Mystery body exhumed

1976 MURDER VICTIM: “Every murder is important. An important first step is determining the identity of the victim.”

WEATHERLY -- After two hours of careful digging in a rural pauper cemetery near Weatherly on Tuesday, the body of a young unidentified murder victim was pulled from her grave for modern testing and investigation.

The excavation took longer than anticipated because the remains were buried in a handmade wooden box that had started to cave in. Water was also found underground, but police said the remains should be well preserved because they were inside a bag.

Police were awaiting a forensic exam to determine if the full-term fetus was in the bag with her mother.

The body of the woman was discovered along the banks of the Lehigh River around 4:30 p.m. on Dec. 20, 1976. The woman was in her late teens or early 20s and nine months pregnant.

Police determined she was strangled and shot in the back of the neck and had been dead less than 24 hours from the time her body was found.

She was dismembered with a fine, serrated tool and stuffed into three suitcases that were tossed over a westbound Interstate 80 overpass. A cut-up chenille bedspread and sections of the New York Sunday News were used to wrap some parts of the body.

Impact of the 300-foot fall broke open two of the suitcases, scattering the head, torso and fetus. The third suitcase containing the arms and legs remained intact.

A 14-year-old boy who had been playing in that area discovered the woman’s head, which was missing the ears and nose.

Removal of the nose is “very unusual,” said Thomas C. McAndrew, a state police corporal at Troop N in Hazleton.

“There’s a lot of dismemberment in homicide, but it’s very rare to have somebody remove a nose,” McAndrew said.

The letters WSR appeared to be written in ink on the woman’s left hand along with two numbers.

The woman’s remains had been stored at the Philadelphia medical examiner’s office until 1983, when they were buried at the Laurytown Road Cemetery in Lehigh Township, Carbon County, McAndrew said.

Police don’t have any strong leads but have been interested in taking a fresh look at the evidence for several years, McAndrew said. They have a hunch that the killer had a personal connection to the woman and that the woman was not from the immediate area.

The remains will be examined by a forensic pathologist and experts who specialize in examining teeth and bones, he said.

McAndrew said he wants to obtain DNA samples, hoping to get a hit on a nationwide DNA missing person database. However, he cautioned that the database is still in its “infancy.” Investigators will also attempt to obtain DNA samples from the fetus, he said.

The DNA will be also useful because state police sometimes receive calls from people who wonder if the woman is their missing relative, he said. The DNA could be matched to samples from the callers, McAndrew said.

McAndrew expects to release a new drawing of the woman within a week. Renowned forensic artist Frank Bender is creating the drawing based on photographs of the woman’s head. McAndrew said many of her facial features had been intact at that time. The skull may also be used to clarify the drawing, particularly if it offers clues to the shape of her nose and ears, police said.

Carbon County District Attorney Gary F. Dobias said this murder was “particularly gruesome,” and he petitioned the court to obtain the exhumation because there is no statute of limitations for murder.

“Every murder is important. An important first step is determining the identity of the victim,” he said Tuesday.

McAndrew hopes increased awareness about the missing woman sparks some tips. Today a story about a missing, pregnant woman would make national headlines, but not back then.