As I was perusing Websleuths for updates, I saw that there were recent posts on Jean's thread (http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18097&page=3). Curious, I clicked on it, and I was in for a bit of a shock: The second to the last post mentioned about Jean now being "at peace" and being able to come home. At peace? That is usually used when people are dead! I scrolled up a little more and saw that yesterday someone posted that he/she had heard from Jean's foster sister that an unidentified body found in Florida in 1981 has been identified as Jean's.
So, is it true? Well, a Google news search on her name did not bring up anything, and searching just "jean stewart" only brought up other people with the same name. So I searched on regular Google. One thing I found was that she had been removed from the website of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, so that could have been significant.
Finally, I found it! I saw that she had been removed from the missing females list on pennsylvaniamissing.com, and finally I found her at the bottom of their "In Memory Page" (http://www.pennsylvaniamissing.com/homepage/inmemory.html):
Jean Marie Stewart - 16, a Pittsburgh native, disappeared from Miami Lakes, Dade
City, FL on March 25, 1980. Her remains were located in a remote field at
6001 West 28 Avenue, in Hialeah, FL on April 20, 1981 but she was not identified
until December 2007.
An update was also posted at the North American Center for Unidentified Persons & Unsolved Crimes (http://missingme.2007.angelfire.com/stewart_jean.html):
Update
On April 20th, 1981, Jean Marie Stewart's body was found in a field
off West 28th Avenue, in Hialeah, Dade County, Florida, a remote area not far
from where she disappeared. She remained unidentified until December 2007, when
a volunteer for the website Porchlight International made the match and
submitted it to law enforcement. Dade County officials have confirmed the match
through dental records.
No cause of death has yet been released, and the
investigation is ongoing.
A Porchlight thread on the identification: http://z10.invisionfree.com/usedtobedoe/ar/t26306.htm (A little more digging led me to something else I probably heard but forgot: Porchlight was actually started by Jean's foster sister!)
4 comments:
I can confirm that Jean Marie has been found and identified. My long quest to find her is finally at an end, although I will always continue this work to find all the lost souls. Jean has always been much beloved and much missed, but at least now we know she is at peace. There is an odd symmetry to the fact that this is Porchlight's first official solve (by Ellen Leach) and I founded Porchlight in Jean's honor. This way, although Jean's life was tragically short, Jean will continue to make a difference. Many thanks for all you do here...
Ann Rule is interested in this case. She is the best when it comes to True Crime, especially when a woman is killed. Also, the dectective from Pennsylvania who is one of the world's leading forensic detectives who specializes in old cases is working on it. Jean Marie's killer will be found! At long last.
Isn't Lauran's own brother the main suspect in Jean Marie's murder?
Any updates on this case? Has the boyfriend/step brother been arrested?
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