Buzz
Year after year, countless individuals are discovered deceased without their identities ever being revealed, leading them to be classified as John or Jane Doe. In earlier times, the chances of identifying these individuals were slim. However, recent decades have witnessed extraordinary progress in forensic science and DNA analysis, making it possible to uncover their identities.
These breakthroughs have led to the resolution of numerous cold cases involving unidentified individuals. Many of these cases have been highlighted on Mytour. Even when victims had been deceased for decades, DNA testing has successfully restored their identities. Below are additional instances where John or Jane Does remained nameless for years until determined investigators helped reclaim their identities.
10. Barbara Ann Hackman-Taylor, Known as ‘Tent Girl’
On May 17, 1968, Wilbur Riddle, a well digger, was strolling along a dirt road near Route 25 outside Lexington, Kentucky, when he stumbled upon a large green tarpaulin, typically used for moving carnival tents. Inside, he discovered the decomposing body of a young woman in her twenties, who had been deceased for several months. The exact cause of her death remained unclear, but it was speculated that she had been rendered unconscious and suffocated after being wrapped in the tarpaulin. Unable to identify her, she was dubbed “Tent Girl.”
Years later, Todd Matthews, Wilbur Riddle’s son-in-law, became deeply invested in solving the mystery of Tent Girl’s identity. He launched a website dedicated to the case and eventually found a classified ad from a woman searching for her missing sister, Barbara Ann Hackman-Taylor, who had vanished from Lexington in December 1967 at the age of 24. Noticing striking resemblances, Matthews arranged for the exhumation of Tent Girl’s body. In April 1998, DNA tests confirmed that Barbara Ann Hackman-Taylor and Tent Girl were the same person.
The details surrounding Barbara’s death remain a mystery, but her husband, George Earl Taylor, a carnival worker, was the primary suspect. He never reported her missing and claimed she had left him for another man. George passed away from cancer in October 1987, taking any secrets with him. Todd Matthews later established the Doe Network, an online repository featuring thousands of profiles of unidentified deceased individuals.
9. Carol Ann Cole, Known as ‘Bossier Doe’
In 1980, Carol Ann resided with her mother in San Antonio before being sent to a facility for troubled girls. That November, she fled the home and vanished without a trace. Her final communication with her family was a phone call to her grandmother from a location in Shreveport, Louisiana. A childhood friend of Carol Ann posted a Craigslist ad about her disappearance, which eventually led police to contact her family. DNA testing later confirmed that the unidentified remains, known as Bossier Doe, were indeed Carol Ann.
In an unusual twist, John Chesson emerged as a suspect in her death. Chesson’s daughter alleged that her father once picked up a young female hitchhiker who looked like Carol Ann. She suspected that he took his family hunting to find her body and create an alibi. Chesson is currently serving a prison sentence for the 1997 murder of an elderly woman but has not been definitively connected to Carol Ann Cole’s case.
8. Kerry Graham and Francine Trimble
On July 8, 1979, the skeletal remains of two young individuals were found in a forested area near Route 20 in Mendocino County, California. Both victims had been tied with duct tape, wrapped in plastic, and buried in a shallow grave. Due to the severe decomposition, determining the exact cause of death was unfeasible. The only notable clue at the scene was an earring featuring a dangling bird. Initially, it was believed that the victims were a male and female, possibly siblings. Their identities remained unknown for years, leaving them as John and Jane Doe.
Twenty years later, a detailed examination of the victims’ teeth revealed significant differences in their jaw structures, making it unlikely they were related. In 2011, DNA testing delivered another startling discovery: Both victims were female. This revelation shifted the investigation’s direction, linking the remains to two missing teenage friends: 15-year-old Kerry Graham and 14-year-old Francine Trimble. The girls, from Forestville, California, had disappeared without a trace after leaving home to visit a shopping mall in December 1978. Although they vanished together, Kerry wasn’t reported missing until weeks after Francine, delaying the connection between the cases. In February 2016, DNA testing confirmed the identities of the victims as Kerry Graham and Francine Trimble. The details of their deaths remain a mystery.
7. Barbara Precht, Known as ‘Pearl Lady’
On November 29, 2006, the body of an elderly woman was recovered from the Ohio River near North Bend. Estimated to be in her sixties, she carried no identification. An autopsy revealed she suffered from arthritis, and her injuries indicated she had fallen into the river from a considerable height. The most notable clue was a gold pearl necklace she wore, leading to her being called “Pearl Lady.” Despite releasing images of the necklace to the public, her identity remained unknown.
