Happy that Tina's still alive, sad that 1987 Jane Doe is not identified

I found out recently that a woman was still alive and, I must confess, I felt sad.

Let me explain.

After I wrote a story about the 1987 unsolved-murder of a woman known simply as "Jane Doe 53," I received a very thorough tip where a caller identified a potential suspect and victim.

The potential killer was already serving time for the death of another woman and all things (personal history, place of residence) suggested that this individual very well could have been involved in Jane Doe 53's death. When I gave detectives the information they were excited. And the more they looked into it, the more excited they got. This was the biggest break they had in the case in a good long time.

It seemed that our Jane Doe 53 -- so named because she was the 53rd unidentified female corpse the Coroner's Office had come across in 1987 -- might have a name ... Tina.
When I heard that name I said it aloud - maybe that might make it real: "Tina."

After seeing the horrid photos of what this woman looked like at the time of her death, I wanted to write a story that might help bring her killer to justice and bring some peace of mind to her family, if she had a family.

The key piece of evidence for me was her homemade blue dress. It struck me as something that people might remember. And considering the detectives had very little physical evidence left in the case, it was probably the biggest clue they had left.

In any case, after investigating further, detectives discovered that "Tina" is alive and well and living near Buffalo, New York, which, of course, is great news.

But, I can't help but feel sad as hell for Jane Doe 53.

I was hoping we could give her her name back. If you haven't read her story, please do.

And let the cops know if you know her name.

I could no longer link to the story - so here it is:

MYSTERY WEARING A BLUE DRESS
POLICE SEEK HELP IN 1987 SLAYING

BY RICK COCA
Staff Writer
ENCINO -- Although considered out of fashion for 1987, the powder-blue dress with a peekaboo opening below the neckline was perfect for summer.

Little did police know when they found the badly decomposed body of a young woman wearing the dress 20 years ago this month that it might one day represent their last hope of unraveling the mystery behind her death.
Through the years, detectives have followed every lead, with little luck. Now, they're hoping somebody recognizes that dress or some other peculiarity about the case.

They not only want to find her killer, they want to find out who was the woman they call Jane Doe No. 53. The woman's mutilated body was discovered on the morning of July 21, 1987, by a 32-year-old transient in the thick underbrush around the Hjelte Sports Center in the Sepulveda Dam basin area.

Strangled, her arms cleanly cut off at the elbows, she had been dead two weeks to three weeks when her killer, or killers, dumped her body in the park off Burbank Boulevard just east of Havenhurst Avenue, police believe.

``Who holds a murder victim that long and moves a body?'' wondered Los Angeles Police Department Detective James Nuttall. ``It takes a tremendous amount of risk.''

Jane Doe 53 is not alone. Since 1987, there have been 5,535 unsolved homicides in the city of Los Angeles. In 53's case, a bit of bad luck and timing have made the process of identifying her -- and the prospects of identifying her killer -- more difficult.

By removing her hands, the killer ensured there would be no fingerprints. After her death, detectives were on the lookout for any severed hands that turned up, hoping for a match.

They haven't found any.

And since the woman had been dead for weeks when they found her, police were unable to detect whether there had been sexual contact. In today's advanced scientific environment, such evidence might have led to the killer.

``We have her DNA,'' Nuttall said. ``We have nothing from the suspect.''

They also don't have a corpse.

The Los Angeles County Department of Coroner routinely hands over unidentified bodies to the county morgue, which cremates the remains.

Jane Doe 53 -- the 53rd unidentified female corpse in the county in 1987 -- was released to the morgue for cremation Aug. 17, 1987, said Craig Harvey, coroner operations chief. A femur from her leg was saved and remains in evidence.

Hard to identify
On a recent weekend, the coroner's office had 207 bodies in its possession. Identifying them can sometimes prove difficult, Harvey said.

``One of the biggest problems in identifying people is the fact that nobody's looking for them,'' he said. ``They don't file missing-person reports, so you really have nothing to go on.''

This is a scenario detectives have considered with Jane Doe 53.

It's possible they never saw a missing-persons report for her because she was killed by a husband or boyfriend, the very person who would normally report her missing.

``Right now, if we had the skull, we feel pretty confident we could get close (to identifying her), but unfortunately, it's not available,'' Nuttall said.

With the skull, they could do a facial reconstruction. That process could provide a highly accurate bust or drawing, something they could put out to the public to see if anybody recognized her.

Which leaves the blue dress.

Considering the horror she endured, the woman's dress is in remarkably good shape. Police determined it was ``not commercially manufactured.''

But who made the dress? The woman? A loving mother or grandmother? Police don't know. They do know it was considered out-of-date.

``Not San Fernando Valley 1980s,'' Nuttall said, which leads detectives to believe the woman might have been from out of state or perhaps from another country.

Drugs and high heels
Wearing black-strap high heels with her toenails painted a reddish-pink, the woman could have been out dancing, going to dinner or engaging in prostitution, detectives said. Toxicology tests show she had cocaine in her system at the time of her death.

Police believe their Jane Doe was a small-framed white woman, between 24 and 33 years old.

The brown-eyed woman wore contact lenses and had medium-length brown hair that fell just past her shoulders. She was approximately 5 feet 8 inches and weighed between 110 and 120 pounds. She wore a size 7 shoe.

Examiners concluded that at some point, her appendix had been removed and that she was once pregnant.

And due to the fact that she wore contacts and once wore braces, it's possible she came from an upper-middle-class background, police said.

``She had perfect teeth,'' Nuttall said.

Because of the tools used and the precision of the mutilation of her limbs, Jane Doe 53's case is similar to the deaths of six other Southern California women, although police haven't been able to make any definite connection.

Every stone has been turned. Now, they need help.

``There's really no place else for us to go,'' Nuttall said. ``Barring some breakthrough in modern science, it's going to take a phone call.''

rick.coca(at)dailynews.com
(818) 713-3329

How you can help
Anyone with information about the case of Jane Doe 53 can call Van Nuys detectives at (818) 374-1952 or the LAPD's Robbery Homicide Division at (213) 485-2155.