The victim lay for half a century in Boulder's Columbia Cemetery beneath a stone that read "Jane Doe, April 1954, age about 20 years." At the time, a caring community raised funds to give her a Christian burial. Individuals sent flowers, including a spray of red gladiolas with a card simply addressed to "Someone's daughter."

In June, the young woman's remains were exhumed after money, labor and forensic expertise were donated by a new group of equally generous citizens. The purpose of the exhumation was to make possible the extraction of the victim's DNA and (with the donated funds) to make it available for comparison against the DNA of potential blood relatives should investigators establish a possible link with a missing person.

A few months ago, Dr. David R. Foran and his students in the forensic biology laboratory at Michigan State University completed Jane Doe's DNA profile. At the same time, other forensic experts (who wish to remain anonymous) reassembled and photographed Jane Doe's skull.

Then, after national publicity, a woman in Nebraska believed that Jane Doe might have been her great-aunt, Twylia May Embrey. That young woman was last seen in 1953, as a passenger heading west from North Platte, Neb., in a yellow Cadillac convertible with Nevada license plates.

While Foran continued to work on the DNA, Dr. Todd W. Fenton and his students in the forensic anthropology laboratory, also at MSU, compared a high school photo of Embrey with a photo of Jane Doe's reassembled skull. In a sophisticated computer program, Fenton superimposed the two photos and noted an obvious difference in bone structure that eliminated Embrey as a possible match.

The next step will be a clay sculpture of Jane Doe's face. When this facial reconstruction is complete, the television program "America's Most Wanted" will show it to a national audience and hopefully get the leads expected by local detectives.

Jane Doe's grave site has been filled in, and her gravestone has been moved by the city of Boulder (which owns the cemetery) to a secure off-site location. If the victim is identified, her remains will be returned to her family, wherever they may be. At some point, if she is not identified, her remains will be re-interred in a new casket in the plot she formerly occupied for 50 years.

Today, the sheriff's office has much more information on Jane Doe than it did a year ago.

"We're impressed and pleased by the tremendous commitment of resources and expertise, gratis, by leaders in the various forensic fields," said spokesman Lt. Phil West. "If we are ultimately successful in identifying Jane Doe, it will be due in large part to their efforts."

To follow the Jane Doe case, visit www.boulderjanedoe.com.

Silvia Pettem's history column appears every Thursday in the Daily Camera. Write her at the Daily Camera,

P.O. Box 591, Boulder, CO 80306, or e-mail pettem@earthlink.net.