St Louis Jane Doe

St. Louis Jane Doe is the name given to an unidentified young girl who was the victim of a brutal murder in 1983. The girl’s head and her killer(s) have never been found and she remains unidentified for over 38 years.

On the afternoon of February 28, 1983, two men were looking through a vacant Victorian style apartment building at Clemens Avenue in St. Louis, Missouri to find scrap metal for their car. While looking through the dark basement of the building, one of the men lit his lighter to illuminate the area. Upon doing so, the young girl’s body was discovered. The girl’s body was found lying on her stomach with her wrists tied behind her back with a red and white nylon rope. She was found only wearing a yellow sweater and her nails were polished.

WARNING ⚠️ Graphic image below

At first, the investigators, believed that this was the body of a prostitute, but upon further investigation, it was found that the girl had not gone through puberty yet. She was African American, between the ages of 8-11, height about 4’11”- 5’4″, and she weighed about 70-80 pounds. Her head was also missing, which made finding her identification difficult. Her autopsy reported that she had been sexually assaulted, strangled, and then decapitated with a large-bladed knife after she was dead. There was no blood around or near the girl’s body, which the authorities determined that she must have been murdered and had her blood drained somewhere else. Testing revealed she must have been killed 5 days prior to her discovery.

Due to the girl’s head being missing, authorities could not use dental records to find the girl’s identity, nor could they create a facial reconstruction for her. After checking Missouri school records with no leads, authorities determined that the girl must have been from out of state. Later isotope tests further revealed that she may have been from Alabama, the Carolinas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia.

After getting no leads of who the girl may be, she eventually became known as St. Louis Jane Doe and “Hope”.

Authorities began to reach out to psychics for help on locating the girl’s head and revealing her identity. One psychic said that Jane Doe’s head could be found on a boat in the Gulf of Mexico, but this didn’t lead to anything. Another psychic in Florida requested to see the girl’s sweater that she was found in, but it got lost in the mail and has never been relocated. A last psychic stated that she was a Chippewa Indian named Shannon Johnson and that her killer was a drifter in southern Texas, but like the other leads, this was disproven and a dead-end.

Authorities believed the girl’s killer, or killers, must have been family members due to the lack of missing persons reports. Others believe that the girl’s killer may be Vernon Brown, a serial killer convicted in the 1986 murder of 9 year old Janet Perkins and the 1985 murder of 19 year old Synetta Ford. He was also believed to be responsible for the 1973 rape and murder of Kimberley Campbell, but he has not confessed to any murders besides those he was convicted for. Vernon Brown was executed on May 18, 2005.

St. Louis Jane Doe’s first resting place was at the Washington Park Cemetery, a historically black, but very run down cemetery. Before she was exhumed for more testing, her remains were misplaced due to the negligence of cemetery records, and had to be relocated using using camera calibration techniques to figure out where she was buried at the cemetery. Jane Doe was eventually reburied at the Calvary Cemetery is St. Louis, Missouri; she is specifically buried in an area called the Garden of Innocence, which is dedicated to Jane and John Does.

It is very unfortunate and horrible what happened to this young girl who is now known as St Louis Jane Doe. I always wonder what horrible people must’ve done this to this innocent young girl. With the new advanced technology today, I know that Jane Doe will eventually be identified and her killer(s) will be found. She will eventually be given the justice she deserves.

Resources-

https://unidentified.wikia.org/wiki/St.Louis_Jane_Doe(1983)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Louis_Jane_Doe