The Murder of Placer County 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."
Jane is a white female aged 25-35 years old. She was 5'8 and 140-145 lbs. She had brown eyes, and her hair was dark brown to black 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. Her NamUs page was last updated on February 6, 2024.
According to The Auburn Journal, Jane Doe was given a pauper's burial on Thursday, November 2, 1978, nearly eleven months after she had been found. Arrangements were made through the Chapel of the Hills.
If you have any information about Jane Doe, please contact Dennis Watt of the Placer County Sheriff's Office - Coroner Division at (916) 409-8253. The agency case number is 11929-77.
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]
Roseville Press-Tribune 12/19/77, 12/21/77**
Auburn Journal 12/21/77, 6/16/78, 11/6/78
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]
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