Do you know this young lady - or teen?
Here's a Reddit Post I found which explains the case better than I could:
It was Valentine's Day, 1988 in the small town of Millen, Georgia. In the days prior, there had been complaints about the foul scent coming from a certain dumpster. A local man was collecting cans for money while his girlfriend waited in the car; he dove into this dumpster to see what he could find when he discovered the source of the scent: a duffel bag.
Upon opening the bag with a pocket knife, the man made a gruesome discovery: something that looked like flesh, wrapped in plastic and duct tape and at this point badly decomposed, had been stuffed inside. He initially did not know what to do; his first reaction was to get a friend to come to look at the contents to confirm that this was, in fact, what he thought it was: the body of a woman. At this point, they called the police, who arrived at the scene around 4:45 pm, along with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (abbreviated as the GBI).
Due to the Millen police's own coroner having less experience, the autopsy was conducted in Atlanta by a GBI coroner. It was determined that the victim has been in the dumpster since Friday the 12th (Valentine's Day fell on a Sunday in 1988), but that she had been dead for 4 to 7 days. Jane Doe showed no obvious signs of injury, though her feet had been bound. She tested as negative for any drugs or seminal fluids which could have been left by sexual assault. The victim's cause of death could not be determined positively, but it may have been asphyxiation; in any case, she is believed to have been murdered. Due to the state of her remains, the post-mortems have not been released, but there are two available reconstructions of Jane Doe: one sketch made by GBI forensic artist Marla Lawson in 1988, and a composite image made later. The 1988 sketch is said to not have captured her features as well as LE would have liked, due to the state of her remains by the time that she was discovered.
Jane Doe was estimated to be between 16 and 25 years of age when she was killed. She was approximately 5'4 to 5'5 and weighed around 135-145 lbs; her build was described as slim. She had long, thick, coarse, and straight hair which was dark brown or black. There seems to be some dispute as to her eye color: in some places, it's listed as brown, in others as unknown. Her teeth were in good condition; her upper teeth were crooked and she'd had a lower wisdom tooth extracted not long before her death, though it had healed. Jane Doe's legs were freshly shaven.
Jane Doe's exact race and ethnicity have been a matter of some confusion. It's usually believed Jane Doe was of Asian (specifically East Asian) descent, possibly with some Caucasian ancestry; however, it is also possible that she was in fact Latina (supported by local rumours) or Native American. Marla Lawson, the GBI forensic artist who drew a reconstruction of Jane Doe based on post-mortems, believed she was Asian and White; unfortunately, no forensic anthropologists viewed Jane Doe's body (calling forensic anthropologists was only the common practice in cases of remains that were completely skeletonized) so it is impossible to know for sure. Asian women have been historically underrepresented in reports of missing people; there are very few missing people from the area at the time who match Jane Doe's demographics.
Some bedding (a pillow, bedspread, and bedsheets) and a towel were found along with the victim's body inside the bag. The pillow and bedspread had a matching rose design and are thought to be from the same set; the bedsheets were unembroidered. The towel was printed with butterflies. The bedding was determined to have been made in Korea; photos of the pillow and bedspread can be found in the links below. LE officials believe it is possible that these items may have been the unidentified woman's own possessions.
For context, Millen is an extremely rural town. Its population in 1990 was only 3808. The town has a majority African-American population. Asian-Americans (of any region of Asia: East, South, Southeast, etc.), on the other hand, are a tiny minority in Millen- according to the 2000 census, they were only .17% of the population, and exclusively of Chinese descent. The Native American population is even smaller, at 0.06%; the Latino population of Millen, regardless of race, is 2.86%, though migrant workers, often undocumented, travel through the area seasonally. Due to the demographics of the area, it is suspected that Jane Doe may not have been from the immediate area. To be specific, the dumpster which Jane Doe was found in is located off Kaiser Road (now called the Bypass) and Old Perkins Road, though both this dumpster and another next to it have since been removed in order to increase the road; the original dumpster was taken as evidence at the time of Jane Doe's discovery.
