- Washington County Sheriff's Office reopens 1970 Jane Doe cold case seeking new leads.
- Advances in DNA technology prompt exhumation of remains for potential identification.
- Cold Case Coalition offers support; preparations underway for excavation at Hurricane cemetery.
HURRICANE, Washington County — For more than a half-century, she has only been known as "Jane Doe" or "1970 Jane Doe." For decades, her headstone simply read "Unknown."
But now, the Washington County Sheriff's Office wants to give the 55-year-old cold case mystery another look and exhume the remains of the unknown woman with the hope that advances in DNA technology will give them a long-awaited break in the case.
"The Washington County Sheriff's Office is hopeful that their work in this cold case can end with identification of the woman, bringing closure to the family of the victim," the sheriff's office said in a statement to KSL.
In October 1970, the skeletal remains of a woman were discovered off Gunlock Road. A road crew employee discovered the badly decomposed body on the side of a road from U.S. 91 to Gunlock about 18 miles west of St. George, according to an article in the Deseret News from Oct. 2, 1970.
The woman was believed to middle-aged and about 5 feet 2 inches tall, weighing 140 pounds, according the Utah Bureau of Criminal Identification's cold case website. The state says a "few strands of blonde or gray hair" were also collected.
But after an autopsy was conducted, the woman's cause of death was listed as "undetermined." The woman's remains were eventually interred at the Hurricane City Cemetery. Her grave marker simply read "unknown."
Then in February 2014, the case was reopened.
It was learned that in 1974, the sheriff's office received information "that an inmate housed in a New York Correctional Center had confessed to the murder of a female in Washington County back in 1970," according to a 2014 police report.
The detective assigned the case in 2014 interviewed a sheriff's deputy from 1974 who recalled that "an inmate somewhere in a New York Correctional Center had confessed to killing a woman somewhere between St. George and Las Vegas in (the) same time frame as the woman found in 1970," the report states.
The inmate also allegedly said that a second man was with him during the killing.
But when the detective went to look for records from the county, including "any kind of a law enforcement report with information relating to this case," she found nothing.
"There were no records of any cases dating back to the 1970s or 1980s. Without the name of the inmate back in New York, there is no way to pursue this case any further," the 2014 report states.
With that lead seemingly hitting a dead end, detectives made arrangements to exhume Jane Doe's body to collect DNA and enter it into the national missing person database. In September 2014, crews excavated the gravesite of Jane Doe.
But they did not find her body.
"There were no remains found in the gravesite. There is no explanation as to why the remains are not there, just that here were no remains found in the gravesite. This case will be closed unless additional information becomes available," the report concludes.
The investigation seemed to hit a permanent roadblock. Until now.
"The case has since been reopened. Multiple potential missing person matches have been identified, and family reference samples from two missing persons cases have been submitted for comparison. In addition, the Cold Case Coalition, a nationally recognized nonprofit, has offered forensic and financial support for the investigation, including covering the cost of exhumation if needed," according to court documents.
A new detective was assigned to give the case another look. What she found was that investigators in 2014 trying to exhume Jane Doe's remains may have not dug deep enough.
"The dig reportedly reached a depth of only 5 feet. Historical burial practices in 1970 typically involved deeper and wider grave placements than modern standards. It is possible that the remains were missed due to incomplete excavation or slight displacement of the burial location," a warrant requesting a new excavation states.
"Records from the city also indicate that the remains were interred at that location. Based on these facts, there is probable cause to believe the remains of the unidentified female are still present within the designated burial plot. Exhumation is necessary to collect forensic evidence for identification and to further the investigation into the circumstances surrounding her death," the warrant says.
KSL recently visited the gravesite. The "unknown" headstone has been removed, and purple paint now outlines the burial plot, presumably in preparation for the expected excavation. As of press time, the sheriff's office was still making preparations to exhume the remains.
"A case from 1970 of found remains of a woman in the area of Gunlock is in the infancy of reinvestigation at this time. A warrant has been approved to exhume the remains in order to see if time and technology can assist in the identification of 'Jane Doe.' As time has passed, the requirements to conduct this type of investigation have changed, and the Investigations Division is currently working on getting all of the requirements in order before they are able to continue with the investigation," the sheriff's office said.
