Who Was Reet Jurvetson, and What Happened To Her?
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| Reet at Age 18 |
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| 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 23rd, 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.
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| 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 16th, 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 21st 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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:
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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 14th
(or 15th
potentially), there was a man named Christopher Jesus, Zero, or better
yet, John Haught (his real name) that died on November 5th
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.
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| 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’.
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| 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.
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| 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:
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| 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….
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| Paul Robert Young...who looks a lot like Morrison |
Either way here are the pictures of what he is reported to have
looked like:
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| 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.
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.
[SOURCES]
