Annette Stewart:1982, Cleveland, Ohio-Snow Shoe, Pennsylvania
Annette Stewart was born about 1964. I wasn’t able to find her exact date of birth or much about her early years.
In 1982 she was a senior at West Technical High School in Cleveland. Her mother was Ethel Stewart and her grandmother was Mary T. Lane
There was some confusion about her name in 1983. Newspaper articles from Pennsylvania in 1983 when she was found call her Annette Steward.
A recent January 2026 online article mentions that the Pennsylvania State Police are looking for more information about her.
On November 4th, 1982, Annette left the house early to catch the bus to high school. She wore Calvin Klein Jeans, a thick, warm sweater, a gold Seiko watch, a gold necklace and small gold earrings. She would have looked fashionable and stylish. That was a very typical high school outfit in 1982. (I remember desperately wanting Calvin Klein jeans because of the very successful ad campaign starring Brooke Shields.) Annette normally waited for the bus at Crawford Road and Wade Park Avenue.
Her younger brothers waited at a different spot nearby for their bus. They normally were able to view Annette getting on her bus each morning. That morning, November 4th, 1982, they did not see her board the bus at all. (Her brothers are not named in the article.)
She did not make it to school and her family reported her missing with local authorities in Cleveland.
It wasn’t easy to find a photo of Annette. But this was a photo in a November 24th, 1982 edition of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. I was thrilled to find it. In the small notice, Annette’s picture is listed as well as a short paragraph about her being missing. Those months that she was missing must have been torture. She was taken in November. Christmas came and went with no word of what had happened to Annette. Her family must have gone through absolute torture.
Annette Stewart’s home,1556 Ansel Road, is an apartment building. It is not too far from a major interstate highway. It is not very close either. But, it is close to the Cleveland Clinic’s main campus and close to Case Western Reserve University. The apartment building is across the street from a lovely park with many mature trees and a little stream called Doan Brook runs through there.
Annette would have been walking away from that park in order to get to her bus stop at Crawford Road and Wade Park Avenue though.
Looking at where she was found and how she was found I initially thought she could be a victim of serial killer trucker Jerry Leon Johns. He grew up in Flat Rock Michigan, near Detroit. I wondered if he might have parked for the night on a street near Annette’s building and just grabbed her by chance.
He dumped at least two of his victims in scenic areas along an interstate like the spot that Annette Stewart was found. He took victims from one state and usually left them in another state or far enough away to confuse investigators. He left no id on them.
But, I also wonder if she was possibly abducted by a neighbor. The distance between home and the bus stop is not far.
It isn’t a commercial area with restaurants and stores today that would have been a convenient place for a trucker to park for the night. Was he picking a load of something from the Cleveland Clinic or from Case Western Reserve University? He could have been delivering something as well and needed to wait somewhere until the place opened for deliveries. Possibly.
It would have been early morning and possibly dark out still. It was November 4th, 1982. Jerry Leon Johns might have found a place to park near the apartment building. (Quite a lot of trucking is finding a place to park for the night or to wait out a delivery or pick up time.)
Back to the neighbor theory. How many of Annette’s neighbors had a car then? The building looks like it might have been low income housing. Whoever took her would have had to have had a vehicle in good running order to get her to the spot in Pennsylvania where she was found. They would also need to be able to afford the gas money.
The earliest article about her body being found states that she was likely there all winter. A later article states that she might have only been dead a month of two. I imagine that she was there all winter. Most victims of abduction are murdered within the first 48 hours. (By the way, It takes about 3 hours and 35 minutes to drive from Cleveland to Snow Shoe, Pennsylvania.)
Jerry Leon John’s known victims are white women. In 1985, he abducted and nearly killed a woman in Knoxville. (She appears blonde in a 1990 photo.) He went to prison for life. Authorities in Tennessee were already looking at him for a series of murders of red haired women. But, I don’t think he only killed victims with red hair.
He was connected in 2018 through DNA to the murder of Tina Marie McKenney Farmer of Indianapolis. She was found murdered on January 1st, 1985 off the side of the interstate near Jellico, Tennessee. She has brunette hair in her photo.
Another victim found at that spot in Tennessee was Tracy Sue Walker. Tracy had red hair. She disappeared from Lafayette, Indiana in 1978. She was very recently identified. She went by the nickname Elk Valley Jane Doe for many years because that spot on the highway overlooks the very scenic Elk Valley. The fact that she was left so close to Tina at a spot that is very inconvenient and dangerous to pull over makes me think Johns killed her too and intentionally dumped Tina at that very memorable spot.
I suspect him of many more murders.
I know that the FBI says that most serial killers only kill people from their same race. Maybe. How much data do we have about black victims, though? Their cases tend to be forgotten. Investigations, attention and funding tend to go toward white victims first.
Serial killers who befriend their victims first might have better access to victims of the same race. But guys who just snatch a victim off the street would not necessarily have to worry about the race of this victim. Annette was pretty, petite; 5’3” and slim. In those ways she fits the profile of his other victims.
Mary T. Lane, Annette’s grandmother, passed away in 1988 just a few years after Annette’s murder, I believe. She was only 68. I did not find an obituary in the papers. Annette's family suffered so much loss in only a few years.
Annette was found around March 19th, 1983 by a hitchhiker who was walking along I-80. Her Cleveland student bus pass was still legible and Pennsylvania State Police placed an article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer with a description of the victim. That RTA bus pass did not have Annette's name on it. Even though it was basically just paper...it held up under the snow, ice and thawing in the months that Annette had lain outdoors in Pennsylvania.
Annette’s mother called the number to report that the remains might be her daughter. The clothing that Annette was found in was the same outfit she left the house in back in November. Her jewelry and watch were also found on her. She was fully clothed except for her shoes. She was wrapped in a sheet. (Tina Marie McKenney Farmer was wrapped up similarly.) Dental records were sent for comparison. By mid April, the body near Snow Shoe was positively identified as Annette.
I want to extend my sincere condolences to the Lane and Stewart families. I hope that Annette’s case can be solved and that this might bring you some peace.
Annette Stewart had a bright future ahead of her. She was a beautiful young high school senior. She was looking forward to graduation in the Spring of 1983. She should have had a long life filled with many happy memories. I imagine that Annette was very wise to the potential dangers of everyday life in Cleveland. That is why I think Johns may have taken her by surprise.
Is there any DNA from a perpetrator still under her fingernails or on the clothes that she was wearing? Can it be tested? TBI developed a DNA profile of Jerry Leon Johns. That part is already done if Pennsylvania wanted to compare what they have.
If you have information about the murder of Annette Stewart please contact the Pennsylvania State Police at 1-800-4PA-TIPS.
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