horse or unicorn; a silver-colored band with a scroll design; two plain silver-colored bands; a gold-colored ring with six clear stones; a beaded pearl bracelet; and the biggest ring, a silver band crowned with a sapphire stone. He removed the jewelry and placed it in an evidence envelope.

Since Brazoria County has no medical examiner, the autopsy was conducted by Dr. Eduardo Bellas with the Harris County Medical Examiner's Office. The autopsy, performed the day after the bones were discovered, did not reveal much: an upper left front tooth that had been surgically removed; two fractured ribs; and a "defect" on a bone beneath her left knee. No traces of opiates were found in her bone marrow.


Bellas concluded she was Hispanic, estimated her age to be between 15 and 19, her height at 4'8" to 5'2". He could not determine the cause or manner of her death.

When the report was finalized a week later, the rings and bracelet got a brief mention: "Some property (jewelry) was recovered at the scene with the skeletal remains."

According to a brief Houston Chronicle article that ran three days later, Tolson characterized the girl as Hispanic or white. He said she had knee problems. He said she wore a silver ring with a turquoise unicorn on her right hand and a beaded bracelet on her right arm.

The article did not mention the biggest ring, the silver one with the sapphire stone. Along with the other jewelry, it would vanish from the public's eye until August 2006, when the case was reopened and investigators found an incredible clue in that evidence envelope. Surrounding the sapphire stone on the big ring were the words "Robert E. Lee H.S., Houston." Below, on the band itself, was the date 1975, and a portrait of the school's namesake. Before long, investigators would tell the media that the girl probably died six months to a year before the remains were found. This estimated time of death does not appear in the original medical examiner's report, and authorities have not made a subsequent forensic report available to the public.

With that crucial yet unexplained time frame in mind, investigators needed to figure out exactly how a ring belonging to a student from the class of 1975 wound up on the skeleton's finger.

Tolson was out of law enforcement by the time the existence of the ring was released to the public, but a new breed of detective instantly adopted the case. In the 16 years since the remains were discovered, true-crime buffs were chattering online, spending their free time researching missing and unidentified persons. And amateur sleuths across the country were drawn to this unidentified Texas girl, to her sapphire ring. It didn't take long before they gave her a name: Princess Blue. She died with a different name, but this was the one that would keep her case alive.

The new investigation was sparked in August 2006 by a phone call from California.

An online sleuth — a true-crime writer — called the Angleton Public Library seeking information about Princess Blue, known then only as Texas Department of Public Safety Case Number U0310014. The reference librarian who took the call found it strange. Why was this woman in California interested in a Brazoria County cold case? It just didn't sit right. So the librarian called the Brazoria County Sheriff's Office, and her suspicion was delivered to the desk of investigator Richard Rosser.

Rosser was curious, too. The woman had left her phone number with the librarian, but Rosser could only get her answering machine. He left his name and number and called authorities in California to see if they could check her out. But before any police knocked on her door, Rosser got a call back. The woman had been on vacation. No, she had nothing to do with the case. Just a natural interest.

"That kind of set it off," Rosser recalls. He pulled what little information was with the sheriff's office. At some point before this, the sheriff's Criminal Identification Division had trucked at least some of Princess Blue's remains to the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification in Fort Worth. There, the remains waited in line for an examination by forensic pathologists.

Meanwhile, the sheriff's office had no investigative notes to work with. Rosser called Manvel PD to see what they had. He was directed to Sergeant Jay Coffman, who had reviewed the case on and off since 2000. He was retired but, based on this renewed interest, would come back to work the case full-time.

The first order of business was to take a closer look at the class ring. A jeweler confirmed that it was a woman's ring, size 9.5. It had been upsized twice, from an original 7.5, and this would have wiped out any markings, like initials or school activities, that might have been inside the band.

Balfour, the ring's Austin-based manufacturer, did not have records from 1975. And that year's graduating class of Robert E. Lee High was about 650 students, meaning at least 300 girls. Students could choose from several colored stones that year. Rosser and Coffman faced the possibility of having to track down 300 female graduates to see who bought a blue stone, and how many of those women parted with their rings prior to 1990. Coffman and Rosser released the information about the ring to the media in late August or early September 2006.

