The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children announced their oldest unidentified victim case, dating back to 1966, has been solved:
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
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It took 55 years, but NCMEC’s oldest unidentified case was finally solved! Senior Forensic Case Manager Ashley Rodriguez began working on the “Pecos Jane Doe” case in 2019. The only information she had to go on was gleaned from a few news articles that said Pecos Jane Doe appeared to be younger than 18 when she drowned under suspicious circumstances in a motel swimming pool in Pecos, Texas on July 5, 1966. With little to go on, Rodriguez called the newly appointed Pecos police chief, Lisa Tarango. The chief wasn’t familiar with the cold case, of course, but was more than willing to see what she could find out and welcomed NCMEC’s offer of help and resources. Opening the file marked “Unknown X Girl” was like stepping back in time. The death of the young girl had clearly had a profound impact on the Pecos community, Tarango said. Along with the death certificate were letters written by strangers sending in whatever they could afford so she wouldn’t have to be buried in a pauper’s grave. News clippings in the file said her burial was delayed three weeks so “over a thousand families” could stop by to see if she might be their own missing child, she said. #Forensics #UnidentifiedCase #MissingChild #Crime #Mystery Read more: https://lnkd.in/dhhUvnx
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NCMEC worked with Innovative Forensic, a genetic genealogy firm to help identify Jolaine Hemmy as the teenager who went missing 55 years ago. The Pecos, Texas Police Department reopened the case “Pecos Jane Doe” last year and exhumed the body. An investigation is ongoing.