Author Topic: ADDISON COUNTY JANE DOE: WF, 35-45, found with children near an old logging road - 15 May 1935  (Read 275 times)

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Her skeletal remains were were found off of an old logging road in East Middlebury, Vermont, along with a male skeleton around the age of 9-11, and unknown skeleton around the age of 13-15. The location has recently been identified as off of Burnham Drive, a road that did not exist at the time. Her cause of death was a gunshot wound to the head, She possibly died around 1932-34.

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https://identifyus.org/en/cases/13505

NamUs UP # 13505

ME/C Case Number: 15MB000503
Addison County, Vermont
35 to 45 year old White Female

Case Report - NamUs UP # 13505
Case Information

Status Unidentified
Case number 15MB000503
Date found May 15, 1935 16:30
Date created February 10, 2015 12:37
Date last modified November 22, 2016 10:03
Investigating agency
date QA reviewed

Local Contact (ME/C or Other)
Name Steven Shapiro
Agency
Phone (802) 863-7320
Case Manager
Name Kris Bowdish
Phone 802-388-3191

Demographics
Estimated age Adult - Pre 40
Minimum age 35 years
Maximum age 45 years
Race White
Ethnicity
Sex Female
Weight (pounds) , Cannot Estimate
Height (inches) 62, Estimated
Body Parts Inventory (Check all that apply)
Body conditions
Not recognizable - Near complete or complete skeleton

Probable year of death 1932 to 1934

Circumstances
Location Found
GPS coordinates 43.9952105 -73.0901158
Address 1 Burnham Drive
Address 2
City Middlebury
State Vermont
Zip code 05753
County Addison
Circumstances
On 05-15-1935 the skeletal remains of three persons were found off of an old logging road in East Middlebury, Vermont. The location has recently been identified as off of Burnham Drive, a road that did not exist at the time. The three skeletons found together were of a female age 35 to 45, a juvenile teen age 13 to 15 and a child age 9 to 11.

Physical
Hair color Unknown or Completely Bald

Left eye color Unknown or Missing
Right eye color Unknown or Missing
Eye description
No other distinctive body features

Fingerprints
Status: Fingerprint information is currently not available

Clothing and Accessories
Clothing and accessories are described below

Other items found
with body

pearl buttons (similar to those used on pajamas at the time), feathers (possibly from a pillow) and a canvas awning with wheel pulleys still attached.

Dental
Status: Dental information / charting is available and entered

DNA
Status: Sample submitted - Tests complete

Akoya

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http://www.ctcoldcases.com/vermont.html

Family Murder? Who Were They?

 

It is perhaps one of the oldest cold cases in Vermont's history. In June of 1935, three human skeletons were discovered near Route 116 in the town of East Middlebury. They were an adult female possibly around the age of 45 and a two children, male around 14-16 years of age and a female around 10 years of age. To date, their identities have never been established. It is presumed that they may have come from some affluence as the male child had several thousands of dollars of unfinished dental work done on his mouth. According to news reports a hunter reported a terrible odor in the area back in 1932. It is possible that the victims were family members and killed back then. Two of the bodies were laid out next to each other while the third was place on top of them at a right angle. The area was found off of a hillside trail in an area that did not see much human traffic. and police believed at the time that the three were murdered elsewhere. The three had been slain by a gunshot wound to the head by a .38 caliber type of weapon. Found near the victims was a striped awning, old automobile curtains and a woolen blanket. Over the years, it's been theorized that the victims may have been Eastern European Jewish, Turkish or even Syrian. It is unknown if the case is still being investigated by the Vermont State Police.

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http://unidentified.wikia.com/wiki/Addison_County_Jane_Doe_(1935)

Addison County Jane Doe (1935)

Addison County Jane Doe was a woman found shot to death alongside two children, Addison County John Doe and Addison County Doe.

Her skeletal remains were were found off of an old logging road in East Middlebury, Vermont, along with a male skeleton around the age of 9-11, and unknown skeleton around the age of 13-15. The location has recently been identified as off of Burnham Drive, a road that did not exist at the time. Her cause of death was a gunshot wound to the head, and she possibly died around 1932-34.

