Myra Elvira's Morbid Curiosities: Who Was Reet Jurvetson?

Who Was Reet Jurvetson, and What Happened To Her?

Reet at Age 18

Marina Habe | She was killed 11 months before Reet

When looking unsolved murders and especially those related to the Manson Family, two names that always seem to pop up are Marina Habe and Reet Jurvetson. For almost 50 years, Reet was known as Jane Doe 59 (or Sherry Doe 59), until she was identified in 2015. While we know how she was found, there are so many questions as to how she ended up the way she did.

Reet Jurvetson was born September 23^rd, 1950, in Sweden. She was the child of Estonian parents, with an older brother and sister, that fled their country in 1944 during the height of WWII. Her family settled in Montreal, Quebec, where she subsequently grew up. Reet’s sister describes her as having been a “lovely’, free-spritied, and happy girl”. Reet enjoyed sewing her own clothes, was artistic, and drew well. She sang in her youth choir and was involved in Girl Guides (Girl Scouts in the U.S.). Reet’s sister described that she was loved by friends and family deeply. Reet’s friends also knew her to be free spirited. She really seemed to be a ‘child of the modern day’ as I would personally observe, since she enjoyed things that many young people do today. She liked music such as The Rolling Stones, and The Doors.

Reet on the far right, in the blue dress

According to the Reet Jurvetson website, Reet grew a taste for adventure and freedom, while also being naive and trusting of others. She is stated as having a strict family life that included revolving around the church, in which she ended up rebelling against.

She moved to Toronto, Ontario and found work at the Canada Post. There, she lived with her grandmother. It was here that she met a man named Jean at a cafe, which from what I have read, was called ‘Cafe Image’. She is described as having been absolutely smitten with this man, who bore a strong resemblance to Jim Morrison from The Doors. This Jean character then moved to Los Angeles, California. At the age of 19, Reet is cited as having decided to visit California in the fall of 1969. Reet is described as having decided to visit California to see Jean, then deciding to live there, and/or going to America to visit her older brother in Arizona, stopping in Los Angeles first to see Jean. Friends of Reet stated that initially she was going to try hitchhiking to Los Angeles, but was eventually convinced to take a bus instead. Eventually she made it to her destination.

While there she apparently decided to stay in California, and sent her parents and a close friend postcards stating that she was happy, and told her parents not to worry. The postcard to her friend was of the Hollywood sign, and the one to her family was of the coast. This would be the last time that anyone heard from her.

On November 16^th, 1969, a 15 year old boy who’d been bird watching found the body of a white female fully clothed off Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles. The woman had been stabbed multiple times, with many of the wounds on her neck. The victim died of these wounds about two days before her body had been discovered. The body had seemingly been dumped in the spot, and a tree branch prevented her body from rolling down the 699 foot (213 m) ravine completely. The branch that held the doe’s body was 15 feet (5m) down the ravine.

The autopsy found that the doe had been stabbed over 150 times (157), in the neck, chest, and torso with a pen knife. The amount of wounds indicated overkill, and to this day is believed to be a crime of passion because of this. Defensive wounds were found, on her hands, and some of the other wounds severed her carotid artery. It is believed that her body was dumped in the location it was found, and that the murderer was right handed. She wasn’t a victim of robbery or sexual assault, had eaten about two hours before being killed, and neither drugs or alcohol were found to be in her system.

The doe was listed as having been between 20-23 years old, 5’9”, and 112 pounds. She had green eyes, dark brown hair, and vaccination scars on her left arm and left thigh. A one quarter inch scar was below her left breast, with a birthmark on her right buttock. She had received several silver amalgam fillings in both her upper and lower jaw. Other than these points, there weren’t any other identifying marks, or items in her possession that could have identified her.

The investigation as to what happened to this doe concluded that the victim had been placed in the back seat of a car, driven to the disposal site, and her body dragged out of the car to be thrown down the ravine. On November 21^st of that year, a pair of Liberty Brand glasses were found 50 feet from the doe’s body. The person that would have owned the glasses would have been nearsighted, though overall, there was never any lead to go on about the glasses.