That's when the online detectives really took notice. A handful of members of Websleuths.com created a new forum devoted to Princess Blue, and it attracted colleagues from other sites. They combed through missing-persons sites, trolling for possible matches. They bounced ideas off each other. They decided that one of the most important orders of business was to contact the members of the Robert E. Lee High class of 1975. They got that year's yearbook, created a spreadsheet and tracked down addresses and phone numbers. They wrote a form letter seeking information about the ring, divvied up the mailing and sent around 200 letters. They waited. And waited.

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continued

When it became her turn, Princess Blue's remains were lifted from a shelf at the Center for Human Identification, and for the first time in 17 years, she had visitors.

Armed with nearly two decades' worth of advances in forensic pathology, the specialists studied her, and they came to a new set of parameters: She was no longer Hispanic. She was white, but with some African-American ancestry. A black parent, maybe, or grandparent. She grew older, too; she was now 17-21 years old; and then she just grew. She was now at least 4'11". But they wanted to give Princess Blue something that had been erased a long time ago. They wanted to give her a face.

Sue Birdwell, a forensic artist with the Texas Rangers, put pencil to paper. She drew big eyes framing a pronounced yet somehow still delicate nose. She drew a pair of full lips placed atop a sharply defined chin. She drew thick, dark, wavy hair adorning a slightly squarish head, parted down the middle. Princess Blue wore it pulled back in one rendering, collected in a ponytail or maybe up in a bun. In the other picture, her hair hung straight down, the waves more obvious now, spilling straight down somewhere below the bottom frame. Whoever she was, she was pretty. And now that she had a face, she was ready for the camera.

In June 2007, Princess Blue made news again.

The sketches were released to television stations and newspapers throughout Texas. But they probably had no greater impact than on the sleuthing sites. For months, sleuths had combed through hundreds of photographs of missing girls and young women, having no frame of reference except for words on a page. They didn't have any way to tell if the faces staring back at them actually looked like Princess Blue. So while it seemed likely that Princess Blue came from Harris or Brazoria counties, the drawings made it impossible for the sleuths to ignore those photos of the woman from Dallas.

launchedwww.SomeoneKnowsMe.com, a site devoted to finding the identity not only of Princess Blue but of other unidentified and missing persons.

"Somewhere, somebody has to know something about this ring," she says.

The sleuthing sites generate a lot of cross-traffic, because the sleuthing community believes in sharing information, something that is not always practiced among law enforcement agencies.

The only mention of Princess Blue's surgically removed upper left tooth is buried in the 1990 medical examiner's report; it was never released to the public as an investigative aid. If it had been, someone — sleuth or cop — might have taken a closer look at Babette Alberti.

Alberti was last seen in October 1983, in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, which comprises a large part of suburban New Orleans. Based on the information on the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office Web site, Alberti seems an unlikely candidate for Princess Blue. The height is on, but the age, 31, is off. Alberti's photograph vaguely resembles the Princess Blue sketches, but certainly not more than Cheatham.

It's on the Web sites of the Doe Network and the Charley Project — privately established sites run by volunteers — that Alberti comes more into focus. A second photograph on those sites shows Alberti smiling, revealing what appears to be a gap in her upper teeth where a tooth might have been. Those sites also reveal that Alberti fractured her ribs as a child. Princess Blue's upper two ribs were fractured; the autopsy never established if that occurred post- or antemortem. The sites also state, "She may have been involved in drugs and ****."

Of course, the chances of Alberti being a match for Princess Blue would rise and fall dramatically on whether she was actually missing a tooth, and, if so, which one. But a call to the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office proved a dead end.

"I cannot give any information out," said Captain Hilda Montecino of the JPSO. She said she would contact the Manvel Police Department, and any information would have to come from them. All she could disclose was that Alberti was last seen in St. Bernard Parish in September 1983, placing her last known whereabouts in a different parish and a different month than what's listed on the JPSO Web site.

Montecino offered to put the Houston Press in touch with the JPSO's public information officer, although he wouldn't be able to say anything, either. When the Press asked for the PIO's name and number, Montecino said he would be the one calling. That's because, when it comes to the name and number of the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office's public information officer, "We just don't give that out to the public."

When Coffman and Rosser reopened the Princess Blue case, they knew they had to talk to Tommie Tolson, the original investigator.

