Family Bids Farewell 28 Years After Teen's Death
[url]http://kdka.com
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ¯ Twenty-eight years ago today, a girl disappeared. For years her family hoped and prayed she would come home, but there will never be a happy homecoming. Today her family buried her remains.



Jean Marie Stewart of Brookline was coming back home from her sister's wedding when she disappeared in Florida. She had her plane ticket, her bags were packed, and she was looking forward to seeing her family, but then she suddenly vanished.



It was before DNA became a common forensic tool, when human remains were found in a Florida field, just a year after her disappearance.



It took the perseverance of a few who refused to forget to solve part of the mystery surrounding her death.



At St. Bernard Church, family and friends said goodbye.



"She's never been forgotten. Whenever I think of my childhood, of course I would think of the Stewart family, there were nine kids," childhood friend Christine Dumm said.



Stewart, 16, grew up in Brookline. The pretty teenager was last seen March 25, 1980 in Miami Lake, Dade City, Florida where she had been staying with her boyfriend and his family.



A year later, remains were found in a field not far away, but they were never identified as Jean Marie's until 2007.



"Oh, I never gave up on it. Absolutely not," retired Police Chief Therese Rocco said.



Even though it was not her case, retired Pittsburgh Assistant Police Chief Therese Rocco offered her help making sure Florida investigators had Jean Marie's dental records right after she vanished.



But she said they never treated the case as anything but a runaway.



"I eventually turned it over to a search magazine, which I communicated with many, many times," Rocco said.



That search magazine evolved into search engines and websites like Porchlight and the Doe Network and other interactive sources for missing and unidentified persons.



Two women in particular got Miami Dade Police to reopen the case and Jean Marie was at long last identified.



"I will never, never be able to understand how this wasn't solved 27 years ago," Rocco said.



Jean Marie's death has been ruled a homicide and her former boyfriend is considered a suspect. Just last month, Florida detectives, who are now seriously pursuing this case, flew here to pay a visit to Therese Rocco to see how she might help them.


http://kdka.com/local/Jean.Marie.Stewart.2.684601.html

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Do you have a link to this story? All articles hun must have the original link. IF there was no link provided, then I have to remove this.

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no i got this from myspace i'm sorry if i did something wrong.

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its ok, we just have to have the url to any article we place on here

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if you can find it, you can place it again.

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Lawdog found the link, so i placed the article back. ty

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thanks lawdog and lulu.

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more then welcome

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