Does this freak anyone else out?

[SheRaaa]

I am thinking of people featured on UM (or other true crime shows) that have very little existing media coverage of their case. Particularly the older cases, like Ayleen Conway, for example -- pretty much the only things I can find online are UM-related. Obviously it's fantastic that we are doing our best to review her case and discuss what may have happened to her, but it just makes me sad that cases that go unsolved for so long are eventually (but very understandably) relegated to the back burner in the non-UM world.

Does Ayleen have surviving relatives who will keep her memory alive? Is there a dedicated investigator somewhere, fighting to find out what happened to her? Or do the natural effects of the passage of time (and lack of resources) simply mean that a person can disappear twice, first from the physical world and then from the world of memory and attention?

*Thanks to the internet, I think many cold cases from the 2000s or later will still be research-able, but for those older ones....just makes me sad, that's all (even though I understand police depts. and newspapers don't have unlimited time and money, of course.)

[1990 UM fan]

I would like to know that too. I would hope someone would care enough about her to solve her murder. I know a few people, just by talking to them, that are still searching for their missing loved ones that were featured on the show.

[RobinW]

Yeah, Aileen Conway is definitely the one case where I would just love to find out ANY new information about it that wasn't covered on UM since there's virtually nothing else about it online. The main problem with solving unexplained death cases like this is that no one can even be 100 % certain that there was foul play. If Aileen just simply had a medical issue or a mental breakdown and drove off and died in an accident, there's no way anyone can ever find that out for sure. If there were no burglars and other perpetrators involved, then unfortunately, there's nothing else for investigators to find.

Another example like this is the Katherine Korzilius case, where some people lean towards the theory that there was no foul play and that she simply died by grabbing onto the back of her mom's vehicle and falling off. But if that's really happened and no else witnessed it, how can her family ever find out the answer and get closure?

It must be a particularly horrible feeling when a loved one's mysterious death could be completely unsolvable.

[dynoguy88]

Originally Posted by SheRaaa

Does Ayleen have surviving relatives who will keep her memory alive?

According to the photo shown in the UM segment, she had 7 children. And doing the math, they would all be in their 30's and 40's today. But we don't know a single first name.

I think a case like hers also suffers from it's location. An unexplained death case in Lawton, Oklahoma isn't going to get as much publicity as the disappearance of say, Amy Billig who went missing more than 12 years earlier from outside Miami. It's amazing how many articles are available online through Google archives on her from the 1970's but not a single article about Ayleen's death from 1986. I can't even find a death notice about her.