PHOENIX -- A 50-year-old cold case has been solved, and the mystery of a Phoenix woman who disappeared in the 1950s is finally unraveled.
It started in the spring of 1954. A woman's body -- naked, beaten and partially decomposed -- was found along the banks of a creek just outside Boulder, Colo.
No one knew who she was, or how she got there. The community raised money to have a proper burial, but Jane Doe was the only name they could give her.
She was buried in a Boulder cemetery. The headstone read "Jane Doe. April 1954. Age about 20 years."
Fifty-five years went by, and investigators followed up on leads and recreated what Jane Doe looked like, but never knew who she was -- until now.
In 2004, investigators exhumed the body. The sheriff's department was prompted to renew efforts to identify the woman by Boulder historian Silvia Pettem.
Boulder Colorado Sheriff's Office Cmdr. Phil West said, "When somebody's life is taken, in particular under these circumstances, there's a commitment to bringing the suspect to justice."
Late last week, a DNA match identified Jane Doe as Dorothy Gay Howard. Dot, as friends called her, went missing from Phoenix in March of 1954. She was 18 years old at the time.
Police were eventually able to connect the dots, and believe they know who killed Howard.
They said serial killer Harvey Glatman could be responsible. Glatman was executed in California in 1959 for the murder of three women.
The DNA sample that led to identifying Howard came from her sister.
CBS 5 News checked with the Phoenix Police Department to find out who Howard was, and what connections she had to the Valley. They say they don't know who she was, but plan to contact Boulder detectives first thing Thursday morning to get some answers.
http://www.kpho.com/news/21459891/detail.html