In 2014, investigators successfully matched Pearl Lady’s fingerprints to a woman who had been arrested for shoplifting food 28 years prior. At the time of her arrest, she was living in San Diego under a false name. Her true identity was revealed to be Barbara Precht, aged 69 at the time of her death. Barbara had been married to James Precht for decades, and the couple had two children. They lived in Cincinnati before abruptly moving to California in the 1980s, where they assumed new identities.
Following Barbara’s arrest, the couple placed both children up for adoption and later returned to Ohio. Once Barbara was identified, police located James Precht, who initially attempted to conceal his identity. James was arrested for providing false information to authorities and served a month in jail after pleading guilty to disorderly conduct. Since James never reported Barbara missing, he remained a suspect in her death. However, no conclusive evidence has linked him to the crime.
6. Jon-Niece Jones, Known as ‘Baby Bones’
On March 18, 2005, a hunter exploring a wooded area in Upper Freehold Township, New Jersey, stumbled upon a child’s skull. A subsequent police search uncovered additional human remains buried in the forest. Burned items found at the scene indicated that the victim’s body had been set on fire to conceal evidence. The victim was thought to be a young girl murdered years earlier. Despite public appeals for information, her identity remained unknown, and she was referred to as “Baby Bones.”
The case went cold until August 2012, when Iyonna Jones reached out to investigators, suspecting that “Baby Bones” was her younger sister, Jon-Niece Jones. A decade earlier, Iyonna and Jon-Niece lived in Harlem with their abusive and neglectful mother, Elisha. Iyonna recalled memories of her sister being placed in garbage bags on August 15, 2002, and believed Elisha was responsible for Jon-Niece’s death. She also claimed that her uncle James, aunt Likisha, and Likisha’s husband, Godfrey Gibson, conspired with Elisha to burn Jon-Niece’s body and discard her remains in Upper Freehold Township. DNA testing confirmed that Baby Bones was indeed Jon-Niece Jones. Although Elisha Jones passed away in December 2002, James Jones, Likisha Jones, and Godfrey Gibson were charged for their involvement in the crime. As Elisha was deemed the primary perpetrator, the other three accepted plea deals and received probation for aiding in the cover-up.
5. Richard ‘Dickie’ Hovey and Eric Jones
Over five months, the unidentified remains of two young men were found in rural Ontario, Canada. On December 17, 1967, skeletal remains of a male were discovered in Balsam Lake Provincial Park near Coboconk. The only item at the scene was a pair of white tennis shoes, and the victim’s hands were tied behind his back. On May 15, 1968, the decomposed body of another young man was found in an isolated field near Schomberg. Like the first victim, he was naked with his hands bound behind his back. It took 40 years for either victim to be identified.
In November 2006, the Ontario Provincial Police held a press conference to unveil clay busts of both victims’ heads, offering forensic reconstructions of their appearances. Tips soon poured in from individuals who recognized the busts as their missing relatives. A month later, the Schomberg victim was identified as Richard “Dickie” Hovey, a 17-year-old aspiring musician who had traveled to Toronto from Fredericton, New Brunswick, in 1966 before losing contact with his family.
In March 2009, the second victim was identified as 18-year-old Eric Jones, who had mysteriously disappeared from Toronto in 1967. One of Eric’s sisters saw a television program featuring the clay reconstruction of the victim and was immediately struck by its likeness to her missing brother. Given the similarities between the two cases, it is highly probable that Dickie Hovey and Eric Jones were killed by the same individual. The killer’s identity remains unknown to this day.
4. Peggy Sue Houser
On January 3, 1982, the skeletal remains of an unidentified female were discovered in a wooded area in Hillsborough County, Florida. The victim was estimated to be between 14 and 20 years old, but no clothing or identification was found at the scene. She remained a Jane Doe for 30 years until dental records were compared with those of 20 other missing girls from the same period. One potential match was 18-year-old Peggy Sue Houser, who had vanished on June 14, 1981. That night, Peggy had been involved in a dispute at a Tampa bar located 16 kilometers (10 miles) from where the remains were found. She left alone, intending to hitchhike home, but she never made it. However, Peggy’s dental records did not match those of the Jane Doe.