Clothing & accessories
Pearl buttons (similar to those used on pajamas at the time)
Feathers (possibly from a pillow)
Canvas awning with wheel pulleys still attached

Addison County Jane Doe



Sex Female
Race White
Location East Middlebury, Vermont
Found May 15, 1935
Unidentified for 81 years
Postmortem interval 1 - 3 years
Body condition Skeletal
Age approximation 35-40
Height approximation 5'2
Weight approximation N/A
Cause of death Gunshot (homicide)

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http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/1226ufvt.html

Case File: 1226UFVT
The Doe Network




Unidentified Female
Date of Discovery: May 15, 1935
Location of Discovery: Middlebury, Addison County, Vermont
Estimated Date of Death: 1932 to 1934
State of Remains: Not recognizable - Near complete or complete skeleton
Cause of Death: Homicide by gunshot wound to the head
Physical Description
** Listed information is approximate
Estimated Age: 35-45 years old
Race: White
Gender: Female
Height: 5'1" to 5'3"
Weight: Unknown
Hair Color: Unknown
Eye Color: Unknown
Distinguishing Marks/Features: Unknown
Dentals: Available.
Fingerprints: Not available.
DNA: Not available - insufficient DNA for profiling.
Clothing & Personal Items
Clothing: Pearl buttons found similar to those used on pajamas at the time.
Jewelry: Unknown
Additional Personal Items: Feathers (possibly from a pillow) and a canvas awning with wheel pulleys still attached.
Case History
The victim's skeletal remains were found off of an old logging road in East Middlebury with the remains of two children 2516UMVT and 2517UMVT.

The location has recently been identified as off of Burnham Drive, a road that did not exist at the time.

Investigating Agency(s)
If you have any information about this case please contact;
Agency Name: Vermont State Medical Examiner's Office
Agency Contact Person: Steven Shapiro
Agency Phone Number: 802-863-7320
Agency Case Number: 15MB000503
NCIC Case Number: N/A
NamUs Case Number: UP #13505
Please refer to this number when contacting any agency with information regarding this case.

Information Source(s)
NamUs
NCMEC: The Art of Forensics at the New York Academy of Art (YouTube)

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_...s_in_the_United_States#Addison_County_victims

Vermont

Addison County victims


The skeletonized remains of three individuals, a female, a male child and a teenager, whose sex remains undetermined, were discovered in Middlebury, Vermont on May 15, 1935. Each victim was shot in the head one to three years before they were discovered. The adult female's DNA showed she may have been the mother of the teenage victim, but testing of the youngest victim was inconclusive. The female was estimated to be between thirty-five and forty-five, the middle victim at thirteen to fifteen and the youngest victim was nine to eleven. At the scene, feathers from a pillow, pearl buttons presumed to belong to pajamas and an awning were found along with the human remains. The oldest and youngest victims were reconstructed in 2015.

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In June of 1935, three human skeletons were discovered near Route 116 in the town of East Middlebury.



T-116, Middlebury, VT 05753


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http://unidentified.wikia.com/wiki/Addison_County_Jane_Doe_(1935)

Addison County Jane Doe (1935)

Addison County Jane Doe was a woman found shot to death alongside two children, Addison County John Doeand Addison County Doe.

Case
Her skeletal remains were were found off of an old logging road in East Middlebury, Vermont, along with a male skeleton around the age of 9-11, and unknown skeleton around the age of 13-15. The location has recently been identified as off of Burnham Drive, a road that did not exist at the time. Her cause of death was a gunshot wound to the head, and she possibly died around 1932-34.

Clothing & accessories
Pearl buttons (similar to those used on pajamas at the time)
Feathers (possibly from a pillow)
Canvas awning with wheel pulleys still attached

Addison County Jane Doe



Sex Female
Race White
Location East Middlebury, Vermont
Found May 15, 1935
Unidentified for 82 years
Postmortem interval 1 - 3 years
Body condition Skeletal
Age approximation 35-40
Height approximation 5'2
Weight approximation N/A
Cause of death Gunshot (homicide)

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http://www.suncommunitynews.com/articles/the-sun/search-continues-for-1935-triple-murder-remains/

MAY 12, 2011

Search continues for 1935 triple-murder remains

MIDDLEBURY-Two Addison County women are continuing their self-financed search for clues about a trio of unsolved murders that occurred in East Middlebury in 1935. The women are jointly writing a book about Vermont's oldest, unsolved multiple murder.

