Little Jane Doe March 24, 1979 Tempe, Arizona
On March 24, 1979, two rock hunters searching in the river bed underneath the Tempe Bridge in Tempe, Arizona came across a partially buried skeleton of a little child. The body was partially buried by the far north pillar of the bridge and above the high water mark from floods the prior December. The bridge is a portion of old State Route 60. There was no identification in the child's clothing to indicate who she was. And there were no missing child reports that fit. After the completion of an extensive examination a physical anthropologist from the University of Arizona in Tucson the anthropologist stated that the child was probably a Caucasian female, from three to five years of age, who had been dead anywhere from one to 13 years at the time of discovery. She was 3 feet, 3 inches tall, plus or minus 2 inches. Head hair was medium brown in color and measured approximately 7 inches in length. The remains had miscellaneous shards of unidentifiable clothing of off-white coarse weave cotton and possibly a dark blue or gray loose weave blanket. Lining the shallow grave were fragments of newspaper identified as articles appearing in The Arizona Republic on June 6, 1966 and October 2, 1966. Cause of death is undetermined. It was determined that the child suffered a possible broken neck after she died. This case was reopened because the Tempe Police Department recently received a federal grant to pay for reexamining unsolved homicides. "I felt bad that this little girl has never been identified and she's been dead all these years." Detective Reed said. "It just tugs at your heartstrings. When we got the grant this was a case I knew we should look at again". Reed said he wants to "plaster the picture of the facial reconstruction all over the place" in the hopes that someone will come forward and identify her. If anyone has any information about this case PLEASE contact Sgt. Mark K. Perkovich of the Tempe Police Department at 480-858-2265, or the F.B.I. Photo and more on this story available at: http://www.fallenwall.org/ljd.html