The Lost and the Found

https://www.namus.gov/UnidentifiedPersons/Case#/15489


Discovered in a ditch along Route.17, the Southern Tier Expressway, now Interstate 86, in the eastbound lane, in the Town of Ellery. The partially clad body was found by utility company employees at approximately 8:30 a.m.

It is believed the victim is from Canada or some European Country. Computer checks in the United States, Canada, and Interpol have been unsuccessful in locating any missing persons that fit the victims description. Attempts to identify the victim through fingerprints have also been unsuccessful.

http://www.post-journal.com/news/articles....articleID=10155

Who is Chautauqua County’s ‘Jane Doe?’

By JAN KURTH

12/9/2006 - Nearly a generation later, we still don’t know who she is.

‘‘Jane Doe’’ showed up in Chautauqua County back when Ronald Reagan was president and gas was around $1.30 a gallon. To this day she has remained stubbornly nameless. And how ‘‘Jane’’ came to be here is still veiled in mystery. We can only imagine the grief of her loved ones, who have lived for 23 years without any word as to the fate of their missing mother, daughter, sister or friend.

A Niagara Mohawk truck driver was the first to stumble upon ‘‘Jane’’ on Tuesday, Dec. 6, 1983, sometime between 8:30 and 9 in the morning. She had been dumped in a shallow, water-filled ditch, about 15 feet from the eastbound lane of Route 17 (now Interstate 86) in the Town of Ellery. The location was 11/2 miles east of the Chautauqua Lake bridge and approximately 450 feet from the Westman Road overpass. The body was reportedly found face up and ‘‘partially clad.’’

There was no doubt that ‘‘Jane’’ had been the victim of a homicide. According to the coroner’s report, she had been shot once in the back, twice in the chest and once inside the mouth with what was characterized as a ‘‘large-caliber weapon.’’ After combing the shoulder of the road with rakes and a metal detector, a large fragment of an expended bullet was eventually located, though it wasn’t immediately apparent what connection the bullet fragment had to the woman’s death.

Investigators believed that ‘‘Jane’’ could have been in the ditch for up to 24 to 36 hours before she was found. Snow cover would have buried her from view until a barrage of cold, drizzly rain showers revealed her body. Unfortunately, for several days following the discovery, bad weather including a Wednesday snowstorm hampered a thorough search and investigation of the vicinity.

What do we know about ‘‘Jane’’ herself? The basic description states that she was a white female, 5-feet 4-inches in height and 128 pounds. She was somewhere around 30 to 37 years of age at the time of discovery. She had brown eyes and long brown hair (sometimes described as ‘‘dark,’’ sometimes as ‘‘mousy’’) with flecks of gray at the temple. Distinguishing marks included a wart above the left eye, a raised mole behind the left ear and a scar on her throat. Her blood type was A positive. According to one anthropologist, it appears that she had given birth to at least one child in the 15 years prior to her death.

At the time of her discovery, ‘‘Jane’’ matched no missing person reports from the region at all and it soon became clear that ‘‘Jane’’ was going to be a very tough nut to crack. In fact, the evidence hinted that she may have come from somewhere outside the United States (probably Canada or Europe) which thoroughly complicated the matter, particularly in the early 1980s.

One example of the evidence suggesting a foreign connection: The clothing she was found with included a white V-neck camisole that was manufactured in Carpi, Italy, an item that was not then available for export.

Other clothing items she was found with included a high-quality green-, brown- and red-checked trench coat that was reversible to olive drab wool; a homemade plaid wool skirt in various shades of brown, blue and red; and a blue-gray wool crewneck pullover. ‘‘Jane’’ was found without shoes (though it has been determined that her shoe size would have been a 5 or 6). She was found with no jewelry or evidence of jewelry or any other personal property.

The medical evidence also suggests European or Canadian origin. ‘‘Jane’’ had expensive bridgework on the right side of her mouth that appeared to have been done in Europe — at least the gold was reportedly of European origin. She also had an IUD which was foreign made (Finland, Belgium and Holland) that was then available in Canada but not available for distribution in the United States.

Perhaps the oddest clue found with ‘‘Jane’’ was a handwritten note on paper from the Blue Boy Motor Lodge in Vancouver, British Columbia. There is no identifiable message on the note, just abbreviations and numbers. Investigators have been unable to clarify what they mean.

To date, computer checks in the United States, Canada and Interpol have not produced any hits with missing person reports resembling ‘‘Jane.’’ Attempts to identify her through fingerprints have also been unproductive.

Of course, the other mystery is just who was it that murdered ‘‘Jane.’’ Why did the killer (or killers) choose to leave the body here? How did ‘‘Jane’’ end up in his clutches so far from home? Where was the killer driving from and where was he headed? The early investigation hinted at some possible clues. Several employees at truck stops along I-90, including a service station near North East, Pa., thought they might have seen a woman resembling ‘‘Jane’’ on the evening of Monday, Dec. 5. So it appears that ‘‘Jane’’ may have been traveling east along I-90, which swings around the Great Lakes through Chicago.

Surprising enough, even in this day of CSI and DNA, there are homicide victims who aren’t identified for years — if ever. According to the records of various Web sites devoted to missing and unidentified persons, more than 50 unidentified persons have been registered in New York State since the late 1960s. Perhaps an equal number of unidentified persons have never been registered, at least in any computerized database.

The Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Department emphasizes that this is still an open case and that they continue to investigate leads as they develop. Nevertheless, ‘‘Jane’’ is very much a case gone cold.

