BOULDER, Colo. - Sylvia Pettem has always had an eye for this community's history.
Now, she's a part of it, as her 13-year quest to identify a homicide victim whose identity has been a mystery for more than five decades -- Boulder County's famed "Jane Doe" -- has ended with that victim's long-awaited identification Wednesday by the Boulder County Sheriff's Office.
The woman, long buried beneath a headstone reading "Jane Doe: About 20 years old", is Dorothy Gay Howard, who was reported missing from Phoenix, Ariz. in 1954 when she was 18 years old.
It was that anonymous headstone in Columbia Cemetery that caught Pettem's eye back in 1996.
"At the time, I had a daughter who was 20 and that kind of just hit me as a mom, and I wondered who this woman was, and who her mother was," Pettem said.
A historian who writes books and a weekly column for the Daily Camera, Pettem began to research the case in the newspaper's archives. In 2003, she went to Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle and asked him to re-open the "Jane Doe" case.
"This was just another piece of Boulder's history I was trying to find something about," she said. "I wanted to know if there was some way to use modern technology to re-open this very cold case. There was some interest there, but the problem was money. They didn't want to use taxpayer money on the case, which is understandable."
Undeterred, Pettem herself set about raising the money to fund the investigation.
"I raised the money through the Boulder Historical Society and then we brought in some pro bono forensic experts," she said.
"This town has always been generous when it comes to this case. In 1954, people stepped up to pay for her burial and her gravestone. They wanted to give her a Christian burial -- Boulder was a much more pious, conservative place back then -- and, it turns out, that's something her family, since we've contacted them, was really appreciative of."
The body of "Jane Doe" was exhumed in 2004; and, after reconstructing her skull, a forensic sculptor was able to recreate a likeness of her face, which caught the public's eye.
Most importantly, investigators were able to take a DNA profile from the victim's remains.
Howard's niece had been following the case on Pettem's website, www.boulderjanedoe.com. She hadn't pursued her suspicions that this "Jane Doe" was her own missing aunt because of another likely candidate, Katherine Farrand Dyer -- until Dyer was discovered to be alive and well last month.
"Last month, I got an email from a woman who said I think my great aunt might be Jane Doe," Pettem said. "I thought it sounded like a promising match and I suggested that she contact the sheriff's office and find a relative to submit a DNA sample."
The sheriff's office received lab results that showed a match between Howard's DNA and DNA samples provided by a long-lost sister, confirming the family's suspicion that their relative, known as "Dot," was Boulder's "Jane Doe."
Wednesday night, Pettem was in Boulder for a signing of her new book, "Someone's Daughter: In Search of Justice for Jane Doe." Now, she said, she's going to have to add one more chapter.
"It's very satisfying to finally put a name with the gravestone," Pettem said. "I feel a lot of closure, just as the family does. I almost feel like I'm a part of their family. I think the last thing, the last step, will be to put a new gravestone up with her name."
Now, she's a part of it, as her 13-year quest to identify a homicide victim whose identity has been a mystery for more than five decades -- Boulder County's famed "Jane Doe" -- has ended with that victim's long-awaited identification Wednesday by the Boulder County Sheriff's Office.
The woman, long buried beneath a headstone reading "Jane Doe: About 20 years old", is Dorothy Gay Howard, who was reported missing from Phoenix, Ariz. in 1954 when she was 18 years old.
It was that anonymous headstone in Columbia Cemetery that caught Pettem's eye back in 1996.
"At the time, I had a daughter who was 20 and that kind of just hit me as a mom, and I wondered who this woman was, and who her mother was," Pettem said.
A historian who writes books and a weekly column for the Daily Camera, Pettem began to research the case in the newspaper's archives. In 2003, she went to Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle and asked him to re-open the "Jane Doe" case.
"This was just another piece of Boulder's history I was trying to find something about," she said. "I wanted to know if there was some way to use modern technology to re-open this very cold case. There was some interest there, but the problem was money. They didn't want to use taxpayer money on the case, which is understandable."
Undeterred, Pettem herself set about raising the money to fund the investigation.
"I raised the money through the Boulder Historical Society and then we brought in some pro bono forensic experts," she said.
"This town has always been generous when it comes to this case. In 1954, people stepped up to pay for her burial and her gravestone. They wanted to give her a Christian burial -- Boulder was a much more pious, conservative place back then -- and, it turns out, that's something her family, since we've contacted them, was really appreciative of."
The body of "Jane Doe" was exhumed in 2004; and, after reconstructing her skull, a forensic sculptor was able to recreate a likeness of her face, which caught the public's eye.
Most importantly, investigators were able to take a DNA profile from the victim's remains.
Howard's niece had been following the case on Pettem's website, www.boulderjanedoe.com. She hadn't pursued her suspicions that this "Jane Doe" was her own missing aunt because of another likely candidate, Katherine Farrand Dyer -- until Dyer was discovered to be alive and well last month.
"Last month, I got an email from a woman who said I think my great aunt might be Jane Doe," Pettem said. "I thought it sounded like a promising match and I suggested that she contact the sheriff's office and find a relative to submit a DNA sample."
The sheriff's office received lab results that showed a match between Howard's DNA and DNA samples provided by a long-lost sister, confirming the family's suspicion that their relative, known as "Dot," was Boulder's "Jane Doe."
Wednesday night, Pettem was in Boulder for a signing of her new book, "Someone's Daughter: In Search of Justice for Jane Doe." Now, she said, she's going to have to add one more chapter.
"It's very satisfying to finally put a name with the gravestone," Pettem said. "I feel a lot of closure, just as the family does. I almost feel like I'm a part of their family. I think the last thing, the last step, will be to put a new gravestone up with her name."
