Chris's Crime Forum

Unidentified White Female


The victim was discovered on April 8, 1954 in Boulder Creek, Colorado
Estimated Date of Death: 1 week

Vital Statistics


Estimated age: 17- 20 years old (Dob 1934 - 1937)
Approximate Height and Weight: 5'2"
Distinguishing Characteristics: Light brown hair, almost blonde with a tinge of red. Her hair did not appear to have been dyed or tinted. Appendectomy scar
Dentals: Available. She had a perfect set of teeth with no fillings or cavities.
Clothing: None. Three bobby pins were located.
DNA: Available

Case History
The victim was located on April 8, 1954, near Boulder Falls, a popular tourist spot about nine miles up Boulder Canyon.
She was dumped 300 yards downstream from the parking area of Boulder Falls, popular with both residents and tourists. Her body was thrown from the road down a very steep 29' embankment and landed on rocks on the edge of the creek. Her body was not visible from the road because the embankment was so steep. She was found when 2 college students were jumping from rock to rock in the creek.
Neither her clothing nor other evidence were found, despite an extensive search of the area. Missing person reports circulating at the time, were checked out by the sheriff, without success. Few clues have surfaced to aid in identifying the woman.

Investigators
If you have any information about this case please contact:
Boulder County Sheriff Department
Detective Steve Ainsworth
303-441-3650 or 303-441-3627
E-Mail
You may remain anonymous when submitting information.

Agency Case Number: 04-2822

Source Information:
Boulder Jane Doe
Rocky Mountain News

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/433ufco.html

Pettem
Please see www.boulderjanedoe.com for more information on this very cold case. A group of dedicated researchers believes she could be Katharine E. Farrand Dyer, who was reported missing from nearby Denver at the time. If you have any information (or even thoughts and ideas!) on either Jane Doe or Katharine, we would love to hear from you. Thank you, Silvia Pettem

shwa
With permission from ... Silvia Pettem.
In 1954, an unidentified female was found murdered in Boulder Canyon, Colorado. She was 5ft.4in. and weighed between 100 and 110lbs.,had an appendectomy scar,perfect teeth, and light brown hair.
Boulderjanedoe.com ... is dedicated to her with the hope of restoring her identity.

Mysterious murder victim reburied in Colorado

DENVER (AP) — The exhumed remains of a mysterious woman killed in 1954 have been reburied without an answer to who she was, but some people believe they're close.

Investigators argue the remains are those of a Denver woman who had been reported missing just days before the battered, nude body of a woman in her 20s was found along a Boulder Canyon creek on April 8, 1954. There is even speculation that she may have been the victim of a serial killer.

Boulder Sheriff's Cmdr. Phil West said authorities need a family member to step forward and provide a DNA sample to determine whether the woman is Katharine E. Farrand Dyer. Farrand Dyer, who would have been in her late 20s, had separated from her husband and was living in a Denver boarding house when she was reported missing.

"Until we can locate some matrilineal relative of Miss Dyer's we are not able to make a confirmation," West said Tuesday, noting that very little is known about Farrand Dyer.

But the lead investigator, Boulder Detective Steve Ainsworth, is not convinced the woman is Farrand Dyer because a doctor who examined the remains believes she was no older than 19.

A marriage certificate examined by Silvia Pettem, a Boulder historian, states that Farrand Dyer was born in San Antonio, Texas, but a volunteer genealogical team has been unable to find any family members. A comparison of a photo of Farrand Dyer with the remains was inconclusive, Ainsworth said.

After the June 2004 exhumation of the mysterious body, investigators extracted DNA and developed a profile that ruled out at least two other potential victims, including a Nebraska woman initially believed to be Jane Doe but who, it turned out, had run away and lived in Boston until her death in March 2006.

Jane Doe's DNA profile is now in the FBI's national database of missing persons.

New injuries found after the exhumation led police to believe they have a suspect: Serial killer Harvey Glatman, who was executed at California's San Quentin State Prison in September 1959 after confessing to three slayings in California.

Glatman lived blocks away from Farrand Dyer in Denver at the time of Jane Doe's death. He had previously served prison time for assaulting women — and had an obsession with bondage and ropes, according to Ainsworth.

A forensic anthropologist and a forensic pathologist found that Jane Doe's legs were broken, suggesting she may have escaped her captor and was running away before being run down by a car and left to die.

