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| INF070226/Hill, Erika 2007; Gary, Lake County | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jan 10 2009, 04:21 PM (756 Views) | |
| ELL | Jan 10 2009, 04:21 PM Post #1 |
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Unidentified Black/Possibly Biracial Female •Located on February 26, 2007 in Gary, Lake County, Indiana •Cause of Death: Asphyxia due to Suffocation •State of Remains: Burned •Formerly Hot Case 698 •Estimated age: Late teens - early 20's •Approximate Height and Weight: 5'4"-5'6"; 102 lbs. •Distinguishing Characteristics: Brown hair. Pierced ears; distinct scarring to her face, chest, abdomen, and back. •Fingerprints: Not available •Dentals: Records not available; decedent does have dental work. •DNA: Available The victim was found nude in an abandoned garage in Gary, Indiana on February 26, 2007. She had severe burns to her body, which appeared to be postmortem. Lake County Coroner's Office Investigator Erika Hanrahan 219-755-3265 Agency Case Number: 07-0171 NCMEC #: NCMU1107266 http://doenetwork.org/cases/176ufin.html |
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| ELL | Jan 10 2009, 04:24 PM Post #2 |
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http://z10.invisionfree.com/usedtobedoe/in...showtopic=41415 |
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| tatertot | Feb 10 2009, 09:43 AM Post #3 |
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http://www.nwi.com/articles/2009/02/10/new...5580080801e.txt Lake County coroner seeks to ID woman found in garage BY MARISA KWIATKOWSKI Tuesday, February 10, 2009 CROWN POINT | The Lake County coroner's office is seeking help to identify a woman whose body was badly burned and dumped in an abandoned garage in Gary two years ago. Her body was found Feb. 26, 2007, in the rear of a garage at 270 Polk St. The woman died of asphyxia from suffocation, said Erika Hanrahan, an investigator with the coroner's office. The woman was black, about 102 pounds, 5 feet 5 inches tall and was believed to have been in her late teens to early 20s, Hanrahan said. She also had two fillings on the right side of her mouth and distinguishable scarring to her body. There are no known tattoos, Hanrahan added. She was burned over various parts of her body, so the coroner's office was unable to identify her with fingerprints. The Center for Missing and Exploited Children created a composite drawing of what officials believe the victim may have looked like. Anyone with information is asked to call the Lake County coroner's office at (219) 755-3265. |
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| PorchlightUSA | Feb 12 2009, 05:05 AM Post #4 |
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reconstruction |
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| PorchlightUSA | Feb 12 2009, 05:07 AM Post #5 |
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Victim in 2-year-old case remains unidentified GARY — Almost two years have passed, and a young woman found dead in a garage here remains unidentified. “Jane Doe” died of suffocation, and had been set on fire before her killers left her in a vacant garage behind 270 Polk St. » Click to enlarge image Lake County Coroner David Pastrick is asking for the public's help in identifying Jane Doe, who was found dead in a Gary garage two years ago. (Photo provided) Men passing through the alley on Feb. 26, 2007, saw the garage door open and realized there was a body inside. Since police first responded to the scene, there has been little progress in the investigation because her identity is still unknown. “The first step in solving any crime is to identify the victim, then start retracing their last steps,” Lake County Coroner David J. Pastrick said. His office obtained help from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which developed a composite of the victim based on what they were able to determine from her remains. Deputy coroner Erika Hanrahan said the victim’s age is between the late teens and early 20s, she was about 5 feet 5 inches tall and weighed about 102 pounds. She had two dental fillings on the right side of her mouth and “distinguishable scarring” to her body, but no known tattoos. Anyone with information about the woman’s identity can call the coroner at 755-3265. “We’re looking for the public’s help in this. Someone must know this young woman,” Pastrick said. http://www.post-trib.com/news/1423016,jane...ry-0210.article |
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| PorchlightUSA | Jan 6 2011, 02:57 PM Post #6 |
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still listed |
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| PorchlightUSA | Jul 17 2011, 09:08 PM Post #7 |
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http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/ser...earchLang=en_US JANE DOE2007 Case Type: Unidentified DOB: Sex: Female Found: Feb 26, 2007 Race: Black Age Now: 22 Height: 5'4" (163 cm) Missing City: GARY Weight: 102 lbs (46 kg) Missing State : IN Hair Color: Black Missing Country: United States Eye Color: Unknown Case Number: NCMU1107266 Circumstances: On February 26, 2007, an unidentified deceased female was found in an abandoned garage in Gary, Indiana. The decedent was a black female believed to be in her late teens or early twenties. The height and weight listed above are approximations. The image at left is a composite created by a forensic artist at the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children to depict what the decedent may have looked like in life. Some items, such as eye color and hair style, are the artist’s estimations to complete the image and should not be used as significant markers for identification. |
