El Cajon police are using new technology to investigate a quarter-century-old unsolved murder.
For investigators, this is at the very least a potential lead, and at best a breakthrough in a case that has been going on for 26 years.
Retired officers Fran Deck and Kevin Trotter have returned to the El Cajon Police Department as volunteer cold case investigators.
“Someone might recognize her, that’s why we’re here,” Deck said.
“If you don’t know who the victim is, you don’t know who wants to kill the victim,” Trotter said.
Retirement did not diminish their skills or curiosity.
“Even after I retired, when I saw all those unsolved cases, it just stuck with me,” Deck said.
One such case is that of a woman who was found in August 1998 with a shattered skull and no identification.
“We don’t know her name so we’re calling her Jane Doe,” Trotter said.
A neighbor discovered Jane Doe’s skeletal remains in a field on Avocado Avenue, just south of Chase Avenue.
Investigators estimate she was killed there and had been dead for two to three weeks. She was wearing many layers of clothing. She appeared to have been homeless and living in an encampment.
Clues were few and far between. The T-shirt she was wearing looked promising. It read, “Woodruff Warriors 20th Year Alumni Association 1971-1991.”
“We found three people in that class in the San Diego area, but no one was willing to help us,” Trotter said.
In 2004, police used clay to reconstruct the face, which led an artist to create a paper version.
Police say Jane Doe was in her 30s and had been pregnant at one point, so it’s only speculation as to why she was killed.
“The altercation does not suggest she was the victim of a sexual assault. There is no evidence to support that,” Trotter said.
Because standard investigative techniques were ineffective, Deck and Trotter sent Jane Doe’s DNA to Parabon, a company that uses a technique called phenotyping, which allows technicians to determine what a person looks like using only their DNA.
“It’s basically based on their best interpretation of the data they have,” Trotter said.
The process, called “Snapshot,” can predict face shape, hair color, skin tone, and even freckles. Parabon created a composite portrait of 25-year-old Jane Doe.
“She’s someone’s daughter and mother,” Deck said.
Parabon also used public databases of DNA information that are often used to locate missing family members.
The cold case volunteers have one name: Vivian. Using family DNA, they tracked down Vivian. She is between 2nd and 4th cousins of the victim. They went to her home. They contacted her by phone, but so far Vivian has not responded to their questions. She lives in Chula Vista.
“We have to go and meet with that person, talk to the parents, talk to the family and work together to try to determine where that person went missing from,” Trotter said.
Just how good is this new technology? Investigators won’t know for sure until someone is able to recognize a face.
“Her family would know. Some of her relatives might miss her,” Trotter said.
For now, Jane Doe’s body lies buried in a grave marked only with a number. The mystery of her life and murder is buried with her, for now.
Investigators say the technology could be extremely useful in solving cold cases, with the El Cajon unit currently investigating 10 of them.
