WHEN AND WHY DID YOU BECOME INTERESTED IN JANE DOE 1954?

In 1996, I participated in a "Meet the Spirits" event in Boulder Colorado's Columbia Cemetery. About 30 volunteers dressed as people buried in the cemetery and gave first-person monologues. I portrayed a Victorian-era female professor, but someone else was "Jane Doe." It was the first time I saw her gravestone – "Jane Doe, April 1954, age about 20 years" – and I wanted to know more about her.

HOW DID AN INTERNET MESSAGE BOARD MAKE A CONNECTION BETWEEN JANE DOE AND THE SO-CALLED "LONELY HEARTS KILLER," HARVEY GLATMAN?

My initial interest in Jane Doe was to identify the victim and return her remains to her family. After the local Sheriff's Office reopened the case, I started a website, www.boulderjanedoe.com. A Denver-area resident wrote to the site's message board and asked if former Denver resident Harvey Glatman had been considered as the victim's murderer. Several years and much research later, law-enforcement officials agree that Glatman likely was the killer. He was executed in 1959 at San Quentin Prison in California.

COPS HAVE TENTATIVELY IDENTIFIED JANE DOE AS MISSING WOMAN, KATHARINE DYER. WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT HER?

Katharine  E. Farrand Dyer was an elevator operator, recently separated from her now-deceased husband. She was slender and pretty, and often dyed her light-brown hair. According to newspaper accounts (all that has survived), she was reported missing from Denver, CO 13 days before Jane Doe's body was found. According to her marriage affidavit, she was born October 14, 1926 in San Antonio TX, however no birth records for her have ever been found, and census records and city directories do not show anyone who could have been her family. She lived in Denver in 1948, in Flagstaff AZ in 1949 and 1950, and then back in Denver until she disappeared in 1954.

GLATMAN WAS ACCUSED OF TAKING PICTURES OF WOMEN AND PROMISING THEM THAT THEIR PHOTOS WOULD BE PUBLISHED IN MAGAZINES. BUT, WHEN COPS SEARCHED GLATMAN'S PHOTOS, NO PICTURES OF DYER WERE FOUND?

In 1958, Glatman was arrested for murdering 3 women in California. At the time of his trial, only the evidence pertaining to the California victims was of interest to police. Unfortunately, the photos of those victims are the only ones that appear to have survived.

WHEN JANE DOE'S BODY WAS EXHUMED IN 2004, IT WAS DISCOVERED THAT SHE MAY HAVE BEEN HIT BY A CAR. HER INJURIES REPORTEDLY MATCHED CLOSELY TO THE MODEL OF GLATMAN'S CAR?

Glatman drove a 1951 Dodge Coronet. When he was arrested in California, he was in the process of assaulting a woman who managed to escape from his car. One theory is that Jane Doe, too, escaped from Glatman's car, but then he ran her down, throwing her body down a 29-foot embankment next to Boulder Creek. If this likely scenario is true, Jane Doe may have been Glatman's first murder victim (although he had a long prior history of assaults against women).

WHAT IS THE NEXT STEP OF THE INVESTIGATION?

A photo of Katharine E. Farrand Dyer recently was superimposed over Jane Doe's skull. The facial features matched so well that Katharine could not be "excluded" as Jane Doe. These results, combined with circumstantial evidence, cause me to believe that she is Jane Doe. However, my fellow researchers and I are trying to find a family member so as to make a positive DNA comparison.  

IF VIEWERS HAVE INFORMATION ABOUT THESE CASES, WHO SHOULD BE CONTACTED? 

pettem@boulderjanedoe.com. (Also, see www.boulderjanedoe.com for more information.) 

    In 1954, a woman was found dead in Boulder, Colorado, and the victim’s identity continues to be a mystery all these years later. Authorities say the woman referred to as “Jane Doe 1954” may be Katharine E. Farrand Dyer, who was reported missing the same year.

    And now, in an incredible twist, reports say “Jane Doe 1954” may have been the first victim of the so-called “Lonely Hearts Killer,” Harvey Glatman. He received the death penalty after being found guilty of murdering three women.

    Crimejunkies spoke to Boulder writer and historian, Silvia Pettem, who created the website dedicated to the case, www.boulderjanedoe.com....

BOULDER JANE DOE

(Sculpted by forensic artist Frank Bender)

Courtesy: Silvia Pettem

Katharine E. Farrand Dyer

Courtesy: Silvia Pettem