The Boulder County Sheriff's Office recently reopened this unidentified woman's case and authorized an exhumation of the victim's remains. The case was soon brought to the attention of the Vidocq Society and assistance was offered. To that end, the exhumation of the burial site was conducted under the direction of VSMs Drs. Walter Birkby, Richard Froede, and Robert Goldberg. They came to Boulder, Colorado, specifically to supervise the exhumation, preserve as much of the physical remains as possible, and begin a forensic analysis of whatever evidence and remains might be recovered.

The original autopsy had been done by a hospital pathologist not specifically trained in forensics. “Today we know more than we did 50 years ago,” said Dr. Goldberg. "With today’s technology and advances in forensics, the team intends to learn a lot more." The exhumation, if successful, would mark the beginning of a reinvestigation.

The effects of fifty years of spring floods and an often overflowing irrigation ditch that was only thirty feet away from the burial site became evident early on. At that early point, the exhumation took on the appearance of an archeological dig. The removal of the extremely fragile, largely skeletal remains depended upon the effective use of the tools and techniques of archeological removal. Complicating the removal were periods of heavy rain threatening to re-flood the exhumation site at any time.

A Tragic Murder – the Community Responds

According to the very limited existing record, prior to the young woman’s death, she suffered a skull fracture and numerous broken bones. The victim, estimated to have been nineteen or twenty years old, had been stripped of all clothing and jewelry, then hurled down a 29-foot embankment where she died alone on the rocky north bank of Boulder Creek. There were no fillings in her teeth, so there was no hope of dental records. According to the original autopsy report, the only currently remaining case record, her only identifying feature was a scar from an appendectomy.

The battered body was barely out of view of drivers on Colorado Highway 119, a winding gravel road in the mountains west of Boulder. Although the route was not heavily traveled by today’s standards, it was the main thoroughfare between Boulder and the mountain town of Nederland, a mining town and crossroads between Estes Park (to the north) and Black Hawk and Idaho Springs (to the south.)

When discovered by the college students, the victim had been ravaged by animals who had gnawed at her face and consumed nine of her fingertips. At first, the horrified nineteen-year-old students thought they had found a store mannequin. When they realized that it was a body, they jumped in their car and returned with a skeptical Sheriff.

The next day, news of the “mystery girl” was splashed all over the Boulder and Denver newspapers. If the victim had been local, surely someone would have missed her. On the national level, newspapers were free to pick up and publish the following, brief Associated Press story:

" 'The unidentified body of a blond girl in her late teens lay unnoticed for about a week only 30 feet from a busy road 9 miles west of here," officers said today. Sheriff Art Everson declared, “There is no doubt she was murdered.” Two Colorado University students spotted the body as they returned from a mountain stroll here yesterday."

The extent to which the story was picked up and received national exposure is not known. There was, however, no useful response or relevant missing person inquiry.

At the time, the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office and the Boulder Police Department worked together, sending detectives to the scene and fielding calls and letters from frantic families unrelated to the deceased. But no one ever claimed the young woman, and no clothing, murder weapon, or clues of any kind were ever found.

Boulder pathologist Dr. Freburn L. James performed the autopsy. Today, at age 85 and living in another state, he is one of the few surviving principal players in this case. When recently contacted by the Sheriff’s Office, he clearly remembered the victim and expressed his long-held concerns for her family. He also forwarded a copy of his autopsy report in which he described the young woman’s condition and outlined her injuries. (His personal copy was all that remained of the official record regarding the incident and its investigation.)

The only other existing official documentation is the brief report from an inquest held by the late Coroner George Howe. After debating the murder with six jurors, he arrived at the conclusion, “Death occurred from four to ten days prior to finding the body on April 8, 1954. The body was found about nine miles west of Boulder in Boulder County, Colorado, along Highway 119, 300 yards east of Boulder Falls, 29 feet below the roadway along the creek. Death resulted from shock caused by severe beating by person or persons unknown, with felonious intent.”

A few days after the inquest, county officials announced their plans to bury the murder victim in a pauper’s grave. Led by the local newspaper, compassionate Boulder citizens took up a collection to buy a plot and gravestone in the city’s historic Columbia Cemetery. Along with financial contributions came letters expressing sentiments such as those of one woman who wrote, “Blessings on the small cluster of those who care.”

