Materials in the trunk included two letters and several Christmas cards addressed to a Jean M. Barrie. A letter addressed to a Janet M. Barrie was apparently from Thomas M. Barrie in San Francisco who identified himself in the letter as Ms. Barrie's brother. A second letter addressed to Janet M. Barrie was sent by another family member from Canada. The correspondences to both Jean M. Barrie and Janet M. Barrie were sent to the same address.
Other correspondence from family members addressed to Jean M. Barrie referenced a "Janet" within the body of the letters. Using official Scottish documents and U.S. immigration records, detectives were able to confirm that Janet Mann Barrie and Jean M. Barrie were the same person. Barrie was born on Jan. 15, 1897, and records indicate she emigrated to the U.S. from Scotland during the mid-1920s.
To help detectives and personnel from the coroner's office determine Barrie's connection to the trunk's contents, investigators used photos and negatives from the trunk that depicted a white female wearing items of clothing that were also discovered inside the trunk, such as a purse and white fox boa.
Also included in the investigation was a search for death, marriage and birth certificates. During the search, detectives discovered Barrie's 1964 marriage to George Guy Knapp in Los Angeles after the death of his first wife, Mary Downs Knapp. Up to that time, Barrie had apparently been a homecare nurse for Mrs. Knapp since 1941.
Barrie's marriage to Knapp lasted only four years due to his death in 1968, and she eventually left Los Angeles in the 1980s. Several years later, she died in Canada where family members have been contacted in Canada.