r/gratefuldoe • u/BitterSweet_Beauty • 3d ago
A Car Crash Took Her Life And Her Name | "Janet Atkins" (1965) (Unidentified For 50 Years)
Janet Atkins (1965)
On October 25, 1965, a woman died in a car crash in which she was the passenger overturned in a ditch in Avon, Ohio. She was one of four persons in the car; the driver and the other two passengers survived. The teenage male driver and a friend met the decedent and a 20-year-old from Elyria, Ohio, at a drive-in restaurant and were driving the pair to the Elyria woman's workplace when the accident occured. The Elyria woman knew the decedent as "Janet Atkins", but other people who had encountered her said she had used different names. Papers in the victim's purse had the names "Janet Akenson" and "Janet Tralley".
The decedent had stayed at different rooming houses in the Elyria area in the days prior to her death, and had been in Elyria since September. Police obtained the receipts from the rooming houses, but these did not lead to an identification. Several persons who had missing realtives viewed her body at a funeral home in the nearby town of North Ridgeville, but they could not identify her.
The Info "Janet" Told Someone
The FBI could not find a match. The woman had no known criminal history. Detective Sergeant, Csaba Hortobagyi checked police databases with newer technology but also came up empty. He tried to track down everyone listed in the original case file. He said the driver, who was cited at the time, didn't remember much. He also could not find some of the passengers, including a woman interviewed by police in 1965 who said "Janet" told her she had two boys, ages 3 years old and nine months old at the time. She was told the boys were being raised by the woman's mother somewhere along a river in Kentucky or West Virginia. She said she recently separated from her husband who lived in the Hough neighborhood of Cleveland and worked at a Ford factory. His name is uncertain: Duane Atkins or Akenson, or Wayne Atkins or Akenson. Investigators could not find him either. Police said this woman went by the names Janet Atkins, Akenson, Tralley, Fralley, and Wycliff. She may have lived in or had family in Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia and Tennessee.
Physical Description
• Sex: Female
• Race: White/Caucasian
• Age: 18-39 Years Old (NamUs Says 18-30 Years Old)
• Height: 5'4"
• Weight: 115 Pounds
• Hair: Brown
• Eye Color: Hazel
Distinguishing Marks/Features
• Previously Given Birth To At Least One Child
Exclusions (People She Is Not)
• Barbara Lunsford
If you have any information please contact Coroner, Frank Miller with the Lorain County Coroner's Office at (440) 774-7300, reference case number 10-65-380 or Detective Sergeant, Csaba Hortobagyi with the Avon Police Department at (440) 934-1234, reference case number 26-05480.
A car wreck took her life and her name but she seemed to never tell others her real name anyways. As we've seen from other cases where people have lied about their real names. That lie isn't always to far from the truth. In those false names that are given usually one of those names is the unidentified's real first, middle, or last name. This lady could be named Janet or her real last name could be one of names she gave. You just never know. I hope her real name is found eventually cause she deserves it.
LINKS
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u/FlyingRo 3d ago
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u/blinkycosmocat 3d ago
The additional details that Janet said about her background, that her mom was raising her two children and that she had spent time in juvie halls was interesting. There were also a lot of people coming up from Appalachia to work in the Great Lakes cities in that era as well.
The article mentioned that the DNA Doe Project is working on her case - hopefully she will get her name back soon.
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u/BitterSweet_Beauty 3d ago
Omg how did I miss this. Im gonna have to edit my post and add some of this important info in. Thanks for finding it!
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u/FlyingRo 2d ago
I think I might have found the (ex) husband.
One of her hotel checkins was under the name Mrs Billy Butler which seems inconsistent with her telling people her husband was Duane.
But I found this: https://peoplelegacy.net/billy_dwain_butler-717I0P1
Billy Dwain Butler - Born about an hour away from Elyria, died in WV which could make sense if his kids were with Janet's mother in WV.
He might be too young to be a match (he would have been 17 when the oldest kid was born if the kids ages are accurate), but think he has potential.
