Unidentified Woman UP116037: Found in Palm Bay, January 1985, Could She Be Sandra Faye Thompson?

By: Shane Lambert

Time of original writing: January 10th, 2025

UP116037 is an unidentified Jane Doe whose body was found on January 17th, 1985 in Palm Bay, Florida. The details, as per her NamUs profile at the time of writing, were as follows:

• "Remains found wrapped in a blanket in a remote area of Palm Bay, FL."
• GPS opened to "28°02'04.1"N 80°35'19.2"W" (likely in the area of where she was found)
• Partial skeletal remains
• Female
• White/Caucasian
• Adult pre-30
• 24-28 years old
• Thought to have died in 1984
• Thought to have been dead for six months when discovered
• 62-64 inches tall (5'2" to 5'4") (estimated)
• 95-105 pounds (estimated)
• Clothing: bathrobe/housecoat found near the body

Looking at the details above, it's the clothing that stands out. What does it mean for someone to be found dead with, presumably, her bathrobe/housecoat nearby? For me, that's someone who was abducted from her home by an intruder or someone who was killed by someone she lived with. 

The fact that only partial skeletal remains were found is significant, in my opinion.

I did find some journalism on this Jane Doe. It said she may have been decapitated. 

This is important when it comes to the height of the individual. I would think it would be harder to estimate the height of a Jane Doe who had been decapitated, even if you had all the body parts. If you are working on this case, I think you should use a broad estimate for a height range.

Back in the first half of the 1980s, we were in the time frame before DNA became a powerful tool for identification. Back then, dental records were one of the ways to identify a Jane Doe. A Doe who was decapitated may have been altered in that way to separate her dentals from her body and thereby inhibit identification in a time where DNA wasn't yet fully developed. However, I found that this was probably not the case with this Jane Doe, a point I will return to.

March 7th, 1985. Florida Today.

The original journalism at about the time of discovery estimated her age to be between 30-47 years old. That is in counter to the current information at NamUs. Furthermore, I found an article that said that the body was found "four miles west of Interstate 95 and one mile south of Malabar Road" (January 22nd, 1985/Florida Today). A street named "Savery Street" was associated with the discovery location. On modern maps of the area, I could find only "Savery Road."

This woman's remains were thought to be related to two other discoveries in the area at about the same time. I clipped the entire article below, which was published on March 7th, 1985 in Florida Today (page 1B).

The remains appeared to have been interfered with by a dog. Furthermore, the woman who owned this dog discarded the skull for some reason. That would suggest that the murderer of this woman did not separate the skull from the body but rather this dog did.

Other details:

• The bones were found by a couple who were interested in real estate in the area.
• The bones were originally thought to belong to an elderly man.
• The bones were described as "scattered across the vacant lot" in one article (Jan. 19/1985 Florida Today; Page 21).
• Foul play seemed to be suspected from the start.
• The remains were found near some trees and bushes, which suggests to me that someone was trying to hide them to some extent.
• Several cigarette butts were found on the street in front of the body's location.
• A Websleuths.com member (username SimsGuy67) has suggested Sandra Thompson as a candidate for a rule out. At first glance, I could see how some details added up.

Mae W. Gebhard, Missing Person -- ATTEMPT TO MATCH to Jane Doe

Author: Shane Lambert

Mae W. Gebhard has been missing since February 24th, 1981. Coincidentally, that's precisely 40 years prior to the date of this article's publication. I think there's a Jane Doe in the NamUs database that is a good candidate for comparison. This is an opinion that other members of Websleuths are aligned with. Importantly, neither the Jane Doe in question nor Mae W. Gebhard have any rule-outs listed.

Gebhard's disappearance was covered in The San Francisco Examiner. On March 5th, 1981 I found news coverage of her disappearance. It said that she disappeared after a fight with her husband, that she left with 30 sleeping pills, no coat, and no money.

Thu, Mar 5, 1981 – 21 · The San Francisco Examiner (San Francisco, California) · Newspapers.com

According to the profile NamUs #MP17556, Mae W. Gebhard's disappearance had the following details:

• She was 65 years old when she went missing
• She was last seen on February 24th, 1981
• She is missing from San Francisco, California
• She was 5'3" and 100 to 104 pounds
• She was white/caucasian
• Her hair was gray or partially gray and short to medium length

Everything listed above matches up to a Jane Doe that was found on March 2nd, 1981 at the dump that serviced the San Francisco area. NamUs #UP77595, which is a Jane Doe of which only the head was recovered, has the following details:

• Estimated to be between 55 and 70 years old
• CORROBORATES Mae W. Gebhard, who was 65 years old when she disappeared
• Estimated year of death 1981
• CORROBORATES the year that Mae. W. Gebhard disappeared
• Remains found March 2nd, 1981
• CORROBORATES the time frame -- the decedent was found after Mae Gebhard disappeared
• Remains were found at a part of the Shoreline landfill garbage dumping area among refuse that appeared to be from the San Francisco County area
• CORROBORATES -- Mae Gebhard went missing from San Francisco and there is a suggestion that the Jane Doe may have come from there
• Gray or partially gray hair that was medium length
• CORROBORATES -- hair length of Mae Gebhard is thought to be medium and gray/partially gray

The Jane Doe may have been dead for two weeks. It's here that someone might point out a discrepancy. However, decomposition rates vary with the temperature of the environment one major factor. Estimates of a date of death are nowhere near foolproof. I'm thinking that her remains being in a landfill site would serve to make her environment hotter.

