Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
E125: Little Miss Panasoffkee
2k Plays4 years ago
We never knew that our bodies could give so much of our personal backgrounds, until we heard about the science in this case. Could that science, in turn, lead to answers in the murder of Little Miss Panasoffkee?
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Recommendation
00:00:00
Speaker
We know that for many in the United States, one of the next two weeks, depending on where you live, is likely to be spring break for your children. And you just might need something to listen to on your drive if you've already binged all of coughing cases episodes. So we wanted to bring you a suggestion. This week's suggestion comes from our friends, Laura and Sarah and their podcast, Ivy League Murders.
00:00:27
Speaker
A recent Apple podcast review had this to say about them, quote, this fun, intriguing show gives you entertaining and well-informed insights on the cases in the news and a fascinating spotlight into a bunch of tales you might never have heard before. Laura and Sarah have such a wealth of knowledge and bring an excellent guest. These two are down to earth and truly passionate, bringing a couple of different and complimentary backgrounds to their discussions. Whether you're looking for an engaging introduction to the crime genre or a need of something fresh and original, tune in.
00:00:57
Speaker
end quote.
Focus on Ivy League Crime Stories
00:00:59
Speaker
All of those compliments are truly deserving and Maggie and I are extremely excited to announce that we will be teaming up with Ivy League Murders to bring you a jointly produced episode in the next month or so. So that is something to look forward to. Yes. This episode is going to be so intriguing and we know you all will love it,
00:01:25
Speaker
For now, here's a little about Ivy League murders from Laura and Sarah. Welcome to Ivy League Murders. Ah, the Ivy League. They are the eight most prestigious colleges in the nation. And as we've seen recently, people will do or pay anything to get their kids into them. When you hear Ivy League, what comes to mind? Is it the hallowed halls of education and tradition?
00:01:54
Speaker
professors in tweed coats pontificating about Walt Whitman, elitism, finals clubs. What you probably don't think of is murder. On this podcast, we focus on cases affiliated with the Ivy League.
00:02:10
Speaker
exploring the darker side of higher education. What happens when genius becomes evil? We deep dive into the stories behind the picture-perfect Ivy Leakers, who appear to have everything and throw it all away. And for what? Love? Money? Obsession?
00:02:29
Speaker
My name is Sarah Alcorn. I'm a Harvard graduate and I've been a private investigator since 1999. Join me and longtime crime diva, Laura McDonald, for Ivy League murders. Go ahead and check out Ivy League Murders by Laura and Sarah. Leave them a five-star review and make sure you tell them that coffee and cases sent you.
The Role of Science in Crime Solving
00:03:00
Speaker
When I was in graduate school, I took a class called History of the English Language. In addition to learning about things like the Great Vowel Shift, we discussed regional dialects.
00:03:13
Speaker
As one of our projects, we were given a letter for which we had to write a paper arguing from which county in England the letter likely originated. I had to research spelling differences from one region to another and circle the area that matched my assigned letter. Then I had to consider all dialectical differences in the letter and draw circle after circle. Where the circles overlapped, that was my county of origin.
00:03:44
Speaker
In modern times, the writer might use the word pop instead of soda or coke. The writer might use the word buggy instead of shopping cart. The writer might misspell, as we've discussed here on the show, wasp as waspers or creek as crick. The letter might include a description of apple stack cake, of catching crawdads, of snapping beans, and of aleate.
00:04:11
Speaker
Based upon those clues, I could fairly accurately predict that the modern rider would be from Kentucky and might even be able to narrow down my search area even more. But what if I told you that our bodies could do something similar? Sometimes when we have cases of unidentified persons, it's extremely difficult to know where to look for answers. We don't know who the person is.
00:04:38
Speaker
let alone where they may have come from. Luckily, science, as you will see in our case this week, has a way of narrowing down that list, and not just by using traditional DNA testing. This is the case of Little Miss Panosofky.
Coffee and Cases Mission and Achievements
00:05:34
Speaker
Welcome to Coffee and Cases, where we like our coffee hot and our cases cold. My name is Allison Williams. And my name is Maggie Dameron.
00:05:43
Speaker
We will be telling stories each week in the hopes that someone out there with any information concerning the cases will take those tips to law enforcement. So justice and closure can be brought to these families. With each case, we encourage you to continue in the conversation on our Facebook page, Coffee and Cases podcast, because as we all know, conversation helps to keep the missing person in the public consciousness, helping keep their memories alive. So sit back, sip your coffee, and listen to what's brewing this week.
00:06:11
Speaker
Okay, Alison, before we start, we do have another celebration to share. Yes, we do.
00:06:18
Speaker
We really want to thank everybody that tuned in and listened to us on Good Pods, but we want to take a second to thank Missy P. and Barb for leaving us a review on Good Pods, and we made it into the top 100 on not one, not two, but three separate lists. I about pee my pants. No, I did too. I screamed a little.
00:06:44
Speaker
So we made it to number 20 on the Indie True Crime Chart, number 32 on the Indie Society and Culture Chart, and number 32 on the overall True Crime Chart, which is amazing. Oh my gosh. So keep listening on Good Pods. It's an amazing app. You can interact with each other. You can rate individual episodes. So if you love one particular episode, go put a five star on it so other people will listen to it.
