Severed Foot found near train trestle march 29 2010 (Id'd/body not found)

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i just ran across this today, my brain is still working
on, how do you find a severed foot, and no blood at the scene
or a body near by

Teens find foot near trestle; coroner says it belonged to middle-aged woman

Filed by Brad Dicken March 31st, 2010 in

ELYRIA TWP. — Four teenagers walking to a friend’s house Monday night found a severed limb next to the abandoned train trestle that crosses state Route 57 south of state Route 254.

The sock-clad right foot and part of the lower calf, which preliminary tests suggest belonged to a white female between the ages of 45 and 60, were on the west side of the rusted steel trestle, which is in a wooded area.

Lorain County Coroner Paul Matus said his examination of the limb suggested that it had been severed by an impact-type trauma such as if the leg had hit a guardrail, a road sign or a vehicle bumper. That likely happened between 24 and 48 hours before the leg was found, he said.

Matus said he couldn’t say whether someone had hit a person with a vehicle or not. There was no blood or other tissue at the scene and he said it would be unlikely that a car hitting a person would throw a severed limb upward. He said it’s possible that someone jumping or falling onto a vehicle like a truck may have had their limb thrown upward and onto the trestle, but that was just one possibility.

Matus also said he couldn’t rule out the possibility that someone had dumped the body part in the area.

“It’s difficult,” he said. “We don’t have a body.”

The loss of part of a leg would have been a fatal wound without immediate medical attention, Matus said.

Brandan Hartman, 18, Josh Poulton, 17, Kyle Wright, 16, and Matt Whittle, 17, found the foot about 5:30 p.m. Monday as they walked from Hartman’s Northwood Street home to a friend’s house. It was a path they hadn’t taken in a long time, the Elyria High School students said.

Josh said he wanted to go out on the trestle, which hasn’t seen a train in years, and was preparing to do that when he spotted the leg.

“It wasn’t just cut off, it was torn off and ripped,” Josh said.

Hartman said the friends didn’t even think it was a real foot when they first saw it.

“It was so brutal, it looked fake,” Hartman said as he, Josh and Kyle returned Tuesday to the spot where they found the leg.

After first finding the leg, Hartman said he and the others continued to their friend’s house and talked about the leg, but still believed it wasn’t real.

Photos the teens took of the foot show the upper part of the limb on a piece of concrete next to the trestle with the ankle and the lower part hanging over the edge.

On their way back to Hartman’s house around 7:45 p.m., the teens stopped to examine the leg again.

“We grabbed some sticks and sort of poked it,” Hartman said.

Josh said the dark-colored nylon sock on the foot was snagged on a tree branch and he knocked the branch loose, freeing the foot.

After poking the foot, Hartman said there was no doubt that the limb was real.

“We just sort of walked out real quiet,” he said.

The teens returned to Hartman’s house and his mother called sheriff’s deputies to investigate.
Hartman said deputies were skeptical about their story until they saw the limb.

Tom Eschtruth, who owns the property north of the abandoned railroad tracks, said he wasn’t overly surprised that a body part was found in the area. The area has a lot of vandalism and other problems, he said.

“It’s a frequently traveled area by a lot of people,” Eschtruth said.

Sheriff’s Capt. John Reiber said deputies searched the area both Monday and Tuesday but found no sign of the rest of the woman’s body. He also said there is no missing person report in the area that matched what investigators know.

No one missing part of her leg was treated in any area hospitals either, he said.

Deputies planned to use a helicopter today to search for the rest of the body in the area around where the limb was found, Matus said.

Matus said the woman was likely between 5 feet, 4 inches and 5 feet, 7 inches tall and likely weighed between 190 and 215 pounds.

“It’s just estimates based on the tissue we have,” he said.

But he said he’s 99 percent certain that the foot belonged to a woman based on his examination and having several other people also look at it.

“You can just tell by the shape of the toes and the shape of the bones,” he said. “Women tend to have a little more delicate feet.”

Matus said no DNA test has been performed on the foot yet and that might prove unnecessary if the rest of the body is found because the wounds on the rest of the body could likely be matched to the severed limb.

vid and pic at link
http://chronicle.northcoastnow.com/2010/03/31/video-teens-find-limb-near-trestle-coroner-says-it-belonged-to-middle-aged-woman/
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Officials investigating foot found along Ohio 57 in Elyria Township
By Tonya Sams, The Plain Dealer
March 30, 2010, 7:15PM
 
ELYRIA TOWNSHIP, Ohio -- Lorain County Sheriffs deputies will resume their investigation Wednesday around the adjacent areas of Ohio 57 where two teenage boys found a lower severed leg and foot Monday night.

The two boys were walking on an abandoned railroad trestle over Ohio 57 when they found the limb, which was the right leg several inches above the ankle and foot, said Dr. Paul Matus, the Lorain County Coroner.

