Anybody have new info about this?
Case overview:She disappeared from her aunt/uncle's house in the middle of the night. The window on the outside door to her room was smashed with the glass broken from the inside. Her bloody nightgown was found on a boatdock the next day. There were sightings of a wet woman fitting her description walking along a two lane highway with oversized jeans and shirt. It happened on May 12, 1986 in Alabama, was aired on May 25, 1987. Haven't seen it since.

Actually I was in contact with someone from the newspaper in that area last week. She said the man who covered that area recently died but she would make a few phone calls and get back to me. I'll pass on any information I get.

Is this what you are talking about Crystal - Apparently this ran in 2004

More bones found
at site of skull find

Several rib bones and a vertebrae believed to be human were found Saturday at a site off the Chalakee Road where a partial human skull was discovered earlier.

Tests are underway on the skull to see if it might be a match to long-missing Wanda Mays, who disappeared 18 years ago. Sheriff’s investigators said the bones found most recently will be sent to a state lab for testing along with the skull.

About 30 or 40 searchers from the sheriff’s department, Guntersville Rescue Squad and HEMSI search dog team conducted the search Saturday. It was the third search of the area in recent months.

This search focused mainly on areas that the search dogs had alerted on earlier. Investigators said the bones were above the soil, but underneath the mat of leaves on the forest floor.

Two hikers walking through the woods found the skull some time back. They were inspecting a broken-down moonshine still along a creek deep in the woods when they found it.

Only the top portion of the skull remained, with no jawbones or teeth intact. The hikers alerted the sheriff’s department.

The skull was sent to noted Tennessee forensic anthropologist Bill Bass of “Body Farm” fame. He and his staff ruled that the skull was not Indian or prehistoric. Judging from the bone density and the size, they said it likely came from a woman between the ages of 30 and 50.

Miss Mays was 26 when she disappeared.

Other bone fragments were later discovered, also using HEMSI’s search dogs. The case remains under investigation.

Miss Mays was spending the night at the lakeside home of her aunt and uncle, the late Betty and Ty Dorman, when she disappeared in the middle of the night on May 12, 1986. A broken window and a night gown, both with blood stains, were all that she left behind, along with some blood stains in a canoe found floating in the lake.

She’d been dieting and it’s thought that she may have had a chemical imbalance that could have caused her to have a panic attack in the middle of the night.
A massive land and lake search by the Rescue Squad and other agencies failed to turn up anything immediately following the disappearance. The place where the bones have been discovered is outside of the original search zone.

Details of the disappearance have aired twice on national television on the program “Unsolved Mysteries.”

Her parents, Jim and Dot Mays, have spent thousands of dollars on private investigators over the years and have tracked down leads themselves in several states, without ever coming close to finding her.

The Dorman home where she disappeared from is only a few miles away, as the crow flies, from where the skull was found in rugged territory roughly a mile off Chalakee Road.

That site apparently wasn’t included in the original search zone because officials at the time had information that Miss Mays had been seen walking in the other direction, back towards Warrenton.

This case was profiled on the Pre-Stack special with Karl Malden I remember it, and is one of the segments I'm working on to put on my site.

Yes, thanks DD thats probably the article that Kane posted some time ago. The lady I spoke with initially said there were no updates but then she said she would make a few phone calls which kind of contradicted itself. Nonetheless I always appreciate when these people take the time to respond and try to help us out. I will definitely let you guys know if and when I hear back from her and if anyone can find a more recent article about her, please post.

I'm looking forward to having that one from the PSS on Echoes as well as the one of Donald Kemp. :)

Wanda Mays was my mother's cousin. I am only 20 years old so I did not know her. I have been watching unsolved mysteries for a while because i've never seen the show about her. As far as i've heard the bones found did not match, and there has not been any information since the 80's.

Hi! Thanks for posting the information. Does your mother or Wanda's family have any theories about what happened to her? You won't be able to see Wanda's story on Lifetime as it is on the pre-Stack specials. I do think that story will be added to Echoes website in the future so you can watch it there.