When forensic anthropologist Erin Kimmerle was brought onto the case in 2011, she suspected an error. Peggy had been ruled out because the dental records indicated the victim had more teeth than Peggy. Kimmerle realized that Peggy’s dental records were from when she was only 12, before all her permanent teeth had emerged. After a detailed comparison, Kimmerle became certain that the remains belonged to Peggy. DNA samples from Peggy’s family confirmed her identity as the Jane Doe. The killer of Peggy Sue Houser remains unidentified.
3. Sidney Leslie Goodwin, The Titanic’s ‘Unknown Child’
On April 15, 1912, the RMS Titanic struck an iceberg and sank into the North Atlantic Ocean, claiming over 1,500 lives. For almost a century, one victim remained unidentified. When the rescue ship, the CS Mackay-Bennett, arrived to recover the bodies, they discovered the remains of a young male toddler. Unable to match him with any passenger records, he was buried under a headstone marked “Unknown Child.”
For years, it was believed the child might be Gosta Leonard Palsson, a two-year-old Swedish boy. In 2001, the body was exhumed, and mitochondrial DNA testing ruled out any connection to the Palsson family. A year later, dental analysis identified the child as Eino Viljami Pannula, a 13-month-old Finnish boy who died in the disaster. However, doubts arose when the child’s shoes, donated to a museum, appeared too large for a toddler, prompting further DNA testing.
In 2008, the Titanic’s Unknown Child was definitively identified as 19-month-old Sidney Leslie Goodwin. Sidney was born in Melksham, England, the youngest of Frederick and Augusta Goodwin’s six children. The Goodwin family, third-class passengers on the Titanic, were en route to Niagara Falls to start anew. Tragically, the entire family perished in the sinking, but Sidney’s body was the only one ever recovered.
2. Gail Delano, Known as ‘Jackie Stafford’
On June 21, 1986, a woman in her mid-thirties checked into the Hilton hotel in Mobile, Alabama, under the name “Jackie Stafford,” listing San Diego as her hometown. After three days, she failed to check out, and her body was found in her room. She had committed suicide by overdosing on prescription antidepressants. With no identification, it became clear that “Jackie Stafford” was likely an alias. Her identity remained a mystery until an episode of the TV show Unsolved Mysteries aired on October 5, 1988.
The episode highlighted the disappearance of Gail Delano, a 36-year-old single mother from Westport Island, Maine. On June 21, 1986, Gail informed her two sons she was meeting a man from a personal ad for a blind date. She never returned, and her car was found in a Brunswick restaurant parking lot, along with her keys and purse. After the Unsolved Mysteries broadcast, the Mobile medical examiner’s office contacted the show, believing Gail Delano was “Jackie Stafford.” Dental records confirmed the match. It is believed Gail, overwhelmed by depression, staged her disappearance, flew to Mobile, and took her own life at the hotel.
1. Lisa Gay Howard, Known as ‘Boulder Jane Doe’
On April 8, 1954, the nude and severely injured body of a young woman was found on rocks near a stream in Boulder Canyon, Colorado. She was estimated to have been there for about a week. Her injuries, including a fractured skull and jaw, suggested she had been thrown from a significant height while still alive. Despite checking missing persons reports, her identity remained unknown for decades, earning her the names “Boulder Jane Doe” or “the battered blonde of Boulder Canyon.”
Over time, historian Sylvia Pettem grew deeply interested in the case and authored a book about it. She spearheaded efforts to raise funds for exhuming Boulder Jane Doe’s body to obtain a DNA sample. In 2009, Pettem was approached by Michelle Fowler, who was searching for answers about her great-aunt, Barbara Gay Howard. In 1954, Barbara, an 18-year-old from Phoenix, had disappeared without a trace. Despite her youth, Barbara had already experienced marriage and divorce and had secretly remarried before vanishing. Her family only learned of her second marriage after she went missing.
Speculation arose that Barbara might have traveled to Denver to visit an aunt, leading Michelle Fowler to suspect that Boulder Jane Doe could be her long-lost great-aunt. DNA testing confirmed a perfect match. Serial killer Harvey Glatman, responsible for three murders in California during the 1950s, was considered a suspect, as he had lived in Colorado at the time. However, Glatman was executed in 1959, leaving the truth behind Barbara’s death unresolved.
