Lost Voices

On April 3rd, 1985, the remains of a young female were discovered in a garbage dumping area close to an abandoned mine shaft in Jellico, Tennessee.

Only 33 of the girl’s bones were found, as animals had scattered the remains down the slope of a hill. The girl was estimated to be between 9 and 15 years old at the time of her death and is thought to be a white female. Her cause of death is unknown, but it is believed she had been dead for between 1 and 4 years before she was discovered.

Whilst we may not know what she died of, the police do think her death was a homicide. They also believe that the person or persons responsible for disposing of her body were very familiar with the area, as the location in which Jane Doe was dumped would have been very difficult to come across by chance or luck without knowing the area.

Some recent testing performed on the remains has indicated that she was born and raised in either Florida or Texas for the first years of her life, before moving elsewhere in the country. She could have moved to either the Midwest, Rocky Mountains, Southwest or Pacific Coast states, but she was not in Tennessee for very long.

Close to her body investigators found a pair of size 5 hiking shoes with each shoe having two pairs of holes and two pairs of metal hasps and red-cloth lining inside. The left shoe had a shoe-string but the right shoe did not. There was also a necklace made of plastic buttons close to Jane Doe. It is unknown if these items belonged to the girl or not.

At the time of the article, Campbell County Jane Doe, or Baby Girl as she is known to investigators, has been unidentified for 37 years.

Do you know who she is?

Tags:

Unsolved, Unidentified, Homicide, True Crime, Jane Doe, Mystery, Campbell County Jane Doe, 1985, Jellico, Tennessee