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Ohio Nov 2006 Female; OH: elderly womans body found in river
Topic Started: Nov 29 2006, 09:52 PM (2,475 Views)
Ell
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Elderly Woman's Body Found In Ohio River

LAST UPDATE: 11/29/2006 6:36:48 PM

Video


Police are trying to identify an elderly woman found floating in the Ohio River Wednesday afternoon. Police were called to Three Rivers Parkway after a worker at Consolidated Grain noticed the body in the river around 1:00 pm.

Workers from the Coroner's Office retrieved the body around 3:00 pm and will try to determine a cause of death.

The body is described as a white elderly woman, wearing a black skirt, black blouse, white or gray "Easy Spirit" tennis shoes, one strand of white pearls or beads, one strand of black pearls or beads which are separated by smaller gold beads.

If you can help police identify the woman, call CrimeStoppers at 352-3040.
http://www.wkrc.com/News/Local/story.aspx?...F5-D32C60910167
Ell

Only after the last tree has been
cut down;
Only after the last fish has been
caught;
Only after the last river has been
poisoned;
Only then will you realize
that money cannot be eaten.
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Ell
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Information Released But Questions Remain Days After Woman's Body Found In River

Dec 4, 2006 03:09 PM CST


Hamilton County Coroner O'dell Owens said no one has come forward to claim the body of a woman found floating in the river.


The question remains several days after a woman's body is found floating in the Ohio river, "who is she?"

Hamilton County Coroner O'dell Owens released his findings today in a press conference and is still asking that question.

Owens said that no one has identified the woman saying, "it's sad that no one has come forward, this woman had a family."

The coroner said that two factors could contribute to the fact that the 60-70 year old woman hasn't been identified. One could be that the woman could have been homeless or the woman could have had a history of mental illness that could have separated her from her family.

He has even gone so far as to break his normal operating procedure and release a picture of the face of the deceased woman. It is available by clicking on the link (NOTE: The image might be disturbing to some.)

Owens thinks that the woman did not drown but she suffered impact injuries that are consistent with hitting the water at a high rate of speed. All of the woman's ribs were broken as were other bones. Further study is planned to see if her neck was broken upon impact with the water.

Owens said that the woman possibly jumped from a bridge but did not write off the possibility that the 5'2", 130 to 140 pound woman might have been pushed. The later conclusion would make the city's homicide rate 80, closer to a record.

The woman, according to Owens, showed no signs of scarring which meant she never had surgery and had just one filling. Owens also said that he couldn't tell whether she had been through childbirth or not. Saying that the woman's uterus was too damaged by water and too small to tell.

The coroner released several pictures of items that the woman was wearing at the time of her death. The woman was wearing a strand of white pearls and a strand of black pearls. Both were clasped by a small gold chain. The woman also was found wearing white or gray "EasySpirit" gym shoes. Owens thought she had only been in the water for a couple of days before being found by workers at a Northbend company.

The coroner lists the woman as:

Elderly white female 60-70 years old
Blonde or gray short hair
No scars, no surgery
No dentures and just one filling
5'2" tall, 130-140 pounds
If you have any information that might help the coroner identify this woman call the Hamilton County Coroner at (513)946-8700.

Report: FOX19 News
http://www.fox19.com/Global/story.asp?S=5766551&nav=0zHF

Necklace:
Ell

Only after the last tree has been
cut down;
Only after the last fish has been
caught;
Only after the last river has been
poisoned;
Only then will you realize
that money cannot be eaten.
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Ell
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Shoes:
Ell

Only after the last tree has been
cut down;
Only after the last fish has been
caught;
Only after the last river has been
poisoned;
Only then will you realize
that money cannot be eaten.
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Ell
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Post Mortem:

Ell

Only after the last tree has been
cut down;
Only after the last fish has been
caught;
Only after the last river has been
poisoned;
Only then will you realize
that money cannot be eaten.
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Ell
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WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES FROM CORONER'S OFFICE
Coroner, Sheriff's Department Again Asking For Help To I.D. Woman's Body

Feb 23, 2007 04:24 PM CST

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Image 1
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After exhausting every avenue possible, the Hamilton County Sheriff's Department and the county coroner have asked Tri-State residents for more help in identifying a woman found in the Ohio River.