‘‘There is just no new information since way back when,’’ Officer Jim Hanson stated. ‘‘We’ve been checking missing person files, but nothing has come up. She’s still on the nationwide computer, there’s been checks every now and then out of the country for missing persons, but there’s just nothing. Nothing as far as identification on her or suspects.’’

If for any reason you have information on this case, contact the Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Department at 753-4231.

https://unidentified.wikia.org/wiki/Chautauqua_County_Jane_Doe



Chautauqua County Jane Doe was a woman found murdered in New York in 1983. A document found with her body suggests she was native to Canada or Europe.

Discovery

The victim was found lying in a ditch on Route 17 after being shot four times; once in the mouth, the back and twice in the chest. It has not been released how long she was dead. She was also sexually assaulted.

Characteristics

    She had a mole on her left cheek and one behind her left ear.
    Brown eyes.
    Brown and slightly graying hair.
    She had a wart above the left eyebrow.
    She had given birth about 15 years before her murder.
    She appeared to have expensive European dental work, some including gold, on the right side of her upper set of teeth.
    Her blood type was A+
    She had a scar on her throat.
    Her shoe size was estimated to be a 5 or 6.
    She had an IUD made in either Finland, Belgium or the Netherlands.

Clothing and accessories

    She wore a white V-Neck, Italian-made camisole.
    An expensive plaid trench coat with green, red and brown coloration with a reversible olive-colored wool side.
    A handmade skirt with shades of brown, blue and red.
    A note from the Blue Boy Motor Lodge, a company from B.C., Canada.

https://vancouversun.com/news/crime/mysterious-new-york-cold-case-with-vancouver-connection-almost-frozen-police-say

Mysterious New York cold case with Vancouver connection 'almost frozen', police say
Author of the article: Lori Culbert
Publishing date: December 27, 2016



She was found 33 years ago lying partially clad in a water-filled ditch along a New York State highway, just hours after she was shot four times at close range.

In the pocket of her high-quality trench coat was a mysterious note scribbled on a notepad from a Vancouver hotel — the rough-and-tumble Blue Boy on Southeast Marine Drive, which has since closed.

Today, the victim’s name remains unknown, as does the identity of her killer and the meaning of the undecipherable letters and numbers jotted down on paper from a hotel more than 4,000 kms away.

It is a cold case that will not thaw, despite the efforts of police near where the body was found in Ellery, N.Y., about 100 kms southwest of Buffalo.

“The problem is everyone’s information is now almost 35 years old,” said Lt. Lori Holder, supervisor of the Chautauqua County Sheriff’s criminal investigation division. “It is getting really, really cold. It is almost frozen now. But we do keep the case open.”
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Jane Doe was found by a truck driver on Dec. 6, 1983, shot once inside the mouth, once in the back, and twice in the chest. Police believed she was Canadian or European, in part because she was using a European-made IUD birth control device that was not sold in the U.S. but was available in Canada.

This case was added last year to the FBI’s CODIS DNA database and the U.S. Justice Department’s missing person’s NamUs  database

after a larger police department in Erie, Penn., re-analyzed the three-decade-old evidence. Despite using the more advanced forensic testing available today, police were still unable to match Jane Doe to any missing persons’ reports or fingerprints in Canada, the U.S. or internationally.
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The longtime investigator responsible for the file, Lt. Randy Vander Schaaff, did hundreds of interviews and wrote many magazine articles about the case, but retired without being able to name Jane Doe.

“He was pretty thorough. There was just, evidence wise, nothing to attach it to — no witnesses, no nothing. She’s not from our area,” Holder said. “And we’re not getting any new leads.”

Since taking over, Holder has scanned Internet chat rooms for tips and re-watched a videotaped police interview done years ago with a convicted killer, serving a life sentence in an Oklahoma prison, who had boasted of killing Jane Doe.

The Blue Boy note appears to read: “Sas.k.R.h. 24233, K.R.Ba. 68301, Sarg. 74261”. Vancouver police questioned Blue Boy staff and customers at the time, but no one could remember seeing the woman.

Then Vancouver Sun reporter Bob Sarti interviewed Vander Schaaff in 1991, who said then that the letters and numbers might have been code for three internal phone lines at New York’s John F. Kennedy airport. Today, Holder said police over the years developed theories about the significance of the letters and numbers, but remain unable to determine what they mean.

NamUs contains so much information about Jane Doe that anyone who knew her should be able to identify her. She was in her 30s, white, 5-foot-3, with brown eyes and shoulder-length brown hair. She had a wart above her left eye, a large mole behind her left ear, a scar on her throat, and had expensive dental work with gold fillings. She had had at least one child, possibly 15 years before her death.
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Under her checkered trench coat, she had been wearing a blue pullover and a plaid wool skirt. There was no purse, identification or money.

Her feet were bare, and no shoes or stocking were found at the scene. The Vancouver Sun quoted New York police in 1983 saying she may have been sexually assaulted, but that has not been confirmed today.

She was found in the ditch on a highway used by truckers. There were possible sightings of a woman matching her description at a Pennsylvania truck stop the day before her murder, which may suggest she was travelling east, a local newspaper reporter wrote in 2006.

Vancouver police would not discuss this case with Postmedia News, referring any questions to officers in New York.
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Shortly after the murder, Chautauqua police contacted Vancouver sex workers’ advocate Sally DeQuadros to ask for assistance, but she was unable to find anyone who knew the victim, Sarti reported.

DeQuadros said in 1991 that she remained haunted by the case. “Someone out there is missing a mother, a sister or a daughter. They have a right to know what happened to her and to give her her name and her dignity back.”