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.

Larry Bennett -- Missing from Manitoba Since 1981

Details from NamUs**: "On September 25, 1981 at approximately 7:30 p.m., Lawrence (Larry) Bennett left Princess Harbour, Manitoba in his boat heading for Matheson Island. He left with his sheepdog, and the trip should have taken 20-25 minutes. When he left he was traveling straight into the wind, and the water was reported as being rough. Mr. Bennett never arrived at Matheson Island. Mr. Bennett is presumed to have drowned, his remains have never been recovered."

Missing Person: Larry Geroge Bennett
Last-contact date: September 25th, 1981
The area where the MP was last seen: Princess Harbour, Manitoba
Link to government source: Canada's Missing 2013000102 

VITAL DETAILS

Ethnicity: White
Sex: Male
Age at time of disappearance: 25 years old
Birthdate: Born in 1956 so range would be January 1st, 1956 to September 25th, 1956
Hair: Black, had a beard
Eyes: Brown
Scars: No, but numerous tattoos on the right arm
Height/weight: 6-foot-1 and 225 pounds
BMI*: The missing person was overweight by BMI at the time of the last contact.

Larry Bennett has not been seen since September 25th, 1981 when he was 25 years old. This isn't a mysterious case from some points of view. It appears as though he drowned in what would be Lake Winnipeg.

One question I had when I read the report is regarding what happened to his sheepdog. Dogs are not poor swimmers so I wondered if the dog might have survived a mishap, even if Larry Bennett drowned. However, I didn't find any news coverage for this missing person case.

Lake Winnipeg is a very large lake that is a major part of the waterways in Canada. The lake is the watershed for a lot of the prairie areas east of the Canadian Rockies and the waters of Lake Winnipeg itself head further east.

When someone drowns in a lake what is expected is the following process:

1. They sink as their body fills with water.
2. After they die, there are organisms in the body that remain alive. These organisms produce gases.
3. When these gases fill the dead body, there is increased potential for it to rise to the surface of the lake.
4. The body will eventually sink again as the gases inside are released.

What happens after a body sinks for a second time is anyone's guess. It would have a lot to do with average forces in the microregion of the lake, like the average flow rate. I think it's possible for someone's skeletal remains to stay at the bottom of the lake for ages, especially in Canada where lakes freeze over. That said, if you learn of any John Does in the larger region around Matheson Island and Princess Harbour, then think of Larry.

If you know where this person might be or have any information on this case, then please contact the authorities. In Canada, look for Canada's Missing website. Conversely, you can post a remark to this article.

Author: Shane Lambert

All articles are subject to editing after the original posting.

Shane Lambert is not a Private Investigator, however, he is currently studying to be one as of February 2021.

Website hashtag: #MPCSL

*For BMI values, I use the UPPER or HIGHER ranges that are given for height and weight.
**Text might be paraphrased. If taken verbatim, then grammar or spelling errors are not necessarily corrected from original sources.
Disclaimer: Information posted is thought to be correct as of the time posting.

The Rahway Jane Doe from March 25, 1887 (New Jersey)

By: Shane Lambert

Original time of writing: February 6th, 2017
Updated: February 16th, 2021

The Rahway Jane Doe is an individual who was murdered in the town of Rahway, New Jersey, on March 25th, 1887. The mystery of the murder victim's identity stands out because, at the original time of writing back in 2017, it was the oldest unsolved mystery listed at DoeNetwork.org.

I researched this mystery using online newspaper databases for a good two hours on February 5th, 2017. At the time, I thought that there was very little chance of conclusively solving this mystery, even with modern technology that wasn't available in 1887 (online newspaper databases). The "clews" in this case (that's the 1887 spelling of "clues") are 99% red herrings if you ask me. Perhaps the best chance of identifying her is through DNA and the family-tree method.

Note: I think I generated a lead for investigation with a second look at this topic in 2021. Please visit my other article, suggesting that she might be a missing person named Annie Primroe, last seen in 1887.

Why Investigate the Rahway County Jane Doe Case?

If you are interested in this case, then it's not so much about justice or helping surviving relatives learn where a loved one went, is it? After all, the perpetrator can only be dead at this point and the same could be true of any kid sibling the victim may have had, right?

The matter is a curiosity for many and, for me, a matter of testing out online newspaper databases as a modern technology for finding "clews" in historical crimes. In this case, I wanted to see if anyone nationwide in the United States searched for a missing woman in the years that followed 1887 who was last known to be heading to New Jersey, something that might be revealed in archived newspapers, including in classified advertisements and/or in news pieces.

It may prove a viable way of looking into solving this murder or other murders, or at least generating a lead. In fact, I successfully used this method in the Saskatoon case of the Lady in the Well and managed to generate a tip for the police. But on the night that I devoted to the matter of the Rahway County Jane Doe, I certainly failed. Yet, that doesn't mean I didn't find out a lot of details involving this case.

Discovery by Four Brothers and a Dog’s Role

Four brothers named Frank, Irving, Thomas, and Alfred Worth found the mystery woman dead at 6:30am on Saturday, March 26th, 1887. She may have been a rail passenger the night before, as a woman like her got off the train at about 10pm on the 25th.