Wow, that was a quick reply! They really don't know, they've been praying for her all these years. --what does pre-stack mean?

The "Pre Stack Specials" are episodes of UM which aired prior to Robert Stack taking over as the host. There were 3 "Pre Stack Specials" - one hosted by Raymond Burr and the other two by Karl Malden. The Wanda Jean Mays segments airs on Special #2 hosted by Karl Malden. These specials will likely never air on "Lifetime" due to the fact that for "Lifetime" to air them they would have to pay money to the estates of Burr & Malden.

Later.

pay money to the estates of Burr & Malden.


Malden's not dead. Just thougt I would point that out.

Ah yes sorry about that Karl is I believe 93 years young as of today. He was actually a pretty good host for the show. One thing I like about the specials he hosted as compared to the series itself is in Special #2 the illusion is never broken.

What I mean is you see Karl walking around what seems to be a town - First on the dock of a lake (for Wanda Jean Mays), then in a barn (for John Burns), in a park (for the amnesia victim Kyra who was attacked in a park) on a street with condos (for the professional female thieves who would target rich men) and finally near a resturant (for Robert Weeks)

While Stack continued to do this for the most part once the series began I think the way Special #2 was filmed in this aspect in that you almost felt as the show moved in a constant flowing motion was a very nice touch!

Later.

Just checking in on this and hoping that one of you will see this and reply. It's now 2006 and I'm wondering if there has been anything new on this case?
I understand that the guy who headed it has retired and I wondered if it had just vanished or if anyone back in Alabama kept it alive in any way.
For instance if you even try and google Wanda's name and Arab, Alabama nothing comes up. Even if you add in the word "missing" you get nada.
Is this normal in the case of a missing person?
No photo or anything?
I think about her quite often through out the year -- typically when I see someone with long blonde hair on the street with her same body type and I wonder if it could be her.
Still hoping that she's wandering out there with no idea of who she is and that someone who grew up with her will come across her in a grocery store or something.
It might help if a photo was on the Internet wouldn't it?
Who is in charge of missing person cases like this one? Over the years I've checked on line and come up empty handed and tonight I've decided to do this post to ask total strangers for your advice.
Do you guys know?
And yes -- I did grow up with her and 20 years later I'm not sure I would know her if I saw her today. A photo would be nice -- I get age generated ones of kids all the time in my mailbox --why not one of her on a site?

I just saw this case for the first time, and I have to say the most striking thing about it is that Wanda's aunt's family knocked on her door at 5AM (that's 5 IN THE MORNING) to let her know that it was "time to get up," and then proceeded to KICK HER DOOR DOWN, enlisting the help of their GRANDSON because she didn't jump spryly from the bed. This must have been no later than 6:30 IN THE MORNING! Who summons help to kick down a door because someone isn't up at the crack of 5? Maybe that's what gave her the damn panic attack!

Also, why did she have to break a window to leave? The door was locked from the inside, presumably, which is why her aunt and uncle needed to break the door down... Couldn't she have just left by the front door? Or did they lock the house so that she couldn't get out at night?

Something weird was going on with that family, and I'm not sure I wouldn't have broken a window to get the hell out of there, and leave it as far, far, far behind me as I possibly could.

That said, the chances for a lone, half-naked girl wandering around without money or any way of supporting herself don't seem good to me, and a premature death for her seems likely.

[QUOTE=I do think that story will be added to Echoes website in the future so you can watch it there.[/QUOTE]

Is there a website known as "Echoes" where one is able to watch old UM episodes??:confused:

Is there a website known as "Echoes" where one is able to watch old UM episodes??:confused:

There used to be but it was shut down over a year ago.