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| tatertot | Jul 22 2014, 08:34 AM Post #8 |
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http://abc7chicago.com/news/jane-gary-doe-...ld-case/154419/ 'Jane Gary Doe' images released in Gary cold case New pictures in unidentified body case The beaten, strangled and burned body of a woman found in a Gary, Ind., garage seven years ago has yet to be identified. WLS By Paul Meincke Thursday, July 03, 2014 GARY, Ind. (WLS) -- The beaten, strangled and burned body of a woman found in a Gary, Ind., garage seven years ago has yet to be identified. On Thursday, the Lake County, Indiana, Coroner's Office released new forensic artwork it hopes will help solve the mystery of who the woman known as "Jane Gary Doe" is. She was 5'4" with a petite build and wore her hair in cornrows. Jane Gary Doe was in her teens or early 20s when she was killed. For a time, her body was kept at the Lake County Morgue, but has since been buried. "There's somebody out there looking for a loved one, a young woman approximately 16 to 20 years of age, and I hope to have closure for that family," Lake County Coroner Merrilee Frey said. In renewing the effort to identify Jane Gary Doe, the coroner's office sent autopsy pictures to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in Virginia. "We try to pick out the best photographs that would give us an idea or indication as to the facial features," Stephen Loftin, forensic imaging artist, said. The gruesome autopsy photos showed a badly disfigured face- beaten and burned. Starting with a sketch, Loftin used Photoshop to layer a likeness. "I righted the face as best I could and I started adding facial features," he said. Next came the fine points- eyebrows and forehead scarring unrelated to the attack that led to her death. "I put the final image in the best perspective I thought would be best for viewing," Loftin said. The coroner's office already has Jane Gary Doe's DNA and dental records. Now they're hoping the work by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children may lead them to a name. "They're very good at what they do, and hopefully with this description we have , someone will look at this picture and say hey, this is my loved one," Chief George Deliopoulos, Lake County Coroner's Office, said. Other law enforcement agencies have inquired about the case, some of which have possibilities. However, officials said there's nothing firm yet. When Lake County Coroner Frey took office a couple of years ago, clearing up cases involving unidentified bodies became a priority. There were five unidentified bodies then and Jane Gary Does is the last. |
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| tatertot | Sep 16 2015, 09:17 AM Post #9 |
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May Erika Rest in Peace. ![]() http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/cri...eac70f5f60.html Jane Doe in Indiana becomes Fitchburg homicide; woman charged in 2007 death ED TRELEVEN Sep 15, 2015 Erika Antoinette Hill was 15 years old when she disappeared in 2007 from the home in Fitchburg where had she lived with her cousins and adoptive mother. The same year, the unidentified body of a young African-American woman was found in a garage in Gary, Indiana. For years, she remained the “Lake County Jane Doe.” The two mysteries, seemingly far apart from one another, became linked this summer, when Erika’s cousin, for years keeping a terrible secret, contacted police in Gary and said she knew the identity of Jane Doe, because she had helped put Erika’s body in that garage, according to a criminal complaint filed in Dane County Circuit Court. The person alleged to have ordered the woman and her siblings to move Erika’s body was her mother, Taylin M. Hill, 50, of Madison, who on Monday was charged with first-degree reckless homicide for Erika’s death. Hill also faces six counts of child abuse. Hill, a Madison School District substitute special education assistant, was arrested on Thursday. She appeared in court Monday wearing suicide prevention clothing and was jailed on $500,000 bail. She will appear in court for a preliminary hearing next week. Fitchburg police Lt. Todd Stetzer said it was unexpected when the case was brought to them by Gary police. “It was a surprise, when a crime was committed that we didn’t know about,” said Stetzer. “It’s shocking that it went on so long before it came out.” He called it a “very sad and disturbing case, not only for the victim but for the other children involved in the abuse.” Disturbing, he said, not only because of the abuse and Erika’s death, but because Fitchburg police were never contacted by anyone asking them to see if they could find Erika. A discovery, a secret The 20-page criminal complaint details Erika’s death and steps allegedly taken to dispose of her body, and of the threat that Hill’s daughter said Hill issued to keep her children from telling anyone what had happened to