00:07:12
Speaker
But I'm going to tell you what, right now, we could not have done that without you guys, Sleuthhounds. You are amazing. Yes. Okay. So Maggie, this week's case, we're going to go back to school.
Discovery of a Decomposed Body
00:07:26
Speaker
Okay. You gave us a lesson in law last week. Well, I tried to. Well, this week I will be giving you a lesson in science, a lesson that is
00:07:40
Speaker
Fascinating. Hey. Okay. Friday, February 19th, 1971, two teenage hitchhikers from Illinois, John Marglin and Charles Sutton, were making their way along a stretch of Interstate 75 in Lake Panasoffkee, Florida, a city about an hour north of Tampa. According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, the two hitchhikers were on their way to Mardi Gras. Okay.
00:08:10
Speaker
Yeah, I- Never been. I haven't either. I'm intrigued by it, but also I- I'm scared of it a little. Yeah, same. But this stretch of road on which they were hitchhiking was a busy one at all hours of the day and night. As the two crossed over the highway overpass, what they caught wasn't a ride to their destination.
00:08:37
Speaker
but the site of something in the murky water below. Margelyn told the Ocala Star Banner in 1989, quote, we stopped and stared. At first we thought it was an alligator, but then we noticed the clothes, end quote. First of all,
00:09:01
Speaker
They said that they were curious about what it was, so they went for a closer look. If I saw an alligator or that alligators could come up, you can count me out. Yeah, I would be running away. Right, not going to it, but they did. And when they went for a closer look, what they found was that what caught their eye was a partially submerged and badly decomposed corpse. No. Mm-hmm.
00:09:30
Speaker
The two immediately went back to the highway where they, according to Marglin, attracted the attention of a state trooper. Well, they weren't necessarily trying to wave the state trooper down. It didn't sound like because in that article, Marglin said they likely attracted the attention of the state trooper because of their long hair and the fact that they were hitchhiking.
00:09:54
Speaker
But regardless, that's exactly who they want. So when the trooper pulls over next to them, they immediately reported their discovery. Well, as you can imagine, initially, the two young men were taken into custody for questioning. Because they're like, hey, there's a body down there. We found a body. Right, off the road, right off the beaten path, down in the trenches. In water, yeah.
00:10:23
Speaker
Around an hour later, after their report to law enforcement, detectives flooded the scene to investigate the discovered body. The two young men were released, however, once law enforcement discovered that the woman's body had likely been there for close to a month. Right, because you said it was badly decomposed, so they couldn't have done that that day. Exactly.
00:10:50
Speaker
The body was that of a woman dressed in a green shirt, green plaid pants, and a green floral poncho. Remember, we are in the 70s. The 70s. Yes. So very fashionable for back then.
00:11:11
Speaker
Dr. William Schutz performed a forensic examination and determined some of the basic descriptions of the woman and of the crime. She was between 17 and 24 years old and weighed around 115 pounds. Her height was determined to be between five foot two and five foot five. So she said, well,
00:11:39
Speaker
I feel very average for that age group. Yeah. And height. But I don't, that range for height, you know, we talked about it before with the Crystal Spencer case. I just don't understand how there can be that wide of a margin.
00:12:02
Speaker
Yeah, so I was actually super curious and you know, I'm gonna be talking a lot about science this week So I read an article called is there a difference between the human height before and after death?
00:12:15
Speaker
that was published in 2005 by the Institute of Experimental Morphology and Anthropology. And this study found that there is a, quote, statistically significant but practically insignificant difference between the human heights measured during lifetime and after death, end quote. So basically, people like us, it wouldn't be enough that we would notice.
00:12:44
Speaker
Exactly. So it stated this article that rigor mortis does not affect the height of the body, but that the method of measurement does. So if a body is standing straight up versus on a table,
00:13:00
Speaker
right? Those kind of things can make a difference. But what they found, based upon the 160 bodies that they tested, was that there is a statistical difference between those two heights. But they are negligible, like you said, when speaking practically, because for both men and women, the difference was less than one centimeter.
00:13:22
Speaker
Oh, so then how can we have the five two to five five? Exactly. That's what frustrates me because in my head, you know, this is an unidentified person. I told you that from the very beginning. You know, if you say that a woman is five five, I feel like that's fairly typical for a woman for height. But if you say somebody is five two, then that person would be considered short. And people might notice
00:13:50
Speaker
Something like that. And if you're 115 pounds at 5'2", you are going to look different than 115 pounds at 5'5". Right. So I have no idea. I don't know why they're such a height discrepancy. Like I don't know why the range. She had brown hair.
00:14:13
Speaker
Brown eyes, I saw in one report, though it did mention that this was a presumption by law enforcement based on her other features. And her cheekbones, yeah, her cheekbones were prominent. So are they saying that like this could be like maybe a race, like maybe she's like an indigenous? They did believe at one point
00:14:42
Speaker
that she could have Native American heritage. So I think that's why the presumption was made. And again, they said she had prominent cheekbones. Yeah, which is a characteristic of many Native Americans. Yes. And I think by mentioning that, I think her cheekbones with her weight
00:15:05
Speaker
that they've estimated. I think they likely would have been noticeable because of her petite frame. But she had no form of identification on her and was so badly decomposed, Maggie, that fingerprints couldn't be taken.
