Remains in wall ID'd as Poughkeepsie woman missing since '85

A Poughkeepsie womanwhoseskeletal remains were found nearly 28 years after she disappeared apparently died from blunt trauma to her head,according to police. On Monday, the Dutchess County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the decayed bones uncovered in a VassarRoad home as JoAnn Nichols, who was reported missing on Dec. 21, 1985, by her husbandJames L. Nichols Jr. In a statement released late Monday, town police said they will “continue the investigationby furtherexamination of the case and new forensic evidence.” After she went missing,police had looked into the possibility she had run away or committed suicide because heronly son had drowned three years earlier, but eventually the case went cold. Until Friday. Dr. Kari Reiber, the county’s medical examiner and acting health commissioner, said Monday’s autopsyrevealed JoAnn Nichols’ body was placed “intact” in a container before it wassealed in a falsebasement wall. The 55-year-old schoolteacher had had “extensive dental work,” including a partial denture, leadingto a “straightforward”positive identification, Reiber said. The cause of death was “apparent” and “physical,” she said. The grisly discovery of a sealed container holding human remains was made Friday evening by a private contractor cleaning up 720 Vassar Road afterits sole occupant, the missing woman’shusband, died in December. Describedby neighbors as an unemotional hoarder, he died at 82 of natural causes. Despitea police investigation, JoAnn Nichols, who hadtaughtfirst grade at Gayhead Elementary School and in the Wappingers district for22 years, was never found. The case was reviewed annually, according to town police. Reiber said the body had beenin the container “for a very long time,” and that the bonesseparated after tissues and cartilage decomposed. In a dry basement, buried behind a false wall and piles of hoarded items, a putrefied body might not have a strong smell, she said. Unclaimed body After James Nichols died and no one claimed his body, Dutchess County Commissionerof Finance Pamela Barrack was appointedthe temporary administrator of his estate by the state Surrogate’s Court, said Kelly Traver, Barrack’s attorney in the matter.