Workers at the Consolidated Grain Company in North Bend found the woman's body floating in the river in November. Since then officials say that no one has come forward to identify the remains of the woman who is said to be around 60 years old.

Hamilton County Coroner Dr. Odell Owens had earlier said that it was sad that no one had come forward to identify the woman.

When she was found, the woman was wearing a black blouse and black and white strings of beads bound together by a small gold chain. She was also wearing easy spirit walking shoes.

In December, Owens released a picture of the woman's face. He said that her injuries were consistent with someone being pushed or jumping from a bridge.

Although not normal practice for the Sheriff's Department and the Coroner, the agencies have release additional pictures of the woman's body on the day that she was found.

-WE WANT TO WARN YOU THAT THESE IMAGES ARE DISTURBING IN NATURE-

If you have any information that might help police or the coroner identify this woman's body call CrimeStoppers at 352-3040 or call the Hamilton County Sheriff's Department at 825-1500.

Report: FOX19 News
Ell

Only after the last tree has been
cut down;
Only after the last fish has been
caught;
Only after the last river has been
poisoned;
Only then will you realize
that money cannot be eaten.
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Ell
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another pic:

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Ell

Only after the last tree has been
cut down;
Only after the last fish has been
caught;
Only after the last river has been
poisoned;
Only then will you realize
that money cannot be eaten.
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Anonymous in the morgue
Many die alone, unknown, unclaimed
BY DAN HORN | DHORN@ENQUIRER.COM
E-mail | Print | digg us! | del.icio.us!


She rests on a stainless-steel cart in a freezer at the Hamilton County coroner's office.

A black plastic bag encases her body and a fan blowing cold air hums constantly above her. She once stood 5-feet, 4-inches tall and weighed 134 pounds, but the figure outlined beneath the plastic seems slighter.

She has a name, of course. Maybe a family. Maybe children.


But here in the dark and cold, she is identified only by two words scrawled on a white tag.

"Unknown (River)."

The woman, pulled from the Ohio River in November, is a rarity in Hamilton County. Her body is the first in at least a decade to remain unidentified for more than a few weeks.

It's as if her name and past were washed away by the same waters that carried her to a muddy riverbank in North Bend a week after Thanksgiving.

She is a mystery.

"I will not move this body," Coroner O'dell Owens said of the woman, who has been in the morgue's freezer for almost six months. "Keeping her here keeps us pressing. It's very important for us."

It's important because attaching a name to a body - to a person - is perhaps the coroner's most fundamental mission. His work usually focuses on determining the cause of death, but the cause matters little if the person's name is unknown.

Did a fall into the river kill her? Did she drown?

Only if the coroner can answer the biggest question of all: Who is she?

SEARCHING FOR CLUES

The "lady from the river," as she is known to some at the coroner's office, would not be so notable had she been found in a larger city.

Los Angeles, for example, brought a total of 32 unidentified bodies into its morgue in 2003 and 2004, the most recent years for which statistics are available. Many of the dead were transients or illegal immigrants found with no identification.

In Hamilton County, where the coroner handles about 3,400 bodies a year, only one other person in the past decade has gone unidentified for more than a month or so.

That case was solved after six weeks in 2005 when relatives in Mexico learned that the unidentified woman was wearing a gold necklace bearing the names of her two daughters, Sara and Sandra.

The woman, Dalila Chacon-Lazaro, had been stabbed to death and dumped in the Little Miami River. At the time, a sheriff's spokesman said, "We've never had a person go unidentified for this long."

That was true until the woman with the tag "Unknown (River)" arrived at the morgue in November.

"Hopefully, we can get her identified," said Nancy Woolum, the investigator who is handling the case for the coroner. "We'd like to get her some closure, get her a family, get her a decent burial."

The coroner's investigators began the search with the only clue they had to work with - the body itself.

"You try to have the body talk to you as much as possible," Owens said. "And the body will talk to you."

