Pettem will appear at Waldenbooks in the Platte River Mall from 3-5 p.m. to sign copies of her book, give a slide show presentation about the case and answer questions.

A young woman, known only as "Jane Doe" was beaten and left to die in April 1954, west of Boulder, Colo. The community raised funds to bury her; then 50 years later at Pettem's urging, they did it again to exhume her remains, profile her DNA, and complete a facial reconstruction - with hopes of learning her identity and returning her remains to her family.

"The title of the book was taken from a florist's card that accompanied the red gladiolas sent to Jane Doe's original burial in 1954," Pettem said. "The card was addressed 'To someone's daughter' because that's all anyone knew at the time."

Frank Bender, artist and co-founder of the Vidocq Society who did the facial reconstruction from Jane Doe's skull, calls Pettem, "a real life Agatha Christie."

Meticulously researched and written with the skill of a historian and the heart of a mother, "Someone's Daughter" is the result of Pettem's 13-year campaign to identify the young victim. It is a haunting journey with a brief pause in the North Platte area. At the time, family members thought Jane Doe might be Twylia May Embrey, a young woman from Wellfleet who disappeared from North Platte in 1953.

Pettem visited North Platte, Wellfleet and Maywood to talk to members of Twylia's family, even though she wasn't convinced Jane Doe was Twylia.

"I was aware and a little apprehensive," she writes, "that I was about to meet [Twylia's sister] Midge, a real flesh-and-blood sibling of a long-lost family member. I wanted to know, firsthand, what Twylia's sister had experienced in the past fifty-two years. I figured that by meeting her, I would gain insight into what the situation might be liked for siblings, if any, in Jane Doe's family. As for Twylia, I was just too intrigued to give up. Even if Twylia was not Jane Doe, I had resigned myself to solve two mysteries."

The historical columnist for the Boulder Camera was taking part in a "meet the spirits" events in Boulder's Columbia Cemetery in 1996 when she learned about Jane Doe.

"A volunteer actress portrayed Jane Doe while standing next to her gravestone," Pettem said. "On the grave was the inscription, 'age about 20 years,' which made an impression on me because my two daughters were 19 and 23 at the time. At first, I was intrigued by the mystery of the unidentified woman, but when I learned that she had been a murder victim and her killer not only took her life but also her identity, I became indignant that Jane Doe was buried without her name."

Since that time, Pettem has convinced the Boulder County Sheriff's Office to reopen the case, raised money to exhume the body for forensic analysis and developed a world wide web of professional and amateur sleuths to help determine Jane Doe's identity.

"If one of my daughters was an unidentified murder victim, I hope someone would do the same for her," Pettem said.

To learn more about the Boulder Jane Doe case and Pettem's book, go to www.silviapettem.com.

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