Oct. 29
IT'S BEEN ALMOST 40 YEARS since police began investigating the murders of two unidentified women whose bodies were found near Birdsboro. Investigators think both women were killed in August 1968, and authorities have linked their deaths to an area motorcycle gang headquarters where pictures of the victims were found about a year later.
The Internet has renewed interest in the cases, which are featured on the Pennsylvania State Police Web site www.pennsylvaniamissing.com and the Doe Network at www.doenetwork.org.
The Doe Network is a volunteer organization started in 1999 to assist in solving cold cases involving unexplained disappearances and unidentified victims.
"I never forget my cases," said Stratton P. Marmarou, a Reading city councilman and a former city detective who worked on the investigations in the late 1960s. City police were involved because Marmarou suspected the young women were runaways from the former Marymount Institute at 1135 Schuylkill Ave., commonly known as the House of Good Shepherd, a reform school for girls. The facility was run by nuns.
"I never found out what happened to two girls that disappeared from the House of Good Shepherd," Marmarou said. "I remember I brought the crucifix found on one of the victims to the mother superior." Marmarou found it curious that both victims had white Italian sandals similar to those in the summer uniform worn by girls at the reform school.
The first body was found in a patch of poison ivy about 20 feet off Route 82 near Joanna in Caernarvon Township by a 14-year-old boy who was walking from his house to work at a farm on Aug. 22, 1968.
The woman 15 to 30 years old, 5 feet 3 inches tall and 120 to 130 pounds had been dead for about a week before her body was found. An autopsy determined she had been shot once in the head and at least five times in the body with a .22-caliber gun. She was wearing the sandals, but had no pants or skirt. There was no sign of a sexual assault, police said.
The skeletal remains of the second victim were found on a large, flat rock in French Creek State Park by a 62-year-old Pottstown man hunting for mushrooms on April 18, 1969. Her body was found a few miles away from the other woman's, but investigators believe they were killed about the same time in mid-August 1968.
The second victim was in her early 20s and 5 feet 1 inch tall. The body was nude, and a pair of rolled up panties and one sandal were found nearby. Officials did not determine what caused her death. Police said the deaths were related and labeled both as murders.
Investigators determined that both women worked at the Reading Fair in 1968.
Investigators said they got a break in the case in August 1969 when they found pictures of two women they believe are the victims in a bullet-riddled, abandoned hangar in Leesport that was the headquarters of a local motorcycle gang. Police have never said what led them to the hangar or why they think the photos are of the victims.
State police Cpl. William J. Moyer of the Reading station, who is in charge of the cold cases, said he has pursued some leads in recent years from people who thought one of the women might be someone who disappeared decades ago. None of the leads has panned out, Moyer said. "A lot of leads never pan out," Moyer said. "But this is our job, to identify these victims and solve these crimes."
Moyer said featuring the cases on the Internet increases exposure, but investigators fear many leads generated could be dead-ends. "It's a tough process to say the least," he said. "We entered the information into the Doe Network . This is the only way to get this solved." -