I just saw this case for the first time, and I have to say the most striking thing about it is that Wanda's aunt's family knocked on her door at 5AM (that's 5 IN THE MORNING) to let her know that it was "time to get up," and then proceeded to KICK HER DOOR DOWN, enlisting the help of their GRANDSON because she didn't jump spryly from the bed. This must have been no later than 6:30 IN THE MORNING! Who summons help to kick down a door because someone isn't up at the crack of 5? Maybe that's what gave her the damn panic attack!

Maybe she had work the next day. Maybe she had to be home early for some reason. It really is hard to say as there were not enough details given in the segment. I do find it odd that the family didn't hear the glass breaking if she did break the window herself or if someone from the outside broke it. That has always troubled me. On the flip side, what motive would the family have for killing her? Also, what became of the skull found in the lake? Was the FBI ever able to make a positive ID? I assume not since there have not been any updates (to my limited knowledge).

May 12, 1986 Wanda Jean Mays disappeared from her family's home in Lake Guntersville Alabama. Today January 23, 2008 her family is able to obtain peace as it is announced that the remains found in 2004 after testing have been identified as hers. press announcment today at 2

I'm glad to hear that. Any theory on what happened to her?

RIP

I am so glad that the fate of Wanda Jean Mays has been determined. I went to college with Wanda in 1981-1983. She was a beautiful young lady, who was very intelligent. My condolences to her family. May she now rest in peace!!

Wanda will remain on our minds and in our hearts, forever. There are many therories and many possibilities as to which path that Wanda has been on. There is only one factual cause, reason, explanation...... either way, it's heart breaking and will never be known. I thought of Wanda as an angel who was always there for me as a child and that is still how I feel, and always will. I hope that whenever any of you see a beautiful woman with long straight blonde hair, jeans and a t-shirt, and an innocent smile, that you will all thank God for giving us such an angel.

As I've been watching old UM episodes, I thought I'd come online and see if there was any resolution to this case. I'm glad that there is. I always had the feeling that she simply wandered off on her own accord and met an untimely, though accidental, end. Actually, I thought she'd probably just drowned, but then, that's why one shouldn't put so much faith in UM re-enactments...they always leave out gobs of details.

Anyway, RIP to both Wanda Jean, and her aunt and uncle as well. May they all be at peace.

Yeah, the clip I watched said that she slipped from a cliff and died accidentally. I wonder about that... apparently it appears she either had a panic attack and fled the house, or had a reason to leave the house. The thing that's interesting is that she never got in bed, so it's like she left the room with no intention of sleeping. I wonder if she was leaving the room with the intention of suicide? We will never know, but it does show you that the eyewitness testimony on UM is often flawed, as two sightings were shown on the show. Anyway, may she rest in peace.

To anyone who would like to view this old segment of Unsolved mysteries I found it on youtube the person's id is UMyouCantStopME.


Calling Crystaldawn....calling Crystaldawn...please pick up the white courtesy phone...

Calling Crystaldawn....calling Crystaldawn...please pick up the white courtesy phone...

Thanks! :lol:

An update was shown on Lifetime today. Let me start by saying I fully agree with the official findings in this case and I certainly believe the investigators did the best they could with the information they have/had.

But one thing has always had me scratching my head. The investigators are said to have been "baffled" by the fact that no one in the house heard anything the night Wanda disappeared.

Before my husband was diagnosed and treated for sleep apnea, he snored so loud I could hear him in the downstairs TV room -- even thoughthe bedroom door shut and downstairs TV on. I cannot believe he, or I if I happened to be sleeping next to him, would have heard breaking glass.

Perhaps this was just the producers trying to make a mountain out of a molehill, but I just wanted to say it out loud.

[QUOTE=Love A Good Mystery]An update was shown on Lifetime today. Let me start by saying I fully agree with the official findings in this case and I certainly believe the investigators did the best they could with the information they have/had.

But one thing has always had me scratching my head. The investigators are said to have been "baffled" by the fact that no one in the house heard anything the night Wanda disappeared.

Before my husband was diagnosed and treated for sleep apnea, he snored so loud I could hear him in the downstairs d TV room -- even thoughthe bedroom door shut and downstairs TV on. I cannot believe he, or I if I happened to be sleeping next to him, would have heard breaking glass.

