BARBWIRE by ANDREW BARBANO Pirate Laureate of the High Desert Outback of the American Dream The Barbwire Molly Ivins Memorial Columniator Hall of Flames

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This column will be on the press when Washoe County Sheriff Darin Balaam hosts his Tuesday, May 7, press conference to "announce" a major break in the 1982 Sheep Flats Murder cold case.

The same major break that the DNA Doe Project announced last year. The same one The New York Times reported on April 25 and I picked up in this newspaper on MayDay.

Anyone with web savvy knows that you can set up a keyword retrieval that will send you everything that pops up on the Internet with your parameters, e.g., "police involved shootings."

So what's wrong with this picture?

JUSTICE DELAYED. Did no one in law enforcement or the legit news media implement such a standing websearch? I hope some of my colleagues will have asked Sheriff Balaam some hard questions rather than act as PR stenographers.

I called around when his press release broke last Monday. Mainstream media had no idea that this story was already stale. So whassup?

Balaam certainly needs some positive press after four jail deaths in the first four months of his administration. Aw hell, who cares if jailbirds live or die, anyway?

In 2015, former Sheriff Chuck E. Cheese announced using a radical "new" cold case investigative technique, better known as Facebook. That turned out be an early warning of a one-termer.

Here's last week's Barbwire item: "WTF DEPT. Online genealogical criminal investigation was poo-poohed by law enforcement until it caught Golden State Killer Joseph DeAngelo, a retired cop now charged with (so far) 26 counts of murder, rape and kidnapping. On April 25, The New York Times reported that a week before DeAngelo's April 2018 arrest, the dogged group of crime-tracking women at the DNA Doe Project [received DNA to identify] a woman found shot to death on a Reno hiking trail in 1982. So why did I read about it in the Times? As of Monday (4-29-2019), it had received no coverage by local media."

I e-mailed Reno Police Chief Jason Soto for info and police drawings last week but I guess the body was found outside the city limits. (Turned out he was out of town.)

Here's the DNA Doe Project writeup from last year. (The DNA Doe illustration is better than either of the local efforts. See the expanded web edition of this column at Barbwire.US/)

"Sheep Flats Jane Doe was a woman found shot to death near Lake Tahoe in Nevada in 1982. Her nickname originated from the fact that she was discovered in the Sheep Flats area outside of Mt. Rose on a hiking trail. When discovered, there were two sets of foot prints leading to the scene from the parking area, and one set returning. No one had seen her in the Tahoe area in the days before her body was found. An autopsy has shown that her last meal was a salad.

"She was originally believed to be from Europe due to inoculation scars on her arm and her dental work. An independent dental examination in 2010 has discredited this original assumption. She was dressed for a day at the lake: jeans and t-shirt over a blue bathing suit. Upon close forensic inspection, it was determined the t-shirt was sold only on the West Coast, leading investigators to believe she may have visited or had been residing in one of the western states before her murder. Sheep Flats Jane Doe is currently buried at Our Lady of Sorrows on North Virginia Street in Reno, NV.

"In July 2018, DNA Doe Project announced Sheep Flats Jane Doe had been tentatively identified; in September her identity was confirmed by the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office. [Emphasis added] The Sheriff’s Office is withholding further information due to the ongoing homicide investigation.

"Many thanks go out to all who dedicated their time and energy to identifying Sheep Flats Jane Doe, both those in law enforcement and the DDP volunteers. It took the coordinated efforts of many individuals with diverse skills working many hours to finally uncover the identity of this unfortunate young woman."

This story has been online since last July and hit The Times last month. Sheriff Balaam damn well better have an arrest rather than being pushed to get in front of the story by two newspapers.

UPDATE 5-9-2019 — Sheriff Balaam has so far gotten a free ride from the legit media. Starting after his Tuesday morning May 7 press conference, the three local network TV news departments ran similar items on all of their newscasts for the full 24-hour cycle thru May 8 mid-day. On the morning of May 8, the Reno Gazette-Journal published a front page story with a huge photo of the sheriff standing in front of a slide of the DNA Doe illustration. The story wrapped to an internal page displaying another photo of the sheriff with Dr. Margaret Press who, along with retired rocket scientist Coleen Fitzpatrick, last year identified Sheep Flats Jane Doe as one Mary Edith Silvani of Detroit, Michigan (born 9-29-1948).