The foot belongs to a white woman, Matus said.

The female is believed to be anywhere between 5 feet 5 inches to 5 feet 7 inches tall and 190 to 210 pounds. Her age ranges between 45 to 60 years, he said.

The foot had a black polyester sock still on it when it was found.

Matus said he believes the limb was had only been there 24 to 48 hours. It possibly could have been there slightly longer because the cold temperature could have preserved it.

None of the toes were missing, but all of the bones were fractured.

He said there was nothing could be done until the rest of the body is found.

Officials are looking for any information on missing women from East of the Mississippi River, or dismembered bodies in the area.

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2010/03/officials_still_investigating.html
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map
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=117778845469721885696.00048316a788ec494c2e3&ll=41.408842,-82.118254&spn=0.012875,0.025706&z=15&source=embed

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http://www.morningjournal.com/articles/2010/04/15/news/doc4bc6963962474690316175.prt

VIDEO: Family of Darla Kustra mourns mom, ex-wife
Thursday, April 15, 2010

By JAMILA T. WILLIAMS
jwilliams@MorningJournal.com



ELYRIA — Friday is Frank Kustra’s 59th birthday. But he won’t be celebrating. Instead he’ll be mourning the fact that his 56-year-old ex-wife, Darla, will never get to celebrate hers.

Frank and their four daughters, Lynn Kernya, Melissa Kustra, Rebecca Mercure and Rachel Kustra, learned Tuesday that the severed foot found March 29 on an abandoned railroad bridge over SR 57 in Elyria Township belonged to Darla Kustra. Investigators have said Darla could not have survived a traumatic accident that severed the limb, but have been unable to locate the rest of the Lorain woman’s body.

“It’s a shock,” Frank said. “We were really taken aback.”

Co-workers told investigators Darla walked to and from work alongside the highway and was last seen March 25 leaving Advanced Plastics Reclaiming in Elyria, where she was employed as a temporary worker. A missing persons report was never filed.

Frank said he last saw his ex-wife two months ago, and it was normal for he and their daughters to go long periods of time without hearing from her.

In fact, ever since the couple split and divorced some 18 years ago, Darla has been somewhat of a recluse. After their divorce, Frank received full custody of three of their four daughters, who were minors at the time.

Their relationship, though not strained, was more like they were acquaintances, he said.

“Very distant acquaintances,” Frank added, correcting himself. “She called every now and then, and would ask to go to the grocery store or something and I’d take her.”

When Darla didn’t show up for work at Advanced Plastics Reclaiming, her co-workers became concerned and contacted deputies after hearing of the severed foot found nearby by four Elyria teenagers.

Frank, who was listed as an emergency contact for Darla, was contacted by her employer and the family was asked to give a DNA sample.

The eldest daughter, Lynn, stepped forward and provided investigators with a sample. She and her sisters have been unavailable for comment.

Prior to being contacted by the sheriff’s department, Frank said the family had no idea that the severed foot could possibly belong to Darla.

“The police were the ones who contacted us,” he said.

Frank said he couldn’t comment much about the Darla whose severed foot was found, but rather the Darla he married in 1976, whom he described as “a gifted critical care nurse” at that time. The two met when they both were working at the former St. John Hospital on West 80th Street and Detroit Avenue in Cleveland.

“She was just a normal person, you know,” he said. “We had a good marriage and a good relationship.”

He fondly remembers family outings to Cedar Point and having family picnics.

“Those were very happy times,” Frank said, with a smile. “Oh yes, we had plenty of those.”

But Frank said their marriage was torn apart by a mental illness that Darla refused to acknowledge.

“She refused to take medication,” he said. “From what I’ve heard, many with mental illnesses consider themselves not to be mentally ill. Darla believed she didn’t need help.”

Frank said around the time the two split, he began to notice Darla’s multiple personalities emerge. He believes she may have had paranoid schizophrenia, though she was never officially diagnosed.

“She did a complete 180,” he said. “Her best friends became her worst enemies and often times I was concerned to come home from work because I wasn’t sure who I was coming home to.”

And while the media frenzy has had much of the family keeping mum, Frank insists he has to speak about the Darla he knew.

“This is the Darla I know,” he said, holding a photo of the happy couple, dropping wedding invitations in a mailbox. “This is the Darla most of her friends would remember and I just have to make sure that this gets out there.”

http://www.morningjournal.com/articles/2010/04/15/news/doc4bc6963962474690316175.txt

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http://chronicle.northcoastnow.com/2010/04/15/darla-kesters-nephew-launches-facebook-group-to-get-some-answers/

Darla Kustra’s nephew launches, then yanks Facebook group

Filed by Rona Proudfoot April 15th, 2010 in Top Stories

Angry and frustrated, Mathew Kester sat down at his computer last night determined to bring his hurting family some closure.