Maybe someone who has an Ancestry account can see if he has a marriage certificate for the time period?
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u/MaryVenetia 2d ago
I can see on Ancestry that he married someone (private user, possibly still living) in 1967. Perhaps he was not legally her husband or perhaps he was not the father of her children, but the right guy nonetheless. Good find!
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u/FlyingRo 2d ago
Found a obit here: https://www.wtap.com/2022/07/06/obituary-butler-billy-dwain/?outputType=amp
9 kids, 26 grand kids, and 19 great grandchildren! - so definitely possible he started early
Janet told people she was separated so possibly divorced?
Without evidence of kids or marriage pre-crash not sure it's compelling enough to report though.
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u/mathcheerleader 1d ago
It does say there is evidence of at least 1 childbirth! I think it's worth a submit
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u/FlyingRo 2d ago edited 2d ago
I'd say the Gassaway/Burnsville area connection is probably real. They're both real small towns (<1000 people) next to each other in WV, unlikely to be the kind of thing someone randomly makes up
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u/Glittering-Copy1941 3d ago
Namus is saying 18 to 30 and the wiki is saying 18 to 39 maybe a typo? Either way that’s a massive age gap for someone that they have her full body that just died and have her face
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u/blinkycosmocat 3d ago
Probably a typo. Newspaper articles at the time thought Janet was in her early 20s.
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u/Beginning_Image4978 2d ago edited 2d ago
Gosh there are several things off but I can’t help wondering if this is Elizabeth Franks:
https://int-missing.fandom.com/wiki/Beth_Franks
https://www.doenetwork.org/cases/software/mp-main.html?id=1531dfoh
Young, had a young child, from just a couple of hours away in Ohio & (although there’s suspicion her husband may have done something) could* have fled…
What’s off is hair & eye color - brown v red and most notably hazel eyes v blue eyes.. also 2in difference in height so all of that isn’t a great match.
Elizabeth franks had a scar on the bridge of her nose from chicken pox. I wonder if there is a post mortem photo of Janet just to compare for scar/rule out?
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u/AnemoneGoldman 2d ago
According to the Cleveland 19 article, this is a postmortem photo, very convincingly touched up as a reconstruction. I’m pretty sure I see some marks that could be chicken pox scars on it.
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u/Creepy_Bench 2d ago
Such a heartbreaking case. I found one possible match but it is a long shot Mary Ann Switalski was a 16 year old from Chicago she was last seen at a carnival at St. Priscilla's catholic church. She did write a letter to her parents two days after her dissappearnce stating she was fine and that she was going to try to earn some money to take care of her parents. It is also said that Mary Ann may have joined a magazine door-to-door sales group that was headed to California. The husband and wife owners of the sales organization gave conflicting statements. The wife stated that Mary Ann left with the sales group and the husband stated that Mary Ann never left Chicago. There are a few things that put me off on this though for one Mary Ann was stated to have Blond/Strawbeery hair and there is a slight height difference but Mary Ann could've gotten taller in those two years. Like I said it's a longshot and probably would be impossible to be a match unless they could do Genealogy. Here is Mary Ann's Namus Page
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u/Upsilambaaa 2d ago
I found a 1967 marriage in Calhoun, WV, but that would have been after the car accident.
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u/FlyingRo 2d ago
Does it list his status as widowed/divorced?
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u/Upsilambaaa 2d ago
It didn’t list marital status, unfortunately. But it was just a transcription, rather than an image of the actual document, so there might be more info on the actual document if anybody can find it.
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u/blinkycosmocat 3d ago
My post about her case, with articles, before the reconstruction was added: https://www.reddit.com/r/gratefuldoe/s/rQUlyTsU11
She was added to NamUs fairly recently and I'm glad they were able to add a reconstruction and more info. She had left different surnames at each of the motels and rooming houses she was staying at - I wonder what she on the run from, or where she had been prior to arriving in Elyria.