The DNA Doe founders appeared in the April 26 New York Times above a photo caption which stated that they "used a genealogy site to identify a Jane Doe found shot to death on a hiking trail near Reno, Nev., in 1982. Now, investigators are trying to find her killer."

That story hit ink on April 26 which probably meant that it was uploaded to nytimes.com on April 25. (The caption may not have made it to the web.) So was the identity of suspect James Richard Curry (identified by Balaam on May 7 and who had committed suicide in police custody in 1983), only just discovered in the 10 days between April 26 and May 7 when Ms. Silvani's identity had been known for some eight months?

So, what did Sheriff Balaam know and when did he know it?

More important, why was the identification of the victim withheld for almost a year? The Times said Ms. Silvani's DNA was submitted to DNA Doe (on former Sheriff Chuck Allen's watch) one week before accused Golden State Killer James DiAngelo was arrested in April of 2018. Ms. Silvani was identified "within a few months," according to The Times.

Did it take most of a year to track down Curry whose DNA was not in the federal CODIS system, according to a TV report? The clue that led to Curry, also identified via DNA, was apparently provided by family or acquaintances of Ms. Silvani or Detroit police. Local media apparently have not asked such questions, or if they have, they chose not to report responses. (Or perhaps I missed it.)

Two Reno-Gazette-Journal reporters and one editor received bylines as well as a staff photographer. Their story took up all of about 175 words with no information on the background of the murder or, most important, when the identifications were made and why the information had been withheld from the public for so long.

At minimum, Sheriff Balaam might have invited his predecessor Sheriff Allen, on whose watch the DNA genealogy research began.

No one has yet called Mr. Balaam to account for the four jail inmate deaths (so far) on his watch. Media just report what the county PR department spoonfeeds them. Are more jail staff needed? Better training? Better intake and followup? Better mental health care? I suggest that the answer is "yes" to all of the above and much more. Shortstaffing and under-training endanger both jailers and inmates. Such issues were debated by the 2018 sheriff candidates but who cares now that the election is over and local elected officials have more important things to do than worry about the sub-par flesh warehouse on Parr Blvd.?

As the few capable journalists left standing have oft-remarked about green reporters who use Reno as a short rung on a career ladder, the newbies are indeed too new in the market with employers providing few if any experienced editors to guide them. Budget and staff cuts have infected media institutional memories with Alzheimer's. And DNA research can't cure the as-yet unidentified defective gene for corporate greed.

Robert Frost might say that they are "neither out far nor in deep."

Comedian Bill Maher was more direct: "Americans don't do nuance." So stay tuned.

POLLCATS. Sen. Heidi Gansert, R-Reno, and the GOP are polling public opinion to see if voters will support Gov. Sisolak changing course and advocating a tax increase for education now that the state budget is looking stingy, as usual. Such is the hangover of decades of corporate welfare addiction. Aw, who cares about schools anyway? Kids can always get jobs parking cars at casinos.

¡Sí se puede!
___________________

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Copyright © 1982-2019 Andrew Barbano

Andrew Barbano is a 50-year Nevadan, editor of NevadaLabor.com and SenJoeNeal.org; and former chair of the City of Reno's Citizens Cable Compliance Committee. He is the executive producer of Nevada's annual César Chávez Day celebration and serves as first vice-president and political action chair of the Reno-Sparks NAACP. As always, his opinions are strictly his own. E-mail barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us.

Barbwire by Barbano moved to Nevada's Daily Sparks Tribune on Aug. 12, 1988, and has originated in them parts ever since.
Whom to blame: How a hall-of-famer's hunch birthed the Barbwire in August of 1987
Tempus fugit.

Betty J. Barbano 2-7-1941 / 12-27-2005

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