Post by TheWebDetective on Feb 3, 2019 3:33:52 GMT -5
(Above photo credit: athensreview.com)
For nearly four decades law enforcement in Texas as well as amateur doe sleuths are trying to find the identity of a teen girl left for dead and found after Halloween in 1980.
Case History:
The victim's body was dumped on side of I-45 north, 2 miles north of Huntsville, TX. The general condition of the body and her overall health and nutrition indicated she had probably come from a middle class home. There were no identification with the body. No semen was found on or in the victim's body.
When the murder became known through media accounts, several people came forward and said theyd seen a teenager matching her description the day before her body was found.
A witness identified the victim as a girl who had been at the South End Gulf station around 6:30 p.m. on Halloween night asking for directions to the Ellis prison unit.
She had been wearing blue jeans, a yellow pullover sweater with big pockets that hung below her waist, and she was carrying high-heeled sandals in her hand. To the best of his recollection, she had been let out of a 1973 or 74 blue Chevrolet, possibly a Caprice, with a lighter colored top, which was being driven by a white male. She looked disheveled like she had been traveling, and perhaps sleeping in her clothes.
She left the station, walking north on Sam Houston avenue.
A waitress working at the Hitchin Post truck stop on Interstate 45 said the girl came into the restaurant the same evening and again, asked for directions to the Ellis Unit, saying she had a friend there. A map was drawn for her and she departed.
The waitress asked the girl how old she was and the girl responded 19. The witness thought that was an obvious lie and then asked the girl if her parents knew where she was. The young girl replied, "Who cares". The witness then stated she asked her where she was from. The girl replied Aransas Pass/Rockport, TX area. It has not been verified that the girl was the unidentified victim.
Her photograph was shown to every inmate at Ellis Prison Unit, but no one claimed to know the girl.
On January 16, 1981, the unidentified girl was buried in the Adickes Addition at Oakwood Cemetery. Huntsville Funeral Home buried her, and Morris Memorials provided her tombstone.
It is believed that Henry Lee Lucas killed this girl, but investigators could not make a match between the bite mark on her left shoulder and his dental reconstruction.
Case Details:
Walker County Jane Doe was found lying face down and nude by a truck driver on November 1, 1980 near the Sam Houston National Forest in Walker County Texas. This is about a half mile south of the FM 1696 exit near Huntsville.
The victim, an attractive young teenage girl, had been savagely beaten and sexually assaulted before dying by slow strangulation. Her face and body were covered with bruises from the beating and there was a human bite mark on her back near her right shoulder. The autopsy revealed she had been sexually assaulted with a blunt instrument.
When the murder was reported, several people came forward and said they'd seen a teenager matching her description the day before her body was found.
One witness, the manager of a gas station which no longer exists, positively identified the victim as a girl who had been at the station around 6:30 p.m. Halloween night asking for directions to the Ellis prison unit. She was wearing blue jeans, a yellow pullover sweater with big pockets that hung below her waist, and carrying high-heeled sandals in her hand. To the best of his recollection, she had been let out of a 1973 or 74 blue Chevrolet, possibly a Caprice, with a lighter colored top, which was being driven by a white male. She looked disheveled like she had been traveling and perhaps sleeping in her clothes. She left the station, walking north on Sam Houston avenue.
A waitress working at the Hitchin Post truck stop out on Interstate 45 said the girl came into the restaurant the same evening and again, asked for directions to the Ellis Unit, saying she had a friend there. A map was drawn for her and she departed. She never reached the Ellis Unit and she was never seen alive again.
Thoughts? This has been a high profile case among web sleuths for a while now but as far as I can recall, this case was never picked up by a national true crime show on her own accord. She was briefly mentioned in Crime Watch Daily as part of a lineup of Carl Koppelman's unsolved renderings in a segment of his efforts to help identify Tammy Jo Alexander.
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact the Walker County, Texas Sheriff's Department
or your local or preferred crime stopping agency:
www.co.walker.tx.us/department/?fDD=16-0
www.doenetwork.org/cases/91uftx.html
www.namus.gov/UnidentifiedPersons/Case#/4630
www.missingkids.org/poster/NCMU/1104365
www.dps.texas.gov/mpch/Unidentified/unDetails/U8807006
unidentified.wikia.com/wiki/Walker_County_Jane_Doe
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walker_County_Jane_Doe
www.websleuths.com/forums/threads/tx-huntsville-walker-county-jane-doe-whtfem-91uftx-14-16-nov80-graphic-2.402944/
www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/9eq939/a_teenage_runaway_strangled_assaulted_left_for/
UPDATE from site admin: In November of 2021, Walker County Jane Doe was identified as then 14-year-old Sherry Ann Jarvis of Stillwell, Minnesota. The search for her killer is still ongoing:
Admin Note: If you have any (news-related) updates on this case, please contact us here: amwfans.com/thread/1662/website-contact-form
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