00:15:21
Speaker
I mean, you're probably not going to know the answer to this, but maybe somebody out there in the world listening will. So if a person is badly decomposed when they're found, I wonder how they move them from point A to point B without like, you know, them falling apart, basically. Maybe that's why the height discrepancy. Oh, true. I don't know. Well, somebody out there, you know, let us know. Right. Yes.
00:15:47
Speaker
So, obviously they have no idea who this woman is. After putting out flyers about the discovery of her body, and with no one stepping forward to claim her, she was given the traditional generic moniker Jane Doe.
00:16:06
Speaker
Again, this stretch of road off of which she was found was so heavily traveled that it also didn't indicate in any way that the person who committed the crime was from the area. It could have been any motorist just passing through. So we have a very wide range of possibilities there. For both her identity and for the perpetrator.
00:16:35
Speaker
So all of those are problematic. While the level of decomposition would normally make the cause of death equally hard to determine, Little Miss Panosofky's cause of death seemed obvious.
Little Miss Panosofky's Case Details
00:16:51
Speaker
Strangulation. This was obvious, Maggie.
00:16:57
Speaker
because she was found with a men's size 36 belt wound twice and cinched around her small neck. Is, I really don't know a lot about men's clothing because Anthony buys his own clothes, but is 36 a relatively large size or is that average? Fairly average. Okay.
00:17:22
Speaker
I don't know what the most common belt size is. I would say maybe a 34 or something. It could be a 36. But again, it's not completely out of the normal range. Because male listeners, women's pants do not come in sizes by the inch size. No. We're like fours, sixes, eights, and every store you go to, you're a different size. Yeah. Yeah. Because size eight in one store is completely different. Right.
00:17:52
Speaker
So we it's fairly certain that strangulation obviously was the cause of her death. Authorities have also said that they believe the young woman had been killed elsewhere and her body dumped in this location. Yeah, that sounds like somewhere you would just go to get rid of a body not to kill someone. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. There were a couple of other items that indicated some details about the unknown woman.
00:18:20
Speaker
First is that on her ring finger, she had a gold ring with a transparent stone. So this made law enforcement believe that she may have been engaged or married. Because a lot of women don't wear a ring on that finger. Right. Until, especially a young woman,
00:18:44
Speaker
until it's an engagement ring. So then I wonder if the person isn't coming forward because like if I posted or, you know, someone posted a picture of my engagement ring, Anthony would be like, Oh, that's Maggie's engagement ring. So I'm wondering if the reason someone didn't come forward is because they were maybe the ones who killed her. Potentially. Yeah.
00:19:10
Speaker
And I will say that detail alone makes me wonder, like you said, if the crime were committed by or arranged by that significant other. Because why else would that person not have responded to a flyer? Have not been looking for her. Hosted their own flyers. Right. Have not reported her missing.
00:19:32
Speaker
Right? Because obviously if they had, if their significant other, their fiancée or wife had gone missing and they filled out a missing persons report, then that missing persons report could have been compared to this unidentified person.
00:19:51
Speaker
After all, the forensic examiner, Dr. Schutz, determined that she had been killed, remember, around 30 days before her body was discovered that February day. So that is plenty of time. Yeah, plenty of time for you to realize something's amiss in your home. Right. Yeah, and go fill out a missing person's report. She also wore a thin gold necklace and a white gold watch. And I know that detail gives me, anyway,
00:20:21
Speaker
an idea about motive. What does that detail tell you, Maggie? Well, if they're leaving behind her
00:20:31
Speaker
ring which could potentially have a precious stone in it. They're also leaving behind a gold necklace and a gold watch and they strangled her which is very personal to me. I feel like the intent was not to rob her. Exactly. Yeah, burglary obviously was not the motive because if it had been
00:20:56
Speaker
those items would have been taken. And I am 100% with you, Maggie. That murder seems so much more personal because of the method of killing. Yeah, I feel like it's up there with stabbing someone to death. Yeah. First, strangulation is much more common to be performed by a male perpetrator on a female victim.
00:21:21
Speaker
That makes sense because usually they're stronger. Per Mark Pettigrew in his 2019 article found in the International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, there is a preference for strangulation in sexually motivated serial killers. Oh, you see that a lot in documentaries about...
00:21:45
Speaker
that type of thing. Yeah, it made a lot of sense to me, because it seems a way of asserting dominance. And since it is true for serial killers, it also makes sense in terms of intimate partner violence as well, because as a way of asserting dominance.
00:22:01
Speaker
In fact, in the book Criminal Profiling, International Theory, Research, and Practice, Chapter 4 is titled Murder by Manual and Ligature Strangulation. So, proof yet again that I hope my work does not check the search history on my computer and think I am a psychopath.
00:22:20
Speaker
on your new work computer. Right, as I'm looking up murder by manual and ligature strangulation. Right. But what this chapter had to say about that method of murder was extremely interesting, Maggie. It said that the profile of the person who is most likely
00:22:38
Speaker
to use this method. Here's what they said about that. Quote, research on homicidal strangulation has shown that in a high percentage of cases, the offender and the victim had a family relationship. And that quote, in previous studies, the most frequent motive for homicidal strangulation have been rape, sexual jealousy, and personal rivalry.
