In 1954, the stripped and battered body of a young woman was found in the Boulder Canyon. The woman's identity was never discovered, as no one claimed her body, and her killer was never found. But shaken by the brutality of the murder and the lonely death of the victim, Boulderites became her family. They raised money for a proper burial and remembered her as one of their own. They named her Jane Doe.

Silvia Pettem, a Boulder historian and Daily Camera columnist, initiated a new investigation in 1996. The Boulder County Sheriff's Office re-opened the case, and exhumed Jane Doe's remains for further study. Pettem thinks that with today's advanced technology, all questions can be answered.

"I want her name back," Pettem said. "I want to return her to her family, so I can be at her funeral when she's buried where she belongs."

CNN reporter Drew Griffin, who visited Boulder last week to work on the Jane Doe segment, was covering a similar case in Kansas City, Mo., earlier this month when he learned about the Boulder case.

In the Missouri case, a 4-year-old child was found decapitated near a church in 2001. Her identity was recently recovered. But in a similar way, the community came together and gave a relatively elaborate funeral for the unknown victim, who they had named "Precious Doe," Griffin said.

Griffin later checked the Doe network Web site, where many more unidentified victims were listed, and found the Boulder Jane Doe. Griffin said he was amazed about how many people shared the same fate, but he was also intrigued by how Pettem was trying to resurrect the young woman, find her name and let her rest in peace.

Pettem led CNN through Boulder Canyon, where Jane Doe was found, through Columbia Cemetery and through the Daily Camera library to examine the archives of the initial coverage.

"The story is told through Silvia's eyes of how this young woman is being resurrected," Griffin said.

Pettem said she was hoping to bind her research into a book one day to document this piece of Boulder history.
Caption: Boulder County Sheriff's Office Evidence Technician Debbie Trever organizes the bones of Jane Doe as they are handed to her by a forensic scientist who is excavating the woman's remains for DNA extraction in June 2004 at Columbia Cemetery. CNN has produced a segment on the case for "Paula Zahn Now" that is tentatively scheduled to air at 6 p.m. today.