The scavenger digging through the Dumpsters in Washington, D.C., at first thought the legs sticking out from the garbage bin belonged to a mannequin.
Instead they belonged to a young woman who 18 years later has yet to be identified and whose killer or killers remain on the loose.
Known as Jane Doe, the woman is the only female victim of the Washington, D.C.?s more than 4,000 cold cases who has yet to be identified, D.C. police said.
The way in which she was killed and discarded speaks to the brutality of the crime and the inhumanity of her killers, said Detective Jim Trainum, of the Violent Crime Case Review Project.
“It?s so symbolic of the way the suspect or suspects thought of the person,” Trainum said, “that she was so disposable that she was a piece of garbage.”
Jane Doe was found in a trash bin on the 5100 block of Sargent Road Northeast in August 1990, during one of the most violent years in the city?s history.
Police said she was beaten and stabbed around the head and face before she was thrown into the trash bin.
Had the scavenger not found the woman in the Dumpster, she would have likely ended up in a landfill, never to have been seen again, police said.
The killing may have taken place in another location, and then the body was moved to the Dumpster, police said.
Investigators canvassed the area but nobody was found to have heard or seen anything, nor did they recognize the woman?s photograph.
Her fingerprints were examined, but an identification match was not found in the D.C. or FBI?s database system.
She was clad in torn denim jeans over shorts, and a black T-shirt with flowers that said, “Voo Doo Beach Body Glove.”
The woman was 5 feet 2 and 108 pounds, with cropped hair. She was black with a light to medium complexion. Her DNA has been sent to the FBI?s national database to check for a match.
Anyone with information may contact police at the new tip line at 888-919-2776 or through a text messaging number: 50-411.