00:23:05
Speaker
that like you said, personal dominance. But this chapter also noted the higher likelihood of strangulation as a murder method among serial killers, 35%. Then for a single homicide offender. Well, I feel like
00:23:25
Speaker
This may be totally wrong. But if you're a serial killer, you take pleasure in killing people, obviously, because you do that on the reg. So I'm wondering if they like strangulation because it's typically a slow death. It's very brutal. Right. Also in their study, they found that 66% of offenders who used strangulation were diagnosed as having an alcohol dependency.
00:23:54
Speaker
Oh, which could be interesting when you're making the profile for her killer. Exactly. And even more telling, at the time when the murder was committed, according to the study in that chapter, 72% of the offenders were intoxicated when they committed the murder. So those studies can at least give us a little bit of a clue as to who might have committed such a crime. Like you said, the profile of the killer. But what's fascinating to me
00:24:25
Speaker
is that in my research, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, in the case of Little Miss Panosofky, authorities have said that they didn't believe it was a sexual crime.
00:24:38
Speaker
But it could have been, you said, like jealousy or rivalry. I mean, it could be. I just don't know how they could have determined that it ruled out sexual crime. Since her body was so decomposed, they couldn't do any testing to see if she had been raped. And again, to me, the act of strangulation, like those studies indicate, is very often sexually motivated. So I'm...
00:25:06
Speaker
I'm still sticking with the fact that it could be. Yeah. I'm like, I don't think you can, you can't say that at 100% for sure is that, but you don't have enough evidence to rule it out and say it isn't. Right. Exactly. I will say that knowing the statistical probability of what kind of perpetrator normally uses strangulation also doesn't help us to, to determine the identity of the victim. Right. And no one at the time, like I said before, came forward.
00:25:36
Speaker
So, she was laid to rest six months after the discovery of her body in Oak Grove Cemetery in Wildwood, Florida with a metal marker that read simply, Jane Doe, 1971. I think that's so sad because she was somebody. She had an identity and it's so sad that in her death, she has lost who she was.
00:26:04
Speaker
So it looked as though the truth of her identity, Maggie, and her killer would remain buried as well.
Scientific Investigations and Findings
00:26:13
Speaker
Luckily, this is where science comes in to help. Okay. So after having been exhumed, both in the 1980s by then Sheriff Jamie Adams, and again in 2012, we have a much
00:26:30
Speaker
more detailed backstory for this victim. Yes, it's a story that doesn't come from a DNA familial link or a method like the ones we normally discuss on the show, but from much more unlikely sources. It was also from my understanding when her body was exhumed in the 1980s that what we call her
00:26:58
Speaker
changed from Jane Doe to Little Miss Panosofky. So it's at least a little bit more of an identity than the name given as the automatic act to a known person. So do they think she was from the area where her body was found and that's why they named her? No.
00:27:18
Speaker
though they're giving her that name just to identify her because of where she was found. But I'm telling you, if you love science, you're going to love this next part. While Little Miss Panosofky was believed to be European or Native American, science was about to make that determination a lot more specific.
00:27:43
Speaker
Oh, yes. So first, facial reconstruction was completed in the 1980s to reveal what the young woman looked like at the time of her death, as well as at various stages of development. Medical illustrator for the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, Betty Pat Gatliff, agreed to help create a reconstruction of the victim's face. So she took dimensions from the skull
00:28:11
Speaker
and made a scaled clay model. Then, Sheriff Adams, in 1988, hired forensic artist, Linda Galina, who used photographs of Miss Panosofky's skull, as well as x-rays to create her sketches. And Galina Maggie was also one of the first forensic artists to create age regression sketches as well.
00:28:41
Speaker
to potentially help with identification by people maybe who hadn't seen her in years. This was the first time law enforcement had used age regression sketches when Kalina drew what Little Miss Panosofky may have looked like at age 6 and at age 12. This is fascinating. Mm hmm. Mm hmm.
00:29:02
Speaker
And in 2012, when she was again exhumed, another reconstruction was created, this time scaled to the size of the clothing that was found on the victim. And I'm gonna share with you those sketches here in just a little bit. But Sheriff Adams at the time, this is in the 80s, had the foresight, Maggie, to hire experts in all areas because he also brought in William Maples
00:29:32
Speaker
a forensic anthropologist to examine her body again. Based upon the condition of her body, it was determined that she had a fractured rib at the time of her death. Law enforcement assumed that the rib was fractured, they theorized, by someone kneeling on her while tightening the belt around her. And in my mind, though,
00:30:02
Speaker
This is a bit more gruesome to think about, but it might also have been caused by the fall if she were thrown off of the bridge by the perpetrator if she was still alive when that act happened. I guess even if she was dead, they could still have cracked her skull, throwing her over the bridge. Yeah, cracked the rib. Yeah, rib, sorry.
00:30:27
Speaker
Her body also revealed that she had born at least one child, maybe two. Okay, and that's true. They can tell that by your pelvic bones because they share. And while she could have given those children up for adoption, it's also likely that those children had been with her and were now missing their mother.
