The Misery Machine - The Arroyo Grande Jane Doe Has Been Solved

Starting point is 00:00:00 At approximately 9.20 p.m. on October 5, 1980, the nude body of a Caucasian young woman thought to be between the ages of 13 and 25 years old, was found dumped on the side of the road. Her tiny body bore signs of blunt force drama, including multiple wounds to her face and the back of her head, and seven stab wounds to the upper left area of her back. One of her lower teeth had been knocked out in the attack. Her body was found face down just south of State Route 146, near the Arroyo Grande Wash in Henderson, Nevada. The young woman's remains were discovered by two brothers who were driving on a dirt road, one of whom was an off-duty police officer. Her cause of death was identified as homicidal violence inflicted by an unknown two-pronged instrument, with prongs around three inches long that were used to stab the young victim.

Starting point is 00:00:52 Some reports speculate that the murder weapon was a claw hammer. But such instrument has never been recovered. Despite being dumped on ceremoniously on the side of the road, her body appeared to have been washed, and a piece of yellow and orange shower curtain was located near her remains. She had only been dead for a few hours prior to the discovery of her body. She had beautiful red hair that stopped about her shoulders, green or hazel eyes, although some reports state they could have been blue,

Starting point is 00:01:20 and she stood at a petite five feet, two inches tall, and weighed less than 110 pounds. She still had her impacted wisdom teeth, dental fillings, and there was a possibility that she had fractured her jaw in the past. She had also undergone an unusual suture procedure to straighten out one of her teeth, which led investigators to believe she came from a well-to-do family, as this procedure was rarely done in the 1980s. It was also speculated that the violent attack to her face had also caused a notable gap in her teeth. She had a small, crudely drawn tattoo of the letter S on the inside of her right forearm, which appeared to be somewhat new.

Starting point is 00:01:59 Like many young folks of her time, she had a vaccination scar on her left bicep. Her ears were pierced and her nails were trimmed with a silver-colored nail polish. Investigators made extensive efforts to try to identify the body of the young woman. The victim's fingerprints were taken and her dental characteristics were recorded and sent to the FBI, the California Department of Justice, and the Las Vegas Metro Police Department. but could not be matched to anyone. Eventually, the victim's DNA profile was developed by the University of North Texas and was entered into their national database, which failed to turn up her identity. Several television shows broadcast information about the case in hopes of generating leads,

Starting point is 00:02:39 none of which led to her identification or the apprehension of her killer or killers. Forensic facial reconstructions were created to provide a likeness of the Jane Doe, now commonly known as the Arroyo Grande Jane Doe, which were hoped to enable recognition by those who might have known her. The Arroyo Grande Jane Doe was buried in Palm Mortuary Cemetery shortly after the investigation began, and John Williams, the police officer who discovered her body, helped to pay for her funeral. He and his wife regularly visit her gravesite to lay flowers. Williams continued to remain invested in the case well after retirement.

Starting point is 00:03:17 It's Cighton. He wants up. Yeah, I saw him saunter in. So now Kighton gets to record with us for the rest of the episode. Her grave has been exhumed several times over the years, to include 2002, 2003, 2009, and 2016. In 2003, her body was exhumed after authorities followed clues to a missing girl from California and a runaway girl from Reno Nevada, both of whom were ruled out by DNA analysis. In total, 20 missing people were excluded as,

Starting point is 00:03:48 potential identities for the victim. Her case eventually went cold and was closed, though the investigation never really stopped completely. The Royal Grande Jain Doe's murder was the catalyst that pushed the Clark County Police Department to create a cold case unit. Additionally, this case was one of the first time a coroner's office posted post-mortem photos of a victim on the internet in hopes of getting an identification. In order for the case to reach more eyes, investigators also put up a billboard and passed out posters at various missing persons events throughout Nevada. In June of 2015, her case was officially reopened by investigators. On October 5, 2015, on the 35th anniversary of her discovery,

Starting point is 00:04:31 the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children released two new forensic facial reconstructions of the victim, one of which was a frontal view of her face, and the other was a profile. Additionally, the reopening of her case led to her December 2016 exhumation, in hopes of conducting isotope and additional DNA testing. Unfortunately, when investigators opened her casket, they found it filled with water, which had caused bacterial degradation. Despite this, they were able to get enough DNA for the FBI to process. On December 2nd, 2021, the Henderson Police Department announced

Starting point is 00:05:05 that the remains of the Arroyal Grande Jane Doe had been identified as those belonging to Tammy Corin Terrell of Roswell, New Mexico, who was murdered two months after her 17th birthday. Her DNA matched samples from two of her sisters using investigative genetic genealogy. Now normally at this point, we would be taking the time to talk about Tammy, who she was as a person and her life up until her murder.

Starting point is 00:05:33 However, there is nothing I can find about Tammy. The family haven't released anything yet, and unfortunately when you search her name, you come up with the Motown singer, the similar name, just different spelling. They're not the same person, I assure you. I hope that in the next few months, Tammy's family can come forward, share more about her and talk about who she was as a person if they choose to. She's very beautiful, though. It's very sad, especially being so young.

Starting point is 00:06:05 Yeah. A special shout out to Carl Koppelman. You may remember us mentioning him. he was the sketch artist and the creator of who was Walker County Jane Doe, the Facebook page. He worked really hard to raise awareness for the Walker County Jane Doe. And he's also worked on the Arroyo Grande Jane Doe as well. He's also her sketch artist. And looking at pictures of her compared to the sketch, to get two of these so accurate, I mean, that's incredible.

Starting point is 00:06:34 And the fact that we've had two solved this year is incredible. Yeah, I mean, just in the last few months. There was four of these Jane Does that were kind of grouped together. There was the Caledonia Jane Doe, the Oro Grande Jain Doe, the Walker County Jane Doe, and the Bucskin Girl. And up until 2021, the Walker County Jane Doe and the Ruea Grande Jain Doe were unsolved. But both of them have now been solved not just this year, but in the past month or two. Yeah, just the last couple of months. So I never thought something like this was going to happen.

Starting point is 00:07:12 And while I don't think her murder is ever going to be solved, at least some answers can be brought to the family now. Absolutely. And I really hope that in the future, through DNA analysis and these wonderful sketches that folks like Carl Koppelman are putting out there, that more unidentified folks are going to get identified in the future. Yeah, well, I don't expect all of our John and Jane Does to all get their ideas. I really hope that in the next few years, the list of unidentified people shrinks drastically. If you appreciate this episode, you want to ensure that we keep these breaking news updates coming to you. Please hit like and subscribe, share this video. This is the best way to support and help grow our channel. Releasing things like this is very time-consuming, and we want to make sure we can keep doing this for you.

Starting point is 00:08:01 Also, another special shout out to Kristen from Murder, She Told, because if it wasn't for her posting, I would not have found out about that. And this was excellent news to hear. So thank you, Kristen. Thank you, Kristen. But until Monday, we love you. We love you. Bye.

The Misery Machine - The Arroyo Grande Jane Doe Has Been Solved

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