Detectives try to ID 1982 Jane Doe

LA SALLE TOWNSHIP, Mich. - Monroe County Sheriff detectives said they're hoping new technology will help solve a nearly 27-year-old cold case homicide of an unidentified woman who washed up on the Lake Erie shoreline in Michigan in March 1982.

According to the sheriff's department on March 31, 1982, an unidentified white female was discovered on the Lake Erie shoreline. An autopsy was performed and the death was ruled a homicide because the body had strangulation marks around its neck.

The news release also mentioned that the female was never positively identified and has since been known as Jane Doe.

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MORE: Jane Doe's face reconstructed (March 30, 2009)

 

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Tuesday morning police, in conjunction with the Michigan State Police and  the FBI's Detroit Field Office, executed a search warrant and exhumed the body from a gravesite at Roselawn Cemetery in La Salle Township near Dixie Highway.

"We've exhausted our options to try to identify with our exhuming the body and I think that's the last resort for obvious reasons," said Det. Jeff Pauli. "During the initial stage of the investigation many leads were followed up on many tips, but she was never identified which leads us to today."

The murder case went cold for years until the summer of 2008. Monroe County detectives were contacted by another Michigan police agency looking into the disappearance of a woman back in 1981.

"We started comparing case files and case notes and determined, obviously, we want to know if our body is that of the missing female," Det. Pauli said.

Years after the case was opened, detectives -- who were in elementary school when the crime happened -- could be getting closer to solving it.

Now that the body has been exhumed they will used DNA testing and a forensic art to reconstruct her face so they might positively identify Jane Doe.

"It's unique and hope is to get the person identified," Det. Pauli told FOX Toledo News. "At the very least, be able to connect with the family, of course. We want to solve the homicide as well, but the first goal is to get her identified so we can move on to the second step."

The unidentified female was estimated to be between 20 and 28 years of age, about 5-foot-4 in height and weighed about 110 pounds at the time of her death. She went missing between 1981 through March of 1982.

Facial reconstruction, to be performed by state police experts, should take about a month. DNA testing will take longer.

If you have information regarding this white female victim you are asked to contact the Monroe County Sheriff's Office at (734) 240-7745.

 

(FOX Toledo's Herather Miller contributed to this report)