Positive Identification of Victim in 1954 "Jane Doe" Homicide case
MEDIA RELEASE Wednesday, October 28th, 2009
TO: Boulder County Area Media
FROM: Cmdr. Rick Brough, #303-441-3631
RE: Positive Identification of 1954 Jane Doe Homicide Victim
Case #04-2822
Sheriff Joe Pelle announced today that a positive identification has been made of the victim in a decades old homicide investigation.
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 8th, 1954. Despite an intensive investigation at the time, she was never identified. Her body was buried in Boulders Columbia Cemetery in a simple grave beneath a donated headstone that read
Jane Doe April 1954 - Age About 20 Years.
In 2004, the Boulder County Sheriffs Office, prompted by local Boulder historian Silvia Pettem, resurrected the investigation. With funds contributed by the community, the donated expertise of several forensic authorities, and Pettems able assistance as a researcher, Sheriffs detectives made significant progress in furthering the investigation, utilizing modern investigative methods. Notably, an exhumation in 2004 and an artists recreation of Jane Does face from her re-constructed skull provided a DNA profile and an image that caught the publics attention, respectively. The case received extensive regional publicity and was featured in an episode of Americas Most Wanted television program. Still, Jane Does identity eluded Sheriffs investigators and a cadre of private volunteer researchers coordinated by Ms. Pettem.
However, late last week that all changed. The Sheriffs Office was notified by Dr. Terry Melton, president and CEO of Mitotyping Technologies, LLC, of State College, Pennsylvania, that her lab had made a match between Jane Does DNA profile and that of a woman who thought the unidentified murder victim might be her long-lost sister.
Jane Doe was positively identified as Dorothy Gay Howard, who was reported as missing from Phoenix, Arizona, in March 1954. She was 18 years old at the time of her disappearance. A photograph accompanies this media release.
Ms. Howards great-niece, whose identity is not being released at this time at her request, had been following Jane Does saga on-line via Ms. Pettems Jane Doe web-site,
www.boulderjanedoe.com, but did not pursue her suspicions that Jane Doe might be her great-aunt Dot as investigators had focused on another likely candidate, Katharine Farrand Dyer. However, when Ms. Dyer was discovered alive and well and living in an assisted living center in Australia last month, Dots great-niece came forward and proposed her great aunt as a possible candidate for a match for Jane Doe. She provided information about another aunt, a younger sibling of Ms. Howards, who in turn provided a DNA sample that was then compared against Jane Does profile, establishing a matrilineal family match.
Ms. Pettem, who recently authored the book, Someones Daughter: In Search of Justice for Jane Doe which chronicles her quest to identify the young woman, commented, In recent years, the search for Jane Does identity has spread around the world, touching the lives of thousands of people, including me. I feel sadness for her tragic death, but relief that her family now has closure. I look forward to Dorothys real name on a new gravestone, and Im proud to have played in solving this mystery.
Sheriff Joe Pelle commended Ms. Pettems skills as a researcher and her persistence in pushing the investigation forward, while complimenting Sheriffs Detective Steve Ainsworth, who has diligently pursued and documented every lead in the case. Together, they built a compelling circumstantial case for naming serial-killer Harvey Glatman (executed in California in 1959 for the murder of three other women) as Ms. Howards murderer. Detective Ainsworth said, With her identification, a major piece of the puzzle has been added. Im confident now that we will be able to find the missing links that will tie this all together.
Ms. Howards surviving family members have expressed their preference that she remain interred in Boulders Columbia Cemetery. Ms. Pettem, with Sheriff Pelles cooperation, has announced a fund drive to purchase a new headstone for Ms. Howard. Donations may be made to the Jane Doe Fund, c/o the Boulder History Museum, 1206 Euclid Avenue, Boulder, CO 80302
This media release may be found on the Boulder County Sheriffs Office web-site at:
www.bouldersheriff.org
Dorothy Gay Howard, age 17, circa 1953
Forensic artist Frank Bender's recreation of Jane Doe's facial features, 2005