“I realized I was just really hurting for my dad and hurting for everyone involved,” he said.

His dad, Gary Kester, is the brother of Darla Kustra, 56, of Lorain, who the Lorain County Sheriff’s Office identified yesterday as the woman whose severed leg was found last month near an Elyria Township railroad trestle. They don’t know what happened to her or where the rest of her body is.

Mathew Kester, 38, who lives in the Scranton-Wilkes-Barre area of Pennsylvania, created a Facebook group, “Please Help Us Find Darla Kustra.” However, in less than 24 hours, he’d pulled the group, demanded The Chronicle pull an article quoting him explaining “the rest of the family does not want it up there” and threatened to “call another newspaper and claim the things you wrote were not entirely correct.”

Earlier in the day Kester was more concerned about his Aunt Darla and finding closure.

Kester said his dad and his dad’s brother, Daryll, did everything they could to try to help his Aunt Darla but are guilt-ridden wishing they could have done more.

“It’s not fair. It’s not right,” Kester said. “I know he tried so hard. I love him, and I know he doesn’t deserve this.”

Kester had said he hoped the Facebook group can produce some answers about what happened to his aunt and where her body is.

“My goal is to find closure to this as quick as possible,” he said. “We have no body, we have no way of saying goodbye or having some sort of memorial.”

The Facebook group had more than 100 members before Kester pulled it down. Kester had said it was important to him that the group provide a number of options for people to submit information.

One way is to e-mail finddarlakustra@gmail.com. It was not immediately clear if the e-mail address was still functional or whether it had been yanked.

People can also call (440) 323-1212 or (440) 244-6263 and leave tips, which can be anonymous. Tips can also be made through the Sheriff’s Office Web site, www.loraincountysheriff.com.

Kester said he has “nothing but the best memories in the world of my Aunt Darla growing up.”

The best of those memories? Her smile.

“The one thing I always remember the most, she has this incredible smile, she’d just light up the whole world,” Kester said. “Even when she wasn’t all there, as soon as she would start smiling, I’d immediately feel ‘Oh that’s the old Darla.’ ”

Darla Kustra flashes that smile in a picture Kester had as the Facebook group’s default shot — Darla and Frank posing as they are about to drop their wedding invitations into large blue post office mailbox.

Kester recalls how much he loved going to visit his Aunt Darla, Uncle Frank and cousins at their home in Lakewood.

“They had the most beautiful house,” he said.

He recalls watching the first “Star Wars” and old Laurel and Hardy movies in their theater room.

Visiting there was “such a treat,” he said. “She was just a wonderful, hospitable woman whenever we’d go to her house. She’d make the place wonderful for everyone. She was just a very enjoyable person to be around at that time.

“There’s a time where that just kind of ended. We didn’t know her anymore.”

But Kester said he wants to clear up what he sees as some misconceptions about his aunt.

“She’s not a drug user or anything like that, just kind of like a recluse,” he said. “She just didn’t want the help, didn’t want to take medicine.

“We didn’t really know what was going on with her,” Kester said.

But he has a message for other families who might find themselves in a similar situation: “Don’t be distant from each other. You regret things.”

Kester said he just wants people to know that despite the turn his aunt’s life had taken, “She was a wonderful person.”

“Even though we were distant from her for a long time, it doesn’t mean her life didn’t mean anything,” Kester said.

Contact Rona Proudfoot at 329-7124 or rproudfoot@chroniclet.com.

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http://chronicle.northcoastnow.com/2010/04/15/severed-leg-victim-kind-of-a-loner-who-kept-to-herself/

Severed leg victim ‘kind of a loner who kept to herself’
Filed by Brad Dicken April 15th, 2010 in Top Stories.

ELYRIA — The woman whose severed limb was found March 29 near an abandoned railroad trestle in Elyria Town­ship has been identified as 56­year-old Darla Kustra of Lorain, investigators announced Wednesday.

Kustra was last seen leaving her Pearl Avenue apartment building on her way to work about 4 a.m. March 26, Lorain County sheriff’s Capt. John Reiber said.

She never showed up at Advanced Plastics Reclaiming on Liberty Court in Elyria, where an employee said Kustra had been working for a few days through a temporary employment agency before her disappearance.

The company called the temp agency to report that Kustra had missed work. Her co-workers called police after seeing news reports about the discovery of the foot by four teenagers walking to a friend’s house, Reiber said.

A DNA test confirmed Tues­day the limb belonged to Kus­tra.

Reiber said that investigators believe that Kustra was struck by a vehicle between 4:50 and 5:20 a.m. on March 26 as she walked to work. He said co­workers had seen her walking on previous occasions as she made her way to the factory.

