49:Annie Jean Powell:1972, Gary, Forgotten

   

   We have so little record of Annie Jean Powell. Fifteen year old Annie Jean Powell was the daughter of Mathew Powell and Ruth Davis. She had an Aunt named Julia Turner who lived at 3915 Carey Street in East Chicago, Illinois. We know these things about her only from her death certificate. At first I thought I could not write about her because I had so little to go on.  But I had to write what I could. 

   When I research some people I can usually find yearbook photos of them from elementary school on up.  I can find them on Findagrave.com.  I can see birth certificates and mentions in the paper for an activity at school or even their obituary. I haven’t been able to find a photo of Annie yet. 

   Sometimes I can search the parent’s names and find more information about the child. Sadly, in this case her parents both have very common names making them difficult to search. 

   I found Annie Jean Powell originally by searching Newspapers.com and entering “body found” in the state of Indiana and the year 1972.  I was compiling information about unsolved murders in Indiana. That’s how I first found Annie. 

   The few documents I can pull up about Annie paint a picture of a hard life. Annie was young and black and did not seem to have much in the way of family support. She grew up living through the Civil Rights struggle.  It was an inspiring time and a time when new rights were hard won. It was also a time of rising racism of white people against black people. Cities in the North and the South were filling in and closing their public pools rather than integrate them.  An elementary school in Nashville was bombed rather than let black children attend. Those are only two examples out of many others. 

   We all know about “Missing White Woman Syndrome”.  It’s the intense focus that a pretty white woman will get from the newspapers and other news media while missing black women and girls will rarely make the news. If it is tragically unfair now it was a hundredfold worse in 1972.  It was especially difficult for Annie to get an investigation and any press. If she had indeed run away from a foster home she was probably labeled as difficult or troubled.  Who did she have in her corner?  There was no one to put up billboards, write articles, hand out fliers. You have to have money and the ability to take time away from work to do those things. Poor people are too busy struggling for basic resources. It’s not easy to keep a community together under these extreme conditions. Annie had no one to call the police detectives and ask about progress on the case.  Justice for Annie would not come. 

   Annie was only 15.  The articles about her body being found were another source of information but they seem filled with sensational details. If those details are true they tell a story of a very vulnerable girl in an impossible situation. 

   Her death certificate listed her address as “State School in Indianapolis”.  I first wondered if that meant a reform school or maybe the Indiana State School for the Deaf.  One article quotes a police detective Nicholas Roytan who said that she had run away from a foster home in Gary in the prior year.  We could perhaps assume she was placed in a state housing situation while awaiting a new foster home placement. 

   We do know that Annie lived in Indianapolis.  On December 11th 1972 she received a service and a receipt for this was found in her purse when her body was found. 

   She lived in Indianapolis but had gone to Gary, Indiana. An article said that she had been staying in Indianapolis with a 44 year old man.  Detective Roytan said that the man claimed he had put her on a bus to Gary to visit friends on December 22nd. That man is never named. Was he a relative? Was he an abuser? We don’t know but we can guess. 

  Annie was found on December 27th and her body was identified by her Aunt on December 30th 1972. It was reported that she had been shot with a .38 caliber revolver. She was found topless. The death certificate reads: “Bullet wound of left arm and laceration of left chest lung, heart and liver massive internal hemorrhage”.  Put yourself in that pose.  I think she was trying to cover her breasts by putting her left forearm over them and turning away from the shooter. 

  I think she was forced to walk at gunpoint to the place she was killed.  I think she was forced to take her shirt off.  I think she began to refuse and struggle.  Perhaps she was screaming and crying. Perhaps he was worried about the noise or angry at the resistance and that was when he shot her. She died fighting. 

   Who killed Annie?  We don’t know. *

   Fern Oaks Cemetery in Griffith, Indiana is the final resting place of many people with the last name of Powell.  It seems that those were her family members from her father’s side. According to Annie Jean’s death certificate she was buried there.  According to Findagrave.com, however, she is not there.  I imagine she was buried there with a temporary marker and perhaps at some point that marker got damaged by a lawnmower and her resting place was lost. 

   We don’t know why her parents never married. We don’t know how old her mother was when Annie was born.  We know nothing about the health of her mother or father.  Perhaps her father died before they could marry.  Perhaps her mother died after she was born.   We don’t know why she was not living with family.  I suspect generational poverty or health reasons had a great deal to do with those circumstances. People with lots of resources can easily raise a child. People with no resources have very few options. 

   On June 26, 1957 Annie Jean Powell came into the world as a tiny baby.  She was born to Ruth Davis.  Annie left the world on December 27th 1972 near the railroad tracks near 15th and Colfax in Gary, Indiana. She is likely buried in Griffith, Indiana at Fern Oak Cemetery.  But she is all but forgotten.  She is all but invisible and lost to the world. 

  Annie would have been 67 in 2024 as I wrote this.   She would possibly be retired and enjoying her grandchildren if she had lived. 

  We don’t have a picture of Annie Jean Powell. Let’s create a picture of her together.  Let’s imagine a beautiful smile and a beautiful infectious laugh. Let’s imagine that she was kind to other people and had kind and friendly eyes. Let’s imagine that she loved music and knew the words to lots of pop songs. Let’s imagine her with a little fire. We know she stuck up for herself. She advocated for herself. Let’s imagine her as feisty.  She set out on her own and had dreams for her future. I’ll remember Annie like that. 

   Rest in Peace, Annie Jean Powell.  1957-1972

*Annie was found at 15th and Colfax.  A man who would be convicted of the brutal murder of a 12 year old girl just two years later lived at 11th and Colfax on Dallas. Look at the area on a map.  15th and 11th are not far away at all. It’s not a standard 4 blocks. It’s about a football field’s length. 

  Raul Rudy Sotelo is currently serving a life sentence in Indiana for the murder of Carrie Louise Duncan in 1973. 

If you have information about the murder of Annie Jean Powell please call the Gary Police Department at (219) 881-1300.