Howe Mortuary donated a wooden casket, and Father Paul Fife, a Catholic priest, donated his time for the funeral service. The small granite headstone was engraved, “Jane Doe, April 1954, age about 20 years.”

“The graveside services were simple,” according to an article written at the time, “restoring in death the dignity her murderer destroyed in the last violent moments of her life.” Before the woman’s body was lowered into the ground, her casket was blanketed with colorful sprays of lilies and roses.

One of the accompanying flower cards was inscribed “To Someone’s Daughter.” Coroner Howe was quoted as saying, “We don’t know who she was or what religion she followed. We can only do what we think is right.”

The Case Reopened

The recent history of what has become known as the Boulder Jane Doe case started in September 2003. As a local history writer and newspaper columnist, I had photocopied all the old clippings I could find on Jane Doe. With only a brief knowledge of DNA and forensics, I asked Sheriff Joe Pelle if it were possible for the victim to be exhumed and identified. Unfortunately, the original Sheriff’s file had been lost, so I worked with members of the Sheriff’s Office to reconstruct a new file.

By February 2004, Sheriff Pelle announced his interest in reopening the homicide investigation, pending private and in-kind donations for exhumation and forensic analysis. Identification of the body would be the first step. “I believe that it is still worth pursuing, if only to reassure ourselves that everything that is humanly possible has been done to identify her.” He added, “We also recognize that even with advances in forensic technologies like DNA comparisons, with the passage of time we are looking at the last, best opportunity to resolve this case. Jane Doe’s parents are likely dead, and any siblings who might assist us in the investigation are probably in their 60s or 70s.”

Television, radio, and newspaper coverage got the story out to the local community. The Boulder History Museum became the repository for tax-deductible donations. As the money and donated services started to come in from a still-caring community, I began a search for additional contributions.

The Department of Justice referred me to the Vidocq Society where my first contact was Fred Bornhofen. After he expressed the organization’s interest in Jane Doe, I put him in contact with the Sheriff’s Office, and a date was set for the exhumation.

On June 7, 2004, Drs. Birkby, Froede, and Goldberg flew to Denver, rented a car, and drove to Boulder. Sheriff’s Office members met the doctors at the hotel and drove them to the location in Boulder Canyon where the woman’s body was found.

The Exhumation

The next day, we all assembled at Jane Doe’s grave in the cemetery. Boulder's Crist Mortuary offered its services for the exhumation. Its staff was ready with a hearse to transport the victim and her coffin to the morgue. If the remains proved to be in good condition, the Vidocq members had planned to perform their own, immdediate autopsy. Also present were two city park employees, a local anthropologist with forensic training, and a film crew with the television program “America’s Most Wanted.” As the television photographer readied his camera, and a backhoe operator poised his bucket, Lieutenant Phil West (of the Sheriff’s Office) said, “Let’s have a moment of silence for Jane Doe.”

All watched intently as the backhoe scraped away the grass and dug into the soft ground. When the hole reached the depth of about three feet, the backhoe pulled away and the work continued with careful, shallow shoveling, which soon revealed not the hard surface of an intact coffin, but small shards of spintered wood, indicating that the coffin had rotten away and that the shoveling would stop and the "dig" would begin.

Protocol for the exhumation quickly changed. Sheriff’s Office employees taped off the grave site, and the planned-for removal of the casket was replaced with the beginnings of a painstakingly slow two-day archeological dig.

Dr. Froede took over supervision of the exhumation when he saw the shards of deteriorated coffin emerging. This was no longer a simple matter of removing remains, but an excavation which had to take into account the delicate nature of an extraction involving a water-logged site and, likely, fragile, waterlogged remains. Due to shifts in the earth over fifty years, Dr. Froede was not even sure what would be found in the location. It was possible that the coffin shards belonged to the Jane Doe grave or might be from the two abutting graves. The exhumation was halted briefly.

Analysis of the type of the original coffin enabled the dig to resume when photographs confirmed the coffin shards belonged to the Jane Doe coffin. However, the protocol for the exhumation quickly changed. Under Dr. Froede's guidance, Sheriff's Office Cadets taped off the grave stie, and the equipment that would have been useful in the exhumation was removed. Archeologists's tools were assembled for two days of painstaking, anthropological evidence excavation, notation, removal, and preservation.

