Cold-case murder with Vancouver links baffles police
Discovery of murdered Jane Doe in New York state still baffling police 33 years later
She was found 33 years ago lying partially clad in a water-filled ditch along a New York state highway, just hours after she was shot four times at close range.
In the pocket of her high-quality trench coat was a mysterious note scribbled on a notepad from a Vancouver hotel — the rough-and-tumble Blue Boy on Southeast Marine Drive, which has since closed.
Today, the victim’s name remains unknown, as does the identity of her killer and the meaning of the indecipherable letters and numbers jotted down on paper from a hotel more than 4,000 kilometres away.
It is a cold case that will not thaw, despite the efforts of police near where the body was found in Ellery, N.Y., about 100 km southwest of Buffalo.
“The problem is everyone’s information is now almost 35 years old,” said Lt. Lori Holder, supervisor of the Chautauqua County Sheriff’s criminal investigation division. "It is getting really, really cold. It is almost frozen now. But we do keep the case open.”
Jane Doe was found by a truck driver on Dec. 6, 1983, shot once inside the mouth, once in the back and twice in the chest. Police believed she was Canadian or European, in part because she was using a European-made IUD birth control device that was not sold in the U.S., but was available in Canada.
This case was added last year to the FBI’s CODIS DNA database and the U.S. Justice Department’s missing person’s NamUs database after a larger police department in Erie, Pa., re-analyzed the three-decade-old evidence. Despite using the more advanced forensic testing available today, police were still unable to match Jane Doe to any missing persons reports or fingerprints in Canada, the U.S. or internationally.
The longtime investigator responsible for the file, Lt. Randy Vander Schaaff, did hundreds of interviews and wrote many magazine articles about the case, but retired without being able to name Jane Doe.
“He was pretty thorough. There was just, evidence wise, nothing to attach it to — no witnesses, no nothing. She’s not from our area,” Holder said. “And we’re not getting any new leads.”
Since taking over, Holder has scanned Internet chat rooms for tips and re-watched a videotaped police interview done years ago with a convicted killer serving a life sentence in an Oklahoma prison, who had boasted of killing Jane Doe.
The Blue Boy note appears to read: “Sas.k.R.h. 24233, K.R.Ba. 68301, Sarg. 74261”. Vancouver police questioned Blue Boy staff and customers at the time, but no one could remember seeing the woman.
Then-Vancouver Sun reporter Bob Sarti interviewed Vander Schaaff in 1991, who said then that the letters and numbers might have been code for three internal phone lines at New York’s John F. Kennedy airport. Today, Holder said police over the years developed theories about the significance of the letters and numbers, but remain unable to determine what they mean.
NamUs contains so much information about Jane Doe that anyone who knew her should be able to identify her. She was in her 30s, white and 5-foot-3 with brown eyes and shoulder-length brown hair. She had a wart above her left eye, a large mole behind her left ear, a scar on her throat and had expensive dental work with gold fillings. She had at least one child, possibly 15 years before her death.
Under her checkered trench coat, she had been wearing a blue pullover and a plaid wool skirt. There was no purse, identification or money.
Her feet were bare and no shoes or stockings were found at the scene. The Vancouver Sun quoted New York police in 1983 saying she may have been sexually assaulted, but that has not been confirmed to this day.
She was found in the ditch on a highway used by truckers.
There were possible sightings of a woman matching her description at a Pennsylvania truck stop the day before her murder, which may suggest she was travelling east, a local newspaper reporter wrote in 2006.
Vancouver police would not discuss this case with Postmedia News, referring any questions to officers in New York.
Shortly after the murder, Chautauqua police contacted Vancouver sex workers’ advocate Sally DeQuadros to ask for assistance, but she was unable to find anyone who knew the victim, Sarti reported.
DeQuadros said in 1991 that she remained haunted by the case. “Someone out there is missing a mother, a sister or a daughter. They have a right to know what happened to her and to give her her name and her dignity back.”
“Someone out there is missing a mother, a sister or a daughter.” — Sally DeQuadros