Her clothes

Initially, the doe was believed to be from either Spain or Canada, since her clothes were made from both places. She was found wearing cut-off shorts from Massachusetts, a leather belt with a brass belt buckle, and a sweater. She also wore two metal rings, one being white, and the other yellow. The yellow ring had a red stone, and the white one had Native American designs, having been made in Mexico.

The rings she wore

A drawing of the doe’s face was created not too long after she was found. Afterwards, the drawings were made by Barbara Martin-Bailey. Eventually, a forensically reconstructed picture of the doe’s face was made, to give a guess as to what she may have looked like in life.

Because of the location of the doe’s body, the authorities suspected that the Manson family had something to do with it. During this time period, the Tate-LaBianca murders had already happened, and most of the Family murderers were already being questioned. Apparently, Manson himself was asked before and after the doe was identified if he knew of any involvement, but he denied any. In 2016 when the doe was identified as Reet, Manson was asked again, but despite claiming any knowledge, LAPD stated him and his associates were not cleared.

Interestingly, a woman fitting the doe’s description was recalled being seen at Spahn Ranch. Apparently a person who may or may not have been from the Family, informed the police of this, and stated that the doe went by the name ‘Sherry’.

Nonetheless, the doe remained unknown for 45 years until 2015.

In 2015, a friend, Gilda Green, of Reet’s older sister, Anne, had been searching through the NamUS website (National Missing and Unidentified Persons System) when they had came across Jane Doe 59’s morgue photo. They claimed that when they saw the photo, they thought that it had looked like Reet. The friend told another friend, to confirm that they though it looked like Reet, of which they then told Anne. Anne submitted her DNA which was compared to a bloodstained bra of the doe’s. The DNA matched. Jane Doe 59 was Anne’s sister.

In April 2016, a formal announcement was made that Jane Doe 59 was Reet Jurvetson, who had gone missing after moving to Los Angeles from Canada.

Once Anne Jurvetson had seen the reconstruction picture and drawings of her sister, she criticized all of them, due to their inaccuracy. Anne stated that they had little representation as to how her sister had appeared in life. And I agree with this, though it is interesting to note, that the autopsy photo of Reet that is commonly shown was considered too disturbing, and was “cleaned” or doctored to hide the stab wounds (keep in mind that she had many, many knife wounds in her neck). Another point I have is that there were three drawings of Reet as the doe, yet only 2 drawings are every typically circulated. The third one is never seen, and it wasn’t until I personally saw a documentary on the mystery that I saw it. I will show it here.

This drawing of Reet definitely looks like her. I wonder if Anne ever saw this one.

Once Reet was identified, little more was done to examine the case; as we have more information now than 5 or 6 years ago, but it’s still not enough. The events that happened were described as before: Reet, working at the Post Office, became smitten with a man who was either than John or Jean. Jean may have been a medical student and spoke with a slight French accent, and moved to California. Reet wanted to follow Jean, and so she went along to Los Angeles too. She moved into an apartment into the now demolished 4 story Paramount hotel at 5311 Melrose Avenue. At about several weeks after moving to California, she sent a postcard to her parents in her native tongue. Translated, the card reads:

The back of the postcard

Dear Mother and Father,

The Weather is nice, and the people are kind.

I have a nice little apartment.

I go frequently to the beach.

Please write to me.

Hugs, Reet

Her family tried to respond many times in the future, but there wasn’t any response.

An ad that Reet's mother put out in 1979

The main suspect of the case is the “Jean” character, though in everything I have read about the case, I haven’t ever come across a last name for this person. Reet lived with Jean and a roommate of his, another unnamed man. Jean was described as having been a Jim Morrison looking man, and the roommate was a shorter man, that had a Beatles style haircut. Allegedly, Reet left or moved out of the apartment from Jean and his roommate on her own volition, though everything was fine. Jean from Canada, or another Jean told Gilda in 1970 upon bumping into her, “"Oh yeah, she was with us for a couple of weeks and then she left on her own and everything's fine. She was happy”. Either way, no-one really knows where Reet went after she moved away from the Jeans. (Apparently both men she lived with were potentially named Jean. Seriously.).