Perhaps this was just the producers trying to make a mountain out of a molehill, but I just wanted to say it out loud.[/QUOTE

Just saw this episode on the Unsolvedwiki and it REALLY bothers me no one heard the glass breaking...and also if she were running in panic from anxiety why would she hide in the boat? wouldnt she have just ran and ran and ran until she did eventually slip off the cliff??? Something is def wrong here.

Yeah, I don't buy the whole panic attack thing so much. Why would she go in the boat? Why would she rip her nightgown off? Weird!

I see no reason to doubt the official version. UM usually omits details that grieving relatives consider too "sensitive" for public consumption. Perhaps Mays suffered from a condition more acute than panic attacks. Maybe she was schizophrenic.

I see no reason to doubt the official version. UM usually omits details that grieving relatives consider too "sensitive" for public consumption. Perhaps Mays suffered from a condition more acute than panic attacks. Maybe she was schizophrenic.

I agree. This is one update I think the authorities got 100% right.

Let me amend what I said. I believe there may have been a panic attack, but some things about the case really bother me and I wish there was more info.

I want to know why they were banging in her door.
What kind of condition she was in that may have predisposed her to such an attack.
And why on Earth she would tear her nightgown off and go in a boat, then fall off a cliff? I guess stranger things have happened, but why wasn't she found sooner? How far was the cliff from the lake?

Let me amend what I said. I believe there may have been a panic attack, but some things about the case really bother me and I wish there was more info.

I want to know why they were banging in her door.
What kind of condition she was in that may have predisposed her to such an attack.
And why on Earth she would tear her nightgown off and go in a boat, then fall off a cliff? I guess stranger things have happened, but why wasn't she found sooner? How far was the cliff from the lake?

They said from the house to the cliff was 2 miles. Maybe she did have something more like paranoid schizophrenia...which would explain why she was hiding in the canoe etc (she thought someone was after her)

I want to know why they were banging in her door.
What kind of condition she was in that may have predisposed her to such an attack.
And why on Earth she would tear her nightgown off and go in a boat, then fall off a cliff? I guess stranger things have happened, but why wasn't she found sooner? How far was the cliff from the lake?

Mental illnesses inspire odd behavior.

Very true. I guess tearing off the nightgown could have been done to cause people to think she jumped in the river? I suppose it's difficult to rationalize such behavior.

I wonder if her symptoms were really bad before this happened?

Very true. I guess tearing off the nightgown could have been done to cause people to think she jumped in the river? I suppose it's difficult to rationalize such behavior.

I wonder if her symptoms were really bad before this happened?

No. She tore off her nightgown because that's what happens. Occam's Razor applies here too.

Well at least we know she wasn't a victim of murder and that she died by accident. It is sad though that her panic attacks got the best of her and made her wig out and fall over that cliff.

I wonder how many other "mysterious" disapperances/deaths UM profiled that can be attributed to a mental illness rather than something involving foul play?

I wonder how many other "mysterious" disapperances/deaths UM profiled that can be attributed to a mental illness rather than something involving foul play?


I think the verdict is still out on her but Cindy James comes to my mind.

I wonder how many other "mysterious" disapperances/deaths UM profiled that can be attributed to a mental illness rather than something involving foul play?

Kristi Krebs and poor George Owens :-(

I find it interesting that from a partial skull found 17 years after her disappearance, identified 5 years after that, can rule out foul play.

Not convinced.

I think the right call of this is that we have no evidence of foul play, nor can we say conclusively that this was an accident.

Something creepy about this whole case can't put a finger on.

Given the circumstances and the condition of her body, its unlikely that we'll ever get a truly definitive answer and anything given at this point is pure speculation.

I believe the general assumption that she had another panic attack and freaked out. At the very least, I believe that is what caused her to leave the place she was staying at. What happened after that though is anyone's guess.

