Researchers join hunt for child's mislaid remains in St. Louis area

BERKELEY, Mo. -- Researchers from Washington University are helping search a cemetery near Lambert-St. Louis International Airport for the remains of a girl who was decapitated three decades ago but was never identified.

Investigators had hoped to extract DNA from the remains of the child, known as "Little Jane Doe" or "Hope," to determine her identity and track down her killer. The girl's remains are not in the grave site listed for her in Washington Park Cemetery, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

Scavengers found the decapitated body Feb. 28, 1983, in an abandoned home. Her arms were bound behind her and she was wearing only a yellow sweater. The medical examiner concluded she was African-American, from 8 to 11 years old and weighed about 60 pounds. The girl's head was never found. Police suspected she came from outside the St. Louis area because no one came forward to claim her, despite massive publicity.

Abby Stylianou, a research associate in Washington University's Media and Machines Lab who joined the search for the remains Thursday, said her mother grew up just a few blocks from where the body was discovered.

"At that time, they were terrified," Stylianou said of her family.

The students are working with homicide detectives to try to find the grave using news photographs of the burial.

Stylianou plans to make comparisons with aerial images from the U.S. Geological Survey of the more than 40,000 graves at the cemetery, and hopes to have results within weeks.

St. Louis homicide detective Dan Fox said he plans to take Stylianou's findings to city medical examiner, Dr. Michael Graham, to get approval to exhume the remains. Samples from the remains then would go to the University of North Texas, where researchers can extract DNA and use minerals in bones to try to deduce from drinking water the region where she lived.

"All of the investigators that have worked on this case through the years have always thought if we could identify her, we could find her killer," Fox said.

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Information from: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, http://www.stltoday.com