Local residents called her their "mystery girl," but now Jane Doe may have a name. Recent forensic testing, in which a photo was compared to the victim's skull, is promising. Jane Doe is believed to have been a Denver resident named Katharine E. Farrand Dyer.

Jane Doe -- the name chiseled into the woman's gravestone -- had been severely beaten and left to die on the banks of Boulder Creek. She was stripped of her clothes, jewelry and belongings. Since she had no fillings in her teeth, there was never any hope of finding dental records. The only clue to her prior life was an appendectomy scar, as well as three bobby pins in her long reddish-blonde hair.

Dyer was written up as a missing person in a newspaper article on April 9, 1954, the day after two University of Colorado students found Jane Doe's body. She left a rather sparse paper trail.

According to Denver city directories, Katharine had been living on her own, under her maiden name of Farrand, in Denver in 1948. At that time, she worked at a soda fountain in the Republic Drug Company. One of her neighbors and co-workers was Emily Edwards Adams. This young woman (now deceased) had a good-looking brother named Jimmie Dyer in Flagstaff, Ariz.

When and where Katharine and Jimmie met is not known, but they were living in Flagstaff by September 1949. Jimmie was a student at Arizona State Teachers' College (now Northern Arizona University), and Katharine got a waitress job at a busy truck stop on Route 66.

The couple married in nearby Prescott, Ariz. On her marriage affidavit, Katharine Dyer stated that she had been born in San Antonio, Texas, in 1926. However, there are no records of her birth, nor are there any census or city directory records of anyone named Farrand who could have been her parents. She may have been illegitimate or adopted and raised by someone with a different name.

After Jimmie Dyer graduated in June 1950, the couple moved to Denver. Jimmie began a long career with the Public Service Company, and Katharine worked as an elevator operator in downtown Denver. Jimmie was an avid mountain climber and was said to have climbed all of Colorado's 14,000-foot peaks. Katharine accompanied him on at least one climb, to the summit of Quandary Peak.

Jimmie and Katharine Dyer separated in 1953. Less than two weeks before Jane Doe's body was found, Katharine disappeared from herDenver boarding house. Jimmie died in 2002.

The Boulder County Sheriff's Office recently released a photo of Katharine Dyer in the hopes that a family member, friend or co-worker will recognize her. The police need to find a maternal relative in order to compare DNA. Only then, with a positive identification, can a new name be engraved on Jane Doe's stone, at last.

Silvia Pettem's history column appears every Sunday in the Camera. Write her at the Camera, P. O. Box 591, Boulder 80306, or e-mail pettem@earthlink.net