“She was known to walk in the street, not on the side — in the street,” Reiber said.

Although deputies and county Coro­ner Paul Matus speculated that Kustra had been struck by a semi truck, it was also possible that she was hit by a smaller vehicle.

Matus said the limb was severed by a traumatic impact that also broke bones in the foot, which was severed near the lower calf. The loss of the limb would have been fatal without immediate medical attention, he said.

Reiber said the weather conditions at the time were rainy with some fog and snow, which would have made vis­ibility poor. It also would explain why no other blood or tissue from the impact between the vehicle and Kustra was found.

Reiber and sheriff’s Sgt. Donald Barker said deputies have been review­ing security footage along possible routes that Kustra may have walked to work. There were several possible routes, he said.

Matus said it was unclear how the foot ended up next to the trestle, which crosses state Route 57 just north of Schadden Road, which Kustra would have needed to walk down to reach the factory where she worked.

He said people hit by a vehicle are rarely thrown upward, but he also said a possible blood smear on the north side of the trestle indicated that Kustra could have been hit by a southbound vehicle that could have been heading toward the nearby Interstate 90 on­ramp.

Matus and Reiber both said it was possible that Kustra’s body could have been caught up under the vehicle that struck her, and the driver may not have realizedsomeone had been hit. Matus said he’s seen at least one instance dur­ing his career where a driver continued driving with a person under their vehi­cle without realizing it.

Another possibility, Reiber said, is that someone struck Kustra with a vehicle and then stopped and put her body in their vehicle and drove away to dispose of the body. That theory could be possible because while Kustra’s right foot was still clad in a dark-colored sock when it was found, her shoe was­n’t recovered, he said.

Barker said investigators are also try­ing to trace Kustra’s cell phone — Reiber said the phone is no longer turned on — to see if they can locate it. He declined to say what those phone records have shown.

Deputies have searched where the foot was found with dogs and from a helicopter but haven’t found the rest of her remains.

Frank Kustra, Darla Kustra’s ex-hus­band, said he last spoke to his ex-wife about two or three weeks before she disappeared. He said he last saw her about two months before she vanished when he took her to the grocery store, something he did from time to time.

He said his ex-wife was mentally ill, had no close friends and was estranged from her four daughters and two brothers. She also had a grandson he doesn’t believe she ever met.

“She was very reclusive,” Frank Kus­tra said.

Those who knew her in Lorain also said Darla Kustra didn’t often interact with people.

“She didn’t talk to nobody,” said Michelle Ostolaza, a bartender at The Brickhouse Pub and Grill just around the corner from Darla Kustra’s apart­ment.

Pablo Perez, a patron of the bar, said in the two years he believes Darla Kus­tra lived in the area he often saw her walking with her hands in her pockets or carrying bags.

He said he once offered her a ride and she declined.

“She was kind of a loner who kept to herself,” Perez said.

Frank Kustra said that before she got the Lorain apartment a few years ago and started working as a temp, his ex­wife had been homeless on and off for about two years and would use his address and phone number.

Frank Kustra said he met Darla Kustra, a Lakewood High School graduate, while they were both working at a Cleveland hospital in 1974 — she was a nurse and he was technician. He said he was whistling a church hymn while pushing a wheelchair and heard someone else start whistling the rest of the song.

They were married in 1976, and the Kustras’ wedding album shows the couple smiling and laughing at the church and reception. All that changed, he said, in the final months of Darla Kustra’s fourth pregnancy about 18 years ago.

“There was a 180-degree personality change,” Frank Kustra said.

While she was once a talented nurse and enjoyed working with her church choir, Darla Kustra suddenly seemed to have more than one personality, he said.

“I never knew who I was going to come home to,” Frank Kustra said.

Over the next few years, he said, his then-wife became more unstable and refused to seek help. She was also emo­tionally abusive, Frank Kustra said.

The couple divorced in 1996, accord­ing to court documents in which Frank Kustra said his wife became such a problem that Lorain County authori­ties asked her to move out of their home. She later served a year in the county jail for failing to pay court­ordered child support.

In the child-support case, Darla Kus­tra had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, although the case was later dropped after her time in jail. At one point, one of her attorneys asked the judge to take him off the case because Darla Kustra was “somewhat mentally disturbed.”

Even with the problems between his ex-wife and his family, Frank Kustra said he was saddened by her apparent death — Matus hasn’t issued a death certifi­cate.

“Even if we were estranged, she was — for many years — she was part of our lives,” Frank Kustra said. “We cer­tainly feel bad it happening this way.”

Contact Brad Dicken at 329-7147 or bdicken@chroniclet.com.

pics and vid at link, vid theorizes how foot got on trestle
http://chronicle.northcoastnow.com/2010/04/15/severed-leg-victim-kind-of-a-loner-who-kept-to-herself/