https://tucson.com/news/state-and-regional/apache-junction-police-hope-to-solve-death/article_c57802df-76f1-559c-838d-19dadca07578.htmlApache Junction police hope to solve '92 deathTechnology could be key to finding ID of woman whose demise is a mystery
By Mike Sakal East Valley Tribune Aug 4, 2009
Apache Junction Police Department investigators hope any thread of evidence will help identify and solve a cold case involving the death of the city's only "Jane Doe," whose remains were found in the desert nearly 17 years ago.
She was wearing a Team Gear soccer T-shirt with soccer balls imprinted on the front and back, a pair of Levi's denim cutoff shorts and a gold-colored ring on her left ring finger when her badly decomposed remains were found on Aug. 6, 1992, by a man walking his dog south of U.S. 60 and west of Idaho Road.
The woman or teen, who was described as Hispanic or East Asian, was about 16 to 18 years old and 4 feet 11 inches to 5 feet 1 inch tall. She had coarse brown hair in a ponytail and poorly maintained teeth that protruded from her mouth. She also had a Phoenix Transit System student token in her pocket with 26 cents in change, according to Stephanie Bourgeois, a crime-scene technician for the Apache Junction Police Department.
The woman's fingerprints were submitted to the National Crime Information Center's database, and in January strands of her hair were sent for DNA testing to the Arizona Department of Public Safety, where it awaits processing.
"Her teeth are the most prominent part about her," Bourgeois said. "She has very poor teeth. We've had some possible matches through partial fingerprints in Pittsburgh and through dental records in California, but everything has come back negative so far."
The Pima County Medical Examiner's Office, which performed the autopsies for Pinal County at the time, determined the remains had been at the location where they were found for three to five weeks, but it was unable to determine the cause of her death, police said.
However, because of technological advances and expanded online missing-persons databases, authorities are hoping the case will be solved, possibly through a DNA match that could be discovered on items set to be run through the DPS crime lab.
Bourgeois, who has been with the department since 2007, said she became interested in the case about a year ago when she attended the FBI's Violent Criminal Apprehension Program near the Grand Canyon. VICAP combines investigative and operational support functions, as well as research and training so agencies can better investigate unusual crimes or incidents.
Bourgeois said having the woman's fingerprints in the National Crime Information Center's system is a good thing. But when DNA is analyzed on the hair and clothing and submitted to the DPS, that could provide a more specific match or determine whether traces of someone else's DNA were left on the woman.
"We're trying all possibilities," Bourgeois said. "I'm hopeful. I'm hopeful we'll find out who she is."
On top of not knowing a cause of death, the department has not received any tips or leads on the case in many years, said Capt. Tom Kelly of the Apache Junction police.
"I'm sure there's a family, a brother or a mom who would like to see some closure in this," Kelly said. "Solving these kinds of things is always nice, because it brings closure to the family. When this happened, some of the forensic techniques and technologies weren't available that are now. We'd like to know if there's somebody who saw something, heard something or bragged about doing something bad to this girl and has remorse over it. We hope by shaking the tree again, something will fall."