On May 28th, 1974, the body of a young woman was found on the jetty of Alamitos Beach in Long Beach, California. She had been raped and strangled.
Dubbed Long Beach Jane Doe or Jane Doe 40, the victim was believed to be between eighteen and twenty-eight years old at the time of her murder. She appeared to be white, perhaps with some Hispanic heritage, with dark brown or black hair, and brown eyes. She stood about five-foot-five and weighed approximately one-hundred-eighteen pounds. She also had two distinguishing marks, an inch-long scar on the back of her left thigh, and a t-shaped scar on the back of her left hand.
When found, she was clad in a salmon-colored pantsuit, a black, faux fur coat, and suede boots that went up to her calf. She was also wearing a white gold, 14-carat engagement ring with a small diamond. The only other possessions found on her person were a padlock key on a broken chain and an ordinary house key.
Although authorities collected fingerprints and DNA, and also produced a facial reconstruction, the young woman has never been identified and matches no known missing person.
Despite the victim’s identity being unknown, however, it seems that her alleged killer was eventually apprehended. In 2013, police arrested a then-sixty-one-year-old man named Gary Stamp, who confessed to murdering the girl; he told officers he thought her name was Anna, but couldn’t be sure. Stamp asserted that he’d picked the woman up in a bar, which jibed with witness reports of seeing her at this establishment before her death.
Gary Stamp was arraigned in June of 2013 for the crime but died of cancer in early 2014 while still in police custody. Since there was no conviction, the murder is still officially unsolved, and authorities hope that the victim’s identity will one day be definitively established.
Crime Immemorial 