In early 2022, as I mindlessly scrolled through my Facebook page, I happened upon a post by the Houston Museum of Natural Science. It was the front page of the Houston Chronicle dated Thursday, February 8th, 1962 which contained a small piece about their Planetarium fundraising drive. But that wasn't what caught my eye. Just above that was another column about a suspect police were seeking in reference to a homicide involving an unidentified woman whose headless, limbless torso was found just north of Houston along Highway 59 on February 3rd, 1962. Just 40 minutes from my home! I felt compelled to dig deeper. My curious mind needed to know who this woman was and if her case was ever solved.

"How many homicide cases involve torsos?!" I asked myself. I was surprised to find out there were quite a few through the late 50s and early 60s throughout the U.S. A few of those cases with striking similarities to this one. So much so that the investigators originally believed that a crazed serial killer was most likely responsible for them.  From what I've gathered so far, it's not impossible, but not certain. There are so many questions left to be answered. And the case seemed to go cold within a couple of months.

I'm not a professional and I do not work in law enforcement. I don't pretend to know the ins-and-outs of homicide investigations. But I'm willing to give it a shot, even if just to bring attention to her case. I'm not so much interested in hunting down a killer, especially a dead one, but to identify who this woman is and be able to notify any living loved ones where she is and what happened to her. If she had children, which it is believed she did, they might still be alive, always wondering where and why their mom disappeared in early 1962. Perhaps luck is on my side. Or perhaps the right person will see this and have some answers.

This woman, who currently lies in an unmarked grave in rural Coldspring, deserves her name back. Her loved ones, many who are probably long deceased, deserve to know what happened to her. Was she married? Did she have children? Siblings? Was she from the area? WHO WAS SHE??? I hope to find out.

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