Unidentified Female Found May 1950 in Bath (Berkeley Springs), WV - NamUs #UP10026 Case Details

Unidentified Person / NamUs #UP10026

Female, White / Caucasian: Jane Doe
Date Body Found: May 10th, 1950 (Wednesday)

Location Found: Bath (Berkeley Springs), West Virginia. According to early journalism, she was found "along a little used road near the bridge which crosses the Potomac River of Hancock." She was found next to a ditch about 30 yards from the bridge. I think the Google Maps coordinates would be about 39.69214444454965, -78.1844344136343, River Road would have been a "little used road" back then, I think. 

She is barely across state lines between West Virginia and Maryland. That could mean whoever dumped her body did so in a way to try and get the wrong authorities to investigate.

May 12th, 1950. Beckley Post-Herald

County: Morgan County
Who found the body: Benjamin Miller of Hancock (his name is a good keyword to search to find early journalism)

Estimated Age Range: 35-50 Years
Birthdate Estimate: The person’s birthdate would fall between May 11th, 1900, and May 10th, 1915, based on the estimated age range and the date of death.

This individual was found nude according to reports. Clothing must have been added for the photo.

Demographics

Biological Sex: Female
Race / Ethnicity: White / Caucasian

Estimated Year of Death: 1950
Estimated PMI: 48 Hours
Date of Death: Situation would suggest she died on May 8th, 1950. Early journalism suggested a bit longer time frame as an investigator said they weren't sure within five days how long she has been at her found location.

Height: 5' 5" (65 inches), Estimated
Weight: 130 lbs, Estimated
BMI: 21.6, meaning she would have looked average to slender

Circumstances

Date Body Found: May 10, 1950
NamUs Case Created: March 20, 2012

Circumstances of Recovery: Body was discovered by an individual while mushroom hunting along U.S. Route 522.

Physical Description

Hair Color: Red/Auburn
Head Hair Description: Curly, recent perm
Teeth: Natural teeth

Distinctive Physical Features

Scar/Mark: Y-shaped scar on outside right wrist approx. 3" long. W-shaped scar in center of forehead. 2 surgical scars—one a 10" hysterectomy scar and one a 4" appendectomy scar.
Other Characteristics: Freckles on back of hands and lower arms. Hands very small, shoe size 4 1/2 narrow.

Research

By: Shane Lambert

NamUS UP10026 is an old and cold case in the United States. It has drawn a fair amount of online attention with one Alice Kelly suggested as a potential match. 

Journalism for this case started the day after she was found. On May 11th, 1950, The Beckley Post-Herald headlined "Nude Body of Woman Found Near Highway."  Despite the nudity, it was thought that she had not been raped.

At the time of her discovery, it was originally thought that she was younger than what is now thought. A mushroom picker named Benjamin Miller found the body.

Journalism from the very next day estimated her to be 35 years old. A second piece of journalism said she did not have any ring marks on her fingers.

Her remains were found near a "lover's lane," a term meant to describe parking spots where people often go for intimacy. There have been numerous murders in lover's lanes in American history. But her proximity to the locale could also easily be a red herring.

This woman's body was displayed for viewing, and it seemed anyone from the public could have a look at her. In one instance of the early journalism, it was stated that she must not have been from around the area because so many locals had a look at her remains that she would surely have been identified. It was therefore thought that she was driven to the location where she was found as a body dump.

May 11th, 1950/Hinton Daily News

The cause of death in the early journalism was strangulation and a broken neck. Her neck was "seared by rope marks" according to the source immediately above. When I read the description of her neck, it sounded like someone murdered her by hanging her. However, the term "garrote" was used 

In journalism that followed a short time later, the case was described as the "Berkeley Springs Murder." They were not sure, "within five days," how long the woman had been at the location she was found (May 19th, 1950/Berkley Post-Herald).

In cases like these where a body is displayed for public viewing, a lot of 'tips' come in. They all have to be taken lightly, in my opinion. One man said she was a hitchhiker. Another man said he found a woman's dress some 38 miles away. There were some other murders in the area that involved strangulation of women.

Alice Kelly Theory

One popular theory with this case online is that she might be a missing person, Alice Kelly. She was from New York, which would actually align with this case in a way. The decadent was thought to be from far away based on the fact that scores of locals saw her body and none could name her.

I will note that the Jane Doe had red hair while Kelly had brown hair. Furthermore, the Jane Doe's hair was described as naturally red, instead of dyed. She was examined in relation to a missing woman who had red hair but was ruled out because the missing woman had dyed her hair. Furthermore, I found a source that called the Jane Doe's hair "flaming" red. That would suggest that it would not be confused with brown hair if they a mixed or kind-of in-between red and brown color.

