Murder of Marilee Bruszer

Marilee Lee Bruszer,[1][2] previously known as Juab County Jane Doe, was a formerly unidentified American murder victim who was found on September 3, 1978. Bruszer's body was not identified for 37 years (until August 2015) due to an inaccurate physical description generated by the original investigators and the great distance she was found from where she had resided prior to her disappearance.

Marilee Bruszer
Undated photograph of Bruszer
Born
Marilee Lee Bruszer

November 4, 1944
California, United States
DisappearedAugust 22, 1978
StatusRemains identified after 37 years
Diedc. August 1978 (aged 33)
Cause of deathHomicide by strangulation
Body discoveredSeptember 3, 1978
Juab County, Utah, United States
Other namesJuab County Jane Doe
Known forFormerly unidentified victim of homicide

Circumstances
Reconstruction of Bruszer

Bruszer went missing on August 22, 1978 from Long Beach, California. Few details were available about her case, although authorities did believe she had been murdered and classified her as "endangered missing." Further into the investigation, her dental records and DNA information were obtained to compare against unidentified bodies in the country.[1][2]

On September 3, 1978, the naked remains of a woman were found near the Yuba Lake campground in Juab County, Utah by three women who were fishing near the Yuba Dam.[3] She was white and believed to have been five feet two to three inches (157 to 160 cm) tall at a weight around 110 pounds (50 kg), which was reported to be inconsistent with Bruszer's height and weight at five feet five inches (165 cm) and 145 to 150 pounds (66 to 68 kg), respectively.[2] The victim was said to have light blond hair that was eleven inches (28 cm) long, although some sources state that it was brown, strawberry blond or sandy blond. Her natural hair color was likely light brown, as some pubic hair was found.[4] With the body, a double-hooped earring was found along with a white barrette. She had some dental crowding, which caused one of her front teeth to be crooked.[5] The woman was believed to be between eighteen and twenty-two when she was strangled several months to three years before her body was found.[6][7] The age and time of death of the victim are now known to have been inaccurate, as Bruszer was thirty-three at the time she disappeared a month before the remains were found.[3][8]

Henry Lee Lucas confessed to the victim's murder, although most of his admissions are now believed to have been coerced.[9]

Identification

Early into the investigation, it was speculated that the victim was one of four missing women from the area, Nancy Wilcox, Susan Curtis, Debra Kent and Nancy Baird. Later, these were eventually eliminated as potential identities after x-rays of Juab County Jane Doe's teeth were compared to their dental records.[3][5][10] Baird, Curtis and Wilcox remain missing and have never been located.[11][12][13][14]

A detective was looking through the evidence locker at the Davis County Sheriff's Office in 2013 when he came across some hair marked "Hair from Yuba Lake body." This was attributed to retired Davis County Sheriff's Captain Kenny Payne formerly working there as well as the state medical examiner's office at the same time and misplacing the evidence. The detective sent it off to Juab County soon after.[8]

The Juab County Sheriff's Office secured a sample of this evidence and had it sent to Texas for testing in 2014. There, a DNA profile was generated and entered into the national database of missing people resulting in a familial match with two of Bruszer's family members who had submitted their DNA in the hopes of locating her. On August 22, 2015, the Long Beach Police informed the relatives that Bruszer had formally been identified.[8]

See also

References
  1. "Case File 1176DFCA". The Doe Network. Retrieved 20 October 2015.
  2. "Marilee Bruszer". findthemissing.org. National Missing and Unidentified Persons System. 16 February 2011. Retrieved 20 October 2015.
  3. "Victim of Strangler". The Times News. 1978.
  4. "Utah's Unidentified Persons". publicsafety.utah.gov. Utah Bureau of Investigation. Archived from the original on 2014-08-31. Retrieved September 16, 2014.
  5. "Girl's Identity Remains Unknown". The Times News. 1978.
  6. "Case File 751UFUT". doenetwork.org. The Doe Network. Retrieved September 16, 2014.
  7. "NamUs UP # 8382". identifyus.org. National Missing and Unidentified Persons System. January 14, 2011. Retrieved September 16, 2014.
  8. "2 cold case victims identified in Juab Co. thanks to DNA". National Missing and Unidentified Persons System. September 30, 2015. Retrieved September 16, 2014.
  9. “Not a Shred of Evidence.” The Confession Killer, season 1, episode 5, Netflix, 6 Dec. 2019.
  10. "State Seeks Help in Identifying Girl". The Deseret News. 8 September 1978. p. 10. Retrieved 20 October 2015.
  11. "Susan Curtis". The Charley Project. 12 December 2014. Retrieved 17 January 2019.
  12. "Nancy Wilcox". The Charley Project. 12 December 2014. Retrieved 17 January 2019.
  13. "Debra Jean Kent". The Charley Project. 18 December 2018. Retrieved 17 January 2019.
  14. "Nancy Perry Baird". The Charley Project. 30 September 2013. Retrieved 17 January 2019.
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