West said the injuries were consistent with "bumper fractures," and that measurements were consistent with a 1951 Dodge Coronet that Glatman was driving at the time.

"There's just a lot of circumstantial evidence that points in that direction," West said. "If this was a current investigation, a current event, he would figure very prominently as a suspect."

At the request of then-Boulder Sheriff Arthur Everson, Los Angeles police questioned Glatman about pictures of three Denver women found in a toolbox belonging to Glatman. Ainsworth, citing transcripts of the interview, said Glatman was evasive about the identity of one of the women but provided details — names, ages, hometowns — for the other two.

"I'm way more convinced that Glatman is the killer than I am that Katharine Farrand Dyer is the victim," Ainsworth said. "I believe our Jane Doe is in one of those pictures."

Boulder Sheriff's Department files older than 1969 are no longer available, and Los Angeles police have been unable to find Glatman's pictures.

Jane Doe's remains were reburied at Boulder's Columbia Cemetery on Sept. 9. The headstone marking the grave still reads, "Jane Doe. April 1954. Age about 20 years."

"It would be nice to put her own name on the grave stone," said Pettem. "It just seems to be the right thing to do."


link

Sheriff Joe Pelle announced that the woman's identity has been confirmed as Dorothy Gay Howard, who was reported missing from Phoenix, Ariz., in March 1954. She was 18 years old at the time of her disappearance.

wow what wonderful news!
IDENTIFIED!

Mystery solved: Boulder sheriff IDs 'Jane Doe' as
Dorothy Gay Howard

Identity gives important link in piecing together 1954 homicide.
Boulder County's famed “Jane Doe” — the homicide victim whose identity has been a mystery for more than five decades — was identified today by the sheriff as a woman who went missing from Arizona.


Sheriff Joe Pelle announced that the woman's identity has been confirmed as Dorothy Gay Howard, who was reported missing from Phoenix, Ariz., in March 1954. She was 18 years old at the time of her disappearance.

The sheriff's office received lab results that showed a match between Howard's DNA and DNA samples provided by a long-lost sister, confirming family's suspicion that their relative, known as “Dot,” was Boulder's “Jane Doe.” Detectives think the identification will help them finish piecing together the heinous murder.

Howard's naked, battered body was discovered along the banks of Boulder Creek, near Boulder Falls and eight miles west of Boulder, on April 8, 1954.

Investigators, and local historian Silvia Pettem, have, for years, doggedly tried to identify the woman — exhuming her body from her grave, and publicizing an artist's re-creation of “Jane Doe's” face. Her re-constructed skull provided a DNA profile.

The case was featured in an episode of “America's Most Wanted.”

Howard's great niece had been following Pettem's Web site, www.boulderjanedoe.com, but put her suspicions aside that “Jane Doe” could be her great aunt because investigators had initially believed the woman was Katharine Farrand Dyer.
However, Dyer was discovered alive, living in an assisted living center in Australia last month. That discovery prompted Howard's great
This is the facial reconstruction of "Jane Doe," a woman found murdered in Boulder Canyon in April 1954, that was created by Frank Bender, a forensic artist from Philadelphia. Members of the Vidocq Society, based in Philadelphia, teamed up with the Boulder County Sheriffs Department to reconstruct the skull of the woman to create the likeness. Boulder County authorities on Wednesday confirmed they had identified Jane Doe as Dorothy Gay Howard. ( JOSHUA LAWTON )
niece to come forward with information about Howard and her disappearance. The younger sister of Howard provided a DNA sample that was then compared against “Jane Doe's” profile, establishing a match.

Sheriff Pelle commended Pettem's skills as a researcher and her persistence in pushing the investigation forward, while complimenting 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 — who was executed in California in 1959 for the murder of three other women — as Howard's murderer.

“With her identification, a major piece of the puzzle has been added,” Ainsworth said in a news release. “I'm confident now that we will be able to find the missing links that will tie this all together.”

Howard's surviving family members have expressed their preference that she remain interred in Boulder's Columbia Cemetery.

The sheriff's office is not releasing information about Howard's family because they've requested privacy.

Pettem, with Pelle's cooperation, has announced a fund drive to purchase a new headstone for Howard.

Donations may be made to the “Jane Doe Fund”, c/o the Boulder History Museum, 1206 Euclid Avenue, Boulder, CO 80302.

wow thanks to YOU..you know who you are who sent me this link!


http://www.dailycamera.com/boulder-county-news/ci_13658937#at