DOE: ID 'Valentine Sally' Carolyn Eaton

Episode 101 DOE: ID 'Valentine Sally' Carolyn Eaton

On Valentine's Day, February 14th, 1982, the body of a young woman was discovered by a worker along interstate 40 in Williams, Arizona. It became clear quickly to investigators that she had been murdered, and her body dragged out of sight of the road. She was given the moniker 'Valentine Sally' An autopsy revealed that she had died from suffocation or asphyxiation. One potential clue found by the ME, was that Valentine Sally had recently had a tooth drilled in preparation for a root canal, and baby aspirin remnants were found packed into the open hole in her gum.Police were able to find multiple witnesses that they were confident had interacted with Valentine Sally in the days before she was killed. One of them gave her a ride and recalled her talking about a toothache. The other witness, a truck stop waitress, was the one who provided Valentine Sally with the baby aspirin for her gum. This waitress was able to describe an older man in a cowboy hat who was with Valentine Sally, and a sketch was made of him

Police sifted through hundreds of missing persons cases to ID Valentine Sally. They came to believe that she was Melody Cutlip; a runaway from Florida who left home in 1980. Despite Melody's mother saying that Valentine Sally was not her daughter, officials buried her and marked her headstone with the name Melody Cutlip, and closed her case. The case was thrown for a loop, when the real Melody Cutlip showed up alive and well. Police were back to square one with not much to go on.

Decades later, genealogy would provide detectives with Valentine Sally's real name; it was Carolyn Eaton who had run away from her Missouri home following an argument with her mom, over the holidays in late 1981, or close to New Year's 1982. Now police know who Valentine Sally really is, but they don't know who killed her. It seems likely that they have his DNA, and they also have the sketch of the man last seen with Carolyn. Time will tell if it's enough to close her case once and for all.

After four decades, Valentine Sally finally has her name back, it's Carolyn Eaton, and this is her story.

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