Author Topic: VALENTINE SALLY: WF, 16-20, found under a tree near I-40 - 14 February 1982 *Carolyn Eaton*  (Read 317 times)

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Found on February 14, 1982 while a AZDPS officer was searching for a tire. The decedent was found lying under a tree, wearing only pants and a red and white striped sweater was found nearby. Circumstances are unknown otherwise. Coconino County Sheriff’s Office Cold Case Unit 928-226-5033 is investigating this case as a homicide.

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https://www.namus.gov/UnidentifiedPersons/Case#/9864/details



Unidentified Person / NamUs #UP9864 Female, White / Caucasian
Date Found
February 14, 1982
Location Found
Williams, Arizona
Estimated Age Range
16-20 Years

Case Information
Case Numbers
NCMEC Number
--
ME/C Case Number
82-022

Demographics
Sex
Female
Race / Ethnicity
White / Caucasian
--
Estimated Age Group
Adult - Pre 20
Estimated Age Range (Years)
16-20
Estimated Year of Death
1982
Estimated PMI
--
Height
5' 5"(65 inches) , Measured
Weight
120 lbs, Measured
Circumstances
Type
Unidentified Deceased
Date Found
February 14, 1982
NamUs Case Created
February 9, 2012
ME/C QA Reviewed
February 10, 2012

Location Found Map
Street Address
I40, MP 152
Williams, Arizona
County
Coconino County
GPS Coordinates
--
Circumstances of Recovery
Found on February 14, 1982 while a AZDPS officer was searching for a tire. The decedent was found lying under a tree, wearing only pants and a red and white striped sweater was found nearby. Circumstances are unknown otherwise. Coconino County Sheriff’s Office Cold Case Unit 928-226-5033 is investigating this case as a homicide.

Details of Recovery
Inventory of Remains
All parts recovered
Condition of Remains
Not recognizable - Insect/animal activity

Physical Description
Hair Color
Blond/Strawberry
Head Hair Description
Straight, measuring 24 cm/9.5 inches
Body Hair Description
None
Facial Hair Description
None
Left Eye Color
Unknown or Missing
Right Eye Color
Unknown or Missing
Eye Description
--
Distinctive Physical Features
Item

Description
Piercing left earlobe is pierced (right ear missing due to animal activity).
Scar/mark Irregular, rough well-healed scars on the dorsal aspect of the left foot measuring 3.5 and 1.4 cm in maximum dimension. A well-healed diagonal scar on the anterior lower thigh measuring 3.5 cm in length.

Clothing and Accessories
Item
Description
Accessories White hankerchief Near the Body
Clothing Blue jeans with the brand name "Seasons". On the Body
Clothing White sweater with thin red stripes, a white bra Near the Body
Eyewear none On the Body
Footwear none On the Body
Jewelry none On the Body

Case Contributors

Elizabeth Ross, Medicolegal Death Investigator
Coconino County Medical Examiner
(928) 679-8775

Akoya

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http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/585ufaz.html

585UFAZ - Unidentified Female









Left to right: Artistic renderings and sketch of the victim; The victim's clothing and handkerchief.

Date of Discovery: February 14, 1982
Location of Discovery: Williams, Coconino County, Arizona
Estimated Date of Death: Approximately 2 weeks prior to discovery
State of Remains: Not recognizable due to insect/animal activity
Cause of Death: Inconclusive, possible homicide

Physical Description
Estimated Age: 16-24 years old
Race: White
Sex: Female
Height: 5'4" - 5'5"
Weight: 120 - 125 lbs.
Hair Color: Blonde/straw

Akoya

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https://www.apnews.com/25e741e609c39f58b3b0e3ec246dfe7b

Identity Of Victim Remains Mystery

November 4, 1986

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) _ Authorities have reopened an investigation to find out who lies in an Arizona grave now that the young woman they believed to be the Jane Doe has turned up alive and well.

The body of a young woman found near a Flagstaff truckstop in 1982 was identified by investigators as Melody Cutlip based on a reconstruction of the victim’s facial feature from skeletal remains.

But last summer, Ms. Cutlip, a runaway, was reunited with her family in Jacksonville.

So, Arizona authorities are back to square one in trying to put a name to the teen-ager who was last seen alive Feb. 3, 1982, at the Monte Carlo Truck Stop.

Patty Wilkins, waitress and part-owner, vividly remembers her.

″She was a blonde, a pretty girl. I assumed she was about 16 or 17 years old,″ said Ms. Wilkins, who said the teen came in with a trucker about 3 a.m.

