Louise Virginia Peterson Flesher (June 16, 1915 - c. 1979) was a woman found strangled in a well in 1981.
She was identified in 2019 with the assistance of the DNA Doe Project.
Case[]
Flesher's body was found in a rural well in Windsor County, Ohio, in April 1981. She had been killed by strangulation and weighted down with a cinder block tied to her neck to keep her hidden in the well. Police estimated due to the level of decomposition, she had been in the well for at least two years. While unidentified, she was known as "Belle in the Well".
She underwent testing by the DNA Doe Project in 2018, which indicated she could have originated from Cabell County, West Virginia. The case took over 14 months to solve and was complicated by a great deal of endogamy in her mother's family tree. A breakthrough came when it was determined that her father was a migrant from Germany; eventually, the extended family could be found, and her identity was confirmed in July 2019 by DNA comparison with her daughters.
Flesher, who had been married with three daughters, was estranged from her family. As a result, when she disappeared, authorities were not notified.
Her homicide remains unsolved.
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