https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=55589771Girl UnknownBirth: unknown
Death: 1978
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On September 26, 1998 over two dozen citizens in Granby, MA came to a grave in West Cemetery to celebrate the life of a woman none of them ever knew.
Nearly twenty years earlier on November 15, 1978, the body of a woman was discovered in a shallow grave just off of Route 116. Police estimate that she was between 19-26 with blonde or light brown hair and a tooth decay problem. Although the body had decayed, evidence suggested she was around a size 14/16. She had been shot in the temple and then dragged with a brown leather belt tied around her neck to a burial site a half a mile south of Route 116 near Amherst Rd. She had been buried under a log for 3 months to a year before being found.
Initially police believed it was possible that she was a college student-- The University of Massachusetts, Amherst College, Hampshire College, and Mount Holyoke College are all on the same road as the burial site. At the time it was especially common for women from the all-female Mount Holyoke College to hitchhike on the road to get to Amherst. However, inquiries about missing female students proved fruitless.
Although it is not a spot that only locals would know about, this portion of Route 116 is far enough from the highway that it seems likely that the woman, or her killer, were somehow affiliated with the area.
For twenty years, the burial site of the woman was simply marked by a white cross reading "Unknown Girl". Then in 1998, as the twenty year anniversary of the woman's death approached, citizens of the small Massachusetts town where she was found raised funds for a proper grave stone in West Ceremony and had a service in her honor promising that although her identity was not known, her memory would never be forgotten.
If you have any information that may lead to the identity of this Jane Doe please call Louis Berry of the Granby Police at 413-467-9222.
Inscription:
Unknown // Nov 18 1978 // In God's Care
Burial:
West Street Cemetery
Granby
Hampshire County
Massachusetts, USA
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