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Joann Jackson was 18 years old when police found her body in a backyard off of Rose Tree Road in Middletown, according to state police and contemporary media accounts.
Her remains were discovered by children playing near a pine bush on Thursday, Aug. 16, 1973, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported that week. Investigators told the newspaper she had been beaten, stabbed in the neck, sexually assaulted, and strangled.
Jackson was last seen alive by her father two days earlier at their 313 Darby Terrace home in Darby Borough, according to the Inquirer report. She left at 11:30 p.m. Tuesday for her night shift at the Lithograph Publishing Company in Center City Philadelphia and never returned, the newspaper wrote.
Investigators believe Jackson was killed at a secondary location and then dumped in Middletown sometime later.
The children who found her body told police they were playing in the same area just two hours prior to the grisly discovery and that Jackson's remains had not been there before, according to the Inquirer report.
As well, the Delaware County Medical Examiner's Office found she was dead for 24 to 36 hours before her remains were found, the Allentown Morning Call reported.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Pennsylvania Crime Stoppers at 1-800-472-8477 or submit a tip via Crimewatch.
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