″We’ve been in this little truck stop for 17 years and as a rule when a girl comes in off a truck and looks too young, we pull her off, the sheriff’s office comes along and they send her home.″

But that night, Ms. Wilkins said the trucker with the teen was concerned about her teeth and she thought he must be a relative.

An hour later, the trucker and the girl left.

Her body was found 11 days later, not far away.

Lt. Jack Judd of the Cococino County Sheriff’s Office went through some 5,000 missing person reports trying to determine who she was.

Since the girl’s body was found on Valentine’s Day, she was buried under the name of Sally Valentine in Williams, Ariz., about 14 miles from the truck stop.

In 1984, Judd came to Melody Cutlip’s name. He was unable to get dental records for Melody, so he had an expert in photographic enhancement work from the victim’s skull to reconstruct what she looked like.

It matched Ms. Cutlip’s appearance. Judd closed the case and notified her mother in Florida. But the mother declined the body, refusing to believe it was that of her daughter.

Ms. Wilkins paid $168 for Sally’s grave.

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Williams
Arizona 86046

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Interstate 40, Williams, Arizona





I-40, Williams, AZ

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

Valentine Sally

Not to be confused with Valentine Doe

Valentine Sally was a female discovered murdered in 1982 west of Williams, Arizona. Her cause of death was believed to be asphyxia, although it was never conclusively determined.

Monte Carlo Sighting
She was possibly seen alive at the Monte Carlo Truck Stop in Ashfork, Arizona during the early morning hours of February 4, 1982.

Patty Wilkins, a waitress and part owner of the truck stop, described a teenage girl asking for aspirin due to a toothache and who did not want any food. The girl had a root canal or had been prepared for one. Wilkins believed the girl was 16 or 17 years old.

The girl was seen with an older male, possibly her father or uncle. The man expressed concern over the girl's teeth.

Wilkins claimed that normally if a young girl came into the truck stop and appeared to be a runaway, she would call the sheriff's office. She believed this particular girl was with a male relative.

The pair entered the truck stop at approximately 3:00 AM and left an hour later.

Discovery
Her body was located by an Arizona Department of Public Safety officer near westbound Interstate 40 about 11 miles west of Williams on February 14. The officer had been looking for a blown out tire from an automobile wreck or incident. This was also to the west of the Monte Carlo Truck Stop. She was found lying face down under a cedar tree about 25 feet from the interstate. It appeared that she had been dragged to the location by the belt loops of her jeans.

The stretch of Interstate where she was found was a long incline where trucks would frequently pull over and stop to cool their brakes. If her body was transported there in the cab of a semi, no one would have been suspicious of a truck driver being pulled over in the area.

By the time of her discovery, animals had eaten most or all of the flesh from her face, along with her right ear. A lower molar had been prepared for a root canal approximately one week before her death. Because of the activity of animals, along with decomposition, her fingerprints couldn't be taken although her DNA and dental charts were.

Valentine Sally was buried in a cemetery in Williams, Arizona.

Her DNA is in the CODIS system. To date, a relative has not submitted DNA in search of her.

Misidentification as Melody Cutlip



She was misidentified in 1984 as a Melody Cutlip, a Florida girl who ran away in 1980. Lieutenant Jack Judd of the Cococino County Sheriff's Office suspected that she may have been Cutlip after finding her missing person's report. In 1984, he contacted forensic odontologist Homer Campbell to see if he could match the two.

Campbell matched the bite marks of Valentine Sally to enlarged pictures of Cutlip's teeth. His methods were unorthodox, never scientifically proven to be reliable and outside accepted dental identification practices. He would use these methods to make at least one more false identification in the future.[5]

Cutlip's mother declined an offer to have the body sent to Florida for burial, as she did not believe it was Melody. Patty Wilkins, a witness who likely saw Valentine Sally at a truckstop, paid to give her a proper burial. Her headstone was engraved Melody Cutlip, with Sally Valentine underneath.[6]

Cutlip returned home in 1986. She died in a car accident in Louisiana in 1998. Valentine Sally's tombstone still bears Cutlip's name, despite the requests from the family to remove it.

Physical Description
She had blonde hair.
She had scars on her left foot and a scar on her thigh (which thigh was not specified).
Her left earlobe was pierced. Both ears may have been pierced, but her right ear was not recovered.

Clothing
A red and white striped sweater
Seasons brand designer jeans (size 9)
At least one belt loop had been damaged from the initial attempt to pick up and move the body
A bra (size 36C)
A handkerchief








Valentine Sally




Sex Female
Race White
Location Williams, Arizona
Found February 14, 1982
Unidentified for 37 years
Postmortem interval 10-14 days
Body condition Decomposed
Age approximation 15 - 24
Height approximation 5'5
Weight approximation 120 pounds
Cause of death Suspected homicide

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https://medium.com/seek-solve/arizona-mysteries-valentine-sally-db300699af5b

Arizona Mysteries: Valentine Sally

Ashley Horsfall
Oct 29, 2018

On February 14, 1982, an Arizona Department of Public Safety officer was looking for a tire that had blown out during a car accident. Instead, he found Valentine Sally.