BUMP

After talking this case over with another poster through PM's, I've started thinking about somethings in the case that bother me. There are two reasonable scenarios that I can see happening in this case. Granted, the police have more information than we do, but I'm basing the following on the UM segment and articles written about Wanda that can be found online.

Scenario 1:

The accidental fall off of the cliff after the panic attack. If shortly before bed, Wanda had some sort of mental breakdown or panic attack, she could have broken the window herself and climbed out, cutting herself in the process. Then she goes down to the canoe, gets in and rows her way across the lake. This would result in the blood being found in the canoe and her bloody nightgown found on the dock. I think at some point she could have gotten out of the canoe, and wandered through the woods in the dark until ultimately falling over the cliff resulting in her death.

Scenario 2:

Foul play. A ton of odd things happened in this segment that make you wonder if there wasn't some sort of foul play going on. As far as I know, there were 3 people in the house other than Wanda on the night she disappeared. Her uncle, aunt, and their grandson. No one in the house heard the glass shatter, or the blinds being ruffled. Malden specifically mentions this in the segment (that it was odd that no one heard anything) so it would appear that someone was sleeping within close proximity to Wanda's room when all of this noise would have occurred. Plus Wanda's bed was made, her clothes were neatly folded, and the window was broken from inside of her room.

I can envision a scenario where someone from within the house would approach Wanda as she was getting ready for bed, there is a struggle, she's attacked, and runs out of the house or escapes through the broken window. Her attacker chases her down to the dock, incapacitates her somehow, uses the canoe to transport her body, and then takes her body and throws it from the cliff where she then dies. This too would fit with the known evidence. Except there would appear that there was no motive for anyone in the house to want her dead. But interestingly enough, an article about Wanda mentions "family members" being accused of being involved with her disappearance.

The foul play scenario would seem to make more sense due to the odd nature of Wanda herself smashing the window, wounding herself, walking down to the dock, removing her nightgown, getting in the canoe, rowing out nearly 2 miles away, getting out of the canoe, and then falling over a cliff accidentally. Would someone suffering from a panic attack be able to do all of these things? People who suffer from panic attacks usually do flee the area where the attack started initially, but I don't know how common it is for someone to continue to leave the area in such an odd fashion. This would seem like an extended "attack" considering she had to have gotten out of the house, down to the canoe, and then made it nearly 2 miles away from her aunt and uncle's house before falling off of the cliff. With foul play, you don't need any odd explanations to fit with the physical evidence. Someone could have been using the canoe to dispose of her body. That would also explain why her body was found nearly 2 miles away from the house. On the flip side, if no one heard the windows shatter or the blinds being ruffled, if there was indeed foul play involved, no one heard Wanda screaming or any sort of struggle that night either.

I tend to lean towards the first scenario. I do think that it was odd that her aunt became alarmed after she didn't answer her door at 5 in the morning, but that could be because of the seriousness of Wanda's first panic attack. We don't know how serious it was. IIRC, it wasn't mentioned in the segment. But if this happened shortly before her visit with her uncle and aunt, I could see why they a. wanted her to spend the night with them (it was late, and I could see why they wouldn't want her driving back home) and b. why they became so alarmed when she wouldn't answer the door in the morning.

To me this is a classic example of the simplest answer as best answer: Mays had a panic attack (or schizophrenia; the episode and articles are coy), smashed the window, got in the boat, and in the darkness fell off the cliff. Why her relatives didn't hear the noise doesn't matter much. They could have been heavy sleepers. Wanda could've quietly broken the glass. In any case, a red herring.

On the other hand, the recreation is one of the best: an early peak. As a kid the sight of the thin girl, head bent down, in grotesquely oversized clothes walking along the highway haunted me. So did the disjointed scraps of conversation between the two men in the car. So did the frightened expression of the woman in the back seat whom the witness says was Wanda.

In other words, a classic example of UM creating mystery where none existed.

TIn other words, a classic example of UM creating mystery where none existed.

