2020- Jane & John Does that got their names back

Christie Witcher

Christie Denise York Witcher was a young woman found murdered in Kentucky in 1995. 

Witcher was last seen leaving her Scottsville, Kentucky, residence on July 30, 1993, she said was going to work with the carnival that was in Allen County. She left behind at least two children. Her disappearance was reported to the Allen County Sheriff’s Office a year later.

On July 2, 1995, her skeletal remains were discovered by a pair of hunters in Nancy, Kentucky, in a wooded area near the Cumberland Parkway. The location was accessible to various highways. She had suffered a broken rib and her throat was slit. 

The investigation into Witcher’s disappearance and death is still ongoing.

https://unidentified.wikia.org/wiki/Christie_Witcher

https://www.twcrowfuneralhome.com/obituary/Christie-Witcher

https://www.wbko.com/content/news/Human-remains-found-in-1995-identified-as-Allen-County-woman-568180801.html


Valerie Mack

Valerie Mack who also used the alias Melissa Taylor was a young woman whose torso was discovered in Manorville, New York in 2000. Her head, hands and right foot were later found near Gilgo Beach, New York in 2011. She is a confirmed victim of the Long Island Serial Killer (LISK)

She was identified through forensic genealogy in May 2020.

Valerie had been working as an escort in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the time of her disappearance. Valerie’s family members last saw her in the spring or summer of 2000 in Port Republic, New Jersey. She had a young son and was living with a boyfriend.

The nude, dismembered torso of her body was discovered in Manorville, New York on November 19th, 2000. Around 11 years later on April 4, 2011, her head, hands and right foot were found in a plastic bag in the vicinity of Ocean Parkway on Gilgo Beach. No personal items, jewelry, or clothing were found with the partially recovered remains.

True Crime Societys blog on LISK

True Crime Society 2 part podcast on LISK

https://unidentified.wikia.org/wiki/Valerie_Mack



John Clinton Doe or JCD is the name given to an unidentified teen found by hunters on November 26, 1995 in a remote wooded area along Turtle Creek in Bradford Township, Rock County, near Clinton, Wisconsin.  The 97% decomposed skeleton was discovered fully clothed with very distinctive, age-appropriate clothing. He lay on his stomach, arms up over his head, with a plaid flannel jacket over his back and head. He had on a black Venom heavy metal concert T-shirt and city camo pants.  One black 1994 Nike Air Bound basketball shoe lay beside the remains.

During the initial autopsy in 1995 the skeleton was examined by a Forensic Anthropologist and determined to be a Caucasian male, 17-20 years old who stood approximately 5’6” tall and weighed approximately 140 pounds.  He had long, straight, collar-length brown hair.

It was estimated that the young male had been deceased for approximately one year, placing his time of death during the fall/winter of 1994.  The official cause and manner of death are undetermined.  Investigators theorize the teen passed out or went to sleep and was over-come by hypothermia.

Stable Isotope analysis conducted in 2014 on bone material revealed JCD had spent much of his growing up years in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, or Michigan, reinforcing beliefs he had been living in the area where he was found.

This is a case I followed and supported for a long time. While we don’t officially know his name, he is no longer is a Doe and I hope we hear more one day.


Donna Kay Griffin

Donna Kay Griffin, Bushkill Jane Doe, also known to use the alias last names of Shelby and Linton, was a woman found deceased in Pennsylvania in 1987.

On Friday, October 23, 1987, the body of an unidentified woman was found along Route 33 in Bushkill. A PennDOT crew, who had been working on the southbound lanes, were backing up their equipment collecting traffic cones when they saw the body. The area she was found in is roughly 2 1/2 miles south of the Wind Gap exchange and about 2 miles north of the Belfast exchange. Her body was found some 10 to 20 feet from the shoulder of the road. The woman was found face down, with one arm underneath her and the other flung to her side.

She is believed to have died due to a heart attack, yet her face contained multiple lacerations from an undisclosed cause. She had died within a day of being found.

Disturbances in the grass showed that she had been dragged to the spot where she was found. It is believed she may have been at the site as early as Wednesday night, October 21st, since her clothing and hair were wet and the last recorded rainfall had been on Wednesday. Also noted was a sunburn pattern on the women’s neck and right arm that would indicate that she regularly spent time in the passenger side of a vehicle, possibly someone who frequently rode with truckers. It’s possible that she had suffered a heart attack and was dragged to the road and dumped by a truck driver when she was discovered deceased.

She was never reported missing.

https://unidentified.wikia.org/wiki/Donna_Griffin


Elizabeth ‘Lisa’ Ann Roberts

Elizabeth ‘Lisa’ Ann Robertsknown as Precious Doe while unidentifiedwas a young woman found murdered in Everett, Washington.

Lisa was reported as a runaway by her father to the Rosenburg Police Department on July 25, 1977. A few weeks after she ran away, she called home from Everett, Washington and asked her parents for money. At the time, they asked her to come home and she said she would think about it. Eventually, they sent the money to a bank in Everett, but the money was never picked up. It is believed Lisa was murdered on August 9, 1977, and her body was discovered five days later.

Lisa was picked up after hitchhiking by a man who was later convicted of her murder. The pair spent the day together, but she was murdered after denying the man sex.

She was tested by the DNA Doe Project, but her DNA was too degraded to work with, due to boiling of her bones in the past.

Margaret Press of the DNA Doe Project has expressed that another agency might try to extract sufficient DNA from the Jane Doe’s hair later and that the DNA Doe Project is no longer involved in Snohomish Jane Doe’s case.

She was identified in June 2020 as Elizabeth ‘Lisa’ Roberts from Roseburg, Oregon. Her case was one of the first ones solved by extracting DNA from rootless hair and was solved using forensic genealogy.

Detective Scharf contacted her family and made the sad notification. He learned that she went by “Lisa.” Lisa’s sister, Tonya, who was only 10 years old when Lisa ran away said, “I looked up to Lisa as my big sister, who would spend time with me and play with me downstairs. We had a really good bond because we were both adopted.”

https://unidentified.wikia.org/wiki/Lisa_Roberts

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.