The Lost and the Found

http://www.doenetwork.org/media/news219.html

Officials haunted by cold cases New network could help discover identities

May 17, 2008
Muskogee Phoenix, OK
By Elizabeth Ridenour

Jane Doe was buried in 2006 under a large oak tree in a very peaceful spot in New Hope Cemetery near Hulbert. Her true identity may be a mouse click away for someone. Doe was discovered April 27, 2006.

Muskogee County Sheriff Charles Pearson hopes the Doe Network, a network of people on the Internet, can help discover the unknown woman’s identity.

“I think it’s a heck of a deal,” Pearson said. “There’s another sister site to it, and we’re going to put it on both of them.”

The Doe Network, the International Center for Unidentified and Missing Persons, “is a volunteer organization devoted to assisting law enforcement in solving cold cases concerning unexplained disappearances and unidentified victims from North America, Australia and Europe,” according to the Web site.

“It is our mission to give the nameless back their names and return the missing to their families. We hope to accomplish this mission in three ways; by giving the cases exposure on our Web site, by having our volunteers search for clues on these cases, as well as making possible matches between missing and unidentified persons, and lastly, through attempting to get media exposure for these cases that need and deserve it.”

Pearson hopes someone will recognize Muskogee County’s Jane Doe.

“We’re going to get the information on there as soon as possible,” Pearson said.

Jane Doe was found in Muskogee County in a ditch about one-half mile west of Ross Road, two miles south of Interstate 40 near Webbers Falls by a motorist. She was barefoot and clutching a bloody towel across her lower abdomen. Another bloody towel was on the ground beside her. The only noticeable sign of trauma was a tremendous amount of vaginal bleeding. The medical examiner's office determined that the woman was pregnant, and the cause of her death was massive loss of blood, and was estimated to be 25 to 35 years old and of American Indian, Hispanic or Asian descent. She was about 5 feet 4 inches tall, weighed from 135 to 140 pounds, and had collar-length, dark hair. She had a scar on her right shin that showed suture marks. Although she was wearing no jewelry, both ears had been pierced twice.

She was wearing a long-sleeved, white, turtleneck shirt and dark blue running pants with white stripes on the pants leg.

Tim Brown, who was an investigator with the sheriff’s department at the time, believes the woman may have been an illegal immigrant from Mexico. Brown is now the Webbers Falls chief of police. He lives near I-40 and on Monday was surprised to find a pickup loaded with 19 illegal immigrants in his driveway. Now, he’s wondering if Jane Doe may not have died during a cross-country trip similar to that of the 19 people jailed this