By that time, the former Manvel police chief had moved to Hallettsville, where he works as a truck driver. Coffman and Rosser wanted to see if he might be able to tell them anything that had been left out of the original report. It was only a few paragraphs long and was never supplemented. If Tolson ever sketched or photographed the crime scene, that evidence has long disappeared. He did not appear to have interviewed anyone other than the motorist who found the remains.


Tolson didn't have much to tell them. Besides, he had another life now, and he had more important things to deal with than a bunch of bones dumped on a dead-end road nearly two decades earlier.

"He said he's not interested in saying nothing," his wife, Susan, told the Press. And even if he wanted to talk, what could he say about an unidentified body?

"Nothing came of it," Susan Tolson says of the original investigation. She laughs when she says it, just like she laughs when she adds, "They did what they could."

The bottom line: Tommie Tolson cannot be bothered with this stuff. He's out in his rig, trying to keep a schedule.

"He has to keep his mind on the road," she says.

So the reason he sat on the single most important clue in the case remains a mystery.

"I can't think of a reasonable explanation why the high school ring would not be put out there [to the public]," says Vernon Geberth, a consultant in homicide and forensic case investigations for authorities in the U.S. and Canada. Geberth was a member of the New York Police Department from 1965 to 1987, retiring as the commanding officer for the Bronx Homicide Task Force.

"It's been a traditional practice in law enforcement to withhold information about the case so only you and the actual killer know what has happened," Geberth says. "But if I have an unidentified body, my biggest quandary is the identification of the deceased. Because I don't have a base for my investigation unless I know who I'm investigating."

If he doesn't have a name, he doesn't have the victimology, which means he doesn't have an idea why she was chosen as a victim, which means there's nothing pointing to a suspect.

Or at least a new suspect. There was always an old standby.

Roy Alan Stuart had a knack for turning up in towns where young women went missing.

His talent came to fruition in 1971, when the body of Linda Kay Simmons was discovered in a pasture outside Amarillo. When investigators there followed the leads, they wound up at Stuart's front door. He was arrested on July 13, charged, released for want of proof and arrested again three weeks later when the bludgeoned body of 40-year-old Kay Sands was found in a field. This time, there would be a trial.

While he was out on bond, two women accused him of assault in separate incidents. He was charged for those assaults, which were dropped when the women refused to testify. Ultimately, a jury found him not guilty of Sands's murder.

Four years later, police would arrest him again, this time for aggravated sexual assault. And this time, Stuart pled guilty. He would be remanded to the Darrington Unit in Rosharon, Brazoria County. His sentence was 15 years; he served seven.

Some months before Stuart's release, Brazoria County Sheriff's Deputy Matt Wingo got a call from a sheriff in north Texas, up near Amarillo.

"He told me of the man named Roy Alan Stuart," Wingo wrote in a memoir for The Police News. "The Sheriff understood Stuart was to be released soon from TDC and our caseload may go up."

When Stuart was released, he didn't leave Brazoria County. He got a job as an auto mechanic and moved into a trailer near Clute with the woman he married while in prison. Wingo writes that his office and the Houston Police Department began a surveillance on Stuart, who proved less than a faithful husband.

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continued

"He was found to have an affinity for Houston, Galveston and Bay City prostitutes," Wingo wrote. In Houston, his favorite haunt was the LaMonte Hotel.

In November 1985, the body of a prostitute who worked out of the LaMonte was found on Brazoria County Road 403, about five miles north of where Princess Blue would be discovered five years later. In March 1987, the body of another prostitute who worked out of the LaMonte turned up in Bastrop Bayou, still in Brazoria County, but considerably south of the Princess Blue site. In both cases, some LaMonte denizens said they saw the women step into Stuart's light-blue station wagon. (When the Press showed Mary Nava, a LaMonte desk clerk in the late 1980s, the sketches of Princess Blue, Nava said she didn't recognize her.)

Shortly after the second body was found, an officer working surveillance on Stuart saw him driving irregularly. Stuart was stopped and arrested for driving while intoxicated. When his car was towed and searched, investigators found fingerprints and hair from the second body. Stuart was charged in her murder, but the charges were later dropped. Reports differ on the reason behind the dropped charges; some say a judge ruled the search of Stuart's car invalid, thus eliminating the physical evidence; other reports say LaMonte regulars refused to testify. Either way, Stuart walked.

