Chris's Crime Forum

Texas detective hopes DNA from Iowa ends 25-year quest
By ERIN JORDAN • ejordan@dmreg.com • February 20, 2009

The strangled young woman found in Texas on Oct. 8, 1983, could have been of of Sgt. Modeina Holmes’ daughters, her niece or a young coworker.

For 25 years, the police officer thought about the Jane Doe found near a highway.

There are new leads indicating she may have been Bambi Lynn Dick, a Davenport 17-year-old who disappeared Sept. 29, 1983, after going to hear Quiet Riot and Axe at the Col Ballroom in Davenport.

“Over the years, I’ve learned not to get very excited. We have not yet made a positive identification,” said Holmes, 65, and a semi-retired detective. But after looking at more than 6,000 missing person reports over the years to identify this Jane Doe, Holmes can’t help but show a little optimism.

“She looks good,” she said.

Dick’s relatives are convinced DNA tests will prove the Amarillo Jane Doe is Bambi. It will take several months for the results.

“Everything points to Bambi,” said Lorie Dick, Bambi’s sister-in-law who lives in Massachusetts.

The last week has been a blur since the Jane Doe Network contacted the Amarillo Police Department on behalf of Paul Dick, Lorie’s husband and Bambi’s brother, Lorie said. Paul had recently found the network online and saw a profile of the Amarillo Jane Doe.

The Jane Doe profile has many similarities with Bambi Dick, family said.

Both were tall and thin, with sandy brown hair and hazel eyes. Even more striking is that both Bambi Dick and the Jane Doe had double-pierced ears, blue-tinted contact lenses, a mark on the left forearm and a third nipple under the right breast.

The news that the Jane Doe might be Bambi Dick has been a shock to Dick’s parents, Edward and Evelyn Dick of Davenport, Paul Dick said.

“My mom and dad wanted to believe my sister was alive,” he said.

The family filed a missing person report soon after Bambi disappeared, but it expired after she turned 18. The Dicks never believed Bambi ran away because she left her clothes and car behind. They hired a private investigator, but never found the teen.

The Amarillo Police Department went to extremes trying to identify their Jane Doe.

They sent fliers to law enforcement agencies across Texas, in nearby states and Mexico, Holmes said. The notices apparently went no further north than Oklahoma.

Police also sent letters with Bambi’s prescription to 18,000 optometrists who might have sold her contact lenses. Only a handful called and none provided useful leads, Holmes said.

Holmes, who worked the Jane Doe case for years as part of the Potter Randall Special Crimes Unit, retired in 2000. She came back to work part time in 2002. She usually works about 20 hours a week, but she’s been working close to full time this week because of the new lead, she said.

“I’m here this week because I want to be,” Holmes said.
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DNA results ends 25 year Quest..the body is that of Bambi Lynn Dick

DNA evidence has confirmed that a young woman found dead in Texas nearly 26 years ago is a Davenport teenager that went missing after a rock concert. Seventeen-year-old Bambi Dick disappeared on September 29, 1983 after seeing the band Quiet Riot at Col Ballroom.

A little over a week later, an unidentified woman was found strangled to death along a highway north of Amarillo, Texas. Amarillo Police Lieutenant Gary Trupe says Sergeant Modeina Holmes has worked on the case ever since.

"Modeina was just not going to let this go," Trupe said. "She was going to stay here as long as it took to identify her and thankfully we did." Holmes retired in 2000, but returned part-time in 2002. She went so far as to send 18,000 letters to optometrists around the country.

Trupe says Holmes was hoping someone would recognize the girl who was wearing blue contact lenses. Those letters did not produce any leads. The break in the case finally came last month when Bambi's brother, Paul, noticed a post on the Jane Doe Network fitting his missing sister's profile.

DNA from Bambi's parents confirmed her identity. Edward and Evelyn Dick still reside in Davenport. Lieutenant Trupe says detectives now hope to find Bambi Dick's killer. "We do have a few people we want to talk to that might help us in tying together her last few days, after she left Davenport and why she was here in Texas," Trupe said. He says the Davenport teen may have left Iowa on her own to visit someone she knew in Texas.

Trupe says investigators are hoping to find that individual to learn more about the girl's time spent in Texas. "There's a chance," Trupe said of the potential for making an arrest in the case. "We're not at a total standstill. There are some people we're going to talk to...but we're chasing 26 years." Bambi's family now plans to get a headstone engraved with her name. They do not plan to move her body from the gravesite in Amarillo.



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