Jane Doe Body found 2/13/83 Marshall County, WVState Police resume efforts to identify body found in 1983
April 12, 2008 @ 03:33 PM
The Associated Press
Herald-Dispatch.com
WHEELING, W.Va. — State Police are intensifying efforts to identify the remains of a body dumped 25 years ago along U.S. 250 in Wetzel County.
Cpl. William Henderson in Hundred said a March 23 story in the Sunday News-Register sparked new leads for authorities to investigate, including the possibility the woman may have been a prostitute from the Pittsburgh area.
“I have 15 years before I retire, and I am confident I will find out who she is,” he said.
The woman’s body was found Feb. 13, 1983, lying face down in the snow near the Marshall County line.
The remains were held at the state medical examiner’s officer in Morgantown for 10 years before Medical Examiner Jack Frost determined it was time for the body to be buried. But Monongalia County authorities could not accommodate the burial and the body was returned to Wetzel County.
John and Naomi Beaty of New Martinsville adopted the body in response to a 1993 newspaper article. The couple arranged for a proper funeral in their family plot in Paden City and have continued to care for the grave site.
Naomi Beaty said she and her husband would like the body to be identified.
“There has to be someone who knows who she is,” Beaty said.
Sgt. Danny Swiger, a State Police cold case investigator, said he would like to use DNA samples from the remains to compare with profiles in the FBI’s national DNA database.
He said the victim was between 35 and 40 years old and had auburn-colored hair. She had double-pierced ears, wore orange toenail polish, had a scar on one of her index fingers and a full upper denture plate. A scar from a Caesarean section indicates the woman had at least one child.
Swiger said fresh tracks and footprints were near the body when it was found. At the time, State Police were looking for a white male in his 40s who apparently had been seen in the area.
http://www.herald-dispatch.com/archive/x112313538/