After an autopsy, the pathologist determined the woman was likely in her late 50s, 60s or early 70s. She had blonde or gray hair and curled toes, which indicated she had arthritis.

She suffered trauma consistent with a high fall into the water, most likely from a bridge.

She was wearing white Easy Spirit gym shoes, a black skirt and a black blouse. She also wore a string of white and black pearls or beads.

Her clothing and gym shoes suggested she might have had a job that kept her on her feet, maybe as a waitress.

At first, Woolum thought the distinctive necklace might lead to an identity, just as it did in the case of Chacon-Lazaro. She also was encouraged that the body had been in the water for only a few days.

"She was identifiable," Woolum said. "If we just had someone to look at a picture and say, 'Yeah, that's her.' It's just strange that no one knows her."

She's chased a few leads, but has come up empty each time. One person thought he recognized a photo shown on TV, but the woman he was looking for had had dental work that didn't match.

Others were too tall, too short or the wrong age.

"The lead has gone cold right now," Woolum said.

FAMILY TIES CAN FRAY

Learning the woman's name is just part of the coroner's job.

Finding relatives who are willing or able to take the body is often just as difficult.

Thirty-nine bodies went unclaimed in 2005 despite a positive identification by the coroner.

The coroner's goal is to match a body to a family whenever possible.

"It's the old golden rule," said Ed Deters, a coroner's investigator. "If it were your family, you'd want us to keep trying."

Often, relatives don't claim bodies because they don't know the person is dead. The deceased person may have been a drug addict, homeless or simply had lost touch with relatives.

Other families are so poor they can't afford a burial.

"Most families want to do the right thing," Owens said. "You just have a lot of families that have nothing."

The toughest cases involve families that simply refuse to claim a body.

That happened last year when relatives asked for a man's personal belongings but not for him.

Turns out, the man's belongings included a $100,000 settlement check from the estate of his mother. When he died, the check was on a table in front of him.

"They knew there was a check and they wanted it," Owens said. "It's just sad to me. If he had that kind of money, he should have had a first-class funeral."

Instead, the case ended up in probate court. It took the family eight weeks to claim the body.

CHASING A FICTIONAL FAMILY

One of the most unusual cases arose last year after Robert W. Christopher, an antiques dealer, died of a heart attack in Cincinnati at age 63.

Christopher had many friends and, it seemed, a fascinating life.

After his death Oct. 19, the coroner's staff struggled to find a relative.

Christopher had told friends his wealthy daughter was married to a Spanish count and that he flew last year to New York for his grandson's confirmation at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel.

Deters, who investigated the case, found no hotel receipts, no airline tickets, no phone numbers for a son or daughter and no evidence Christopher had a family.

Thanksgiving and Christmas came and went without a card arriving in the mail.

Christopher's house turned out to be rented. He had substantial debt, no electricity and no bank account.

"We concluded he created this fiction," Deters said. "We never found anyone."

In the end, like all bodies that go unclaimed, Christopher was declared an indigent and his body was returned to the municipality where he was found, in this case Cincinnati.

The city paid $750 to have him cremated and buried at the Baltimore Pike Cemetery. He is in Section 16, Grave 37C.

Steven Taggart, a city registrar, made the arrangements. He said indigent burials involve poor but self-sufficient people such as Christopher just as often as they involve a homeless person found on the street.

They are functioning members of society, but they are alone.

"There's just nothing for them," Taggart said. "Everyone is gone."

STILL LOOKING, HOPING

Owens and his staff hope the story of the woman in the river will end differently.

They are still handing out fliers bearing her picture and they plan to canvass neighborhoods near where she was found.

They will search the riverbank again, too. It's possible they missed something. A purse, a driver's license, a credit-card receipt.

She has a name.

If they can find it, maybe they can find family members, too. Maybe those relatives will be grateful to know what happened to their missing sister or mother or daughter.

Maybe they will come for her and give her a proper burial.

"If we can identify a family," Owens said, "they would have the opportunity to say goodbye."

http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a...030332/-1/CINCI
Ell

Only after the last tree has been
cut down;
Only after the last fish has been
caught;
Only after the last river has been
poisoned;
Only then will you realize
that money cannot be eaten.
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