Do you know who murdered Joan Marie Dymond in 1969? In the summer of 1969, a young girl's disappearance cast a long shadow over Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, a mystery that would take more than half a century to begin to unravel. Fourteen-year-old Joan Marie Dymond, a young female, vanished on the evening of June 25, 1969. She had left her home in Wilkes-Barre after dinner, telling her family she was heading to the nearby Andover Street Park. She was never seen alive again.
The initial search for Joan yielded no answers, and her family was left to wonder what had become of the 'sweet girl' who was excitedly anticipating the birth of her nephew.
For decades, Joan's case went cold, her absence a painful void for her loved ones. Then, on November 17, 2012, a grim discovery was made on the grounds of a former coal-mining operation in Newport Township, about nine miles from where Joan was last seen. Individuals searching for relics in a trash-filled area stumbled upon human remains. For years, the identity of this person remained unknown, and she was referred to as Jane 'Newport' Doe. An examination of the remains indicated that they belonged to a female in her mid-teens to early twenties who had likely died in the late 1960s from foul play.
The breakthrough in the case came through the advancement of DNA technology. In March 2022, the remains were submitted for advanced genetic genealogy testing. This process finally gave a name to the long-unidentified victim. In October 2022, Pennsylvania State Police announced that Jane 'Newport' Doe was, in fact, Joan Marie Dymond. After 53 years of uncertainty, Joan's family finally had a measure of closure, though it was accompanied by the confirmation of their deepest fears.
In June 2023, investigators officially ruled Joan's death a homicide. While they have determined her cause of death, the details are being withheld from the public to protect the integrity of the active and ongoing investigation. Law enforcement officials have been conducting numerous interviews and are piecing together the events of Joan's life and disappearance. They have urged anyone with information, no matter how insignificant it may seem, to come forward. Investigators are exploring potential connections to other crimes against teenage girls that occurred in Luzerne County around the time of Joan's disappearance. To date, no suspects have been publicly named and no arrests have been made in the murder of Joan Marie Dymond.