Other aspects of the two people, Alice Kelly and the Jane Doe, do, in fact, match up. Hair color can be misdescribed. Furthermore, the journalist's description of "flaming" red hair might be an attempt to be overly descriptive with writing that emphasizes imagery over fact.

The Jane Doe's Scars

Scar Description	Likely Origin	Definition in Layman Terms	Source
Y-shaped on right wrist	Surgical (e.g., complex wrist repair, vascular access)	A mark shaped like a "Y" from a surgery on the wrist, possibly to fix tendons, ligaments, or blood vessels	Many sources. Seemed to be veneral medical knowledge.
W-shaped on forehead	Surgical (W-plasty for cosmetic scar revision)	A mark shaped like a "W" from a surgery to make an old scar on the forehead less noticeable, typically done for cosmetic reasons	W-plasty in Scar Revision
Hysterectomy scar	Surgical (removal of the uterus)	A line from an operation to remove the uterus, usually seen as a horizontal mark on the lower belly	Cleveland Clinic, but seemed like common knowledge in the medical community
Appendectomy scar	Surgical (removal of the appendix)	A small mark from an operation to remove the appendix, usually on the lower right side of the belly, sometimes just tiny dots if done with a camera	Cleveland Clinic - Appendectomy

Sodder Children Disappearance - A Puzzling Mystery

By: Shane Lambert
The original time of writing: January 26th, 2025

The case of the missing Sodder children is one of the enduring missing people mysteries in America. On Christmas Eve and in the time frame leading up to that night in 1945, there were some strange occurrences at a West Virginia home belonging to George and Jennie Sodder. What resulted was a house fire and five missing children, a mystery that remains unsolved nearly 80 years later.

Did the children die in the house fire or were they kidnapped? The theories on what happened to them seem only to toggle between these two options.

I watched a review of this mystery on The Infographics Show's YouTube channel tonight. They made this episode on February 23rd, 2024. It's a good and short episode on the topic. I like the YouTube channel for reviewing facts in missing person cases and I recommend it to anyone interested in the mystery of missing Sodder children.

Screenshot from The Infographics Show's 
episode on the Sodder Children's disappearance.

I had learned of this case before watching it at The Infographics Show. What I've settle on as most probable is the following:

• Someone who really disliked George Sodder committed an act of arson against his home;
• The five children that ended up being missing, died by smoke inhalation as they slept in the attic;
• The fire then incinerated their remains.

For me, this theory accounts for why the parents and older children who escaped the house fire did not hear the children screaming. This was something that I felt had to be explained. If they died from fire, then there would be horrifying screams for help. I think they most likely died coughing and choking from smoke and were unable to scream for help as a result. This coughing and choking might have been covered by the other sounds associated with the house burning down.

That their bones were not found in the remains of the fire is not as difficult to explain as many might think. It is known that human bones will survive house fires, but I think that it's adult bones that are more likely to survive a fire than children bones. I believe that to be just due to the respective volumes. It stands to reason that a child's body, bones and flesh, will be consumed by a house fire more easily than an adult's.

Comparison to Ricky Jean Bryant

This case did remind me of the case of Ricky Jean Bryant, which I covered at this site. The toddler has been missing after a house fire to her home in Wisconsin in December 1949. In her case, her parents did not accept that she died in the fire -- which any parent might be prone to believe because the death of a child is hard to accept under any circumstance. I think a lot of parents will cling to hopes that their children or child is missing as opposed to dead, if given the option.

Ricky Jean Bryant's body was not found. However, I did find journalism that reported on firefighters hearing the screams of the child from inside the house as it burned to the ground. In the case of the Sodder children, the firefighters were late to the scene. Also, the parents never reported hearing any screams. That is why smoke inhalation is more probable for a cause of death, in my opinion.

There are some other details in this case that are bothersome. Like why was a cow liver planted at the home, as reported by The Infographics Show. As reviewed from that source, the police planted it there because it resembled a human heart and they wanted closure for the parents. On that matter, is it possible that the police simply leaned to the children being dead in the fire as a cost-control mechanism? After all, if they perished in the inferno, then there is no need for a search and that would help the police department's budget. I do think police lean to theories, with bias, that help them close cases quickly.

But in the end, I don't think this case is worth working on for amateurs. If they did die from smoke inhalation and then were consumed by the flames as they laid dead, it means they will be lost for all time.