The Murder of Emigrant Gap Jane Doe, December 1977
At about 4pm on Saturday, December 17, 1977, a married couple walking their dog nearly four miles west of the Highway 20-Interstate 80 interchange, east of Emigrant Gap in the eastern part of Placer County, CA, discovered the recognizable remains of an unidentified woman in a snowbank. They spotted the body about 30 ft off a wide section of Highway 20 and/or approximately 30 ft from a roadway turnout, in Bear Valley near the Nevada County border.
Finger marks on the victim's neck indicated that she had been manually strangled. She had apparently also sustained a blow or blows to the head, though the official cause of death was strangulation. Jane Doe was nude when found. She had been dead for two to six days at time of discovery, putting her date of death somewhere between Sunday, December 11 and Thursday, December 15, 1977. The pathologist who examined her body did not believe she was raped. The Nevada County Sheriff told reporters that "the body may have been hurled over an embankment from a stopped vehicle."
According to an article of The Roseville Press-Tribune published in 1990, after the discovery of the body a witness came forward with information. The witness reported to police that at approximately 1pm on Saturday, December 17, 1977 — i.e., about three hours before Jane Doe's body was found by the aforementioned married couple — they (the witness) saw two unidentified white men in a Toyota Celica parked at the location where the body was later discovered. The witness stated that the passenger of the car was trying to drag something heavy out of the back seat.
I could not find further information regarding the above witness statement.
Jane is a white female aged 25 to 35 years old. She was 5'8 and 140 to 145 lbs. She had brown eyes, and her hair was dark brown to black in color and about 5" long. She had a removable, partial dental plate to replace her missing upper four incisors. She had no clothing or jewelry with her, though her ears were pierced.
Jane Doe's toenails were painted orange, and her fingernails were trimmed neatly close to the base. There were no scars or tattoos on her body. Her feet were heavily calloused, which possibly "indicated she walked a lot or wore defective shoes." She had stretch marks on her abdomen and breasts. It was noted during the autopsy that there were signs of recent weight loss, consistent with possible recent child birth prior to the date of death.
Jane Doe's fingerprints, DNA, and dentals are all available for comparison. There are two reconstructions of Jane Doe on Doe Network, one of which is clearly based off of a postmortem photograph. Jane Doe has two MP exclusions on NamUs: she is not Laura Davis or Doris Scandalis.
The Doe Network page dedicated to Jane Doe is case 640UFCA. Her NamUs page, #UP6296, was created on December 2, 2009 and last updated on January 2, 2026, the first time in almost two years.
According to newspapers, Jane Doe was given a pauper's burial on Thursday, November 2, 1978, nearly eleven months after she had been found. She was buried in an unmarked grave. Arrangements were made through the Chapel of the Hills.
If you have any information about Jane Doe, please contact Dennis Watt of the the Coroner Division of the Placer County Sheriff's Office at (916) 409-8253 or placercoroner@placer.ca.gov. The agency case number is 11929-77. Any little piece of information, no matter how seemingly insignificant, is appreciated and may be the key needed to recover Jane Doe's identity and/or solve her murder.
Note: Jane Doe was found four days before the winter solstice, and had died recently. See the Holiday & Events Reference Page for an explanation as to why this is being mentioned.
Sources
[Warning: sources with two asterisks (**) contain postmortem photos/sketches]
NamUs **
The Roseville Press-Tribune 12/19/77, 12/21/77 **, 3/11/90 pt.s 1 & 2
The Auburn Journal 12/21/77, 6/16/78, 11/6/78, 2/7/85 pt.s 1 & 2
The Placer Herald 12/22/77
The Grass Valley Union 12/19/77
The Sacramento Bee 12/19/77, 12/20/77, 12/21/77 **, 1/1/78
FindAGrave ** [Note: I am the creator and manager of her FindAGrave profile]
The Auburn Journal, Nov. 15, 2008
Personal communication through email
Note: While this write-up was originally published on July 10, 2025, I regularly revisit cases, check for updates, ensure that I have exhausted all sources, etc., and then make note of when I last did so, no matter how minor. When edits are extensive, I re-post the write-up entirely. This post was last updated on February 11, 2026.
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