While Millen itself does not have a high Asian population, Georgia's highways were, at the time, filled with so-called "massage parlors" or "spas" which were often little more than fronts for human trafficking. Many of these illicit businesses would traffick vulnerable immigrant women, often undocumented women who would be unable to report abusive conditions for fear of deportation. In Georgia at the time, while these women came from a variety of nationalities, many were Asian and a particularly high number were originally from China. It has been suggested that Jane Doe was a victim of human trafficking and could have worked in these parlors.
It was noted that at the time that the man initially discovered Jane Doe's body, there was a small brown car nearby, but when he returned with his friends the car was gone. There were additional reports of a small brown car being seen around Millen at this time. While police were interviewing residents, two children reported that on February 12, they had been playing near the dumpster when they heard somebody crying out something which sounded like "My baby! My baby!", and then a car similar to the one described pulled up; a man and woman, both described as white and approximately in their 50's, got out of the vehicle and threw something away.
Additionally, when police searched the dumpster for other evidence, they found a gas can, still half full. It is also unknown if the gasoline was related to the crime, but it has been suggested that Jane Doe's murderer or the person disposing of her body had planned to set her on fire.
At the time of Jane Doe's discovery, many leads came in from members of the public, but all turned out to be dead ends. It was suggested that Jane Doe may have been a member of a group of migrant workers traveling through Georgia in 1988, but when these migrant workers were tracked down, it became evident that none of them were accounted for. Jane Doe was also ruled out as a missing Indigenous woman named Julie McDowell (sp?) as well as a Puerto Rican woman identified only as "Maria G." (note: unfortunately, I can't find any other reference to either case.)
The most significant lead involved a 23-year-old man named Johnny Young (originally from Millen, though residing in New Jersey at the time.) Young was investigated after a friend of his called the police telling them to "talk to Johnny." Young's uncle claimed he'd been seen with a Puerto Rican woman who may have matched Jane Doe's description. According to Young's uncle, Young was friends with two dope smugglers, and according to another woman living in the same trailer park, one of these smugglers was involved with this "Puerto Rican girl", and Johnny had run away with both the smuggler's money and the girl. But this turned out to be a dead-end as well; Young did admit he knew one of the smugglers but not the other, but as for the "Puerto Rican girl" he claimed he had no such acquaintance; the GBI was unable to find substantial evidence that Young had either been seen with such a woman or that she even existed. Young's relationship with his uncle was apparently strained, which may have influenced his uncle's statements.
In the summer of 1991, Deputy Campbell of the Jenkins County Sheriff's Office received a phone call from somebody in New Jersey implying that he had killed Jane Doe, referring to Campbell by name as he asked if he "remembered that girl" and saying he was "tired of running." This person said that he had tried to turn himself in, in New Jersey, but that the police had not believed him; he then asked Campbell to come and pick him up, and then hung up the phone; Campbell was unable to reach this person again. Deputy Campbell believed that the caller was Johnny Young, but when the police tracked Young down he denied calling them and gave the same story as when he was originally interrogated. However, he now added that his uncle and another man had shown him the dumpster at some point before Jane Doe had been found. The GBI re-interviewed Young's friends and uncle, but this was also a dead end as no new evidence was found. Since then, there has been no significant development in the case. Johnny Young died in 2006.
Jane Doe's body was cremated by Crowe-Fields Funeral Home in Millen (it is not clear why this decision was made at the time); unfortunately, her DNA was not taken prior to this, though the GBI is currently attempting to find usable DNA samples in the bedding which was found with her. Her dentals and fingerprints, however, could be used to identify her. Besides the women listed above, Jane Doe has also been ruled out as Yvonne Mestas, Hiromi Kazuni, and Kristina "Krissi" Porco. Note that Asian women are comparatively underrepresented in missing people; it is very possible that the Jenkins County Jane Doe was never reported missing, especially if she was an immigrant. Unfortunately, the case of Jenkins County Jane Doe has fallen into obscurity since the time that she was found.
So who was Jane Doe? Could she have been a victim of human trafficking? Was Johnny Young linked to her murder, or was he innocent? Somebody must be missing this young woman, and nobody deserves to be left nameless in a dumpster.