The Murder of LA Jane Doe, August 1980

On Sunday, August 24, 1980, a teenager discovered the remains of a girl in the Montecito Hills Regional Park at Griffin and Montecito in East Los Angeles. The teenager did not report the body to the police until six days later.

At 10:00am on Saturday, August 30, 1980, the LA County Sheriff's Department (LASD) located the mummified remains where the teenager had indicated, on the ground at the base of a ravine in a remote, fairly inaccessible wooded area of steep hills and dense foliage 0.25mi east of the 110 Freeway.

According to the Doe Network, it was determined that Jane Doe had been murdered, and that she was killed at the location where she was found. All parts were recovered. The decedent's face was not recognizable due to mummification, and there are no reconstructions available of her. It is believed that Jane Doe had died the same year that she was found. Her unidentified wiki page states that the PMI was weeks to months.

The information provided by the website of the LA County Medical Examiner (LACME) differs slightly from that of other sources, primarily NamUs. The former indicates that Jane Doe was 14 to 18 years old and 5'6 tall; however, this is possibly a result of the ME website's formatting not allowing for age ranges to be entered, only single ages. NamUs, meanwhile, states that Jane Doe was 5'5 to 5'8 and 12 to 18 years old, with her estimated age group being "Adolescent." NamUs also simply lists Jane Doe as white, while LACME states she was white and/or Hispanic/Latino.

According to both sources, Jane Doe's weight in life could not be estimated, though her mummified remains weighed 59 lbs. She had reddish brown hair, but due to the state of the remains, her eye color could not be determined.

Jane Doe was wearing pants, a belt, and a long-sleeved polka dot blouse of an unknown brand and size. She was also wearing flip flops, one of which had "KAY" written on the side. From my own observation of the photo of the sandal that's available on NamUs and Doe Network, it seems that it had a bit of a platform (<= 1in) and was primarily black, with one yellow and one red/pink stripe running horizontally on the sides. The strap of the sandal is brown and seems to be of a different material than the rest of the flip flop.

A comb, hairbrush, box of Relay tampons, and Marlboro cigarette box were found near the body. Users on WebSleuths have copied and pasted the information from her NamUs page over time; this was first done on October 6, 2011, then again on September 1, 2019. At both points in time, Jane Doe's NamUs page stated that an empty condom wrapper and a condom were also found nearby, as was a "hair beret" (possibly supposed to be "hair barrette"); the boxes of tampons and cigarettes were not noted at those points in time. By June 24, 2021, the NamUs page no longer mentioned the condom, but did mention the tampon box.

Jane Doe's flip flop. Photo from NamUs.

Jane Doe's dentals and fingerprints are available for comparison, while her DNA is not. She has five MP exclusions on NamUs: she is not Rose Cole, Sherry Roach, Kimberly Kahler, Jackie Boyer, or Kristy Booth.

I could not find any contemporary newspaper reports regarding Jane Doe, and very little information about her is available. While NamUs indicates that Jane Doe's NCMEC case number is 1112813, I could not find anything about Jane Doe on NCMEC's website/database. 

Jane Doe's NamUs case was created on September 9, 2008, and has been updated several times over the past few months: on July 23rd, September 29th, and October 21, 2025. The NCIC and NamUs case numbers are U046123094 and #UP4368, respectively. The Doe Network case number is 1416UFCA, and was formerly Hot Case Number 1408. 

Anyone with information regarding Jane Doe is urged to contact Investigator Betsy Magdaleno of LACME at (323) 343-0512 or IDUnit@me.lacounty.gov. The agency case number is 1980-11186. According to the Doe Network, individuals may also contact LASD's Homicide Bureau at (323) 890-5500, agency case number 80-891376. Any little piece of information, no matter how seemingly insignificant, is appreciated, and may be the key to recovering Jane Doe's identity.

Sources

NamUs 

LACME 

WebSleuths 

Doe Network 

Unidentified wiki 

Note: While this write-up was originally published on July 21, 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 last updated on January 19, 2026.