00:30:54
Speaker
which is super sad to think about. But her bones took her story even deeper. The young woman's bones contained what are called Harris lines. These Maggie are horizontal lines in the bones that can be seen in an x-ray. And what they mark
00:31:18
Speaker
are times of arrested growth development due to disease or malnutrition. So I bet she was like five two. Right. Yes. Exactly. These Harris lines form
00:31:33
Speaker
after the individual is on his or her way to recovery or a healthier diet, but it's markings in the bone. It's mineralization because the mineralization of the bone stops during the illness or malnutrition and then resumes once the person is better and it causes those lines. You know, I read that's why Aubrey Hepburn was so petite. No, I had no idea.
00:31:59
Speaker
I love her because I gained all my weight. She was my doppelganger. But she suffered from anemia throughout her adult life, which many believe was a result of her nearly starving after Germany occupied Holland when she was 11. She would have been there during World War Two.
00:32:19
Speaker
Yeah, so she would have then these Harris line markings in her bones. Yep. Yeah. So Little Miss Panosofky's bones contained Harris line. So that reveals that she either briefly struggled with illness or malnutrition during her childhood. So we have her backstory without even knowing who she is. And with that personal history,
00:32:48
Speaker
Her bones also gave us even more evidence because her right ankle, there was orthopedic surgery performed on it.
00:33:02
Speaker
when she was about 16 years old. I feel like that these are a lot of clues that people should say, oh, I might know her. Yeah. So the technique that was used in this orthopedic surgery in her ankle was called the Watson Jones technique. And it's when screws are drilled into the ankle bone and then the tendons are tightened. Yeah, those screws.
00:33:28
Speaker
So this procedure is usually done on those who have instability in that joint. So she was a person who likely experienced multiple sprained ankles and that sort of thing during her life before that surgery. So like you said, again, if the right surgeon were presented with her description and her picture, then he might remember performing the Watson Jones technique or a modified Watson Jones technique on a woman
00:33:57
Speaker
and then might be able to search records to identify her. They believed that the surgery would have been performed somewhere between 1967 and 1970. So not long before she died. Yeah, we're narrowing down the search area, right? Those circles that I had to draw on that map. I feel like we're drawing more circles.
00:34:23
Speaker
So when Little Miss Panosofky was exhumed in 1986, law enforcement, you know, they were told by this forensic anthropologist about the Harris lines, about the Watson Jones technique. So what they did was they took those details to the orthopedic community by publishing in medical journals to see if anyone had performed that operation on someone with her description who later went missing.
00:34:51
Speaker
but no one contacted her. Lucky for us though, her body held other clues. This is the most fascinating of all. I found the bones fascinating. This is even more fascinating. Her teeth also gave investigators some information. She had had extensive dental work.
00:35:15
Speaker
including many silver fillings and a porcelain crown on one of her upper right teeth.
00:35:24
Speaker
So this dental work was extensive enough that again, if the right dentist were presented with this information and her image, the dentist might remember her. I wish we had, I don't know if this is possible, but I wish there was like a database, you know, we have them for fingerprints for people's dental records. But while we are used to, because we've talked about dental records before,
00:35:55
Speaker
Right, yeah. But we are not used to talking about teeth in the way that I'm getting ready to tell you about what they revealed. Are they able to tell her, like, genetics? They are able to tell, well, they argue, what city she came from. What? Yes. Yes.
00:36:23
Speaker
OK, so Maggie, they could tell by her teeth, OK, little Miss Panosofky was indeed European, specifically that she had spent her childhood, adolescence and young adult years in southern Europe. They even narrowed down where to the seaport mining town of Lavrion, Greece.
00:36:49
Speaker
and that she had likely lived there until within a year of her murder. Okay. Okay. You're speechless. Yes. How did that how? How? How did your teeth tell that? I know. I think that is crazy that all of that information came from her teeth. Here's how. A geological scientist
00:37:12
Speaker
All of these, first of all, all of these career paths sound fascinating. They do. What were these people when it was career fair at my school? Right. So a geological scientist named George Kamenoff examined the lead isotopes in Little Miss Panosofky's teeth. Okay, so I'll get to what that is. So Dr. Erin Kimberly,
00:37:37
Speaker
who was at the time director of the Tampa Bay Cold Case Project and an assistant anthropology professor at the University of South Florida took shavings from Little Miss Panosofky's tooth enamel and asked Kamenov to analyze the chemical makeup of those scrapings. That was when he identified high amounts of lead.
00:38:03
Speaker
And Dr. Kamenoff, the guy who identified these large amounts of lead, Maggie, is actually well known in the medical community as the one, along with colleague Brian Golsan, to make this discovery that they wrote about in the journal Science of the Total Environment. And the article is called Lead in Teeth Reveals a Body's Origin.
00:38:27
Speaker
So he's the one who discovered this. Here's what he said in that article. Quote, unlike bone, which is always regenerating, tooth enamel develops during childhood and stays there, locking in the unique profile of lead isotopes and preserving them.
00:38:52
Speaker
When you grow up, you record the signal of the local environment. If you move somewhere else, your isotope will be distinct from the local population. Also, says the authors, because different teeth develop at different times in childhood, they can show if a person moved around in their childhood.
