Our focus this month will be on five women who lost their lives in September. These women are Tracy Lynn Allen, Sigrid M. Stevenson, Owachige Elice Osceola, Valerie Jeanne Percy, and Deborah Lynn Rosencrans. All were found murdered, all have vanished from the media spotlight, and all these cases remain unsolved.
Tracy Lynn Allen
Tracy (18) went missing Sept 9 and was found four days when a pilot saw buzzards on the morning of Sept 13, 1986 near Hondo Creek (Texas) behind the Allen Family ranch.
Tracy was found in a swamy creek dressed in a multicoloured plaid skirt. Her body had been in the water for days. She was identified by dental records.
The cause of death was strangulation. According to the papers, this was done with a part of her skirt. A few days after the autopsy, authorities announced they had no suspects.
At the time she disappeared, nothing was out-of-order in her room. All her personal belongings were in place. Nothing pointed to her running away or even that an attempt was made to pack a bag. Nobody was ever arrested for her murder.
Sigrid Stevenson
The murder of Sigrid M. Stevenson (Jan 24, 1952 – Sept 4, 1977) is known as the Kendall Hall Murder Mystery at Trenton State, NJ.
Sigrid was found dead shortly before midnight. A patrolling police officer saw her bicycle in front of Kendall Hall. He knew it was hers so he went inside. When he climbed on the stage, he found her dead body.
In this article, I highlighted a few details that were disputed and confused me. In some articles, you can read that she was strangled to death.In others, she was beaten to death.
The biggest mystery remains the motive. As she was beaten beyond recognition, the only thing we know is that this was a highly personal crime. The joint investigation from Campus Police and Ewing Township Police never named an official suspect.
Owachige Elice Osceola
On September 25, 2013, Norman Police found Owachige Elice Osceola (27) dead in an upstairs bedroom in her apartment.
Her body was partially decomposed and showed signs off trauma on the upper torso. A blanket was placed over her remains. The cause of death is undetermined.
Thoughts about the blanket: the first person who found Owachige could have placed a blanket over her as a sign of respect, dignity. Their touch DNA would be on the blanket. That might have stopped them from coming forward. They might be afraid to get charged.
However, someone could have placed the blanket over her to speed up decomposition. That doesn’t prove intent to kill but definitely to conceal a crime. Last, the killer could have covered her. If this blanket still exists it must be investigated with modern technology. Nobody was ever arrested for her murder.
Valerie Jeanne Percy
On September 18, 1966, Valerie Jeanne Percy (Dec 10, 1944 – Sept 18, 1966) was murdered in her parental home in Kenilworth, Illinois, by an unknown intruder. She was the daughter of former senator Charles Percy and Jeanne Valerie Dickerson.
The attack on Valerie (21) was intense and highly personal.
The cause of death was a fractured skull (on the left side) and 14 stab wounds. Two stab wounds were in her abdomen and they had penetrated her liver. One stab wound went through her left breast and penetrated her heart. One stab wound in her right breast reached her lung. Another stab wound went through her throat hitting her spinal column. She also had cuts to her face.
Her murderer left five bloody palm prints on the banister inside, a black leather glove outside the mansion, and a left footprint at the Percy home leading to the beach.
On Dec 16, 2016 Judge Demacopoulos ruled the files in this case will remain sealed as this is an ongoing investigation especially in light of using modern technology to test old, preserved evidence. Nobody was ever arrested in this case.
Deborah Lynn Rosencrans
Deborah Lynn Rosencrans (March 9, 1961 – Sept 18, 1977) was found barely alive on Sep 6, 1977, by a hitchhiker who heard moaning in the underbrush along the road. He found a teenager wrapped in bloodstained blankets tied together with rope.
Deborah had been beaten beyond recognition. When she died on Sept 18, 1977, she was a Jane Doe.
On Oct 3, 1977, Deborah was positively identified by her friends and later by her maternal grandmother. Police interviewed friends, canvassed the area, but could not find a suspect. They have no leads. Nobody was ever arrested for her murder.
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In the series “Case of the Month” I highlight old cold cases. These posts are not an in-depth analysis and of course, more information can be found online and in newspaper archives.
We need to get these cases back in the mainstream media, to get people talking again, and if anything, to make sure that we do not forget the victims. Just because their cases are unsolved does not mean that we can forget about them.
With the advances we made in modern forensic sciences, we may have a chance to find clues that previous remained hidden because we didn’t have the technology. Now that we do, let’s review all these old cases once more.
I encourage you to share this post on your own social media platforms. By sharing these posts, the cases reach new networks, new connections, and new online news feeds. Maybe one day these updates will pop up in the right person’s news feed. This may be someone who can actually help advance the case and that is my goal.
Rest in peace, Tracy Lynn Allen, Sigrid M. Stevenson, Owachige Elice Osceola, Valerie Jeanne Percy, and Deborah Lynn Rosencrans.