The Reporter's Notebook

There has been a major breakthrough in one of the cases we covered in the first season of our podcast “still…” The man who killed 22-year-old Terri McAdams in 1985 has been identified through genetic genealogy. This was announced by the Arlington Police Department yesterday and CBS11 followed the story, including an interview with our own Karin Anderson.

Genetic genealogy helps identify killer in 1985 murder of UTA student: Cold case breakthrough The case had gone cold for decades with no suspects or leads.

If you’ve been connecting with the “still…” podcast from this page on Facebook, you’ll soon need to move to another platform. Facebook’s podcast experiment was unsuccessful and will come to an end on June 1. Here’s a link to “still…” on Spotify, but it can be found on most platforms. Also, the wait for our next episode is almost over. We anticipate continuing the story in the next few weeks. We appreciate your patience!

still... Podcast · [object Object] · A gripping true crime podcast about a young mother who vanished without a trace in 1976, the man police believe killed her and how he may have concealed evidence of his deed for so long. It’s also the mystery of a murdered Jane Doe found in 1978 and whether she could ...

Our “still…” podcast season 2 is on hiatus while we await developments in the two cases we are covering. Here’s an update.

Our scheduled search at the Finley Creek grave in Oregon had to be postponed yet again due to the mountain weather and current road conditions.

This does tell us that access to the area is limited due to snow and rain several months out of the year. The body had been found in late August of 1978 and was estimated to be buried at least two years.

My mother disappeared from Lewiston, Idaho on August 31, 1976.

If Finley Creek Jane Doe is Patty Otto, will we find any DNA after 45 years? One bone fragment or hair is all we need to find since Oregon destroyed the physical evidence, cremated and lost her remains and failed to X-ray her teeth.

Praying for answers. Lord, please guide us to the truth!!!

There is now a reward being offered in the case of the Finley Creek Jane Doe, which was featured in still… season 2. If you haven’t listened yet, check it out here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5JuJpf71AnB7174eIZbxIL?si=OFU6EuQwQZiq3bY8fnrLKA

Episode 8: Filling in the Blanks
We walk through some of the theories we’ve developed about how Ralph Otto might have been able to conceal a murder and what factors may have influenced the decisions he made. Do our conjectures hold water? Is the Finley Creek Jane Doe Patty Otto? And what’s next for these investigations?

still... Listen to still... on Spotify. A gripping true crime podcast about a young mother who vanished without a trace in 1976, the man police believe killed her and how he may have concealed evidence of his deed for so long. It’s also the mystery of a murdered Jane Doe found in 1978 and whether she could...

Episode 7 of still…, with all its new twists and turns, is out today. Check it out!

S2 Episode 7: Inside the Grave Listen to this episode from still... on Spotify. We spend time detailing what was and what wasn’t found inside the shallow grave where the Finley Creek Jane Doe was discovered. Can any of these details get us closer to learning who the woman was and who may have killed her? We also reveal an inter...

The standard identification for missing persons are: fingerprints, dentals and DNA. So what happens when the skeletonized remains are cremated and lost before an X-ray or DNA are obtained? Are there other methods available?

I recall in my statistics course that one of the assignments was calculating the probability that another student in our class shared the same birthday. Then they increased the challenge by adding additional factors: same s*x, same birthday, same hair color. With each factor your chances get lower and lower because of the multiple possibilities.

Let’s calculate the possibility that Finley Creek Jane Doe is my mother, Patricia Otto who vanished from Lewiston, Idaho in 1976, using statistics.

There are currently 17,000 unidentified bodies in the US today. My father-in-law, Rob found one of them in 1978, a Caucasian female, age 17-24, blonde hair, 62-64” tall, 115-140 lbs, no jewelry, no surgery, wearing red pants and a white blouse (may have small red hearts).

Only 40% of missing people are women. That cuts the 17k down to only 6,800.

Of those women, 52% are Caucasian. 6800x52%=3,536 Caucasians.

In 1976, the average woman weighed 144 lbs, this body was estimated to be 115-140, so slightly below average but mother, Patty was 140 lbs, so let’s say she was 48%ile for weight. (3,356 x 48%=1,697 women)

The average American woman is 63.7 inches. Patty was 63”, the body was estimated to be 62-64” tall, so 50%ile. (Half of 1,697=848)

Even in the 70’s, half of women visited hair salons and an estimated 1/3 of women were coloring their hair blonde. It would be difficult to calculate this probability due to lack of data. (Half of the 848=424, if 33% dye it blonde, that leaves 139 blondes)

Lastly, each color has 256 possible variations. So to calculate the combo of red pants and a white blouse would be very challenging! You would have to consider red slacks, red corduroy, red shorts, red skirts, red capris, red leggings and so on. Polyester was the choice of material but the popular colors were pastels, baby blue, yellow and peach. There are over 16,000,000 color combinations using only red, green, blue. Let’s just say, these polyester red pants found on Finley Creek Jane Doe are the same red pants Patty was reported last seen wearing. We won’t even attempt to calculate in the white blouse….the possibilities could exceed 1:16,000,000 or a 0.00000625%.

Any statistical geniuses out there that can help us solve this probability equation?

Episode #7 from The Reporter's Notebook came out this morning! This reveals yet another interesting twist and a new possibility!

https://open.spotify.com/episode/6H7YD0ZNVqNcYxkcSKfK9Z?si=tqJtrXrxT0SgXd_X4AraRg&context=spotify%3Ashow%3A0bMbVvRufjR7Sg3DfrqbZV

The biggest violation of a woman’s rights is taking her life. Imagine what these women could have achieved if given the chance …

Otto
Creek Jane Doe
Till
Bush
Davis
Heller
Ewert
Kashka
McAdams

As a second search dog comes on the scene to hunt for missing pieces of the Jane Doe’s skeleton, we learn more about Suzanne’s quest to discover what happened to her mother, and we discuss what became of her father, Ralph Otto. Has the trail for Patty Otto gone cold, or did the torch Suzanne took up shed new light on a seemingly unsolvable crime?

S2 Episode 6: The Hunt Listen to this episode from still... on Spotify. As a second search dog comes on the scene to hunt for missing pieces of the Jane Doe’s skeleton, we learn more about Suzanne’s quest to discover what happened to her mother, and we discuss what became of her father, Ralph Otto. Has the trail for P...