You're probably right, and I most likely agree with this.

But the big thing that's bothered me is the segment, nor any articles for that matter, specifically state that the broken window was used as an exit point. Was the hole big enough for Wanda to have crawled through, did they find Wanda's blood on the shattered glass, etc. have never been mentioned or answered. If the cops don't believe the window was the exit point, I'd have to say that foul play is also a distinct possibility.

As a kid the sight of the thin girl, head bent down, in grotesquely oversized clothes walking along the highway haunted me.

Lord, that still gives me the willies every time.

I'm so glad I'm not the only one who thinks the whole "she had a panic attack, fell off a cliff, case closed" explanation is a little fishy.

I understand that Occam's razor almost always applies -- however, the simplest explanation also has to be one that makes sense. If someone goes missing, maybe they were abducted by aliens? That's a simple explanation, but does it actually make sense? Is it actually possible? Does it fit the circumstances? Has it ever happened before?

I have many family members who suffer from panic attacks, and usually the person "flees" a stressful situation in order to go somewhere safe. I can see Wanda fleeing her home due to a panic attack, but where was she going? Just running blindly into the woods for an extended (and probably tiring) period of time? Has this ever happened before? (Either to Wanda or to anybody?)

I understand mental illness is very complex, but nevertheless what makes something a mental illness is that it fits with some sort of predetermined set of criteria involving common patterns, themes, etc. Do panic attack sufferers typically flee into the great outdoors for extended periods of time? Are they typically willing to break glass to escape a presumably safe room that presumably no one else is in? Do they typically flee from presumably safe situations into objectively dangerous situations?

I'm not saying the panic attack explanation isn't possible, just that we need to know more about what panic attacks do and do not cause a person to do before assuming she simply ran into the woods and died.

I'm not saying the panic attack explanation isn't possible, just that we need to know more about what panic attacks do and do not cause a person to do before assuming she simply ran into the woods and died.

I agree.

I'd like to know more about her prior attack that was mentioned in the segment.

And I it's not like this was some "running through the woods" and falling accident. She literally, if the panic attack is true, went through great lengths to flee the house (breaking the window, exiting through the window, stripping down, getting into the canoe, paddling across a lake, then running through the woods all in the dark) before falling off of the cliff.

Like many UM segments, this one is pretty vague but a few points worth considering…

First, Malden said one of the police theories was that Wanda had been murdered (he doesn't say by whom). Along those lines, the investigator in the segment seemed skeptical of the fact that the family could have slept through the sound of the breaking of the glass, and the banging of the venetian blinds.

First, let’s consider the broken window in Wanda’s room. It was specified on the segment that the investigators determined that the window was broken from the inside. Wanda's blood was on the glass. So, we can surmise that Wanda broke the window from inside the room and cut herself on the glass. Now, she could have cut her hands when she broke the glass (I'm assuming with her fists or arms) or she could have crawled out the window and cut herself on the way out, or both. Unfortunately, the segment is vague in this regard but - here is the million dollar question -
do the police think the window was an exit point?

If the window was an exit point, it supports the panic attack induced escape theory without foul play. Wanda did this to herself. It is difficult to imagine a scenario where someone would force her to exit through the window, presumably injuring herself further on the broken glass, or where an offender would follow her through the same window. Moreover, if she had left the house in some other manner, we know she had already cut herself on the window so she would have been bleeding and would have left a blood trail or other evidence of her passing.

On the other hand, if the window was NOT an exit point, I think it's possible that she was attacked inside the room, attempted to break the window (to either use the broken glass to defend herself, to cry out for help, or to escape her assailant). She was overpowered, did NOT exit through the window, and her body was disposed of in such a way that there was no further trail.

So, we can't make a determination without knowing more about the window, specifically whether it was an exit point.