00:39:18
Speaker
So here's what it said, quote, for instance, the enamel in the first molar teeth has finished forming by the age of three. And once that enamel forms, remember it locks in that lead isotope, right?
00:39:33
Speaker
Here's how the quote continues, and reveals where that person was from birth through toddler years. Enamel in incisor and canine teeth begins to form later and finishes around age five, giving clues about residency in early childhood. And third molar enamel does not finish until age eight, giving clues about later childhood years, end quote. So you're telling me.
00:40:02
Speaker
that this man could shave enamel off my teeth, which sounds extremely painful and the sounds of the dentist when they scrape your teeth. And tell me that I grew up in Pike County, Kentucky. Yes. And if you moved, they would be like, if you moved to Europe, let's say at age four, age four, they would know that canine teeth were from whatever town. Yep.
00:40:32
Speaker
Fascinating. Fascinating. Yes. So here's why lead comes into play. In the 1950s, this was a while back, right? Even before I was born, lead was added to gasoline. And that additive was different in various parts of the world.
00:40:56
Speaker
In fact, unleaded gasoline, like we have now, wasn't introduced in the United States until the 1970s and wasn't phased out completely until 1996 here in the US. So many of our listeners, I know I do, I remember at the gas station, the options of leaded versus unleaded gasoline because it didn't end until 1996. I was like premium and
00:41:23
Speaker
Well, no, those are all unleaded, but there used to be leaded gasoline and unleaded gasoline. So that leaded gasoline, which used to be the only thing really that you could get in 1971 and before, it seeps into the soil and into food that leaded gasoline did, which then affected tooth enamel.
00:41:48
Speaker
So according to an article in the Tampa Bay Times published June 30th, 2012, quote, the teeth of those who grew up in Europe carry a distinctive lead signal since European countries used leaded gasoline from Australia at a time when North American countries did not end quote. So this little town or this town that they have traced her back to.
00:42:17
Speaker
Is this a big town? No, it is a tiny town. Here's how they got that far. I'll let you know. They got to Europe, southern Europe because of the lead isotopes.
00:42:33
Speaker
But she also had heavier oxygen isotopes in those enamel scrapings. And it was those isotopes that narrowed this search area or the area of her childhood down even more. Again, just like that letter, here's another circle. It showed that she had grown up close to the sea, most likely in Greece.
00:43:00
Speaker
Jealous. Yeah, I know. It's beautiful. But there is a small seaport mining town in southern Greece that is known for its high levels of lead contamination because of that mining activity. And that town is Lavrion, Greece.
00:43:22
Speaker
Okay, we can't make her circle really any smaller. Somebody has got to know this girl. Right. Now, I will say Kamenov actually talks about one potential thing why he won't say she is 100% from there.
00:43:40
Speaker
So, when he talked about the likelihood that this, you know, discovery about the isotopes proved something about little Miss Panosofky's heritage, he told a reporter Joe Burns in an article for WMFE, quote, it's not definitive. It's not like DNA. When you do DNA, you can match the DNA to a living relative and you can say, okay, this person was the brother or the son or the daughter or something of this and this person.
00:44:10
Speaker
This is much more like regional geographic region and diet, depending on which isotopes do you use. The evidence pointed to Southeastern Europe." And the reason he can't say with even greater certainty is based on what Kamenov told the Tampa Bay Times, quote, let's say her house was painted with leaded paint from Europe.
00:44:38
Speaker
she would gather up the same signal in her teeth. That's why we cannot be 100% sure." Again, still fascinating. Yeah, that's what I was about to say. Fascinating. Yes. And Maggie, her hair told examiners even more.
00:45:00
Speaker
From her hair, they deduced that she had been in the United States only temporarily, that she had been in Florida for around two months before her murder. So I wonder if she was just visiting. Well, that's one theory, but they could tell it from her hair. Oh, got this case. Okay, keep going, keep going. Okay, so there were
00:45:24
Speaker
According to scientist Kamenov in that same Burns article, quote, shifting carbon isotopes in her hair that showed a grain based European diet at the tips.
00:45:36
Speaker
and corn-based American diet near the roots. She had probably moved here sometime in the previous 10 months. Listen, this week's episode and last week's episode makes me feel stupid. I knew DNA could tell us stuff, dental records. I had no idea that they could look at my hair.
00:46:03
Speaker
with a coordinate diet. Right. And my teeth enamel and narrow down where I'm from. I'm amazed.
00:46:14
Speaker
So they now operate law enforcement on the assumption that Little Miss Panosofky had been in America for between two months and one year prior to her murder.
Exploring Theories and Public Involvement
00:46:25
Speaker
And of course, remember, even her watch gives us some information, Maggie, because it was a Baylor brand watch, which isn't like a cheap watch that you could buy just anywhere. Oh, somebody has to know this lady.
00:46:40
Speaker
I think so. So we have all of these details. I mean, we have it narrowed down, even though we don't know her name. We do have some theories. Okay. So because this case involves the murder of an unknown person, some theories will be about the perpetrator, like who could have done this, and some will be about her identity. However, like always at the end, I'd love to hear what you think are the most likely of the theories.
