A local historian and Boulder County sheriff's detective were at the Washington, D.C.-based studios to review tips about the 1954 unsolved death of a woman whose body was found badly beaten and naked along the banks of Boulder Creek by two college students.

"This is fascinating," said Silvia Pettem, a local historian and Daily Camera columnist who joined sheriff's Detective Steve Ainsworth in the tip room Saturday.

About 24 phone operators typed frantically to fill computer screens with potential leads, Pettem said. After the phones died down, caller information was printed out and given to detectives.

Pettem said Ainsworth reported several tips are "worth following up on."

"We got a flurry of tips, and now we're waiting for the West Coast show to air," Pettem said at about midnight EDT.

Pettem didn't know how many calls came in, and she didn't have tip details available late Saturday. But she and detectives will go over the information in the coming weeks, she said.

"We'll discuss them by e-mail," Pettem said. "We'll get together with everyone and go over them."

Boulder's story was among several unsolved cases profiled on Saturday's show. Jane Doe's tale was illustrated with images of a "ghost" talking to Pettem.

"The haunting voice of a murdered young woman reaches out from the grave," the show's narrator said. "I died all alone in Boulder Canyon," said a young woman portraying Jane Doe's ghost.

The unsolved investigation was reopened in 2004 after Pettem talked the Sheriff's Office into exhuming the body for DNA testing and facial reconstruction.

"Silvia heard a story that she can't get out of her mind," according to the show. "A ghost spoke to her and said, 'No one knows my name.'"

Pettem, Sheriff Joe Pelle, detectives and forensic experts were interviewed for the program. Pettem said on the show that her parental instincts called her to search for Jane Doe's identity.

"As a mother, I wondered who she was, and what happened to this young woman?" she said.

Pelle said his office was reluctant to spend taxpayer money on the cold case. But Pettem's fundraising made it possible for detectives to dig up the grave.

Much of the Jane Doe portion focused on Pettem's endeavors to collect money for DNA testing and hunt down the woman's murderer. Although Pettem was pleased with the program's portrayal of the case, she said she was surprised by how much it focused on her work.

"I was a little embarrassed," she said.