Stuart's career came to an end in May 1994, after he brought a Freeport woman to his trailer, bound her arms with rope and choked her. She managed to writhe free and escape. A jury found him guilty of aggravated kidnapping. He was sentenced to life.

In July 2007, Coffman and Rosser drove to the McConnell Unit in Beeville to have a talk with Stuart. They showed him the sketches; he showed them an "innocent" man.

"He denied any responsibility or any knowledge of anything — he didn't do any crimes, he never committed a crime ever," Coffman says. "And he doesn't know why he's locked up now...I told him, 'Just follow us, we're going to walk out in a minute; you just come out with us because you're innocent.'"

It wasn't the first time Stuart saw the renderings. About a week before Coffman and Rosser questioned him, Stuart opened an envelope from Ohio and found himself staring at Princess Blue. Accompanying the pictures was a note from online sleuth Alexandria Goddard. But if she was expecting a confession, she would be disappointed.

"I am going to tell you the same thing I told them," Stuart wrote to Goddard in early August. "I do not know who the person or persons are in the pictures. I have no idea why my name is brought up when something like this happens...The officers asked me where I was in 1990. I guess this is when this person was supposed to have been killed. I explained to them that I was in prison at the Ellis Unit in Huntsville in 1989 and 1990. I then asked them why they always come to me. They explained that it was because of my past troubles with the law. And they said that where [there] is so much smoke, there had to be some fire. I tried to explain to them that the only fire is the one started by them and other law enforcement agencies in Texas."

But either Stuart was mistaken about one detail or he lied: He was not in prison in 1989 or 1990. He was a free man.

Three hundred people is a lot to track down.

In the 17 years since Princess Blue's body was found, graduates of the 1975 class of Robert E. Lee High have moved, gotten divorced, remarried, fallen off the map.

Working from the sleuths' spreadsheet, the Press tried calling as many graduates as possible. Out of a handful reached, three said they lost blue-stoned class rings prior to 1990, in Harris and Galveston counties. But memories are hazy; the women can't recall exactly when they first realized the rings were gone, or where exactly they might have lost them.

Did Princess Blue find the ring somewhere? Did she see it in a pawn shop? Was it given to her by a relative who never saw the media coverage of the ring? Did she steal it?

"My theory is the [ring belongs] to possibly her mother, an aunt, you know, some relative," Coffman says. "It's impossible to know who it could have belonged to. But obviously the closest tie would be her mother."

Rosser was struck by the overlaid images of Princess Blue and Kimberly Cheatham, but until DNA or dental records are compared, there's no way of knowing.

"The problem with these cases — you can theorize forever and until you find out, you just don't know," he says "Anybody's theory is as good as anybody else's. Believe me, we've spent hours and hours...just talking it over, trying to think of something that makes sense. What really bothers me is, you know, we had all this publicity about the ring and Jay [Coffman] got some phone calls, I got a few...and none of them were really even slightly promising."

In July, one sleuth went on Goddard's Web site and proposed paying to have the remains buried, if authorities permitted.

"We could put 'Princess Blue' on her headstone and then later on down the road, if she is identified and no family claims her, then we could have the headstone changed to display her real name...She needs to be laid to rest."

For Goddard, it's the perfect idea.

"My dad told me a long, long time ago, the only thing that's ever truly yours is your name," she says. "And Princess Blue doesn't have one right now. And I'd like to see her get her name back."

craig.malisow@houstonpress.com

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The first order of business was to take a closer look at the class ring. A jeweler confirmed that it was a woman's ring, size 9.5. It had been upsized twice, from an original 7.5, and this would have wiped out any markings, like initials or school activities, that might have been inside the band.

Balfour, the ring's Austin-based manufacturer, did not have records from 1975. And that year's graduating class of Robert E. Lee High was about 650 students, meaning at least 300 girls. Students could choose from several colored stones that year. Rosser and Coffman faced the possibility of having to track down 300 female graduates to see who bought a blue stone, and how many of those women parted with their rings prior to 1990. Coffman and Rosser released the information about the ring to the media in late August or early September 2006.


http://www.houstonpress.com/news/cold-case-6540443


This is important information about the ring. It had been upsized from a 7.5 to a 9.5.

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