Erika. According to the complaint: On Feb. 26, 2007, two brothers driving through an alley in Gary noticed what appeared to be two burned legs inside a garage. Finding a body, they called police. The coroner found burns all over the body, but no sign of scorching in the garage. More than 170 healing injuries and scars were on the body. The cause of death, though, was suffocation due to a cloth stuffed into the unidentified person’s mouth. There were also blunt force injuries and stab wounds. Her teeth had also been broken. On Aug. 7, 2015, Gary police Detective Lorenzo Davis Jr. was contacted by Hill’s 25-year-old daughter, identified in the complaint only by initials. She said she was 17 when her mother had murdered Erika, and that she and two of her siblings had helped her take the body first to the Chicago area, and then to Gary, to dispose of it. The woman told police that, in part prompted by discussions with a therapist about Erika, she had looked up missing persons cases in Indiana and said Erika looked like the person depicted in one of the cases she found. She told police that Hill had adopted Erika after Erika’s great aunt, who had been caring for her, died in 2001 in Joliet, Illinois. Hill is a cousin of Erika’s birth mother. The woman took Gary police to the garage where she said she and her siblings, under Hill’s orders, had taken Erika’s body. Although she said she hadn’t been back to the garage since then, and didn’t know Gary at all, police told her she had taken them to the right place. She said that in February 2007, she and her two siblings lived on Red Arrow Trail in Fitchburg, along with her cousin, Erika. Hill, she said, was very physically abusive to all of the children, but especially to Erika, who seemingly “could do no right.” The children were all removed from school at times to hide the scars of their abuse, she said. There was even an episode in which her mother had taken Erika to urgent care after striking her hand with a hammer but took her home after urgent care staff had asked that Erika change into an examination gown. By February 2007, she said, Erika had been beaten and starved so much that she appeared “gray.” The night Erika died, Hill’s daughter said, Hill had pulled the woman and her sister away from their jobs at Culver’s because of a family emergency. Hill told her daughter to go into the bathroom, but didn’t say why. When she went in, she found Erika on the floor, unresponsive and cold. She confronted her mother, asking, “What did you do to her?” Erika’s body was left in the bathroom overnight, and the next day her mother made the woman and her two siblings carry Erika’s body downstairs and set her atop a chest freezer. She said her mother pulled some of Erika’s teeth to help conceal her identity. A couple of days later, Hill had her children put Erika’s body into the family van, then drove to Chicago, driving around for a few hours to find a suitable place to put her body. She put it under an overpass, lit it on fire and they returned to Madison. Later, the woman said, her mother expressed concern about an elderly person finding the body and having a heart attack, so they went back to Chicago, found it where they had left it and took it to Gary. The woman said she and her siblings complied with their mother out of fear. She said they were told that if they told anyone, they would be next. They were also instructed to tell anyone who asked about Erika that she had returned to Joliet to be with family. The woman said she told an ex-boyfriend about her cousin at one time, but she didn’t think he believed her. She had also told another cousin through Facebook, and that cousin was checking on Erika’s whereabouts. After Erika’s death, she said, her mother became somewhat less abusive toward her and her siblings, using her hands instead of objects to strike them. Story checks out She said she never talked with her mother about Erika, but in May 2015 began looking into whether Erika’s body had ever been found. When she found the listing of the Jane Doe in Gary, she said, she called police there and eventually reached Davis. Fitchburg police checked school and medical records to see whether they matched the woman’s story. They found that Erika had been withdrawn from Wright Middle School in October 2004 and never went back to school. Hill told the district that Erika had moved to another state, but no other school had contacted the district about Erika enrolling elsewhere. They also found a record from Dean Urgent Care corroborating Erika’s untreated hand injury in 2004. Dane County Human Services staff also investigated after school staff asked Erika about scars and scratches on her body, but they were unable to contact Hill and concluded she had left town. Hill worked as a special education assistant or substitute assistant in the Madison School District from 1998 until taking a leave of absence in October 2004. Her employment officially ended in 2006 when she didn’t return from leave. But according to district records, she came back to work as a substitute special education assistant in December 2013, and still held that job until her arrest on Thursday. District spokeswoman Rachel Strauch-Nelson said that Hill has been placed on leave pending the outcome of the case against her. |
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May Erika Rest in Peace. 
3:50 AM Jul 11