Oregon Investigators Dig Into a 1946 Murder Using New Science to Solve One of the State’s Oldest Mysteries
Investigators are Optimistic That Degraded Remains Will Be Those of “Oak Grove Jane Doe” Who was Murdered Nearly 80 Years Ago
Although the recovered remains exhumed yesterday from the Mountain View Cemetery are degraded, Clackamas County investigators are optimistic that modern science will identify the bones as those of a woman known only as “Oak Grove Jane Doe.” Her murder 79 years ago remains unsolved.
She Was Dismembered And Discarded in Burlap Sacks in the Willamette River
Her partial remains were found in a burlap sack in the Willamette River south of Portland on April 12, 1946. She has been dismembered and discarded in the river in several burlap sacks. The cause of death was ruled as blunt-force trauma to the head.
An examination revealed that “Oak Grove Jane Doe” was a Caucasian woman, aged between 30 and 50 years. She was petite in stature.
Yesterday, the partial remains of the woman were exhumed from the Oregon City cemetery. These remains were found by the police back in 1946 near the McLoughlin Bridge, Willamette Falls, close to the original site where she was discovered earlier that year. Investigators also recovered clothing from the Clackamas River, which they believed belonged to the victim.
However, evidence critical to the investigation, including the victim’s remains, went missing from law enforcement custody.
According to a news release by the Oregon State Police, this situation changed recently when the Oregon State Police Medical Examiner’s Office Human Identification Program learned that the unidentified remains could be interred at Mountain View Cemetery.
Bones Will Undergo Advanced Forensic Testing
The degraded remains will undergo advanced forensic testing and analysis, and investigators are optimistic that modern science will identify the woman known for generations only as “Oak Grove Jane Doe,” says State Forensic Anthropologist Hailey Collord-Stalder.
The exhumation was a collaborative effort by the Oregon State Police Medical Examiner’s Office, Clackamas County Medical Examiner’s Office, Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office, and Mountain View Cemetery.
This case follows close on the heels of a recent forensic science examination that solved a 49-year-old unsolved murder. Skeletal remains that were found in the Wolf Creek area near Swamp Mountain in Linn County were identified as those of Marion Vinetta Nagle McWhorter (21), who was last seen alive in a Tigard shopping mall in 1974.