The body of a teenage girl (or young woman — we don’t really know her age) was found west of Williams, Arizona. She had been suffocated or strangled and left lying face down underneath a cedar tree mere feet from the highway.

By all accounts, the stretch of I-40 about 11 miles west of Williams would not be a strange place for a trucker to stop and cool their brakes. Nobody would think it weird for a truck to be pulled over along the road there. But otherwise, the area was not highly frequented. Nobody noticed Valentine Sally until she’d been out in the sun, exposed to elements and animals, for about 10 days.

Somebody dragged the victim to the cedar tree by the loops of the size nine Seasons jeans she was found wearing. Nearby were a sweater with red and white stripes, a white handkerchief, and a bra.

Investigators learned only a few things about Valentine Sally. For instance, one of her lower molars was recently prepared for a root canal as soon as a week before her death. They could also determine she had not been sexually assaulted.

Other than that, we know little about Valentine Sally. The blonde woman likely had her ears pierced, and she had blue eyes. Her left foot and thigh had noticeable scars. She was about 5 ft. 4 inches and 120 pounds.

Possible Sightings of Valentine Sally
One possible sighting of Valentine Sally in the days before her death emerged as investigators began piece together a story. A server and owner at the Monte Carlo Truck Stop in Ashfork, Arizona, claimed to have seen the victim on February 4.

Patty Wilkins described Valentine Sally as a teenager, perhaps 16 or 17, who did not want to eat but rather asked for aspirin because she had a toothache. She was sitting with an older man Patty described as a father or uncle. He appeared concerned about the victim’s teeth as well. The man was about 60 to 65 years old and wore a cowboy hat decorated with peacock feathers.

In another possible sighing, a student at Northern Arizona University claimed he had picked up a hitchhiker matching Sally’s description on February 2 near Cordes Junction. The student claims she was coming from Phoenix and worked as a dishwasher but was having family problems. She needed to get to Flagstaff first so she could hitch a ride with a truck driver heading east to New Jersey.

The Misidentification of Valentine Sally
In 1984, authorities used Valentine Sally’s bite marks and a photo of another missing girls’ teeth in an attempt to identify her. She was identified as Melody Cutlip, a teenager missing from Florida since 1980.

Melody’s mother did not believe Valentine Sally was her daughter, and she refused to accept the body for burial. As it turns out, Cutlip was actually alive. at the time. She returned home in 1986.

Eventually, researchers realized the forensic investigator behind comparing the teeth of the two girls was not exactly reliable. In fact, this was not the only false identification that resulted from his techniques.

Burying Valentine Sally
Ultimately it was that witness, Patty, who paid for Sally’s burial. Unfortunately, the headstone engraved with Melody Cutlip’s name remains in spite of Cutlip’s family requesting its removal. Melody Cutlip passed away in 1998.

Today, Valentine Sally is buried in a Williams cemetery. Her DNA awaits matching in CODIS, but no potential relatives come forward in the search. Valentine Sally has remained unidentified for more than 36 years.


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Interstate 40
Williams, Arizona



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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_formerly_unidentified_decedents,_2020%E2%80%932029

The body of a white female, aged between 15 and 24, was discovered under a cedar tree in Williams, Coconino County, on February 14, 1982. She was discovered approximately 25 feet from westbound Interstate 40.

Her death had occurred on or around February 1,[55] and the area of her discovery area was a place where trucks were known to have regularly pulled over to cool their brakes. Because her remains were located on Valentine's Day, she was nicknamed "Valentine Sally."

Valentine Sally was approximately five feet five inches in height and weighed 120 pounds; she had blue eyes and strawberry blond hair which was straight and approximately ten inches in length. She had distinctive scars on her right thigh and her left foot.[56] Furthermore, the decedent appeared to have incomplete root canal surgery upon one of her molars, which may have been related to a notably discomforting infection. This surgery had been performed approximately one week before her murder. She also wore an earring in her left ear. It is unknown if her right ear was also pierced, as her right ear was not recovered. Due to decomposition and the activity of scavenging animals, her fingerprints could not be obtained (although her DNA and dental charts were).[57][58]

The victim had been murdered by either suffocation or strangulation[59] and wore Seasons brand jeans with a handkerchief in one pocket. A distinctive white sweater with thin red stripes and a bra were also found near her remains, which may have also belonged to the victim.

