Jennifer M. Dawson (Photo Search) -- Missing From Florida Since May 1986

Author: Shane Lambert 
Original Time of Writing: January 27th, 2021
All articles are subject to editing after the original posting.

The following photos are ones I believe to be of Jennifer M. Dawson, #MP26327 with NamUs. Note, that I was unable to authenticate these as being of the missing person, however, I use them in good-faith as I do believe they are of the missing person. The extensive reasoning behind my beliefs is below her case details.

Update: some claiming to be the missing person's first cousin has claimed the photos are of Jennifer in the comments section.

I BELIEVE THIS IS THE MOST RECENT PHOTO. SENIOR YEAR. 1970 DUNCAN U FLETCHER HIGH SCHOOL IN THE JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA AREA.

CASE DETAILS

Missing person: Jennifer M. Dawson

Last-contact date: May 12th, 1986 
Last-seen location: disappeared from Jacksonville, Florida

Link to Government Source: #MP26327

Ethnicity/Race: White
Sex: Female    
Age at time of disappearance: 34 years old
Hair: Brown
Eye color: Blue
Height and weight at the time of disappearance: 4'11" and 110 pounds

Jennifer M. Dawson, at the time of writing, was a part of the "No Photo" contingent at NamUs. Websleuths or amateurs that are aiming to help with this case could spend some energy trying to find an authenticated photo of Jennifer M. Dawson (#MP26327). 

I made that effort on January 27th, 2021 for about an hour. At the end of it, I felt like I did locate photos of Jenny Dawson, however, I have to consider them unauthenticated. Furthermore, even if authenticated (ie. someone who knew her says they are of her), the most-recent photo of her that I found would still be about 16 years prior to her disappearance. Accordingly, there is work to be done.

STATEMENT ABOUT PHOTOS

When I searched for a photo of Jennifer M. Dawson, firstly, I went to Ancestry.com. Noting that she was 34 years old when she missing in 1986, I selected the birth year of 1952 with a small range of plus or minus one year. I did find a Jennifer M. Dawson that was of Jacksonville, Florida that was born in February of 1952. 

However, I did not take this to mean that they were one and the same person at first. That said, Ancestry's Jennifer M. Dawson and #MP26327 had the following in common:

• an affiliation with Jacksonville, Florida
• a birth year of 1952
• a name match, including middle initial
• the range of 1985 to 1992 provided at Ancestry for residency in Jacksonville would include the 1986 last-seen date for the missing person

The following is what I found at Ancestry: 

"NAME: Jennifer M Dawson 

BIRTH DATE: Feb 1952

RESIDENCE DATE: 1985-1992

ADDRESS: [Address available at Ancestry]

RESIDENCE: Jacksonville, Florida, USA

POSTAL CODE: [available at Ancestry]"

Note, that the "RESIDENCE DATE" above including a residency that extends until 1992 does not mean that she lived there for that time. #MP26327 went missing in 1986 but it could still be Ancestry's Jennifer M. Dawson. What triggers addresses and residency dates with Ancestry isn't clear to me but address matches are just food for thought anyway. They must be caused by paperwork as opposed to a physical assessment of someone's whereabouts as Ancestry can only trace the former, not the latter.

When I searched the address that was found at Ancestry, I looked for people of the same last name as Jennifer M. Dawson. I found that these people shared the address and the same last name as Ancestry's Jennifer M. Dawson: 

• Laura O Dawson b. 1958
• William B. Dawson b. 1953
• Rebecca Dawson b. 1955

William B. Dawson was born on the exact date of May 16th, 1953 according to Ancestry.  Findagrave.com has a William B. Dawson that was born May 16th, 1953 in Jacksonville as deceased as of May 2011. Importantly, this individual had some details included in his online memorial. Those details stated:

"Billy is preceded in death by his wife Cynthia, His Mother Violet, Father William B Dawson III, and Sister Jenny" (bolding added to quote).

William B. Dawson's findagrave.com memorial also stated that he went to Fletcher High School. The school in the Jacksonville area that would match Fletcher High School would be called Duncan U Fletcher High School. I hypothesized that his sister Jenny Dawson also went to that school and put this guess to the test with a manual search of that high school's yearbooks for the years that Jenny would have been in high school (ie. 1967 to 1970). The photos above are the fruits of that search and I think they are of the missing person.

Although that's not something I have yet authenticated I do note one corroborating detail between #MP26327 and Ancestry's Jennifer M. Dawson. When you look at the one group photo, Jenny Dawson is the shortest person in the second row. The NamUs profile for her says that she was only 4'11". Thus, additional to an affiliation with Jacksonville, additional to the birth year of 1952, additional to a name match including middle initial, additional to an address range in Jacksonville that includes the year 1986 (the year #MP26327 disappeared in that city), we have very short stature in common as well. 

In conclusion, I'm very confident that the pictures from Ancestry and the Fletcher High School Yearbooks are those of the missing person. It would be nice if someone found photos that were taken closer to the date of her disappearance. It would also be nice if someone that knew the missing person as described at NamUs would authenticate these photos (even in the comments).

It would be even nicer, from some points of view, if her likeness matched a composite sketch of a Jane Doe from the Jacksonville area that was thought to have died in and around 1986, a Jane Doe with an estimated height near 4'11". This would produce a lead that might produce more information. That's certainly not to say it would be nice to find that Jenny Dawson is dead but when it comes to people that have been missing for over 30 years that's generally to be expected.