Detectives in Los Angeles have identified the body of a woman who was found stabbed 150 times near the site of the killings carried out by members of a group headed by Charles Manson. The 19-year-old woman was known simply as Jane Doe No. 59, until now.
Los Angeles police Detective Luis Rivera told People magazine investigators identified the victim as Reet Jurvetson, of Montreal, who moved to California the same year she was murdered.
Rivera told the magazine that investigators can’t rule out that the Manson family was involved in the killing. He said the best lead police have is a man known as “John,” whom Jurvetson met in Toronto before flying to Los Angeles to see him the summer of 1969.
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However, Jurvetson’s sister, and last living member of her immediate family released a statement following the publication of the People article, with the hope it provides new leads for detectives working to find the murderer behind Jurvetson’s gruesome killing.
In the statement, Anne Jurvetson, 73, described her sister as a “lovely, free-spirited and happy girl” who was very artistic and “liked to sew her own clothes.”
Anne explained her sister was the youngest in the family, and Reet was born in Sweden after the family fled Estonia as refugees in 1944 during the Second World War. The family made their way to Montreal in 1951 when Reet was a year old.
“She was deeply loved by both family and friends,” Anne said in the statement.
After graduating high school, Reet moved to Toronto to live with her grandmother after she landed a job with Canada Post.
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“During her teenage years, Reet developed a taste for adventure and freedom, all the while being naive and trusting of others,” Anne said.
In the fall of 1969, Reet went to California and apparently decided to stay there as her sister explained Reet sent her parents a postcard saying she was happy, found a nice apartment in Los Angeles and for them not to worry.
Anne said her family eventually stopped receiving “news” from the 19-year-old and attempts at reaching Reet “proved fruitless.”
“Initially, we believed that Reet was probably in search of more autonomy, and therefore we waited for her to get in touch with us,” Anne said in the statement. “As months and then years passed, we imagined that she was making a new life for herself.”
Anne said the family was always hoping Reet would reach out to friends and family.
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“But no one ever had any new information. However, not once did we suspect that she had been killed,” Anne said.
Reet’s parents did not file a missing person’s report with police as they thought their daughter “was just living her life somewhere and that eventually news from her would turn up.”
“In hindsight, I realize that this is a lack of discernment. But sadly, we did not know how to find someone on the other side of the continent, in another country,” Anne said.
The 73-year-old admitted in the statement that she eventually decided that Reet had probably passed away.
“My little sister was savagely killed,” Anne said in the statement. “I can hardly grasp how she could have been stabbed over 150 times. It is devastating.”
Anne explained the cornorer’s report reveals that her sister wasn’t raped at the time of the killing and that she draws “comfort” from that.
Reet’s body was found Nov. 16, 1969, by a birdwatcher in dense brush off iconic Mulholland Drive.
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After going unidentified for years, Reet eventually became known Jane Doe No. 59. The location and timing of her killing, just a few miles away from several Manson family murders, has long fueled speculation that her case was connected.
In the statement, Anne explained composite drawings of her missing sister were not accurate and “did not resemble her in the least.” In June 2015, Anne explained, Reet’s friends managed to view a post-mortem photograph of Jane Doe No. 59 and after viewing online descriptions of her, they reached out to Anne.
“We spoke with the authorities and, after confirming all aspects of her description, I was asked to provide my DNA. It matched,” Anne said. “Jane Doe #59 now has a name.
“She had one all along, but no one knew,” Anne said in the statement.
Manson became notorious in 1969 as the leader of a “family” of young killers that terrified Los Angeles. Manson was convicted of killing seven people, including pregnant actress Sharon Tate, the wife of director Roman Polanski.
“I am horrified to think of how terribly frightened and alone she must have felt as she died,” Anne said.
Anyone with information related to Reet’s stay in California is asked to write or call Detective Luis Rivera of the Los Angeles Police Department.
–with a file from The Associated Press