On May 1, Roxanna Emilo of Middlebury and Kathy Brande of Bristol joined a team of searchers from Green Mountains Treasure Hunters, Inc. The firm is owned by Jack Dapsis from Bridport.

Dapsis used the technology of metal detection to locate missing metal objects or in our case to possibly unearth forensic evidence at the scene of the murders just north of the Middlebury State Airport.

"We also had a few family members, and friends come to help explore the gravesite of the three skeletons found at the base of the Green Mountains in 1935," Emil said. "The hope was to discover anything that might be related to that event."

In 1935, according to the women, three bodies presumed to be a mother and her two children were dumped on the road leading from the Case Street Road to the old Brookins-Blackmer Camp in the foothills four or five miles from downtown Middlebury.

"Each had been shot through th head and then dumped by the side of a lonely road leading from East Middlebury to Bristol," Emilo said. "It was a road not traveled much on even in 1935. Each had been shot through the head. The skull of the female retained a .38 caliber copper jacked bullet."

Both Emilo and Brande said other crime scene evidence included grommets, pulleys, a green and buff striped canvas awning, rope fragments, blanket, silk, pearl button, probable pillow feathers, and some hair.

"They were wrapped in the awning and dumped in a heap-covered with branches about 18 inches from the logging trail," Emilo said.

"In 1935, this was a very isolated spot. Now there are homes dotting the pavement that runs parallel to the logging trail as well as the VAST Snowmobile Trail which runs right beside the spot where the bodies were wrapped and dumped," according to Brande.

Further back in the wood was the old Brookins-Blackmer campsite.

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http://www.addisonindependent.com/2015051935-murder-victims-buried-mystery-persists

1935 murder victims buried; mystery persists

Posted on May 13, 2015 |

By John Flowers



EFFORTS TO IDENTIFY three victims in an unsolved 1935 triple murder case in Middlebury took a step forward last year with the production of three-dimensional casts of the faces of the deceased.

EAST MIDDLEBURY — It was a brisk day last fall when Walt Ducharme stood at the side of a freshly dug grave at the Prospect Cemetery in East Middlebury. The mortal remains of three people were at last given a final resting place after reposing in nondescript boxes in an office cabinet for 80 years.

But with eternal rest does not always come closure.

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Burlington Free Press
Fig2_EntranceWoundMotherSkull



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http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/.../history-space-middlebury-cold-case/92958366/

History Space: A 1935 Middlebury cold case

DETECTIVE KRIS BOWDISH and STATE ARCHIVIST TANYA MARSHALL, For the Free PressPublished 12:17 a.m. ET Oct. 30, 2016

What happens to an 80-year-old cold case that hasn’t had a lead in more than 70 years?

How do you identify the victims of a violent crime 80 years after they were discovered?

Can the Vermont State Archives and Records Administration be the link to solve a 1935 triple homicide cold case?

Wednesday, May 15, 1935, began like any other day in Vermont. For Mary Dague and her 18-year-old daughter, Inez Perry, that day included an afternoon walk in the woods in search of mayflowers. They were on an old logging road a little more than 4 miles outside of Middlebury. On the way back from their hunt, a white rock caught Inez Perry’s eye and, without much thought, she gave it a kick. But the rock did not roll out and tumble across the ground as expected, instead, it turned to reveal that it was not a rock at all but rather a skull.



A gravestone in Middlebury where the three unknown victims of a 1935 homicide are buried. (Photo: Courtesy of Middlebury Police Department)


The three victims

By nightfall, Middlebury Sheriff Ralph G. Sweet and Addison County State’s Attorney John T. Conley, along with several residents, uncovered the skeletal remains of a mother and her two children. The case was immediately classified a homicide, as all three had suffered apparent gunshot wounds to their skulls. The case was vigorously investigated by Detective Almo B. Franzoni of the Vermont Attorney General’s Office.

A nationwide search of missing persons, as well as possible suspects, was launched but neither the victims, nor their killer, have ever been identified. After haunting Vermont public officials and law enforcement for more than 80 years, archival records recently helped shed some light on the case’s many twists and turns.



