Draft:Virginia Brooks (unsolved murder)

Virginia Brooks was a child murder victim from San Diego, California. Her dismembered body was found in a burlap sack on the Camp Kearney Mesa on March 10, 1931. Her murder remains unsolved.

Virginia Brooks
Born	1920 July 10 Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
Disappeared	1931 February 11
Body discovered	1931 March 10
Burial place	Mount Hope Cemetery, San Diego, California, USA
Parents	John F. Brooks (father) Blanche (mother)

The Murder of Virginia Brooks

Virginia Brooks was born on July 10, 1920 in Indianapolis, Indiana. She was the middle child of John F. Brooks and his wife Blanche. She disappeared on the morning of February 11, 1931 while on her way to Euclid Elementary School. Her body was found March 10, 1931 at the Camp Kearney Mesa, near San Diego, California. Her body was discovered by a shepherd, George Moses, when his dog pointed out the body wrapped in a burlap sack. Opening it, he was horrified to see the contents and ran to the highway to hail a passing car so they could summon the police. Virginia's body was dismembered, with both of her legs having been cut off. She still wore the plain smock her mother had dressed her in before she left for school, and it was the only thing with which investigators could identify Virginia. The shepherd who found her said that her body could have not been there the day before because he had passed the scene and would have noticed it. It was determined she had already been dead for four weeks at this point, killed shortly after her abduction. Two hair strands were left behind on her body, one caught under Virginia's left thumb nail and the other matted in blood on her left palm. Some newspapers reported the hair strands as blonde while others reported them as from a brunette individual, jet black. Beside the body they found, in another sack, the books which the little girl carried from her home on her way to school. Near the girl's body fresh automobile tracks were found running in a wide circle to the highway some distance off, possibly from an older model car with high-pressure tires. Investigators also found a box near the body that may have contained surgeon's gloves. There was also a bottle that, it was believed, contained acid used by the murderer in an effort to dispose of the body.

Investigation

Based on the deterioration of the body, as well as leaf mold attached to the girl's dress, the forensic specialist, Rex Welch, and other investigators speculated she had been killed elsewhere. Welch also took a special interest in the red clay soil found within the sack containing Virginia's body. Welch concluded that the soil came from around Camp Kearney Marine Corps Base, two and a half miles north of the drop site. He thought it possible that the killer had kept the girl's body in or near one of the old abandoned barracks and may even have temporarily buried her in the soil. Besides the girl's body and the soil, the burlap sack also contained palm leaves. However efforts to use forensic palm leaf data failed because there were simply too many palm trees in the area. After scrutiny, it was discovered that three of the hairs found on Virginia's body matched her own, and one single unidentified hair was suggested only to be male and darker than Virginia's. There was speculation that she may have been strangled. Investigation of the tire tracks proved difficult because of the common practice at the time of getting worn out tires retreaded or capped.

Burial

On Saturday, March 21, 1931 about four thousand people attended the memorial and burial services for Virginia Brooks at Rogers Mortuary on University Avenue in San Diego, California. Services were led by W.A. Tenny, representing the Mormon Church of Latter-day Saints, of which Virginia was a member, and closed out by Reverend H.K. Holzinger of the Asbury Methodist Church. Virginia sometimes attended Sunday school at the Methodist church. Virginia Brooks was laid to rest at Mount Hope Cemetery.