The Murder of Palmdale Jane Doe, January 1978

On Saturday, January 7, 1978, human remains of a female were found by a hiker in a rugged area of the Antelope Valley in LA County, 0.5mi from the nearest road. According to previous postings of database entries to WebSleuths from 2016, Jane Doe may have been found in a canyon wash "at Rock Formations 150th Street East & Avenue P-8" in Palmdale, LA County, CA. 

The website of the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner's Office (LACME) states that Jane Doe had been dead for less than one year. According to NamUs, her estimated year of death is 1978; considering the fact that she was found on January 7th of that year, this could be incorrect, or she had been killed only a few days before she was found.

Jane Doe's remains were decomposed, and were unrecognizable at the time of discovery. The body's condition was partial remains with soft tissues. One or both limbs, as well as one or both hands, were not recovered. Jane Doe's COD is unknown, though her death is being investigated by the LA County Sheriff's Department (LASD) as a homicide.

Jane Doe's necklace. Photo from NamUs.

Jane Doe was a white female, approximately 16 to 24 years old, and/or pre-20. Her hair was light brown to blonde, while her eye color is unknown. She was estimated to be 5'6, and/or 5'5 to 5'8, while her weight is unknown due to the condition of the remains.

Jane Doe was wearing Levi's style jeans size 7-28 according to the tag; one brown wedge sandal; and a beaded necklace. Photos are available of all of these. A metal button was also found at the scene.

Jane Doe's sandal. Photo from NamUs.

Jane Doe's dentals are available for comparison. She had extensive dental work. A sample of her DNA was submitted, though the status of the tests are unknown. There is no reconstruction of her online. She has zero MP exclusions on her NamUs page.

According to the Sources section of Jane Doe's Doe Network profile, it seems that she may have been featured on LASD's "LA County Murders" website, which was dedicated to cold cases in their jurisdiction. However, the site has since been taken down, and while some of it has been archived through the Wayback Machine, I could find no indication of Jane Doe ever being featured on the site despite thorough searching on my part [postmortem image warning for the provided link]. 

Jane Doe's Doe Network, NCIC, and NamUs case numbers are 612UFCA, U850021121, and #UP4434, respectively. Her NamUs page was created and last updated on September 9, 2008 and November 1, 2022, respectively.

Anyone with information regarding Jane Doe is urged to please contact Investigator Betsy Magdaleno of LACME at (323) 343-0512 or IDUnit@me.lacounty.gov. The agency case number is 1978-00342. Tipsters can also contact LASD's Homicide Bureau at (323) 890-5500, agency case number 078-00217-1194-497. 

Sources

NamUs

LACME

WebSleuths 

Doe Network

Unidentified wiki 

Victorville Daily Press, Jan. 9, 1978 

Note: While this write-up was originally published on June 20, 2025, I regularly revisit cases, fix any typos or formatting errors, check for updates, ensure that I have exhausted all sources, etc. When edits are extensive, I re-post the write-up entirely. This post was re-published on August 8, 2025, and was last updated on February 19, 2026.