Decapitated Girl Remains Unidentified Weeks After Slaying
June 14, 2001 -- Despite all their investigative technology and pleas on national television, Kansas City and FBI authorities still do not know who "Precious Doe" is.
It's been nearly two months since the little girl's severed head and naked body were found in a wooded area in Kansas City, Mo.
The case has been featured on America's Most Wanted twice, and still no one has claimed the little girl's body. No one seems to miss the child: no parents have come forward, no teachers or neighbors have successfully identified her computer-generated picture.
A positive ID remains the key to the case. So far, without a name, all DNA testing and computer-generated sketches have been rendered moot. Investigators cannot make progress in searching for Precious Doe's killer.
"Without a name, I really have no place to begin," said Sgt. David Bernard, the lead homicide detective in the case. "Without an ID, we can't talk to parents, relatives and teachers who can give us a background on the child and tell us who their friends, associates were."
A Community Mobilizes
The girl was dubbed "Precious Doe" by Move UP, a community outreach group that has helped Kansas City police with the investigation and did not want her generically identified as Jane Doe.
The girl's horrific slaying has moved the Kansas City community, bringing both white and African-American residents together to pass out more than 40,000 fliers to help identify the little victim and find her killer.
"This was such a horrendous case that we volunteered our services," said Jim Nunn, executive director of Move UP and a retired 27-year veteran homicide investigator. "The case is so unusual — that child is murdered and no one can identify her. Usually a parent, a teacher, a neighbor — someone — would miss her and come forward. And especially since this involves a child, people here are determined to find the killer."
Police came upon her beheaded body on April 28 while searching for a missing elderly man, who was later found. Three days later, the girl's head was found in a plastic bag.
From the remains, investigators from the National Center For Missing & Exploited Children produced a computer-generated photo of Precious Doe. She is described as a 3- or 4-year-old African-American girl who weighed 41 pounds at the time of her death. She has a small, crescent-shaped birthmark on her left shoulder. Her hair was done in braids and corn rows.
Can't Catch a Break
The photo has been distributed throughout the Kansas City area and has been shown nationwide on various newscasts. The FBI is investigating leads outside Kansas City and taking blood samples from relatives of 27 missing girls who are about the same age as Precious Doe, hoping for a DNA match.
Last month, police thought they had a possible break in the case when they received several tips that Precious Doe resembled a missing girl from Tacoma, Wash., but DNA evidence ruled out that potential match.
Dental records could help police, but Bernard said a name is still the key.
"If someone would call in and say, 'Hey, that's Jane Allen' or something like that, maybe we could check dental records," Bernard said. "But with the girl being 3 or 4 years old, maybe her parents never took her to the dentist."
Bernard said he and investigators have various theories — admittedly unfounded — to explain why Precious Doe has not been identified: her parents may have been involved in her death; she and her family may be from another state, or the parents themselves may be deceased. Noting that the girl's remains were found in a very remote area, he said it was possible that her killer either lives in the area and knew it very well; used to live in the area but moved out of state and returned to dump the body, or lived near the area and has since left.
Discouraged but Not Disheartened
Kansas City police have offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to Precious Doe's identity and her killer. Move UP has offered another $15,000.
The lack of progress, Bernard said has left him "possibly a little discouraged but not disheartened." He and the Jackson County medical examiner's office have asked Philadelphia-based sculptor Frank Bender to examine Precious Doe's skull and build a bust to provide a more vivid depiction of the girl.
Bender, Bernard said, thought the computer-generated image was mostly accurate but told investigators he believed they initially overestimated the girl's age. (At first, investigators believed she was between the ages of 4 and 6. After consulting Bender, Bernard said they lowered it to 3 or 4.)
Bender, who has helped police nationwide identify bodies, expects to have the bust ready for Kansas City police — and the public — in a month. "This is far from being a cold case. There's still much that needs to be done in this case," Bernard said. "If we can keep getting the media attention we're getting, hopefully there will be a break."
Others acknowledge that hope of identifying Precious Doe and finding her killer will dwindle as the months pass.
"If you ask people individually, they'll say they still have some hope that there will be a break," said Jim Nunn. "But with no one coming forward locally, with the amount of local press this case has received, and no one coming forward nationally after the case was on America's Most Wanted twice, I become less optimistic. I think maybe we just need to reach the right people … maybe we can get The National Enquirer to do a story."
"Because it's a child, there is a sympathy factor that just brings out an outrage that probably wouldn't exist if this was an adult," Nunn said. "And that's why people are determined to catch Precious' killer. This guy is dangerous … if he could do this to a child, who knows what he could do?"