Granted, this is only going by the re-enactment, so who knows how the actual window looked when it was discovered, but the hole in the glass doesn't look large enough for an adult woman to squeeze her body through at all. If she did, she would SEVERELY cut herself on the jagged broken glass. I will go so far as to say that from the re-enactment it seems unlikely the window was an exit point. Not to mention how painful that would have been trying to go through the window with the broken glass. She must have been having a severe anxiety attack to the point where the pain wouldn't affect her.

I also found it kind of strange that she hadn't slept in the bed, yet had apparently taken her clothes and accessories off. It would seem that whatever "happened" occurred as she was getting ready for bed, yet we know she didn't actually get a chance to lay or sleep in bed. If Wanda did have an anxiety and/or panic attack, why would staying at the Dormans trigger it? And what could she have been doing at that point (getting ready for bed) that would have triggered it?

Extrapolating from that, consider her activities at the time this incident occurred. We can surmise that she had just been nude or was semi-nude or wearing a nightgown. I don't mean to be crude, but that can be construed sexually. Suppose a male family member saw her in a state of undress and attempted to assault her. Along those lines, the dieting thing could fit with this too. We can surmise she had some body/weight issues even though she appeared (from the photographs at least) to be very pretty and in good physical shape. Granted, it doesn't take much for some women to start feeling consciousness about their weight or their bodies, but she obviously dieted to the point where it induced severe anxiety and panic attacks. Again, there could be innocent explanations here, but prior sexual abuse is a possibility.

I also find it interesting that the Mays (presumably the Dormans were related to the mother's side) clung to the theory that Wanda was wandering dazed and confused and was still alive. Granted, the parents of missing persons usually are quick to accept such theories because they want to believe their loved ones are alive, but since another alternative here could be potential foul play involving family members, it's possible this would also provide motivation for such beliefs.

I'm not saying I definitely think something nefarious went down, but I found the official resolution troubling (only bones were found, and it was so long after the fact that we'll never know a cause of death) and some of the unusual circumstances behind the story of Wanda's disappearance give me pause.

So I finally re-watched this one.

Wanda's father makes a remark early in the segment that Wanda seemed like she was getting ready to tell him something the last time he saw her, but she never did. Ty Dorman, Wanda's uncle, says that the "dieting" caused her first panic attack. He also says that she was dieting again prior to her disappearance. The homicide unit was called almost immediately after the blood was found in the canoe. The only blood found in the canoe was the same type as Wanda. And the window in the re-enactment (pretty sure it's the same window and the same room at the Dorman's residence) looks wide enough for her to have crawled through. It does appear like it would be pretty painful with the broken glass, but without seeing an actual picture of the broken window, we'll never know how jagged or how painful it would have been. The detective also says that the canoe was only a "few yards from the bank". I don't know if he meant from where the campsite was at, or where the Dorman's dock was at, but his theory was that she wasn't in the canoe that long. I think the sightings of the woman in the over sized clothes and the two "rough looking" men are red herrings, and are not connected. For one, the woman in the baggy clothes was seen alone, walking. The woman with the "rough looking" men was in a car, and the only reason a witness said something was because of her resemblance to Wanda. The fact that she "looked scared" is meaningless, IMO. The woman could be retroactively linking the fact that Wanda had disappeared and fitting that with an abduction angle, "remembered" the woman was "scared".

All in all, I think the ruling of accidental death is right. Wanda, because of the dieting and the presumed self-consciousness she had of her image, probably had another panic attack after getting ready for bed that night. Perhaps looking in the mirror in her nightgown triggered it. Then, she shattered the window and climbed out, cutting herself pretty bad. At this point she's in even further duress, so she runs down to the dock. She knows that she's bleeding, so she takes off her nightgown to access just how badly she has been cut. She either gets into the canoe, or starts to get into it, before running back to the land in an even further panic. Ultimately, she runs and falls off of the cliff accidentally.

From what I've read on panic attacks, a person who is suffering one will flee the place they are having it before settling down at a different location. But if Wanda did cut herself pretty badly on the broken window, this probably made the attack 10x more worse for her. It's a really sad, tragic case. But I do think the police got this one right.

