The Lost and the Found

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OFFICIALS NEED HELP IN CRACKING COLD CASE

Phaedra Laird ( plaird@nbc40.net ) - 7/29/09 10:08 pm
Last Updated - 7/30/09 05:28 pm

GALLOWAY TWP.--Police in Galloway Township need your help in cracking a nearly 40 year-old cold case. Officials say the first step in figuring out how the teenage girl died, is figuring out who she is.

"This image is a digital reconstruction of what she may've looked like in life." She was a petite teen with perfect teeth, according to investigators, but just about everything else about Jane Doe remains a mystery, even almost 40 years after her death. "Detective invested many man hours attempting to identify this young girl and what may have happened to her," said Detective Donna Buccafurni, with the Galloway Township Police Department.

But, 37 years after her decomposing body was stumbled upon by hunters in a wooded area just off the Parkway, investigators are still stumped. "It was never determined exactly, the cause of death due to her advanced state of decomposition. However, every single bone in her body was located, other than the hyoid bone, which in the neck," explained Buccafurni, "so there was a theory that she was possibly strangled."

It was a case that left Buccafurni wanting to know more. She opened the case back up, hoping modern technology might heat up this cold case. "Ever since I've been a police officer, I've always been interested in unsolved cases," she said during a news conference this afternoon, "when I came across this case, it just...it really touched me."

When the case first began nearly 40 years ago, investigators reached out across the country in the hopes of identifying the body. After receiving hundreds of letters from families across the nation who were looking for their missing teen, police were still unable to make a positive i.d.. "Ah, it was frustrating," said Edward Hepburn, a retired Lieutenant with the department, who started the case in 1971, "I'm so happy that someone opened it again, because someone needs some closure with their daughter. I mean, I did everything I could."

And authorities say they'll continue to work in an effort to finally put the case, and the teen to rest.

Anyone who may have any information or believe they may know the identity of the teen, who was believed to be between the ages of 14-18 years old at the time of her death, is asked to contact the Galloway Township Police Department at
(609)652-3705, extension 323.
http://www.nbc40.net/view_story.php?id=10070