Sheriff`s Detective Steve Ainsworth traveled to Nebraska last week to collect DNA samples from the sister of a Nebraska woman who ran away from home and never was heard from again. The identity of the runaway has not been released.

The Nebraska lead initially was ruled out because a photo of her face didn`t appear to fit the skull of Jane Doe. But Frank Bender, the forensic artist who sculpted the likeness, told Ainsworth there were signs that the skull may match the picture.

Her sister told Ainsworth the young woman never contacted her family after she ran away, but her parents never gave up hope of finding her.

"She told me ... 'When my dad retired, he and my mom bought a secondhand car, put a mattress in it and traveled all over the country, trying to find her until the money ran out,'" Ainsworth said.

It is the second DNA test to be done on a possible family member of Jane Doe since her case was reopened a year ago, Sheriff Lt. Phil West said. The first, done a couple of months ago, ruled out a tie to a missing person from out of the country, he said.

"We`ve had some other names come up over the past year, we`ve been able to exclude by circumstances and physical features," West said.

Jane Doe`s beaten body was discovered along the banks of Boulder Creek about 300 yards south of the Boulder Falls pull-off. Authorities also were never able to figure out the identity of her killer.

The bust of Jane Doe, based on the reconstruction of her exhumed skull, was released last week after the investigation into her death was rekindled by local historian and Daily Camera columnist Silvia Pettem. Doe`s remains were exhumed last summer from a plot in the Columbia Cemetery.

Wire services contributed to this report.