Someone's Daughter: In Search of Justice for Jane Doe

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Taylor Trade Pub., 2009 - Social Science - 267 pages
In 1954, two college students were hiking along a creek outside of Boulder, Colorado, when they stumbled upon the body of a murdered young woman. Who was this woman? What had happened to her? The initial investigation turned up nothing, and the girl was buried in a local cemetery with a gravestone that read, "Jane Doe, April 1954, Age About 20 Years." Decades later, historian Silvia Pettem formed a partnership with law enforcement and forensic experts and set in motion the events that led to Jane Doe's exhumation and eventual identification, as well as the identity of her probable killer. The 2023 paperback edition includes an epilogue with updated information on how the mystery finally was solved.

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About the author (2009)

Silvia Pettem is a Colorado-based historical researcher, writer, and author. After local history research led her to the identification of a decades-old murder victim, Pettem switched from writing about history to the genre of true crime. Her latest book, In Search of the Blonde Tigress: The Untold Story of Eleanor Jarman (Lyons Press, 2023), combines biography and prison reform in the 1930s with modern-day evidence that has helped to unravel a long-standing mystery. Pettem's other books that relate to cold case investigations include Cold Case Research: Resources for Unidentified, Missing, and Cold Homicide Cases (2013); The Long Term Missing: Hope and Help for Families (2017); and Cold Case Chronicles: Mysteries, Murders, and the Missing (2021). Pettem lives with her husband and two cats in the mountains west of Boulder, where she continues her research and writing. She can be reached through her website, silviapettem.com.

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