Murder A Mystery, 2 Years Later

Police in northern California are seeking your help solving a two-year-old, double-edged murder mystery.

They don't know who killed a girl thought to have been between 12 and 17 years old, whose body was found in a bag by a detective. And they don't know who she was.

"If you had asked me May 1, 2003 if I knew who this person is, I would have said, 'No, but by tomorrow, we'll know who she is.' And here we are, over two years later, and we have no idea," says Sgt. Scott Dudek of the Alameda County Sheriff's Dept.

A police artist sketched her features, but because the body had decomposed, it was largely guesswork. Still, a drawing was released, in the hope someone would recognize her and come forward.

"At least point us in the right direction, give us a name, tell us who her mom and dad might be," Dudek says.

Still unidentified, the girl was buried as "Jane Doe."

Residents of Castro Valley adopted her, in death.

Dave Woolworth led the volunteer effort to pay for the tombstone and burial, and still visits the grave.

Why did he feel that he needed to do something?

"That's a question I still can't come to grips with," he sighed. "I don't know. This is the first Jane Doe I have ever heard of."

Police display the type of clothing she wore, again, hoping someone out there might recognize it.And they say it appeared she'd been well cared for: "We knew," says Dudek, "we had probably not a street kid or something like that. She had matching clothes and earrings on, she had painted toenails, painted fingernails."

In two years, Dudek has had just one major break in case.

It arrived in the mail: letters that came in over several months from someone claiming he witnessed the body being dropped off.

"I don't believe he's a suspect," Dudek tells Kauffman. "I believe he really was up there waiting for a female friend and saw this."

He describes that break as "huge. It's distinctive handwriting, that all came in the same yellow tablet."

But the letters abruptly stopped.

Detectives had another surge of hope when they saw a photo of people protesting murders in Juarez, Mexico, where many women have disappeared. One face seemed to match the Jane Doe sketch, but DNA testing showed it wasn't her.

"Every possible thing that can make this case even harder has happened," laments Dudek.

Desperate to identify the girl, police have turned to forensic sculptor Gloria Nusse, who says her goal is "to sculpt a face, to give her a face that is recognizable. …Someone knows the girl in Castro Valley; someone knows her; someone loves her. She has family, she has a mother, she has a father."

Along with the flowers and other trinkets left at the gravesite, someone left a necklace, an item that just might be a clue.

"We're asking anybody that may have knowledge in regard to this necklace to come forward and again, they can remain anonymous," Dudek stresses.

"This case has been on my mind…every single day for two years," he continues. …What makes it so frustrating for us is, we have a body. We have an unknown child. We have a kid that had a rag stuffed down her throat. That's how she died. And we can't reunite her with her parents."

Asked why the victim has touched him so, Woolworth said, "I don't know. But I'll always be here for her. I'll always bring flowers. We won't forget her."

Anyone with information should contact a 24-hour hotline at 510 667 7721.

The Carole Sund /Carrington Foundation is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the identity of Castro Valley's Jane Doe, and/or the identity of her killer.