Arizona's Cold Case: "Valentine Sally" identified after 39 years

 Last June, DNA helped identify the unidentified body of "Valentine Jane Doe"- you can read more about that story Here.

Today, I woke up to discover that another Cold Case unidentified person has been identified because of DNA- Arizona's "Valentine Sally".

"Valentine Sally" was a murder victim (strangled) found on February 14, 1982 near Westbound Interstate 40, about 11 miles west of Williams, Arizona (Coconino County). The girl had been last seen on February 3rd at the Monte Carlo Truck Stop in Ashfork with an older man. When she was found on the 14th, it was observed she had been dead for a week or two.

 

Characteristics & Clothing:

-Blonde Hair, Scars on Foot & Thigh, ears pierced

-Red & White Striped Sweater, Designer jeans, size 9, bra and handkerchief 

Sketch of the man who she was seen with, could have been in his 60s. 

In 1984, "Valentine Sally" was misidentified as a Florida girl who ran away in 1980- Melody Cutlip. Lieutenant Jack Judd of the Coconino Sheriff's Office found Cutlip's missing person's report and thought it could be the same person. He forensic odontologist Homer Campbell check it out and all he did was enlarge pictures of Cutlip's teeth and compared them to them "Valentine Sally's". 

Cutlip's mother refused to believe this was her daughter and so "Valentine Sally" was buried in a cemetery in Williams with Cutlip's name on it, Valentine Sally underneath it.

Unfortunately, there is no picture online of Valentine Sally's tombstone.

Four years later, in 1988, Cutlip returned home, proving that she was still very much alive. Despite this, her name still remains on the tombstone in Williams. Melody Cutlip actually died in 1998 in Louisiana in a car accident. 

Melody Eugenia Freeman Cutlip
22 Jan 1966 Tampa, Florida
11 Sep 1998 Jackson Parish, Louisiana 

The Truth

With the help of DNA, on Friday February 19, 2021, "Valentine Sally" was finally identified as Carolyn Eaton, a 17 year old who went missing from St. Louis, Missouri in 1981. She lived with her family in a suburb called Bellefontaine Neighbors. 

I searched Newspapers.com, but couldn't find anything in 1981 for Carolyn Eaton's disappearance. I also couldn't find an actual picture of Carolyn.

 I am so happy that her family now has closure! I really hope that either her remains are exumed and returned to her hometown and properly buried, or at least the tombstone is changed to her name. I also hope that in the future, justice will be brought and her killed will be identified next.

                        May you Rest in Peace Carolyn Eaton 

DNA Update-- 6 years later!

Good Morning!

It's been 6 years (what!) since I took my Ancestry.com DNA test. I haven't really dived into the DNA portion of Genealogy yet so I haven't really looked at it too much since then.

Knowing the site updates regularly as more and more people take the tests, I thought I'd take another peek and lo and behold, my numbers were different! 

You can view my previous post from 6 years ago by clicking here.

Here's a side-by-side view of the two to compare: 

I do like the new formatting of the site as well. You can click on each region and it'll give you a full description: 

"Valentine Jane Doe" Identified after 29 Years

This morning, I read that the Valentine Jane Doe rape/murder case had finally been solved after 29 years thanks to DNA! 

Valentine Jane Doe was an unknown murder victim found Feb 14, 1991 in the Florida Keys.  She had been raped, beaten and strangled to death with her own bikini top. The body was found the following day- naked, face down in some water. 

Here are some composites of what they thought she would have looked like:

Up until yesterday, her identity had been a mystery. With the help of DNA, we can finally answer, who was Valentine Jane Doe? 

Valentine Jane Doe is 18 year old Wanda Deann Kirkum, born about 1973.

Wanda was from Hornell, New York. Her parents never reported her as missing, which I find super strange. It wasn't like they died soon after she "disappeared"... 

Wanda was the only daughter of George A. Kirkum (1939-2011) & Edith Arlene Rogers (1949-2002). Did they never wonder what happened to their daughter? Even if they had an bad relationship with her, you would think, after time, they would wonder where she was. Did she not have any cousins or aunts and uncles who wondered about her? This completely breaks my heart.

DNA also gave evidence of who her rapist/murderer could have been. The semen and blood of 31 year old Robert Lynn Bradley was found on Wanda. He has sense died, a year after she was murdered. In April 1992, Robert was found murdered in Texas. 

20 Apr 1992
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Fort Worth, Texas

With evidence that outstanding, if he were alive today (aged 59 years), he would most certainly be convicted of Wanda's rape and murder. I am saddened because I feel like she has nobody alive today to know of her demise, but happy to know that another unsolved case has been solved. 

Ancestry.com DNA!

The Results are in! 

I am so excited to have been able to do the Ancestry.com DNA test! I've been wanting to do this for a long time. 

So,  I got the test in the mail on July 31- took the test the same day and sent it out in the mail the next day- August 1~

18 days later, I received my results- very happy with the timing! 

So, here are my results~ (not very surprising, which is good)

~1% South Asia
~98% Europe- 
   37% Great Britain
   28% Europe West- Germany & France
   17% Europe East- Ukraine, Poland, Romania
   8% Finland/NW Russia
~4% Scandinavia
~2% Ireland
~1% European Jewish
~1% Italy/Greece
~Less than 1% West Asia- Caucasus 

Like I said, I'm very happy with my results because I've done SO much research and these results are pretty much what I expected. 

I think I can break down where some of the results have come from by Surnames that I've researched:

Great Britain- 
                       ~Mendenhall- England 
                       ~Munn- England
                       ~Burt- England
                       ~Parsons- England
                       ~Baldwin- England 
                       ~Swift- England
                       ~Pearson- England
                       ~Hill- England
                       ~Croasdale- England
                       ~Beeson- England
                       ~Thornbrugh- England
                       ~Pennington- England
                       ~Grubb- England
                       ~Maris- England
                       ~Strode- England
                       ~Barnard- England
                       ~Pugh- Wales
                       ~Miles- Wales
                       ~Henderson- Scotland
                       ~Bruce- Scotland
                       ~Shipart- Scotland
Europe West- 
                       ~Horn- Germany
                       ~Hyman- Germany
                       ~Kime/Keim- Germany
                       ~Beams- Germany
                       ~Seaver- Germany
                       ~Ketteler- Germany
                       ~Altmann- Germany
                       ~Pierron- France
                       ~Thiebeaux- France
                       ~Grillot- France
                       ~Hendricks- Netherlands
Europe East- 
                       ~Dabuliewicz- Poland
Finland/Northwest Russia- 
                       ~Ellert- Russia
Ireland- 
                      ~Hamilton- Ireland
                      ~Haman- Ireland
                      ~Dixon- Ireland


I guess I'm not sure where the Scandinavian, Asian or the Italy/Greece genes are from. The European Jewish could be anyone of these.