The entrance wound in the skull of mother, as photographed by the Vermont Chief Medical Examiner’s Office in 2011. (Photo: Courtesy Vermont State Archives and Records Administration)


The victims in this case were reported to be a mother, approximately 35-45 years old, and her two children, one about 9 to11 years old and the other 13 to15. Further examinations, by various doctors at the time, concluded that the three victims were all members of the same family due to similarities in their bone structures and what appeared to be a tendency of anemia. Early reports show the children were a boy and a girl, and then later two boys.



The entrance wound in the skull of youngest child, as photographed by the Vermont Chief Medical Examiner’s Office in 2011. (Photo: Courtesy Vermont State Archives and Records Administration)

The most striking evidence in this case, and perhaps the greatest lead, was found within the skulls. While all had some form of dental work done on them, one of the victims, the eldest child, had extensive dental work including a gold band encircling the entire set of teeth in the upper jaw with an Angle’s ribbon. The dental work was valued at $1,500 at the time.

The crime scene

The three skeletal remains were found on the side of a remote logging road leading to the Brookins/Blackmer hunting camp in East Middlebury. Reported by a local newspaper as being “dumped unceremoniously under a pine tree right near the road,” the bodies were discovered under a thin layer of pine needles and leaves and bound tight in what was initially described as an Army duffel bag. A small tree root, about a half to three-quarters of an inch thick, had grown over the leg of one of the victims. That evening, Sheriff Sweet returned to the site with Dr. Lewell S. Walker, the regional medical examiner. Walker reported that he was unable to determine the gender or age of the three victims but that each had died from a “shot clean through the head.”



A crowd gathering at the crime scene, as photographed and published by the Burlington Free Press on May 20, 1930 (Photo: Courtesy Vermont State Archives and Records Administration)

In the following 48 hours, details of the crime scene started to take shape. While the bodies were originally reported as being found naked, the reality was that only bones remained, meaning that they had been exposed to the elements for at least three to five years. All three victims appeared to have been killed in an identical manner — one single shot to the temple —a crime that investigators thought possibly occurred while they were sleeping since remnants of a pillow were also found.

Other evidence included a “few hanks of matted hair,” described as both blond and dark, possibly auburn, with some of the strands being several inches long; a small piece of a woman’s silk dress; badly disintegrated remnants of a black, possibly green, and buff striped awning; four small block pulleys; the corner of a woolen blanket; and the snap from an automobile side curtain. A flattened .38 caliber copper jacketed bullet, consistent with a Colt automatic, was also found under one of the skulls.



Map to location of crime scene, as published by the Burlington Free Press on May 18, 1935. (Photo: Courtesy Vermont State Archives and Records Administration)

The investigation

The investigation began in earnest the day after the remains were found. Sheriff Sweet returned to the scene with State’s Attorney Conley and Detective Almo B. Franzoni from the Vermont Attorney General’s Office.

State’s Attorney Conley brought the skulls to Mary Fletcher Hospital in Burlington where they were photographed. He then traveled alone, armed with revolver and blackjack, to see Dr. Alfred B. Rogers, a Boston dentist who specialized in treating irregularities of teeth and was also a graduate of the Angle school. Dr. Rogers concluded that no unusual skill was required to have performed the dental work done and that the work could have been done in any dental clinic, including clinics providing services to those of poor circumstances. Extensive work was done to contact dentists throughout New England and further but a match was never made.



The youngest child’s facial composite. (Photo: Forensic Anthropology Department at the New York Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.)

Detective Franzoni turned his attention to persons of interest beginning first with R.R. Luding of Buffalo, New York. A guest of the Middlebury Hotel, Luding had shown “great interest in the finding of the skeletons” and reportedly followed investigators from Middlebury to Burlington in an automobile with Indiana license plates. Police were asked to keep a lookout for him, but the search was discontinued almost as soon as it started. Instead, information about a stranger who went by the name Irving or Arthur Denton caught Detective Franzoni’s attention.

According to Middlebury residents, Denton showed up in August 1931 buying high-price items, including a Ford automobile and a property on Starksboro Road, and paying for them in cash. He also whitewashed his property’s windows, blackened its lights, and warned neighbors to keep away. In February 1932, Denton abruptly left town ordering the sale of his property with the money going to the Pacific National Bank in Seattle, Washington. While recalling Denton, the neighbor living closest to the crime scene stated that 1932 was the year a dank odor of “decaying flesh” came from the woods but could not be placed.