There was a third suspect, an M.Lindhorst, who lived across the apartment when she was at the Paramount.

Another picture of her clothes

A show called the Fifth Estate has also looked into this case, and they learned of a man that may have also been living in this same building as Reet. This man was an admitted heroin addict that tried to burn another man on fire. Apparently the Fifth Estate contacted LAPD about this man, but they were “tight lipped”.

The case went cold until 2003, when a bloody bra was found in a cold case box, and other items from the case were then entered into the computer system. The bra was found essentially in a spot where it shouldn’t have been. The detective that had been working on Reet’s cold case stumbled across it. In the documentary from the Fifth Estate, the bra should have been destroyed with the other evidence of the case.

Which...why would they destroy the evidence? I don’t understand that at all.

Some of Reet's art. A Self portrait?

In the time that Reet has been identified, there has been a website made in her memory and describing the last events that happened before she was never seen again. Many people that came to know the story of Reet Jurvetson asked many questions, such as, “Why wasn’t she ever reported missing?”. Anne states on the website that her parents “Never thought to report Reet missing to the police. They thought that she was just living her life somewhere and that eventually news from her would turn up.”. But in reality, they also did not know “how to find someone on the other side of the continent, in another country, if that was even where she still was.”.

Even though they never reported Reet missing, they grieved her disappearance, and hired people to try finding her. Anne stated, “Attempts were made to reach her, but they proved fruitless.”. These attempts include:

-Family member Tonu soliciting a family friend that was in Los Angeles to “make inquiries” at Reet’s former address.

-Either Reet’s father or another family member hiring a private investigator to find Reet. This investigator (I presume, or Reet’s family) did not know how to find her, with her disappearing so far from them.

Reet with Childhood friend Gilda

Reet’s niece wrote on the website that the Jurvetson family did not file her missing because they honestly did not know that that was what you did. Back then it was believed that the police were contacted in the event of a crime, not for missing persons. Her niece also goes into a few theories about the private investigator, theorizing that her grandfather or uncle never even hired one, there was one hired, but they took the money and ran, or finally, that there was an investigator that looked and went through police records, but the forensic drawings didn’t look like Reet. Even Reet’s niece states that one of the three forensic drawings even looked a bit like Reet.

And honestly, I understand all of this. Unfortunately many things that I have read about that time, there was the mentality that if someone young back then went missing, the police just chalked it up to people wanting to explore the world. Which, in some ways was what Reet did, but up to a point.

Even still, there is the question, what happened to Reet after she moved out from the Jeans?

If what Jean from 1970 told Reet’s friend was true, that Reet moved out and everything was okay, where did she go?

Of course, eyes go back to the Manson family, and their time at Spahn Ranch. I have read a few different theories about Reet having been on the ranch for a small amount of time before her murder, but the end conclusion is all the same. Many people think that if Reet was a Manson victim, it was because she knew too much.

To preface, before Reet was killed on November 14^th (or 15^th potentially), there was a man named Christopher Jesus, Zero, or better yet, John Haught (his real name) that died on November 5^th of that year. Zero’s death was considered a suicide, though the circumstances circling around his death have always been considered peculiar. Essentially, the story goes that Zero went to play Russian Roulette with a revolver, and member Little Patty (Madaline Joan Cottage) told him there was only one bullet in the gun. Zero allegedly spun the chamber, and shot himself. Upon examination, the revolver was fully loaded, and the gun was wiped of fingerprints. In various stories, it is stated that Bruce Davis went up to Zero, shocked that he killed himself, and picked up the gun. Supposedly, once Davis ‘realized what he had done’, he wiped the gun of prints. According to the Cielo Drive page on Zero, an anonymous person stated that one of the girls shot Zero. In Jeff Guinn’s book about Manson, apparently Charlie felt like Zero was weak and would squeal, so he wanted someone to take care of him. I have also read that Zero apparently wanted to die, but he wanted to die when he climaxed, so when he was about to ejaculate, he supposedly shot himself in the head.

