National searches aside, the detectives still suspect she's local.
"I'll be very surprised if she is not from the Baltimore area," Gajda said. No belongings were found near her, leading the investigators to guess that she wasn't homeless.
(Page 2 of 2)
A number, no name, for unidentified Anne Arundel body
Police trying to identify woman found in park in 2005
"My thoughts are, and I have nothing to prove it, she may have been a prostitute to support a drug habit in the Pennington Avenue-Curtis Bay area," Gajda said.
Drug paraphernalia near the body has led police to suspect she may have used heroin and may have died of an overdose.
Police describe her as a white woman with wavy reddish-brown hair long enough to cover her ears. In January, the medical examiner's office expanded the ranges for age, height and weight from the early parameters. She is believed to have been 15 to 30 years old, between 5 feet and 5 feet 8 inches tall, and weighed between 100 and 140 lbs.
She was dead a month or so when, just before 3 p.m. on July 27, 2005, children at the basketball court at a park at Cross Street and Wasena Avenue spotted a bedspread with a leg poking out by a wooded path. The path runs from Kansas Court in the city, through the trees and into the park in the county. They ran for an adult, who called police.
Scuffed and well-worn white K-Swiss athletic shoes, size 91/2, were found nearby. The shoes have metal hooks instead of grommets and an adhesive bandage is on the back of one.
"I'm wondering if the shoes fit her," Gajda said.
She was wearing dark blue jeans, size 9, with a red Paris Blues label and glass studs on the back, and a red tank top, and had a black hair scrunchy. A Coast black fanny pack with green trim held cosmetics.
The detectives hope to use all of this information to revive the case from its "cold" designation. A case is considered cold after investigators hit a wall and have run out of leads.
The police department restarted its cold-case homicide unit about two years ago with the two veteran detectives and a civilian investigator. Since then, they've reviewed open cases, contacted families, re-interviewed people, presented cases at law enforcement meetings and resubmitted evidence to take advantage of scientific and technological advances.
And they've solved two cases. In one, they put a name to the unidentified remains of a man found in 1985 in Severn Danza Park. He was identified through updated fingerprint databases as Curtis Jones, a convicted offender. The cause of death was undetermined and he had not been reported missing.
Late last year, Gajda wrapped up work on the 2006 killing of dentist Albert Woonho Ro — two people are now awaiting trial — while Seegers was immersed in another old homicide.
In their current investigation, Gajda explained, "I noticed this file and I said, 'You know, with just a few hours' work, we can do something' about this unidentified woman. " 'With not a whole lot of resources, we can get this case moved forward.'"
Anne Arundel police ask that anyone who may have information on this woman call 410-222-3460.
Online resources on missing persons
•Namus.gov is a national database of missing people and unidentified remains.
•Marylandmissing.com is a privately maintained site of missing people and nameless remains.
Featured Articles
MORE:
|
|
|
Please note the green-lined linked article text has been applied commercially without any involvement from our newsroom editors, reporters or any other editorial staff.
