Sometime in the fall of 1980 or early in 1981 - a young woman was taken nude from an auto traveling on the east-bound side of Interstate 80 in a rural area of Will County, Illinois and tossed over the side of the road. Her body lay undiscovered, except by the animals that carried off pieces as food or nesting material, until Spring.
On a cold, overcast Easter Sunday in 1981 a man searching for cans came across her remains. By the time the police arrived to check on the man's gruesome discovery, a cold chilly rain was falling.
Lt. William Ferguson of the Will County Coroner's office, along with the Illinois State Police did a remarkable job of trying to identify the young woman. Forensic reconstruction of unidentifed persons was in its infancy when Lt. Ferguson decided to send the victim's skull to Colorado to Dr Michael Charney at Colorado State University in Ft. Collins. Dr. Charney's reconstruction of what the victim may have looked like is pictured above.
The photo of the reconstruction was sent to other law enforcement agencies, to local papers and a wire service. A few leads came in - some from as far as Pennsylvania, but none matched. The young woman was buried, the last mention of her in the media came in July 1981 - 3 months after she was found...and then she was forgotten.
But was she really? Wasn't there someone still looking for her? Her parents, perhaps? A sibling, a neighbor, a friend? Was she from Illinois or did someone passing through find the rural, lightly traveled interstate the perfect place to dispose of her body?
What is known about Jane Doe is that she was probably 25 to 30 years old, roughly 5'5" to 5'7" tall, and 100 to 125 pounds. She probably had long hair - either blonde or light brown. At some point her nose may have been fractured. She had dental work performed. She was someone's child.