00:47:11
Speaker
So theory one comes from law enforcement's own theorizing in the Ocala Star Banner in their May 14th, 1989 article where Sheriff Adams, remember he is the one who hired all of these brilliant minds, suggested that she could be a runaway or a prostitute, or she could have been hitchhiking just like those young men were and met with foul play.
00:47:39
Speaker
I don't believe the prostitute. Yeah. The hitchhiker more likely because that was pretty popular in the 70s. So that's where I'm going. Well, this was a busy road. So it was one that someone would likely hitchhike on. Yeah. Why would you prostitute on I-75? I mean, true. Yeah. Unless, remember, she was murdered elsewhere. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:48:02
Speaker
But if she were a runaway or a prostitute, I mean, maybe she hadn't been living at home for a while and that's why no one came forward to claim her because they'd long since given up hope. But with the ring that appeared to be an engagement ring, with evidence like that that seems to say she had born children with the jewelry that she had on, I don't know if a runaway or prostitute, those don't ring true to me.
00:48:32
Speaker
with those details. The only thing that I would think has like a leg to stand on in this would be if it were a prostitute, it was likely a sexually motivated crime, but then police said that they didn't think it was sexually motivated. Yeah.
00:48:50
Speaker
Her case did appear on Unsolved Mysteries on October 14th, 1992, and there were many calls wondering if little Miss Panosofky were their missing mother, but none of those calls panned out. Theory number two, law enforcement also hired a local resident to help with the investigation, thinking that maybe someone with a fresh set of eyes who was looking at the case might see something that they didn't.
00:49:20
Speaker
Well, this local resident, Tom Kelly, which one article said was a private investigator as well. That makes a lot more sense to me than just a random local resident. Yeah, I was going to say, how do you get that job? Yeah, I want it. Yeah. But Tom Kelly analyzed public police records from the month leading up to the discovery of Little Miss Panosofky's body. And what he found was that in January 1971, so one month before the discovery,
00:49:49
Speaker
And remember, how long did they say her body had been there?
00:49:52
Speaker
Like a month, right? About a month. So in January 1971, a man was crossing the median of I-75 with a gun in his hand and was nearly struck by then Sheriff Fred Russell, who was driving through. Kelly noted of the record, as reported in that same Ocala Star Banner article, quote, of this man, he was nervous. He pleaded to be released.
00:50:21
Speaker
This may be nothing, but we have to eliminate it. I'd like to know what he was doing." End quote. Me too, because he could have been dumping her body. Mm-hmm. And apparently this man also lied to law enforcement about his marital status, and he was picked up only about a mile from the Lake Panosofky Bridge. However, law enforcement have not been able to locate this man again.
00:50:48
Speaker
would they not oh they didn't take him in for questioning or anything right i guess they did at the time but then we're not questioning it with this local resident until a decade and a half later but when they have record of his quest like right i would think but i guess they couldn't find him
00:51:11
Speaker
So I do think it's suspicious the timing of his arrest and that he lied about his marital status because that's a weird thing to lie about. But I just wonder though, if he had a gun, why would he have used a belt instead? Like that just doesn't make logical sense to me. Maybe he, like you said, wasn't all the way dead. He intended to shoot her there and then just decided to throw her over.
00:51:40
Speaker
I don't know, maybe? I don't know, that's the part that it doesn't quite fit. Theory three, Little Miss Panosofky was someone attending the Greek Epiphany Festival in nearby Tarpon Springs. So right around the time when science proves she could have come to the United States, that fits with the timeline of her death, because remember her hair showed that she had only been there a bit,
00:52:08
Speaker
is the Greek Orthodox celebration of epiphany. And remember, her teeth, lead isotopes and oxygen isotopes place her in Greece. In Greece. Mm-hmm.
00:52:20
Speaker
in several areas around Panosofki were growing populations in the Greek community in towns like Clearwater, Tarpon Springs, and Newport-Ritchie. Some wonder if this young woman had traveled to the United States to attend this celebration, and Maggie thousands were known to come to the coastal Tarpon Springs specifically to celebrate Epiphany on January 6th.
00:52:49
Speaker
So maybe she had come for that, had stayed for a bit, and that was at least why she was here, which would then give us a clue to her identity, even if it doesn't get us any closer to the perpetrator. So I'm wondering if that's the case of maybe she had a family in town, which would have made me think they would have come forward. Unless maybe if they are from Greece also, maybe they don't speak English. Or maybe they thought she went home and they just- Maybe. Went home. Right.
00:53:18
Speaker
So her death then would have occurred in the weeks right after Epiphany. And those towns that I mentioned with the higher Greek population were towns only about two hours away from the Panosofki Bridge. So maybe not too far of a drive for a killer who didn't want to be caught by placing her body too close to their hometown. That's a good point. But to Play Devil's Advocate,
00:53:46
Speaker
Father Michael Ekorino, Dean of the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Tarpon Springs, doesn't believe that this young woman was in attendance. If the young lady were from Greece and were religious, then he argued she wouldn't have traveled this far to attend the festival in Tarpon Springs when her hometown celebrations of Epiphany in Greece would have been much larger.
00:54:15
Speaker
So, he's like, that doesn't make sense that she would travel that far to attend a celebration that's smaller in scale. You could have at home. Exactly. Now, I will say that if she had some other reason to already be in the United States, then it would make sense that she would attend a celebration in Children's Springs rather than back home, right? If she wanted to visit family, maybe. Yeah.
