The Boulder County Coroner`s office medical investigator took off work last summer to help a local journalist to determine the identity of a young woman found murdered in Boulder Canyon a half-century ago.

Sheriff`s investigators Monday unveiled a life-size bust likeness of the 20-something woman with hopes of giving her a different name than that on her gravestone - Jane Doe.

Conour was one of dozens of specialists who donated their time. She spent about 17 hours on the ladder perched a few feet above Jane Doe`s unearthed grave in Columbia Cemetery, reaching through the rungs to pick up bits of bones and teeth.

"It was exhausting, but exhilarating," Conour said.

Two University of Colorado students hiking along the banks of Boulder Creek in April 1954 stumbled across Jane Doe`s body, about 300 yards south of the Boulder Falls pull-off. An autopsy concluded Jane Doe was alive when she was dumped down the 29-foot embankment and died after being exposed to the elements. Her 5-foot, 3-inch, 100-pound body also had been severely beaten.

Her body had been in the creek for about a week, investigators concluded, and much of her face was gone because of the elements and animals, as were her clothes. The only clues were bobby pins holding back the young woman`s blonde hair and a scar from an appendectomy.

Those pins were painted in brown water-color paint on the statue`s flowing blonde locks by Frank Bender, a nationally known forensic sculptor and co-founder of the Vidocq Society - a Philadelphia-based nonprofit group dedicated to cracking cold murder cases. The rest of the details, including the woman`s green eyes and freckled cheeks, were recreated by Bender based on scientific clues.

"It`s a balance of art and science," Bender told a group of journalists at a press conference Monday at the Boulder County Justice Center.

Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle said the next step in the investigation is to get Jane Doe`s likeness out to every possible media outlet and missing-person group as possible.

"The key to unraveling what happened is to find out who she is," Pelle said.

Scientists from Michigan State University were able to extract DNA from an exhumed leg bone, so if family members come forward they can be tested for a match, Pelle said.

"We actually have some leads we`re looking into," he said.

Silvia Pettem, a Boulder historian and Daily Camera columnist, spearheaded the effort to give Jane Doe an identity after she learned of the young girl`s plight nine years ago.

"I don`t think anyone should go to the grave without a name," Pettem said.

Contact Camera Staff Writer Christine Reid at (303) 473-1355 or reidc@dailycamera.com.