Crime Immemorial

On June 20th, 1979, a stonemason was walking alongside a river in Perry County, Pennsylvania when he happened upon the skeletonized remains of a human being. She was clad in a tan jacket, white shirt, blue tank top, blue knitted wool slacks, green and white socks, and white boots with silver buckles. She was also wearing several pieces of jewelry, including two sterling silver rings with turquoise and onyx stones, and a necklace, earrings, and bracelet, likewise featuring turquoise.

The victim was dubbed Perry County Jane Doe, or the Girl with the Turquoise Jewelry. Though her remains were too degraded to determine the cause of death, forensic examination did reveal that the woman had died possibly ten months prior to her body being found. She was estimated to be between fifteen and thirty years old, though it was possible she was as old as thirty-eight. She was white, with shoulder-length blonde or light brown hair, and stood between five-foot-two and five-foot-nine. She may have weighed somewhere between one hundred-five and one hundred twenty-five pounds.

Jane Doe had had some fairly recent dental work done, specifically a back tooth that had been removed a few years prior, and also had several fillings in her teeth. Additionally, she had broken a rib at some point in the past, though it had fully healed.

Examination of the victim’s bones suggested that she had lived somewhere in the Midwest or near the Great Lakes as a teenager and that it was likely she had spent a great deal of time in the Southwest in the months preceding her death.

Jane Doe’s dental records and DNA were entered into national missing persons databases, but so far no matches have been found. As of September 2023, genetic genealogy corporation Othram announced it would be delving into the case in an attempt to identify the unknown woman.