Do You Know The New Castle County Jane Doe?

A woman’s remains were found in a drainage ditch near Townsend on June 27, 1977. She was nude and investigators don't know if she was killed near that Old Union Church Road ditch or just left there. She may have been dead for months before her remains were discovered. Investigators believed she had children, was missing 13 teeth, had cracked cartilage in her throat and that her hair had once been dyed dark brown and bleached. Investigators believed she had a "pointed nose." 

A report from the June 28, 1977, Evening Journal said a passing motorist found her. A Morning News article published Aug. 18, 1977, said she was found by someone on foot.

There was little left to identify her by. She's considered a homicide victim. Police won't say in what way she was killed.

A 1998 reconstruction of the face that the state medical examiner's office believed belonged to the woman whose remains were found in a Townsend ditch in 1977.

Cold case detectives had Bode Cellmark Forensics in Virginia extract DNA from the remains in late 2016. The DNA samples then were sent to Parabon Nano Labs, a company in Virginia which specializes in predicting physical appearance from DNA.

Their services also put the county police's Jane Doe into a national database which collects DNA voluntarily from people with missing family members for possible matches.

The woman was blonde and her eyes were a light blue, both features a credit of north European ancestry.

Recreating her face from DNA required at least two assumptions the woman's remains did not provide. She was given a body mass index of 22, an average healthy score, and she was aged to 48 years, both features which cannot be gleaned from DNA.

The detectives said learning her identity is the first step to solving her murder.

Anyone who believes they can identify this Jane Doe can contact detectives at 302-395-2781 or 302-395-8216. More information can be found on the county's website.

Contact Adam Duvernay at (302) 319-1855 or aduvernay@delawareonline.com