It Took 50 Years to Identify Murder Victim Reet Jurvetson: Manson Link?
Kym L Pasqualini
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Dec 2, 2019 · 13 min read
Reet Silvia Jurvetson was born September 23, 1950, in Sweden and grew up in Montreal, Canada. A remarkably beautiful and bright young girl with a taste for adventure.
The youngest of the children in the family, Jurvetson’s parents were Estonian refugees who traveled to Canada in 1951, settling in Montreal, Quebec, where Reet grew up.
Her older sister Anne describes Jurvetson as “a lovely, free-spirited and a happy little girl. She was very artistic, drew well, and liked to sew her own clothes. She was involved in Girl Guides and sang in the youth choir.”
Reet Jurvetson at 16 years old.
Free and independent but also naive, after graduating high school, Jurvetson got a job at Canada Post Office in Toronto, Ontario and moved there with her grandmother. She saved her earnings and in the fall of 1969, traveled to California to visit a man named “Jean” or “John” that she had met in Toronto.
Friends of Jurvetson said the man was handsome and looked like Jim Morrison with a slight French accent. Witnesses stated they believed the man had been a medical student, but little more is known about the mysterious young man.
Following her move, she sent her parents a postcard telling her parents in the Estonian language, she had a nice apartment in a 4-story hotel, located at 5311 Melrose Ave., #306 in Hollywood, Calif. In the note, she told her parents not to worry. Reet also sent a postcard to her best friend.
The card was translated:
The last postcard Reet Jurvetson sent her parents in Canada in 1969.
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
There was no communication to follow. Attempts to reach Jurvetson in California were futile. Her family prayed she was okay and hoped Jurvetson was just searching for her independence in a place where so many others from around the world had gone to seek something more to life.
The family never filed a missing person report in Canada but did send someone to Hollywood to check the address listed on the postcard but informed Jurvetson no longer resided there. A private investigator had also been hired but was unable to uncover any additional details. Jurvetson’s parents resigned themselves to believing she had left on her own and hoped she would return but her mother gave up she would one day return.
A message left for Reet by her mother in the years following her disappearance. Source: Fifth Estate.
Her parents waited for Jurvetson to contact them. Months, and then years passed.
In the years following, Jurvetson’s father suffered in silence and would not discuss his daughter. Her mother began sleeping in Reet’s bedroom.
Years later, Jurvetson’s older sister Anne found a stack of birthday cards in her mother’s dresser, each one made out to Jurvetson, with a question mark next to her name.
The family heartbroken, years of ambiguity engulfed their hearts.
1969 in California
1969 was the year the United States heard the immortal words, “that’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” California was ground zero for anti-war demonstrations and a public demand to withdraw from Vietnam.
Gas was .35 cents a gallon, the movie “Love Bug” was a popular film, painted peace signs adorned the cheeks of young women with headbands on their heads. The young caravanned cross-country to come together in the search for enlightenment and peace and to put an end to all war. Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, the Doors and the Beatles inspired avid young music fans everywhere. The Beatles song “Get Back” was number one on the music charts.
1969 was the year 400,000 gathered in Woodstock, NY, in a peaceful music gathering. Following Woodstock, the Rolling Stones organized a free concert at Altamont Speedway in Livermore, Calif., along with the Hells Angels acting as bouncers.
1969 Rolling Stones concert with Hells Angels in Altamont Speedway in Livermore, California.
What was to be a peaceful concert, turned violent, resulting in several deaths. That was just the beginning of several horrific incidents that would follow.
August 9–10, 1969, is marred forever after Charles Manson and his followers killed actress Sharon Tate and seven others in a two-night murderous rampage. Gaining worldwide attention, the world would soon find out how self-appointed guru Charles Manson directed the killings his followers would execute. However, the Tate-LaBianca murders may not have been the only murders the Manson Family were responsible for in the Hollywood Hills that year.
A Body is Discovered
On November 16, 1969, a fully-clothed body of a young white female was found by a 15-year old boy who was out bird-watching. The body was discovered in dense brush along Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles, approximately 15-feet down an almost 700-foot ravine. A tree branch had prevented her body from falling the remainder of the way down.
An autopsy determined the female victim had been murdered approximately 24–48 hours prior to the discovery. The victim had defensive wounds on her hands and had been stabbed over 150 times in the neck, chest, and torso, with a penknife, some of the stabbing severing the carotid artery.
Common pocket penknife in the 1960s.
The coroner determined by examination of the knife wounds, the perpetrator was likely right-handed. The young woman had no alcohol or drugs in her system and it was determined no sexual assault had occurred. No identification was found on the body or surrounding location.
Evidence at the crime-scene suggested the body had been transported to the location in the back seat and dragged around the rear of the vehicle, then rolled down the ravine where the tree branch prevented her from falling further down the canyon.
Crime scene on Mulholland Dr. in Hollywood, California.
Several articles of clothing were found on the body. A pair of Italian boots and jacket made in Montreal, and a pair of “Levi” cut-off shorts made in Boston, Mass. The victim also wore a belt with a brass buckle, and sweater, along and two rings, one white with Native American designs determined to be from Mexico and one ring with a red stone.
One strong piece of evidence Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) found was approximately 50-feet from the victim’s body. A pair of “Liberty” brand glasses that belonged to a near-sighted individual. However, it was never determined if these glasses were directly related to the homicide.
The unidentified homicide victim became known as “Jane Doe 59.”
READ ON ABOUT REET'S CASE HERE:
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