(DailyVantage.com) – After 45 years, human remains that had been “bagged” and then discarded in a rural area of Nevada have finally been identified.
The woman’s remains have finally been identified as those of Florence Charleston, a resident of Portland, Oregon until the time of her death. Mr. Charleston was originally from Cleveland, Ohio, but had moved to the Portland, Oregon area in the early 1970s, a few years before her death.
Mrs. Charleston’s remains were discovered in October of 1978, already heavily decayed and left in a garment bag in northern Nevada. Charleston’s body had been transported 535 miles away from where she resided, placed into the garment bag, and then buried in a shallow grave there in remote Nevada. However, the circumstances of her death, who took her, and why they would kill her, remain unknown.
At the time that Charleston was discovered, an autopsy was done on her remains, and was able to determine that she was a Caucasian woman “in her 40s-50s”.The remains were placed in the National Missing and Unidentified Persons system while forensic experts investigated.
However, the autopsy done at the time she was discovered was not able to determine what caused her death, or who she was. DNA research into her remains discovered she was Florence Charleston, a woman in her “late 60s.”
One of Charleston’s few surviving relatives, Dianne Liggitt, told reporters that she was around 18 years old when she was told by her father that her aunt, the late Charleston, was leaving Ohio for the Pacific Northwest with “a new boyfriend.” The family never heard from Charleston, who they had called “Aunt Dolly”, again.
Liggitt told reporters that, over the years, she had wondered about “Aunt Dolly’s” fate and whether she was happy. She expressed remorse upon learning that her aunt had been dead since they lost contact entirely.
Until recently, because the autopsy had not identified her, Mrs. Charleston was known as the “Imlay Jane Doe.”
Authorities told reporters that an investigation into Charleston’s death is still ongoing.
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