Either way, in the theories I have read about Reet, people speculate that she saw what happened to Zero, and potentially was going to tell the truth about what happened, or it seemed that she was going to tell the truth. In order to prevent that from happening, they silenced her.

What is interesting though, is that in Reet’s autopsy, coal dust was found in her lungs, suggesting that she lived near coal mines; there was no evidence of smog in her lungs, suggesting that she was (of course) a newcomer. Tuberculosis was found in her lungs though, which is very interesting since she had some vaccination scars, but I guess she never got vaccinated for that. Also interesting to me is, how did she even catch that?

Allegedly, people at Spahn ranch had seen before she disappeared, and supposedly was even on the phone at Zero’s the day he died.

The pants she wore

At Spahn ranch, there was a woman named Ruby Pearl, who was partial caretaker, partial girlfriend of George Spahn. Apparently Pearl saw Reet at the Ranch, and when shown the clothing that Reet/Jane Doe 59 had worn, she said that she recognized the shirt. Pearl stated that the shirt was something that one of the girls at Spahn ranch was wearing at one point. The name of the girl that Pearl mentioned was called ‘Sherry’.

The real Simi Valley Sherry

Now, before Jane Doe 59 was identified as Reet, there was the idea that Doe 59 was someone called Simi Valley Sherry. This was was the same Sherry Cooper that ended up marrying Danny DeCarlo after the initial Family fizzled out. Basically, Simi Valley Sherry wasn’t Reet. Though, I do not knock the possibility that, if Reet was at Spahn, she went by another name, possibly being known as Sherry. Many if not all members of the Manson Family had multiple aliases, for example Patricia Krenwinkel also went by Katie, and Marnie.

It should also be pointed out that if Reet were the victim of Manson and The Family, she was not the only one. Other than Zero and Marina Habe, there are other people, such as: Joel Pugh, Doreen Gaul, James Sharp, Laurence Marrick, Mark Walts, Nancy Warren, Clida Delaney, Darwin Scott, and Rose Tashman that are believed to been Mason victims too.

Reet's apartment to where she was found.

Going back to the apartment that Reet had before allegedly moving out, the proximity to where she was found was not very far. If you recall, Reet’s apartment with the Jeans was at 5311 Melrose Ave, and of course, she was found on Mulholland, the same exact area where Marina Habe was. The general area of where this apartment was, and where her body was found honestly makes me suspicious. Unfortunately there are no more leads to this area, other than the fact that once again, Spahn ranch, Gary Hinman’s House, and even Eloise Hardt’s houses weren’t that far away. Make of that what you will.

While reading over a web sleuth thread on Reet, some of the people there mentioned some details that I hadn’t seen anywhere else. One point was that at the age of 16, Reet ran away. So in a way, this prior incident may have been one of the reasons why the family initially did not say anything or report her missing. Saying it without saying it, they may have just believed that she essentially ran away again. The web sleuths thread also speculated that it was a bit odd how Reet’s family overall reacted to situation, which personally, I chalk up to cultural and generational differences. An interesting tidbit I read though, was that Reet’s older brother died in December of 2014, she wasn’t discovered by the friend until 2015. While Anne knew the results of the DNA test in December of that year, it wasn’t until April of 2016 that the formal announcement came out of her identity. I think that it is an interesting idea, though of course there is not proof.

An interesting tidbit that was stated way before, was that at the scene where her body was found, there was a pair of Liberty brand glasses. A pair of glasses was also found at the Tate murder sight, though there was never any connection about the glasses. While even brought up in ‘Helter Skelter’, they were a red herring. I looked into this herring a little further though, and it seems that apparently Manson himself left the glasses behind as either way to throw off the police, or connect the Tate murder to the Hinman murder. I have read different theories about this. While at the Reet murder, the glasses left there were stated as having been Liberty brand, the ones left behind at the Tate murder never had the brand specified (from what I read). I could see them also being Liberty brand also, since the website for Liberty glasses is stating as having been around since 1929.

