The naked body of “Jane Doe”, a petite 17-20 year-old woman with strawberry blond hair, was found by passersby along the banks of Boulder Creek near Boulder Falls on April 8^th, 1954. Despite extensive publicity at the time, she was never identified and her killer was never apprehended.

The Boulder County Sheriff’s Office re-opened the investigation in 2004, and, with the assistance of forensic experts from the Vidocq Society, exhumed “Jane Doe’s “ skeletonized remains from her grave in Boulder’s Columbia Cemetery in June 2004. Additional information about the circumstances of “Jane Doe’s” death was gleaned from the remains and a DNA sample obtained. A facial re-construction completed by the world-renowned forensic artist Frank Bender was recently unveiled (see the related Media Release for June 9^th, 2005, on the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office web-site at: www.bouldersheriff.org).

Publicity given the case has resulted in the Sheriff’s Office receiving a number of leads regarding “Jane Doe’s” possible identity. One of the most promising was information provided by a North Platte, Nebraska family regarding Twylia May Embrey, who left her home in Arthur County, Nebraska, in 1952, at the age of 17. She was never heard from again.

From the description of Ms. Embrey provided by the family, investigators felt that there were enough similarities to warrant further forensic testing. A period photograph of Ms. Embrey was super-imposed over a photograph of the victim’s reconstructed skull. That test indicated that Ms. Embrey was likely not “Jane Doe”. However, in order to be certain, investigators obtained DNA samples from Ms. Embrey’s family members and submitted them to a lab for comparison in June. The Sheriff’s Office was informed on Thursday, July 7^th, that “Jane Doe” was definitively not Twylia Mae Embrey. Ms. Embrey’s family has been informed of the test results.

Detective Steve Ainsworth continues to work leads generated by media publicity, however, there are few that are promising. Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Ainsworth at #303/441-3627 or via e-mail at: sainsworth@co.boulder.co.us.

Additional background information about the case and the status of the investigation may be found at: www.BoulderJaneDoe.com.

This media release and other recent releases detailing current events in Boulder County may be found on the Sheriff’s Office’ web-site at: www.bouldersheriff.org.