Cold Case Files: Colo. authorities identify longtime Jane Doe

hosted ^ | Oct 28 | JUDITH KOHLER

[JoeProBono]

DENVER (AP) -- Police on a cold case hunt have finally identified a woman whose nude and battered body was found along a Boulder creek 55 years ago. But it's not over - they want to name the killer.

She was buried under a headstone that read "Jane Doe" and remained anonymous until a DNA test revealed that she was Dorothy Gay Howard of Phoenix, officials announced Wednesday. Howard had been reported missing in March 1954 when she was 18.

The ID was resolved by the Boulder County Sheriff's Department, Internet research and the persistence of local historian Silvia Pettem. Sheriff Joe Pelle, whose department renewed efforts five years ago to find out who she was, said a relative provided the genetic sample.

Sheriff's Cmdr. Rick Brough said it was gratifying to finally know who the woman was. But he added "it's not closed yet;" the department still wants to find Howard's killer.

"With her identification, a major piece of the puzzle has been added," said detective Steve Ainsworth, the lead investigator.

Officials say serial killer Harvey Glatman, executed in 1959 in California, might have murdered Howard.....

[JoeProBono]

The Boulder Colorado Sheriff's Office on Oct. 28, 2009, released this 1953 photograph of Dorothy Gay Howard of Phoenix, Ariz., who they have identified as a homicide victim known as Jane Doe since her death in April 1954. The battered and naked body of “Jane Doe”, an unidentified female homicide victim, was found along the banks of Boulder Creek near Boulder Falls, eight miles west of Boulder, on April 8, 1954. Despite an intensive investigation at the time, she was never identified. Her body was buried in Boulder’s Columbia Cemetery in a simple grave beneath a donated headstone that read "Jane Doe - April 1954 - Age about 20 years." According to Sheriff Joe Pelle Dr. Terry Melton, president and CEO of Mitotyping Technologies, LLC, of State College, Pennsylvania, confirmed that her lab had made a match between “Jane Doe’s” DNA profile and that of a woman who thought the unidentified murder victim might be her long-lost sister. (AP Photo/Boulder Sheriff's Dept.)

[JoeProBono]

[JoeProBono]

BOULDER JANE DOE

(Sculpted by forensic artist Frank Bender)

[GinaLolaB]

May the poor lady rest in peace.

[Wally_Kalbacken]

 

 

[Publius6961]

5—4—3—2—1

[fredhead]

I would love to see the eastern NC authorities catch whoever murdered 15-year old Donna Marie Emmel in Newport in 1975. I never felt that they tried hard enough, as she was not a local, but a “Marine brat.”