Body in Ike debris ID'd; another woman's body found

Houston Chronicle

Nov. 25, 2008, 10:41PM

Jennifer Mclemore had been missing since she tried to ride out Hurricane Ike. Her body was found two weeks ago.

A woman's body that had been pulled from a hurricane debris pile in Chambers County on Nov. 12 was identified Tuesday through dental records.

At the same time, forensic anthropologists were examining yet another woman's body found six days ago in debris left by Hurricane Ike on an island off the Bolivar Peninsula.

The Chambers County victim was identified as 50-year-old Jennifer Mclemore of Gilchrist, who had been missing since Ike made landfall Sept. 13 on the Bolivar Peninsula, said Chambers County Sheriff Joe LaRive.

Her 16-year-old grandson, Jerrith Baird, had begged Mclemore to evacuate with him, but she chose to ride out the storm with her dog, HooDoo, her grandson said in an interview in September.

Mclemore had remodeled her house after it was damaged by Hurricane Rita in 2005 and believed it was sturdy enough to withstand a Category 2 storm, Baird said.

He talked to his grandmother at her house until her cell phone's battery died, and he also tried to have the U.S. Coast Guard rescue her. But by that time, the wind was too strong, and the planes had to stop flying rescue missions, he said.

After the storm passed, Baird paddled over to Bolivar in a kayak. He said he could find no trace of her, her home or any familiar landmarks.

Search dogs later discovered Mclemore's body 12 1/2 miles across the bay from her residence in a debris pile in a wooded field near Smith Point.

Meanwhile, the forensic anthropologist determined the unidentified woman being examined Tuesday had drowned, said John Florence, a Galveston County medical examiner's official.

She would be the 20th Galveston County person to die from Hurricane Ike and the 42nd on the Texas coast.

The body was found Thursday by boaters who came ashore at Goat Island and discovered it amid piles of debris, he said.

Precinct 9 Deputy Constable Rodney Kahla, who works part-time for the Medical Examiner's Office, retrieved the body on Friday, Florence said.

Information from the bone examination, along with a dentist's findings from examining the teeth, will help in estimating the woman's age.

Fingerprints could not be taken from the remains, Florence said.

The office has identified four bodies discovered after the storm, Florence said, and four, including this one, remain unidentified.

"It's going to take time, but we're going to do our best to identify all of them," Florence said.

The original story is here. Three months after Hurricane Ike, and there are still huge piles of debris here and there, some revealing bodies.