Post by us05412 on Jul 29, 2018 22:48:12 GMT -5
(Image credit: The Doe Network)
It's pretty unusual for a killer to work with the police to identify his victim, but that is what happened in the case of the Snohomish County Jane Doe.
On August 14, 1977, citizens picking blackberries in the 1.5 blocks off of Emander Road on 113th Street near Paine Field, south Everett discovered a young female deceased in the woods with multiple gunshot wounds to the head. David Roth was arrested, charged, and sentenced for her murder, based on a confession to a friend, and his gun later matched the bullets recovered from Jane Doe. It turns out he killed her because she refused to have sex with him. He was released from prison in 2005, but the victim remains unidentified.
Roth picked her up while she was walking southbound on the Bothell-Everett Highway on the east side of Silver Lake on or around August 9, 1977. She was about 5’9” – 5’10” tall and weighed about 155 pounds. She had sun-tanned skin, light brown or brown hair and was estimated to be 15 – 21 years old, though recent exams put her most likely in the 15-19 age range. Two of her front teeth had dental restorations. She was wearing a striped tank top, jeans shorts, blue size 7 Mr. Sneekers boy’s tennis shoes with white stripes and a Timex watch with a leather strap. Roth added that she said she lived in a nearby trailer park with two men/boyfriends, and she often hitchhiked, meaning she could have not been in Washington long.
Though there haven't been any real leads to her identity, there was some traction when her killer, David Roth, volunteered to help police with more details to try to piece together who she was, including a new sketch of the victim. But investigators recently learned he died of cancer in 2015, eerily, on the same day Jane Doe was killed by him. So unfortunately that avenue of questioning has come to an end. Investigators seem hopeful that with genealogy sites becoming big, this could lead a curious relative to uncover who she is.
If you have any information on who Snohomish County Jane Doe is, please call the Snohomish County Medical Examiners Office at 425-438-6200
Sources:
www.doenetwork.org/cases/516ufwa.html
www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/08/jane-doe-murder-ancestry/536916/
www.heraldnet.com/news/long-after-body-was-found-detectives-search-for-jane-doe/
snohomishcountywa.gov/DocumentCenter/View/34059/09141980-Case-08SN0977?bidId=
Thoughts? It is a pretty cold case, but I remember seeing her reconstruction photo on the cover of a local newspaper when I was a kid, and her picture always stuck with me. Growing up and learning the reason for her death was refusing sex, makes my heart break even more for her. I have always hoped she gets her identity back somehow.
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