PA PA - Uniontown, WhtFem 30-45, UP16509, in big rig accident, cigs, keychain, clothes, jewelry, May'86

Do we know if the body suffered trauma in the accident? Maybe she had scars or tatoos that got lost.
The post mortem photo does not look too bad so I would guess not.
The fuel logs of that truck would be useful to see. We would know where he stopped, which would likely be where she got on, as she was not in the truck at Sparrow Point but was in the wreck south of Uniontown.
 
There is some activity on this case. There was a large LE presence today in the cemetery where this UID was buried. Word is that there has been an exhumation but I can not confirm yet.
I saw on a couple FB pages yesterday morning - people asking why 5 state cars were going to the cemetery by the hospital - then last night I saw they exhumed this Doe's body.
 

Body of woman who died tragically in 1986 in Fayette County exhumed to determine her identity​

FAYETTE COUNTY, Pa. — The body of an unidentified woman who died nearly four decades ago has been exhumed in Fayette County to hopefully give closure to the case.

Members of Pennsylvania State Police Uniontown and the Fayette County Coroner’s Office exhumed the body Monday morning, according to the Fayette County District Attorney’s Office.

The woman died in a traffic crash in Springhill Township in 1986.


After being exhumed, the body was taken to the Indiana County Coroner’s Office, officials say. The woman’s DNA will be collected and uploaded to various databases in an effort to determine her identity.


“Thank you to Trooper Sigwalt, Coroner Baker and all of the folks involved for their efforts to hopefully bring long-awaited closure to a grieving family,” the district attorney’s office said.
 

Body of woman who died tragically in 1986 in Fayette County exhumed to determine her identity​

FAYETTE COUNTY, Pa. — The body of an unidentified woman who died nearly four decades ago has been exhumed in Fayette County to hopefully give closure to the case.

Members of Pennsylvania State Police Uniontown and the Fayette County Coroner’s Office exhumed the body Monday morning, according to the Fayette County District Attorney’s Office.

The woman died in a traffic crash in Springhill Township in 1986.


After being exhumed, the body was taken to the Indiana County Coroner’s Office, officials say. The woman’s DNA will be collected and uploaded to various databases in an effort to determine her identity.


“Thank you to Trooper Sigwalt, Coroner Baker and all of the folks involved for their efforts to hopefully bring long-awaited closure to a grieving family,” the district attorney’s office said.
So glad to see this. Hope is on the horizon.
 
Glad to finally see this! Hopefully Springhill Jane Doe will have her name back in 2025!
Yes. I think there was a million dollar grant to identify does. I hope the Mt. Jewett Jane Doe and Mr. Bones would benefit from this. No exhumation would be required in either case, making it an efficient use of available funding.
 
The case was selected to be reviewed after the Florida Institute of Forensic Anthropology and Applied Science received a grant dedicated to resolving cases involving unidentified human remains. A team from Florida traveled to Pennsylvania to assist state police and the Fayette County Coroner’s Office with the exhumation.

 

Pa. state police exhume body of unidentified woman killed in Fayette County​

Pennsylvania State Police this week exhumed the body of a woman killed in a Fayette County motor vehicle crash nearly 40 years ago, hoping to finally identify her through DNA.

The woman was killed May 2, 1986, in a tractor-trailer rollover in Springhill Township, about 15 miles south of Uniontown. She has never been identified despite media campaigns and tips from the public over the years.

Reports from the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System say the woman, a passenger in the truck, was between 30 and 45 years old at the time of her death. She was 5-foot-4 and weighed 170 pounds, with brown eyes and medium-length brown hair.

“There is a family out there somewhere that lost this young lady, and they’ve been wondering where she is for a long time,” Fayette County District Attorney Michael Aubele said. “It was worth every bit of effort.”

The case was selected to be reviewed after the Florida Institute of Forensic Anthropology and Applied Science received a grant dedicated to resolving cases involving unidentified human remains. A team from Florida traveled to Pennsylvania to assist state police and the Fayette County Coroner’s Office with the exhumation.

In 1986, police said the truck driver was headed from Sparrows Point, Md. to Richmond, Ky., and that he had no scheduled stops.

The woman was not with the driver when he left Sparrows Point, leading investigators to believe she was hitchhiking.

While the deceased driver was identified as Joseph D. Richards of Eastanollee, Ga., the woman had no identification on her, police said.

Investigators found her body under the tractor trailer. She had Marlboro cigarettes and $333 in cash at the time of her death, according to the missing persons database.

Police collected hair samples from the woman, but they were “insufficient for analysis” according to state police.

Aubele said the original investigation determined she was not a local resident.

Her remains were exhumed Monday morning from Oak Lawn Cemetery in Uniontown. Her tombstone was engraved with the year of her death, and the words, “God loves her.”

The woman’s remains were transported later that day to a facility at Indiana University of Pennsylvania where forensic anthropologists prepared DNA samples for entry into a DNA database

Investigators hope her DNA may match an existing profile from a missing person case.

“Investigators remain hopeful that the renewed efforts and advanced technology will help identify Jane Doe and bring long awaited closure to her family and loved ones,” state police said in a news release.



Haley Moreland is a TribLive staff writer. You can reach Haley at [email protected].
 
Here is a link to a story in today’s Uniontown Herald-Standard. My heart sunk when I saw that they are uploading the dna profile to CODIS.

 
Here is a link to a story in today’s Uniontown Herald-Standard. My heart sunk when I saw that they are uploading the dna profile to CODIS.

My daughter is doing her clinicals for Physical Therapy at Uniontown Hospital (the cemetery where Jane Doe was buried is next to the hospital) - she said some of her co workers were talking about the case this morning and they were all surprised to hear of a Jane Doe being buried in the cemetery. She texted me and asked me if I have heard of the case before and I asked her "what do you think?" It's too local for me not to hear of it.
 
My daughter is doing her clinicals for Physical Therapy at Uniontown Hospital (the cemetery where Jane Doe was buried is next to the hospital) - she said some of her co workers were talking about the case this morning and they were all surprised to hear of a Jane Doe being buried in the cemetery. She texted me and asked me if I have heard of the case before and I asked her "what do you think?" It's too local for me not to hear of it.
The strange thing is, a LOT of people tell me she looks familiar, but no one has identified her.
I doubt that this exhumation will result in an ID unless they submit to GEDmatch.
 
The strange thing is, a LOT of people tell me she looks familiar, but no one has identified her.
I doubt that this exhumation will result in an ID unless they submit to GEDmatch.
Yeah, I bet they almost have to submit it to GED Match to get an ID. So curious to see who she is and where she was from. These 80's cases are what interests me the most.
 
Yeah, I bet they almost have to submit it to GED Match to get an ID. So curious to see who she is and where she was from. These 80's cases are what interests me the most.
I’m with you. That time period is just before DNA really took off and is still “recent” enough to bring “closure” (whatever that may be) to a victim’s family/friends and possibly even justice (in the event the death was a crime).

It is also so sad that someone can go missing / be dead and, in some cases, no one seems to miss them or be looking for them.
 
I’m with you. That time period is just before DNA really took off and is still “recent” enough to bring “closure” (whatever that may be) to a victim’s family/friends and possibly even justice (in the event the death was a crime).

It is also so sad that someone can go missing / be dead and, in some cases, no one seems to miss them or be looking for them.
I agree, it makes me so sad. This lady's post mortem picture has been all over the place, I can't believe no one is looking for her.
 
Even with genetic genealogy it can take awhile for someone to be identified, depending on the person's matches. But that is a lot more of a chance than CODIS. That is the first step, hopefully other steps will follow if that doesn't result in an identification.
 

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