Aside from an appendectomy scar and remarkably good teeth, there was little evidence to help investigators identify the woman, who was estimated to be about 20 when she died, 5 feet, 3 inches or so in height and weighing 100 to 110 pounds, with light brown, almost blonde hair with a faint reddish tint.

The case remained dormant for decades until Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle reopened it in 2004.

Sheriff's investigators exhumed the body and, with the assistance of forensic experts, re-examined the victim's remains, developed a DNA profile and molded a facial reconstruction based onthe victim's skull.

Camera columnist and Boulder historian Silvia Pettem worked to identify a woman who was reported as missing to Denver police on March 26, 1954, as 27-year-old Katharine E. Dyer, whose maiden name was Farrand.

Pettem said she's convinced Dyer is the nameless victim.

"I believe she's Jane Doe," Pettem said. "I don't think she had family back then, and that's why she may have fallen through the cracks."

Dyer, at the time, was separated from her husband, Jimmie Dyer, and living alone in a boarding house in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. She was employed as an elevator operator for the American Furniture Co. in downtown Denver, according to Pettem.

Pettem said she was able to locate a photograph of Dyer, taken by her ex-husband sometime about 1949. The photograph, along with a casting of the Boulder victim's head, have been compared by a forensic anthropologist at Michigan State University who has been unable to rule out the possibility that Jane Doe and Dyer are the same person.

Pettem and the Sheriff's Office are hoping someone will be able to identify a relative of Dyer for DNA comparisons.

Anyone with information about Dyer, or the case in general, is asked to contact sheriff's Detective Steve Ainsworth at 303-441-3627 or sainsworth@bouldercounty.org.

Tuesday will mark the 54th anniversary of the victim's burial in a simple grave.