Comparing Mae W. Gebhard and Jane Doe: Key Similarities

Characteristic	Mae W. Gebhard (NamUs #MP17556)	Jane Doe (NamUs #UP77595)	Match?
Age	65 years old	Estimated 55–70 years old	Yes
Date	Last seen Feb 24, 1981	Found Mar 2, 1981; Est. death 1981	Yes
Location	Missing from San Francisco, CA	Found in landfill with San Francisco refuse	Yes
Hair	Gray/partially gray, short to medium	Gray/partially gray, medium length	Yes
Height/Weight	5'3", 100–104 lbs	Not available (head only)	N/A

Artificial Intelligence Weighs on the Chances of the Match

Given these striking similarities, the likelihood of Mae W. Gebhard and this Jane Doe being the same person appears significant. Grok, an AI developed by xAI, analyzed the details presented here and estimated a 70–80% chance of a match, citing the alignment in age, hair, location, and timing, tempered only by the uncertain decomposition timeline. This percentage could change with more information being factored in. 

Without forensic confirmation like DNA, it’s not definitive, but the overlap is compelling enough to warrant serious investigation, according to AI. This is one of those cases where the match seems so plausible that if they are not one and the same, then they need to be listed as rule-outs of one another. Without that, I think that amateur investigators will continue to associate the cases.

Kelly Disney - NamUs MP # 39274

By: Shane Lambert

Kelly Lynn Disney (b. January 16th, 1967), last seen on March 9th 1984 at about 1am, is only partly missing. If that sounds strange then that's the nature of missing-person's commentary sometimes.

Her head was found in 1994 while the remainder of her body remains missing as of 2017. There are certainly more puzzling mysteries out there regarding missing people as it is clear that this missing person was murdered. Perhaps that's the reason she was only added to NamUs on July 27th, 2017 which is a very long gap for an attractive high-school student.

Adelle Altizer article with Disney's description. March 1994. Statesman-Journal. The "Rivers" cited is police chief Jim Rivers. NamUs doesn't include her clothing.

Her NamUs report details the following: "Kelly Disney had an argument with her boyfriend the night of March 8, 1984. She had left the apartment they were living in at approximately 0100 on March 9, 1984 and was last seen walking east on Highway 20 in Newport, Oregon around the same time." March 8th was a Thursday and March 9th a Friday.

What that report doesn't say is that the last person to see her alive was an on-duty police officer. According to the Statesman-Journal (Monday, May 7th 1984/Adelle Altizer) she had an argument with her boyfriend and "About an hour later, a Lincoln County sheriff's deputy stopped her and talked to her while she walked eastward along Highway 20 about a mile east of Newport." 

The mother lamented that the police officer didn't give her a ride and, in that way, this case has a similarity to the more famous disappearance of Robin Graham. Graham bumped into vehicle trouble in California in 1970, a highway patrolman stopped to talk with her, and after he left her it seems someone paid her a harm as she's not been seen since.

The boyfriend in this case is perhaps very lucky that someone credible saw Disney after she parted with him that night. That she can be placed well away from him in a dangerous setting (roadside at 1am) would surely mitigate the suspicion of any involvement of his in her disappearance, especially after they were arguing.

Some oddities with this case:

• When her skull was found in 1994 police believed it was 'discovered' by the second person to discover it; they believed someone found it and then moved it to an obvious place to avoid being a suspect in the crime (in truth, people that find human remains do often have to be cleared of involvement). 
• NamUs claims: "Kelly's skull was found in 1994 in an abandoned car near Newport, Oregon. The remainder of her body has never been recovered."
• A skull that is found away from a body could be due to someone trying to remove the teeth from the body. DNA wasn't huge in 1984 and teeth and fingerprints were the main way of identifying human remains. The murderer, in moving the skull, may have been trying to remove the teeth from the body to prevent identification. 
• Conversely, an animal may have moved the skull and that would suggest that the body is in fact in the area of the car.

Statesman Journal - August 3rd, 1994

• One aspect of this case that stinks rotten are reports that Disney was spotted at school the next morning after the patrolman saw her. I read one article that said several students and a teacher claimed to have seen her, which would make her official last-seen time several hours after 1am on March 9th, 1984. Why several people would claim to have seen her if they didn't is strange but that these reports were ultimately deemed incredulous is clear as per her official last-seen time from the patrolman. The early police bias in this case was that she was a runaway and I wouldn't be surprised if the investigators tried to tilt things that way.