It is possible Valentine Sally had been seen by eyewitnesses at a truck stop in Ash Fork, Arizona in early February, as a waitress at a truck stop named Patty Wilkins recalled a young girl matching her description and aged 16 or 17 who had asked her for aspirin because of a toothache. This girl did not want any food. She was in the company of an older male—possibly a father or uncle—who had expressed concern over her teeth. Wilkins believed the girl was with a relative as normally; had a runaway entered the premises, she would call the sheriff. The pair had entered the premises at 3 a.m. and left approximately one hour later.

On February 22, 2021, she was identified as Carolyn Eaton of St. Louis, Missouri, who ran away from home in late December 1981

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Identified as 17 year-old Carolyn Eaton of St. Louis, Missouri.


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https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/after-almost-40-years-st-louis-co-teen-runaway-identified-as-arizona-cold-case-victim/article_4703986a-7573-11eb-8c49-2788a6af7cf2.html

After almost 40 years, St. Louis Co. teen runaway identified as Arizona cold case victim

ST. LOUIS COUNTY — Nearly 40 years after the body of a girl was found on Valentine's Day off a northern Arizona highway, police have identified her as a teenage runaway from St. Louis County.

The Coconino County Sheriff's Office announced Monday that DNA had confirmed the homicide victim was Carolyn Eaton, a 17-year-old who was reported missing in 1981 from her home in Bellefontaine Neighbors.

Eaton was one of six sisters. She ran away after an argument sometime around Christmas in 1981, said Coconino County Sheriff's Office Lt. Jason Lurkins, who is working on the case.

Her body was found Feb. 14, 1982, by an Arizona state trooper off Interstate 40 in northern Arizona. The unidentified girl was soon dubbed “Valentine Sally” by authorities and became a well-known local cold case, Lurkins said.

Detectives exhausted all leads over the years but had been unable to determine the girl's identity. This year, they contracted with a company to compare DNA from the body with online ancestry databases and found a match with a first cousin in the St. Louis area, Lurkins said.

Detectives then traveled to St. Louis County to interview relatives, who confirmed they had a sibling who ran away in 1981.

"The family members were awestruck," Lurkins said. "We told one family member we were investigating a missing person case and they asked: Is this about Carolyn?"

Eaton's death was a homicide caused by some type of violence, but the state of the body made finding a more specific cause of death difficult, Lurkins said. The sheriff's office is continuing to search for a suspect.

Detectives believe a waitress at a truck stop near the remote area where Carolyn was found may have been among the last to see her, Lurkins said.

Patty Wilkins, Seligman, Arizona, told detectives at the time that on Feb. 2, 1982, while working the night shift at an Arizona truck stopped owned by her family, she served a girl matching Carolyn's description when she came in late with a man wearing a cowboy hat with a peacock feather in it.

Eaton told Wilkins she had a toothache, so Wilkins said she gave the young girl an aspirin for the left side of her mouth.

Police eventually found Eaton's body about a mile up the road from Wilkins' family truck stop. When an autopsy was done on Eaton's body, Wilkins said police told her the aspirin was still on Eaton's tooth.

"I could have pulled her off that truck. I could have forced her to stay with me. I could have called 911. I could have done a million different things that I didn't do. The only thing I did was put that aspirin on her," Wilkins said Monday in an interview with the Post-Dispatch.

The body had previously been misidentified through facial reconstruction as Melody Cutlip, a Florida teen who went missing around that time but was reunited with her family in 1986.

"I've been with this department 23 years now and every so often we'd hear about the Valentine Sally case," Lurkins said. "So when it broke like this, it was a big deal and I'm sure it's bringing up a lot for her family."

St. Louis County missing persons detective Tom Taylor aided Arizona investigators when they traveled to Missouri for the case.

"It is an absolute reminder that hope springs eternal for police investigators and someone with a missing family member," said Taylor, recalling when he got the call about the DNA matches. "And it shows the investigators kept this case alive over all these years."

Taylor said St. Louis County has open missing persons cases dating to 1955, though police investigations into runaways like Eaton have changed dramatically.

"The availability in technology makes a huge difference today," he said. "Today, everyone has a cellphone that is trackable, and that's not something that was around at the time of this case."

Bellefontaine Neighbors police Maj. Warren Williss also aided Arizona investigators and said he had spoken with a few retired officers from the department who remembered the family and Eaton's case. The department no longer had case files connected to the disappearance.

"It's nice to get some sense of resolution," Williss said. "I hope that knowing more about what happened can help the family in some way."