What I wonder either way, is where the glasses came from in the first place. They were not a pair of cheaters from the store, but proven to be someone’s prescription. In the book ‘Helter Skelter’ optometrists everywhere contacted about anyone having had the same prescription as the glasses found at the Tate scene, though no-one ever seemed to have compared. The person that would have worn the glasses was, as described in an article:

-probably a man.
-from 20 to 40 years old.
-had a small head.
-One of his ears was about a quarter of an inch lower than the other.

I have seen people in forums state that the glasses didn’t belong to anyone in the Family. And that may be true. But apparently Manson wouldn’t let anyone wear glasses in the Family, though I have seen mugshot photos of a couple of people with them on. The only killers that I have ever seen wear glasses post incarceration would be Krenwinkel and Tex Watson. But other than that, I don’t know. It is possible that the glasses at Reet’s site may have just been random glasses unconnected to her, or they were another ‘tie in’ to the Hinman murder. If so, this would support the Copy-cat theory that the Tate-LaBianca murders were only committed to let Bobby out of Jail. Though of course, there is always the theory that she either knew too much and had to be silenced, or was “asked” to join and said no. Some people point out how similar to Sharon Tate that Reet looked, and honestly I don’ think that had anything to do with it. Sharon wasn’t targeted for being Sharon Tate. It was Sharon and four other people murdered that night.

Back to Reet:

Paul Robert

In the Fifth Estate doc, there were friends of Reet’s that were able to give a crime scene artist a view of what the Jean character may have looked like. Of course, Jean supposedly looked like Jim Morrison. What I thought was interesting though, was that a picture of one of Reet’s friends (Paul Robert) from when he was young was shown, and he looked like Jim Morrison….

Paul Robert Young...who looks a lot like Morrison

Either way here are the pictures of what he is reported to have looked like:

Paul Robert's drawing of Jean

Jean was stated as having been about 5’9”. Because no-one seems to know his last name, The Fifth Estate and LAPD are asking for anyone to have went to the following Canadian High Schools to scan their yearbooks, so that they could potentially find Jean.

Montreal High School (F.A.C.E. School)
Herzilah High School
James Lyng High School
Laurier MacDonald High School
Lester B. Pearson High School
Rosemont High School
Montreal West High School (Royal West Academy)
St. George’s School of Montreal
Vincent Massey Collegiate
College Prep International

So overall, what do you think happened? If this Jean person was even real, maybe he killed her in a rage. But overkill? I almost think that whoever killed her maybe got mad that she wouldn’t be with them, for example, saying no to dating them. But to murdered for that, stabbed 157 times just doesn’t make sense to me. Further, her death is way too similar to Marina Habe’s to not be connected, let alone a passion crime because someone may have been in love with her.

For quick reference, both Reet and Marina died of stabbings, especially from neck wounds. Both women had their carotid arteries severed, and both women were dumped in the same spots, found 2 days after they were murdered. Both were interested/dating men named John (or Jean). Both women were not raped, did not have drugs in their bodies, and both were fully clothed. Yet, LAPD did not realize that the cases were so related. All LAPD did back then was write down 2 sentences stating that they were aware of the Habe case.

Finally, there is the contention that perhaps Reet was the victim of Rodney Alcala. Alcala was in California at this time I believe, and the murderer is renown for having taken pictures of women, and no-one seeing the women ever again. There is the idea that this following picture is of Reet, potentially.

While I state that that’s a possibility, I don’t know if Alcala could be her murderer, because he almost always raped his victims.

Reet’s parents passed away before they ever knew what happened to their daughter. Once Reet’s older sister Anne found out that she was murdered, Anne wished to at least get the ashes or body to have her buried. Unfortunately, this was not possible. To make the situation worse, Reet’s body was cremated and the ashes were buried in a mass grave with other unidentified bodies from the morgue at that time.

Anne keeps her distance from the public, and wishes that anyone who has any information on Reet and her case, to contact the Los Angeles Police Department, since the case is still open. If you know anything, please come forward.