State Police Following New Leads in Old Case

By FRED CONNORS
The West Virginia State Police is intensifying its efforts to learn the identity of an apparent homicide victim whose body was dumped 25 years ago along U.S. 250 in Wetzel County near Littleton.

Cpl. William Henderson of the Hundred State Police detachment said a March 23 story in the Sunday News-Register sparked new leads for authorities to investigate.

“Among other things, we are looking at the possibility she may have been a prostitute from the Pittsburgh area,” she said.

Henderson, who has been investigating the case for the past several months, said he is determined to identify the woman.

“I have 15 years before I retire, and I am confident I will find out who she is,” he said.

The body was found Feb. 13, 1983, lying face down in the snow along U.S. 250 — 1 mile north of Littleton — near the Marshall County line. It was held at State Medical Examiner James Frost’s office in Morgantown for 10 years as the investigation grew cold.

A Feb. 13, 1993, News-Register report said during the 10-year investigation, law enforcement authorities and staff members at the medical examiner’s office developed a protective relationship with the dead woman.

They named her “Judy” because one of Frost’s employees said she “looked like a Judy.”

The 1993 story said Frost determined it was time for the body to buried, but Monongalia County authorities could not accommodate the burial. As a result, the body was returned to Wetzel County.

In response to that story, John and Naomi Beaty of New Martinsville decided to adopt the body and bury it in their family plot at Paden Memorial Gardens in Paden City. They arranged for a proper funeral and have continued to care for the grave site.

Naomi Beaty said she and her husband are growing older and would like the body identified.

“She is like a child of ours,” Beaty said. “All we want to do is meet her biological family and let them know Judy had a respectable funeral. There has to be someone who knows who she is.”

Sgt. Danny Swiger, the State Police cold case investigator, also has worked the case. He, too, is determined to find the woman’s identity.

“Hopefully, we can get a DNA profile from tissue taken at the autopsy,” he said. “As a last resort, we could exhume the body and try to extract DNA from a bone fragment.”

Swiger said once the profile is complete, it will be sent to CODIS, the FBI’s national DNA database.

The presence of a cesarean section scar indicates the woman had at least one child, and Swiger hopes DNA could connect the deceased woman with any person to whom she may have given birth.

Swiger said the woman had been dead for two days, but she was dropped off only a few hours before being found.

He said snow had fallen over the three previous days, but there was no snow on top of the body. He also said there were fresh tracks and footprints near the body.

He said the victim was between 35 and 40 years of age and had auburn-colored hair.

She had double-pierced ears, which was unusual in 1983. She wore orange toenail polish, had a scar on one of her index fingers, a cesarean section scar and a full upper denture plate.

He said her eye color could not be determined because of the way blood had settled in her face as she lay face down in the snow.

At the time of the discovery, a West Virginia State Police trooper said they were looking for a white male in his 40s in connection with the case.

He described the man as weighing between 185 and 200 pounds and standing about 5 feet, 10 inches tall. The man was apparently spotted in the area where Judy’s body was found.

The trooper also said investigators were looking for a pick-up truck, but there were two different descriptions of its color.