Very good new article on the case
Two women on decade-long quest to ID West Haven's 1979 Jane Doe hope DNA will finally give an answer
Investigators originally did not have much to go on. The case was picked up again in 1981, when Jane Doe’s mandible was found near the area where her remains first were discovered, according to Murray.
The case then went quiet for another decade, according to Murray.
“The next time it was reopened was in 1991. ... A major casebook was compiled at that time,” she said. “Other than putting this book together, I don’t think they were able to put together any further leads on it.”
It would be another 20 years before police got another lead. That happened in 2013, with Clark’s phone call to Murray.
Jane Doe’s mitochondrial DNA had matched that of a woman named
Lynne Schulze, a Middlebury College student who went missing in 1971, Murray said.
But while mitochondrial DNA can help rule people in or out, is not individualizing, Clark said. Investigators ruled out Schulze using dental records, Murray said.
“We were really hoping it was her, but it wasn’t,” said Clark.
Still, the lead was the start of a 10-year quest for Murray and Clark.
In the years that followed, they took various steps to try to move the case forward. Murray revisited the site where Jane Doe’s remains were found and brought cadaver dogs to try to locate additional parts of her skeleton, which is still incomplete, Murray said.
In late 2013, the pair sent images of Jane Doe’s skull to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, which created a composite sketch of Jane Doe’s face, according to Murray.
Occasionally, individuals who thought the woman might be their missing loved one would surface, Murray said. The pair also investigated whether Jane Doe’s remains might match women who went missing out of Vernon and Waterbury, she said.
None of them was their Jane Doe.