I've a hard time believing anything besides accidental death happened. We woudl otherwise have to entertain the possibility of unknown assailants pulling her out a window, sticking her in a boat, and throwing her off a cliff – or Wanda running for her life and falling. What would be the motive? No contemporaneous article entertained the possibility of third party involvement. WJM looked and acted like a teen with problems.

I've a hard time believing anything besides accidental death happened. We woudl otherwise have to entertain the possibility of unknown assailants pulling her out a window, sticking her in a boat, and throwing her off a cliff – or Wanda running for her life and falling. What would be the motive? No contemporaneous article entertained the possibility of third party involvement. WJM looked and acted like a teen with problems.

I think the segment said Wanda was 26 years old, and lived on her own in an apartment. One weird aspect is why the Dorman's felt the need to ask her to spend the night at their house, when she lived by herself in an apartment.

At least one article mentioned that there was a family feud of sorts where family members accused each other of being involved in her disappearance.

Even though I don't believe it happened, the possibility is still there that someone came into her room while she was preparing for bed, fought with her, she smashed the window trying to escape (or summon for help) before being stopped by her attacker, and then she fled down to the dock before the attacker caught up with her and killed her. They then used the canoe to transport and dispose of her body. One article online says her body was found nearly two miles away from the Dorman's residence. That is another nagging point about the accidental death theory that bothers me.

I agree.

I'd like to know more about her prior attack that was mentioned in the segment.

And I it's not like this was some "running through the woods" and falling accident. She literally, if the panic attack is true, went through great lengths to flee the house (breaking the window, exiting through the window, stripping down, getting into the canoe, paddling across a lake, then running through the woods all in the dark) before falling off of the cliff.

Yeah, your last point brings me to something that has puzzled me about this since she was found in '08. Think geographically. Its not easy to paddle across a lake and simply fall off a cliff.

Granted, I haven't been to Lake Guntersville, but I've looked at photos of the cliffs in the area (lots of recreational cliff diving) as well as some small waterfall areas. However, from what I've seen she would have had a considerable climb in terms of vertical feet from the low lying waters edge. So the running around in the woods theory makes much less sense to me considering it would have had to be at least a 10-15% incline over the reported couple of miles to get up that high.

Recently saw this WJM segment. This is one of the most puzzling cases I've seen, due to the unusually strange circumstances.

Yes - on first glance it looks like WJM broke open the window on her own (since the window was broken from the inside, not the outside), and then crawled out. Then, in a panic - ran somewhere else & then later died due to exposure, an accident, etc. However, that seems very far fetched.

The problem is that it's even more far fetched that someone else was responsible for what happened to her. That would mean that this alleged person/persons would have had to gotten in the house (without any of her relatives in the house realizing this) and tried to abduct her from her room, broken the window from the inside, etc. & then crawled out with her. I.e., based on the segment, it appeared that the door of the bedroom she was in was locked from the inside (the relatives had to break open/force in the door), so anyone in the room would needed to have left the house from that room - via the broken window, presumably. Or, left the bedroom & gone into the house itself, locking the bedroom door behind them - and leaving via the front door - or another door that went out of the house. Again, extremely far fetched.

I've a hard time believing anything besides accidental death happened. We would otherwise have to entertain the possibility of unknown assailants pulling her out a window, sticking her in a boat, and throwing her off a cliff – or Wanda running for her life and falling. What would be the motive? No contemporaneous article entertained the possibility of third party involvement.

Exactly.

One thing I don't think the segment explains is why Wanda was spending the night at her aunt and uncle's house in the first place, because I believed her apartment was not far away.

I also think it's possible Wanda began her evening having a panic attack and fled the residence, and then became the victim of foul play or sexual assault? She would have been extremely vulnerable in her state, and the wrong person may have come across her.

I do think it's possible the official explanation is true, I just don't think we can know 100% for certain it was a truly accidental death.

There used to be but it was shut down over a year ago.

I loved that website.