Dr. Birkby climbed into one end of the grave with a trowel and a brush. The first evidence that he had reached Jane Doe’s remains came when he uncovered a few clumps of dry reddish-blonde hair.

Then, with a little more brushing, he revealed pieces of black rubber from a once-zippered body bag. By this time, mortuary employees had set up a canvas tent over the open grave, and a light was lowered down inside.

A scaffolding was erected at the first appearance of the reddish-blond hair, and the brush-and-trowel work began. Slowly, Dr. Birkby cut away parts of the body bag. Then he and the resident anthropologist took turns in the cramped quarters where they uncovered some of the victim’s ribs and pieces of her vertebrae. Clumps of hair and individual bones were carefully handed up to a technician who placed them in labeled paper bags. 

By late afternoon, the weather began to deteriorate; heavy rain, hail and flooding were predicted. To prevent a cave-in from surrounding waterlogged soil, the sides of the partically excavated grave were braced and shored up, a storm tent was erected over the immediate site, and the grave opening was sealed with a plywood cover. A Sheriff’s Office volunteer deputy arrive to guard the grave overnight. As the rain from severe thunderstorms hit the warm earth, a shroud of steaming fog further sealed off the area.

The extent of the rain gave rise to concerns that the grave would flood. Jokingly, it was suggested that arrangements be made to find scuba gear, so that Dr. Goldberg, who is a certified diver, could continue the work, despite the flooding conditions. Fortunately, that proved unnecessary, as the next morning, the gravesite was water-free. The tent and plywood seal had kept the rainwater from running into the grave.

The scaffolding that had been erected at first remained in position and the work continued. A cross-braced ladder was positioned so the the anthropologist, working only with brush and trowel, could lie suspended over the remains. She and Dr. Birkby took turns digging. They peeled back more of the rubber body bag and uncovered portions of the victim’s skull. Her teeth were still attached to her jaws.

Throughout the rest of the day, bone after bone was extracted, brushed off, and handed to the technician for bagging and labeling. At the end of the removal of the remains, Dr. Froede looked for breaks and signs of pre and post mortem damage and examined the grave for evidence that may have been overlooked.

The second day of work began at 8 a.m. and finally finished about 8 p.m. The exhumation was a success, but all that was left were skeletal remains, the mass of reddish-blond hair, and a highly deteriorated body bag. The apparent paucity of the evidence aside, according to VSM Dr. Robert Goldberg, "It was absolutely necessary for the humanity of it."

Jane Doe’s remains were driven to the Sheriff’s Office where the bones will be given ample to dry. Next, they would be transported to Dr. Birkby’s Human Identification Laboratory in Tucson, Arizona.

Editor's Update

According to Dr. Robert Goldberg, on August 8, Ms. Pettem was searching through archives when approached by an individual who collected memorabilia from the area. He complimented her on keeping alive the Jane Doe homicide. He said he had some additional information and related the following tale:

In 1954, an as yet unnamed student at Colorado University, Boulder, worked in the morgue and took a photograph of the Jane Doe body as it was being prepared for autopsy. That photograph appeared as the centerfold in a student-published, thirty-two-page soft-core porn magazine. The other photographs, allegedly obtained from Playboy Magazine offices [correction: only one photo was from Playboy], were of semi-nude women.

The individual who apprached Ms. Pettem, then supplied her with the only remaining issue of that magazine with the autopsy photograph.

During the weekend of August 13-15, Dr. Birkby and Dr. Froede began using sophisicated imaging techniques to pursue a possible reconstruction of the face to use for identification.

On August 25, the dried bones were sent from Boulder to Dr. Birkby's Human Identification Lab at Tucson, Arizona.

To be continued

In the next few months, Drs. Birkby, Froede, and Goldberg will perform a detailed analysis of the bones, teeth, and hair of a once-well-groomed and petite young woman.

Vidocq member and sculptor Frank Bender will reconstruct her face. Hopefully, his drawing of her facial features will be completed in time for an “America’s Most Wanted’s” program scheduled for the fall.

With national publicity, it is hoped that someone, somewhere may recognize a missing friend or relative. The funds collected by the Boulder History Museum will be allocated for comparable DNA analyses of potential family members.

Subsequent articles will follow as this story unfolds. Log on to www.boulderjanedoe.com [since replaced by this site, www.silviapettem.com] for periodic updates.