On August 24th of 1982, a pair of hikers out looking for mushrooms in Gambrills State Park in Frederick, Maryland chanced across a steamer trunk, which was partially covered with leaves and sticks, but did not appear to have been deliberately concealed. What the hikers found inside the trunk sent them hightailing it out of the area to summon the police.
When authorities arrived, they processed the scene. The abandoned trunk contained the skeletal remains of a white female, thought to be between eighteen and twenty-five years old but possibly as old as forty-five, standing around five-foot-two to five-foot-six, and weighing between one-hundred and one-hundred-thirty pounds. She had medium-length, reddish-brown hair and extensive dental work—including several fillings, two crowns, and a root canal—which appeared as though they had been performed quite a long time in the past or perhaps by a student at a dental school. No clothing or jewelry was found with the body; the only other object recovered from the trunk was a dark-colored towel.
Due to the state of decomposition, neither the cause of death nor the time of the homicide could be determined. The pathologist estimated that the woman could have been dead for up to ten years, and that it was possible she could have been strangled, but this was by no means certain.
The victim had suffered from a back injury known as spondylolysis, and this fact, coupled with the significant wear on her pelvis, suggested that in life she had been a dancer, cheerleader, or gymnast, leading her to be dubbed by investigators, “The Cheerleader in the Trunk.”
Unfortunately, her remains were far too degraded to obtain either fingerprints or DNA, though an updated sketch of her face was released to the public in 2012 in the hopes that someone would recognize her. And in 2020, a more accurate rendering was produced; furthermore, authorities also announced that the victim was most probably around twenty-seven years of age, had likely died in 1979, and was not from Maryland. They also surmised that she might have been a runaway or someone who had cut ties with her family.
As of this writing, though, her identity and that of the person who killed her are still a mystery.
Crime Immemorial 