MIAMI COUNTY, Ohio -- The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and the Miami County Sheriff's Office is asking for the public's help to solve a 35-year-old mystery that may have ties to Connecticut. Jane Doe was found dead in Miami County, Ohio in April of 1981.
An unidentified female homicide victim was found in a ditch along Greenlee Road located west of Troy, Ohio. She had been deceased less than 2 days before she was found. She was most likely in her late teens or early twenties, according to Miami County Chief Deputy Dave Duchak. She was approximately 5-foot-6 and 125 pounds.
New testing was just completed on the pollen that was found on the clothing Jane Doe was wearing and it indicates that she may have been from Connecticut. On Sunday, April 24, the Miami County Sheriff’s Office received lab results from the pollen testing on her clothing. Pollen analysis of the clothing recovered on the female suggest that she was from or spent a significant amount of time in the northeastern dry-oak forest region, which includes Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island.
A similar test, which is a new technology, was used to solve the case of Baby Doe in Massachusetts. The 2-year-old was confirmed to be from the Boston area, and she was later identified as Bella Bond.
A high level of soot from vehicle traffic and/or industrial activity was also found on her clothing suggesting that she spent a significant amount of time in an urban area within the Northeastern region or possibly from hitchhiking.
Some pollen grains in excellent condition from a more arid region in the western U.S. or northern Mexico were found on the outer layers of her clothing, including her jeans and jacket. This suggests that the female traveled to an arid region in the western U.S. or northern Mexico shortly before she was killed. Additional testing will performed in the near future in an attempt to narrow the region/location of the country the unidentified female may have been from.
If anyone recognizes her or has any information in regards to Jane Doe’s identity, please contact Detective Steve Hickey with the Miami County Sheriff’s Office, 937-440-3965 ext. 6629 or the Miami County Communication Center at 937-440-9911.
More details on Jane Doe:
- Long reddish-brown hair that was styled in two side braids and a part down the middle
- Caucasian
- Ruddy complexion with freckles on her face
- Several scars; one beneath her chin, one on her left arm, two on her left wrist, right hand, right ankle, and right foot.
- Had also been treated by a dentist in life as her top right central incisor had a porcelain-metal crown.
- Was found wearing bell bottom blue jeans, a brown turtleneck sweater with an orange crisscross design on the front, and a handmade tan buckskin pull-over jacket with leather fringe around the seams with a deep purple lining.