According to one J.H. Brunt, an individual who lived near where the deceased was found, his dog named Pete, was behaving strangely between 11pm and midnight on the 25th. Reportedly, his dog would bark to try and get the owner's attention and then run in the direction of where the body was eventually found the next morning. If we draw an inference from this behaviour, then the woman was murdered in the very late hours of the 25th, and perhaps the dog was aware of the commotion or heard her calls for help.

Incidentally, that description of how Pete acted reminded me of dog behavior associated with another unidentified person's case (NamUs UP 7582). I think dogs know when someone is in trouble, and they instinctively try to summon attention from nearby humanoids (see the relevant excerpt from the article immediately below).

Boston Daily GlobeThursday, March 31, 1887, Boston, Massachusetts

Loads of names are associated with this case, but whether they should be is a legitimate question. It stands to reason that only one of them could shed light on the woman's identity, unless she had some aliases.

The woman's throat was slashed, and she was probably robbed (one article I read said one of her pockets had been inspected by a bloody hand). She had no money when found, but the rings that were on her fingers weren't taken. That could be taken as evidence that robbery wasn't the motive. However, it could also be taken to mean it was just a bad and rushed plan.

Whoever killed her may have been a destitute opportunist who only happened upon her by chance. He may have made a haphazard decision to murder her and simply didn't do a complete robbery in panic. If Pete was barking in the distance, this could have scared the fellow into not doing a thorough job, especially if the woman was able to let out a scream.

But one "clew" in this case is that the woman's pocket was inspected with a bloody hand. Knife-wielding criminals often cut themselves when they stab or slash. That can be due to the momentum of the knife coming to a stop when it strikes someone, while the momentum of the hand that holds the knife continues to travel up the blade. Many knife-wielders have been identified or cast into suspicion because of wounds to their hands. The man who looked in the Jane Doe's pockets with bloody hands might have cut himself.

Handkerchief Clue in the Rahway Jane Doe Mystery

Blood was found smeared on a railing 600 yards from the victim after she was found. Near this point, a handkerchief was found with a name that resembled K.M. Noorz, writing that could not be made out clearly. A rubber stamp of some sort was also found with the name Timothy Byrne in the print.

Identifying blood, like the smear on the rail, in 1887 wasn't like it is in modern times. Something 600 yards away from ground zero (think 6 American football fields) cannot be tied to an event conclusively without a serologist. I found nothing on this matter that satisfactorily answered how the secondary scene could be tied to the first with certainty.

"Noorz," which was on the handkerchief, has been suggested to be a Danish name of "Noorse." Other victim names associated with this case are "Mary Cregan," "Mary Craney," "Mary Malthey" (or Maithey), "Kate Jennie Neary," "Mina Noorse," and "Kate M. Noony." None of the names were fruitful for me in terms of finding them in the newspaper databases I searched in hopes of finding missing people with those names. A 'eureka' moment would be if an article appeared anytime and anywhere in the world of newspapers after March 25th, 1887 about a mother, father, or brother looking for a "Kate M. Noony," for example, but no such moment happened in this case.

Did the Reward Lead to False Tips?

The authorities offered a $500 reward, part for finding the murderer and part for finding the woman's name, to anyone who provided a good lead. I actually wonder if the 'leads' and 'tips' in this case are run amok because of the reward. That is, were all the attempts to name her just attempts to make some money? That is a sad thought to think that people would falsely name a dead woman just to try to make money without due concern for justice and preventing the murderer from claiming more victims. However, that seemed to be the case based on how many people tried to name her.

For instance, one postal clerk claimed that he knew of a Timothy Byrne in the company of the so-called Kate M. Noony. The clerk claimed she received general delivery mail at the clerk's place of employment. Seems to me that would be a fantastic lead if true. Seems to me that her mail would keep coming from people far away that would not have known of her death. I wondered if the clerk just got the names from the newspapers, which covered this murder from coast to coast, and then just tried his luck at making a buck with his tip.

July 15th, 1887 - Lebanon Daily News (click to make bigger)

Rahway Jane Doe: Not a Prostitute

Something to note is that in my research I found a report that claimed that the Mayor of Rahway, one Mayor Daly, claimed that the "medical examination" of this Jane Doe "proved beyond all doubt" that she had "never been married." I'm taking that to mean that they inspected her vagina and figured she was a virgin.

The deceased was buried in a grave that called her "An Unknown Woman" according to the picture at DoeNetwork. I read one article that grotesquely misquoted what was actually written on her grave. Furthermore, her grave is actually wrong in reporting that she was found dead on March 25th, which was the day she was murdered according to Pete the dog (she was found the next day).

Apparently, she was buried far away from the deceased snooties of 1887 Rahway out of fear that she wasn't a decent enough woman to merit burial near them. As a late-night murder victim, she was believed to be a possible prostitute. Her virginity, however, attests to the fact that she wasn't one.

Lastly, I found an interesting article somewhere that said there was a picture of her post-mortem in the March 30th, 1887 edition of "New York World." If anyone has access to that I would be interested in the picture. Lastly, please make one comment just so I know someone is out there that also bothers with 130-year-old Jane-Doe mysteries.

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