00:54:40
Speaker
And remember, her hair did indicate that she had been in America for a few months prior to her death, which makes me wonder if she did have another read, if she were already here. And that leads me to the final theory, theory number four.
00:54:59
Speaker
Once law enforcement determined that Little Miss Panosofky could have been of Greek descent, they worked to have her case featured on a Greek true crunch show in 2012, asking viewers to pay attention to the details of the case. I watched this episode, the subtitles anyway, because obviously I don't speak.
00:55:21
Speaker
their native language. But a woman called into the show to say that she recognized the girl from the sketches. She said that they had both attended this, it's kind of like a boarding school, I guess, where they teach housekeeping skills. And they then like send you out to various employers. And that this caller and the woman from the sketches had both attended the school for a year.
00:55:50
Speaker
The caller said that the young girl's name was Constantina, but they had called her Dina. She said that Dina had a brother named Stelios, whom she was always talking about, who lived in the seaside town of La Breon Brace. Yep. Yep. And a separate caller,
00:56:11
Speaker
later phoned in in that same show to say that he lived in that city in Greece, that seaport town, and he knew a young man named Stelios and said that Stelios had a sister who attended school in the same town as that boarding school.
00:56:30
Speaker
The caller said that this boarding school would train these young women in housekeeping and in English and then send the girls to either Australia or the United States to work. So could she have just finished the school and come to America to work? That's the theory. So this caller, though, had been sent to Australia.
00:56:51
Speaker
But she said Constantina or Dina had been sent along with about 20 other girls to the United States. And if the caller story is true, then Constantina would have been in America about the same amount of time that little Miss Panosofky's hair indicated that she had been.
00:57:12
Speaker
And the woman, the caller, was even able to produce a group picture and point out Constantina from that school. And Maggie, I will show you a side-by-side comparison of the sketches done of Little Miss Panosovka, told you I'd come back to it, and of Constantina.
00:57:31
Speaker
Okay, so Maggie is looking at pictures that Sleuth Hounds, I will post on social media the Monday following the airing of this episode, but there are two sketches that were done of Little Miss Panosofky. And the third picture is the one of Constantina. So do you see the similarities? More so in picture, like the sketch one, I think, then it's the nose.
00:58:01
Speaker
Mm hmm. Yeah. And the face shape in sketch too. Mm hmm. But I mean, that looks Yeah, pretty close. Yeah, enough to make you say I know her. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. So now you can see why this
00:58:20
Speaker
this woman called in. But the problem, Maggie, is that you would think if this woman called in and said, I went to school with this girl, Constantina. She went by Dina. She has a brother, Stelios, right? They live in that small mining seaport town in Greece. Did we talk to Stelios?
00:58:39
Speaker
Well, no, I guess we haven't found him. And no one has come forward to say, hey, I'm Constantina to rule out this theory. But we also have never been able to confirm that it is her. Did we ever find that we never found this Constantina person in America? Right, right. So if only one of those other girls who came with Constantina to America could say whether they were in touch with her after she arrived.
00:59:08
Speaker
Right, because obviously if someone was in contact with her in 1972, then Little Miss Panosofky couldn't be her. Right. Or maybe if someone from Constantina's placement could verify that she was or wasn't working there after the time of Little Miss Panosofky's death, but we don't have those answers. So Maggie, what are your thoughts? I definitely think it's theory four.
00:59:36
Speaker
I think it was theory. I feel like it could be a combination of them. Theory four, which would explain why she would have been going to that festival because she would have been living in the United States. And maybe she was hitchhiking to get where she needed to go and met the wrong person. I definitely agree, especially with that picture.
00:59:59
Speaker
The sketches look just like Constantina. It fits with the tooth enamel and all of that. It fits with the hair showed about how long she'd been in the United. So the science matches the story. Now we just need somebody to come forward and say, I know where Constantina was at this time. Exactly.
01:00:24
Speaker
Even if little Miss Panosofky's killer is never brought to justice, though we hope that happens as well, her body needs to return home to her family, to her birthplace, and she deserves a name. Decade after decade of law enforcement officers have looked into her case files and each time those files pass hands in the hope that someone new might be able to see something that others haven't.
01:00:53
Speaker
For 51 years, her case remains unsolved. The circles to narrow down her identity have been drawn. Where do they lead us? Hopefully, each one represents one step closer to the truth and to justice. Anyone with ties to the Greek American community, please make sure that you share this case.
01:01:23
Speaker
and anyone with information concerning the case is asked to call the Sumter County Sheriff's Office at 352-569-1600.
01:01:39
Speaker
Again, please like and join our Facebook page, coffee and cases podcast to continue the conversation and see images related to this episode. As always follow us on Twitter at cases coffee on Instagram at coffee cases podcast, or you can always email us suggestions.
01:01:55
Speaker
to Coffee and Cases podcast at gmail.com. Please tell your friends about our podcast so more people can be reached to possibly help bring some closure to these families. Don't forget to rate our show and leave us a comment as well. We hope to hear from you soon. Stay together. Stay safe. We'll see you next week.