t/w rape, child abuse, child sexual abuse, kidnapping
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a photograph of Little Jane, taken by her sister, Abigail, two weeks before her disappearance June 26th, 1970 - August 13th, 1979
As of November 13th, 2023, forty-four years, four months and four days after the discovery of her body, the Little Jane Doe of Shenandoah has officially been identified as June Rosette Alfson.
June was born June Rosette Keys to Hannah and Reynold Keys in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with an older sister six years her senior, Abigail Hannah Keys. The couple divorced when June was one. Just a year later, Hannah married Michael Alfson and changed her daughter's surnames. The girl's father seemed to want nothing to do with them.
Hannah died on November 13th, 1978 following a sudden heart attack and Abigail and June were placed in Michael's custody. Abigail described him as an abusive drunk, who often hit the sisters and even raped them a few times. When Abigail woke up on the morning of February 8th, 1979, Michael and June were gone. Abigail went to the police and then moved in with her paternal aunt Alice Hagen afterwards.
Since then, Abigail had stopped at nothing, trying to find June. In fact, her efforts helped many missing American children be found, including Joanna Wisetown. Abigail got back in contact with her father, who agreed to help Abigail find June. Reynold Keys died in 2004 due to breast cancer. Abigail said she'd always been familiar with Little Jane's case, but only recently did she think that it could possibly be June.
"I was getting desperate for answers, I'll admit. Even if I was wrong, I knew this could help Little Jane be identified. So, either way, I wanted to help, whether this was June or some other missing girl." Abigail said in a recent interview. "I knew it was a stretch, but I just wanted to get closure of any sorts, to June's case. And if I didn't get my closure, then I'd hopefully bring some other family closer to closure."
June is in the process of getting a proper gravemarker. Michael Alfson is still considered missing, but, due to his abusive nature described by Abigail, he has been officially named as June's killer.
When asked if she regretted all these years searching for June while she was dead the whole time, Abigail said, quote;
"Not in the slightest. Sure, my main mission, so to speak, of finding June has been in vain, but I helped several other families be reunited with their missing children. As brutal and heartbreaking as this may be, I'm just happy to have closure after all these decades."