Harold Young was another person of interest. Young came to Burlington in 1929 to operate a store on the corner of Monroe and Champlain streets, which was part of the Grand Union Tea Company. Believed to be a bootlegger or in the moonshine business not too far from Buffalo, New York, persons who knew him said that Young said “it got too hot” for him there. His acquaintances also said he owned a .38 caliber Colt. John Deyette, who owned the building where the store was located, said Young was taken back after receiving a notice that his wife and child, a girl about 11 years old, planned to join him in Burlington. Soon after their arrival, Deyette told authorities that Young left with his wife and daughter for three days and returned without them. Soon after, Young also left the area.

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continued

Within a year, despite vigorously investigating multiple leads and including the case in several national journals and publications, as well as interviewing hundreds of orthodontists and dentists, the case began to run cold. Then, in January 1938, Detective Franzoni thought he struck gold.



Vermont Certificate of Death for the mother, as filed with the Vermont Department of Health on September 11, 2014. (Photo: Courtesy Vermont State Archives and Records Administration)


The Goldens

As part of the investigation, Harvard scientists who examined the remains while they were in Boston provided a more detailed report about the victims. Included in the report were the probable ages of the deceased, the gender of the children and the year of death, all of which convinced Detective Franzoni the victims might be Mrs. Cora Golden and her children, Charles Jr. and Beulah Elizabeth of Milton.

Cora disappeared in 1923 with her children when she was 31 years old. At the time, Charles Jr. was 7 and Beulah was 4. If Cora and her children were killed seven years after they disappeared, the ages and year of death would align with Harvard’s estimates.


In addition, the disappearance of a Milton farmhand around the same time as the Goldens proved to be related. Detective Franzoni was able to trace Cora, the farmhand, Joseph Carter, and the children as having spent time in Hartford, Connecticut before coming back to Vermont in 1929. After that, however, he could find no trace of them leading him to believe that the bodies found in May 1935 were very likely Cora and her children.

Then, in April 1938, Detective Franzoni found the daughter living with an adoptive family in Connecticut. One would think that the detective didn’t strike gold at all, given that one child was indeed found alive; however, in tracking down Cora and Joseph Carter, Franzoni learned they had a child together in 1924. More important, that child was a boy — the gender Harvard scientists concluded both children to be. Recent DNA testing, spearheaded by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, also confirmed both children were boys and related to each other.



Francis Joseph Carter’s birth certificate. In September 1924, his parents marry under the names Thomas Napolean Charest and Elizabeth Minor but change little about their parents names. (Photo: Courtesy Vermont State Archives and Records Administration)


It’s in the records

After decades still believing Cora and her two boys were the likely victims, State Archivist Tanya Marshall recently found archival records that prove otherwise. Cora Golden and Joseph Carter, perhaps taking advantage of Carter’s French roots, used the pseudonyms Cora LaFlash and Thomas Charest in Vermont vital records related to their marriage and the birth of their son Francis. The 1930 federal Census shows the Charest family residing in New York and following Elizabeth “Cora” Charest’s death in 1938, Thomas, Charles and Francis all eventually return back to Vermont. The records have given closure to this lead in the case. Further work by Detective Kris Bowdish at the Middlebury Police Department has proven the records to be right. DNA testing of a living relative of Buelah show the three unidentified persons are neither Buelah’s mother nor her brothers.

Vital, Census and other archival records are also shedding light on the persons of interest Detective Franzoni so actively sought. Harold Young was most likely Harold C. West of Chelsea. In 1929, the local newspaper in Fulton, New York, reported that West, having been the manager at the Grand Union Tea Company in Burlington, Vermont, was now the manager of Oneida Creamery in Fulton. The 1930 Census lists West, in Fulton, as a retail grocer living with his wife Clara. Look a little deeper and it is a Harold C. West, not Harold Young, who appears in the 1928 Burlington City Directory as the manager of the Grand Union Tea Company.

So what’s the current status of this 80-year-old cold case? The mother and her two sons have finally been laid to rest in a Middlebury cemetery and their grave reads “Three souls known only to God.” Will archival records be the key to putting names to these souls? Time will only tell if the 1935 Middlebury cold case will ever be solved, but without witnesses and physical evidence, one’s only hope is that it’s in the records.

The authors would like to thank researchers Brian Lindner and Anne Bielby for providing some of the background information for this article.