Okay, fuck it, we're doing True Crime Tuesdays and True Crime Thursdays because I have a lot of true crime cases I would like to be autistic about.
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the Jane Doe's shirt, plus the rope she'd been bound with Discovered February 28th, 1983
UNSOLVED
The St. Louis Jane, also known as Hope, Precious Hope, or the Little Jane Doe is an unidentified child.
On February 28th, 1983, in St. Louis, two men, only named as Mr. Harris and Mr. Thompson went into the basement of an abandoned building for scrapping. When one of them lit their lighters to light a cigarette, they discovered the headless body of an African American girl. They immediately ran out and contacted the police, who then arrived and went into the basement of the building, where they found the headless body of the Jane Doe. She was wearing nothing but a yellow long sleeved sweater, that had the tag cut out and was stained with blood. She was lying on her stomach, her wrists bound behind her with a nylon cord.
She was initially believed by investigators to be a sex worker or a drug addict, from the nearby Cabanne Courts, which was known for hosting such activities. They then turned her over and discovered she had not yet developed breasts, so therefore was prepubescent. It was concluded that the victim had not been killed at the location, as there were no blood pools next to the body, yet there was a blood trail leading into the victim, indicating her killer had brought her there after her death.
Police and other assorted investigators searched the sewers and other things for the Jane Doe's head, but it has since never been found. Due to the fact that her head hasn't been, and, unfortunately, most likely never will be, found, that eliminates the possibility of a facial reconstruction or identification through dental records, two things that often help in unidentified persons cases. Despite this, fingerprints, footprints, and other DNA information was successfully collected. Her decapitation was determined to have occurred postmortem, most likely in an effort to avoid identification. Her cause of death was ruled as strangulation. She had been raped before her death and was believed to be between eight and eleven years old.
After ten months of her being unidentified, she was buried in Washington Park Cemetery. Her ceremony lasted only five minutes. Several possible leads were pursued by investigators over the next thirty years and it is believed over a hundred missing girls have been ruled out as the decedent. Many seem to believe that the Jane Doe may have been killed by a family member, due to the lack of a missing persons report, because, like I mentioned, over a hundred missing girls had been ruled out as the decedent. Some point during those thirty years, the sweater and rope, the only pieces of substantial evidence in this case, were mailed to a psychic in Florida and it is believed they were lost in the mail, unfortunately.
In 2013, thirty years after her death, they decided to exhume the Jane Doe's body, presumably to collect any further DNA information. Due to the significant disrepair of the cemetery, they found her body had been misplaced, but eventually did manage to find her body. Afterwards, she was reinterred in the Garden of Innocents in Calvary Cemetery, where they bury the Jane and John Does. Her memorial lasted over an hour this time.
In June of 2023, a reddit post came to light, where a person spoke about wanting to find their missing half-sister, and mentioned how her father, who had just came and picked her up one day, had ties to St. Louis. The two had different fathers. The sister, named Jeanetta Brooks, had disappeared in early February of 1983 according to Jeanetta's paternal family members, prompting many to suggest that she could be the St. Louis Jane Doe. Though the person who made the reddit post later said they do not believe that the St. Louis Jane Doe is their missing sister, they said they would submit their DNA to genealogy websites, and I believe that this Jeanetta Brooks has since been ruled out, though I'm not certain about this. The poster, as well as Jeanetta's paternal family members, believe she was informally given up for adoption. Genealogy tests had been previously performed on the Jane Doe but they came back inconclusive.
As of February 1st, 2024, the St. Louis Jane Doe is unidentified. Here's praying that she is soon identified, her name returned to her, and closure brought to those that love her. And if you know anything, anything at all, that you think could help return her name to her or capture her killer, or even both, then please contact the St. Louis Police Department.
