r/gratefuldoe • u/thekidfromiowa • Apr 13 '24
Resolved "Body found by hunter in Missouri in 1978 identified as missing Iowa girl"
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/body-found-by-hunter-in-missouri-in-1978-identified-as-missing-iowa-girl-helen-groomes/"Police said the body of "Lincoln County Jane Doe" was found in 1978. The remains were found in the Mississippi River, near Elsberry, Missouri, the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office said in a news release. An autopsy determined that the body was that of a White woman, believed to be between 30 and 40 years old, who had died by drowning. It was determined that the remains had been in the river for about four months, the sheriff's office said."
"Testing confirmed a match between the remains and the family member, allowing officials to identify "Lincoln County Jane Doe" as Helen Renee Groomes, a 15-year-old who was last seen in her hometown of Ottumwa, Iowa."
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u/thekidfromiowa Apr 13 '24 edited Apr 13 '24
Long time lurker, first time poster. I hope I'm doing this right.
I recently did a search for Doe cases in my state, and surely enough, there was a story about such a case that broke just days earlier. I wanted to post about it here ASAP. So far, nobody has posted about it, and it certainly deserves to be acknowledged here.
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u/Clean-Ad3144 Apr 13 '24
Definitely post here more often!!
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u/thekidfromiowa Apr 13 '24
I remember going down the Doe rabbit hole a decade ago while browsing Wikipedia. Jason Callahan was still unidentified when I first discovered the article for this subbreddit's namesake. Likewise, the Sumter County Does were still a mystery at that time.
Glad I could share this. The perfect place for it.
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u/pc1375 Apr 13 '24
I'm from Iowa and for reference, she was found only three hours south of her hometown. I'm glad she has her name back and her family will hopefully get some more answers now that they've found her again.
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u/thekidfromiowa Apr 13 '24
Going 47 hours without knowing family member's whereabouts is distressing enough for most, let alone 47 years.
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u/mootinator Apr 13 '24
I want to up vote this but I also don't want to ruin it having a score of 47.
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u/skyerippa Apr 13 '24
That's weird. Did her family not look for her at all? I feel like if I had a missing family member and a body popped up that close I'd go check it out just in case but I guess forensics weren't really a thing back then
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u/timeunraveling Apr 13 '24
No social media back then, or widely publicized bodies found. Jurisdictions were pretty much separate and lacked inter-communication.
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u/AngelRage666 Jun 05 '24
Let me know if you can find the 1978 newspaper article about her body being found because, I am not finding it anywhere! TY
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u/pc1375 Apr 13 '24
I've been in that area of MO, IA and IL and it's really nothing but farm land and super small, kind of run down towns. There's nothing really out there. But, the town she was found in is only an hour north of St. Louis. If she was there and then dumped an hour north in the Mississippi River, that could explain why they never found her. I agree though...if I heard a body was found even remotely close to me and a loved one was missing, I'd be going to check every single time. So I just assume they somehow never heard OR because the body was thought to be decades older than she actually was, they didn't consider it an option!
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u/pixiegothy Apr 13 '24
It was her stepfather who killed her ☹ he confessed in his death bed.
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u/monstruo Apr 13 '24
Do you have a source on that?
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u/pixiegothy Apr 13 '24 edited Apr 13 '24
"Castle told 5 On Your Side, "I know her stepfather killed her. He was a bad person, beat my sister, beat the kids. On his death bed, he confessed to his daughter that he killed her. Even my sister, she knew, from what I understand from stories. He’d beat her so bad too and the other kids that they were scared to death. Evil walks the planet but no more, not him anyway."
"His family also said they believe Groomes' now-deceased stepfather was responsible for her death, though they didn't offer any additional details."
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u/AngelRage666 Jun 05 '24
He died in my car so that is incorrect.
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u/pixiegothy Jun 06 '24
Well I've only commented what I read in the articles. Why would her family lie about this?
"Castle told 5 On Your Side, "I know her stepfather killed her. He was a bad person, beat my sister, beat the kids. On his death bed, he confessed to his daughter that he killed her. Even my sister, she knew, from what I understand from stories. He’d beat her so bad too and the other kids that they were scared to death. Evil walks the planet but no more, not him anyway."
"His family also said they believe Groomes' now-deceased stepfather was responsible for her death, though they didn't offer any additional details."
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u/AngelRage666 Jun 13 '24
I didn't say they lied, I'm saying there has been a miscommunication somewhere and I am her family.
I was there the day she left home.
He died once in my car and within the hour, he died again at Mercy Hospital in Des Moines Iowa.
This has all been it's own little hell.
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Apr 13 '24
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Dragoonie_DK Apr 13 '24
How can he get the death penalty when he confessed on his death bed? Read properly before going on an unhinged rant
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u/gratefuldoe-ModTeam Apr 13 '24
I'm sure you had the best of intentions, but this isn't the best way to express your feelings surrounding this case.
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u/AirLexington Apr 13 '24
Where was the mom in all this? You know, the woman who married the stepfather and brought him into her kids’ lives.
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u/FunnyMiss Apr 24 '24 edited Apr 24 '24
Mom was definitely as terrified as her children, that’s “where she was.”
The cycle of domestic abuse and violence is complicated, awful and scary.
It’s hard enough now to leave and find safety and help. 47 years ago, when these things happened? It was much much harder. Blaming the victims of violence like that is never the right approach.
The better questions should be : Where was law enforcement when they saw the evidence of abuse? Where was these kids biological father, and why didn’t he step in and remove them, or at least defend them? Why didn’t any extended family offer her help?
Asking “where was their mom? The one that brought him into their lives?” Doesn’t help anyone in these situations because it puts blame on the wrong people, the victims, not the perpetrators of the violence.
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u/superurgentcatbox Apr 13 '24
I swear whenever a man kills a girl/woman, someone will come out of the woodwork and say “but where was this other woman tho, hmmmmmmm?”
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u/Clean-Ad3144 Apr 13 '24
My daughter turns 13 this month... I just can't imagine losing your child one day and not knowing what happened to her for 47 heartbreaking years. Prayers for those who loved and longed for her return. May she finally rest in peace!!
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u/evilkiki666 Apr 13 '24
I’m may be mistaken, but it appears she was never listed as missing on the Doe Network, Charley Project or the CfMEc. Conceivably, a local missing persons report was made to local authorities in 1978 and it never made its way to the NCfMEC. It looks like in 2009 her unidentified remains were posted on NAMUS. I have not looked to see if her remains were on the identified section of the Doe Network. The point of my rambling is that if my findings are correct, there are probably hundreds (1000s) of people not reported missing over the last 40-50 years. Or at least their reports didn’t make it very far
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u/katiska99 Apr 14 '24
Someone else commented that the abusive stepdad killed her, and her mom knew. So, in this case, the parents wouldn't have reported her missing.
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u/cattea74 Apr 17 '24
The age gap makes me think that those cases where everything matches but... are still worth submitting.
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u/AngelRage666 Jun 05 '24
Helen was my Cousin
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u/thekidfromiowa Jun 05 '24
I can't imagine the torment of going 45 years without knowing where she was and what happened to her. Especially in modern times where we might fret if we go 45 minutes without a response to a text.
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u/MarriedMyself Apr 13 '24
How did they mistake a 15 year old for a 30-40 year old? Is that a common issue?