Sculpture Leads to Breakthrough in 50-Year-Old Cold Case, DNA Not Enough

0:00 Welcome to No Tears for Black Girls, a true crime series created, written and produced by award-winning writer Jon Reedberg and hosted by Samantha Paul. The young woman lay still, her lifeless eyes staring skyward, oblivious now to the well tailored dress and polished fingernails she wore. Farmhands discovered her bullet ridden body in 1973, discarded in a tranquil Loudoun County pasture South of Purcellville, VA. No identification. No clues to her name. Investigators ran into wall after wall. No reports of a missing black woman in her late 20s or early 30s. No witnesses were coming forward. No DNA profiling or national fingerprint database to query. In those days.

0:49 The FBI analyzed evidence but uncovered no leads. Frustration mounted as trails went cold and the case gathered dust for decades. 50 years later, Loudown's Cold Case unit dusted off the files, hoping modern forensic technology could crack the mystery. But even cutting edge genealogical searches of the woman's remains yielded no quick answers. In a final Hail Mary, detectives turned to their last hope, Joe Mullins. A forensic artist and adjunct professor at George Mason University, Mullins studied the victim's DNA data, skull measurements and photos. His skilled hands shaped clay into a lifelike 3D sculpture of how she likely appeared in 1973.

1:38 A long shot, but if this eerily realistic bust jogged someone's memory, they might finally put a name to this Jane Doe. Mullins declared with confidence. I'm the last hope. That's how I approach these cases. His dedication was palpable, a driving force fueled by a mission to unfreeze families from their uncertainty. It's grueling, meticulous work, but Mullins has seen it pay off before. In 2015, a New York City relative recognized one of his sculptures and identified a victim long shrouded in anonymity. More than 2000 unidentified remains languish with medical examiner's nationwide.

2:20 Mullins aims to whittle down that number one sculpture at a time. Loudown County has transformed since 1973, but the unincorporated area of Lincoln in the county's northern reaches is still largely undeveloped countryside. An embankment near the intersection of Taylor and Foundry roads was the scene of a grim discovery on May 28th, 1973. The bullet riddled body of a young woman discarded there for up to three days, according to the medical examiner. Loudown Cold case detectives Mark Bush and Jorge Garcia cracked open the case file again last year after unearthing a single page 1976 FBI report. The report, a belated response to an earlier Loudown evidence analysis request, gave the detectives a fragile thread to start tugging.

3:13 They pieced together scattered documents to assemble a new case file on the unidentified woman. Locating Jane Doe's physical remains required dogged investigation, Garcia recalled. Grave markers in Mount Olivet Cemetery on Cooksville Road near the Lincoln crime scene had been relocated over the decades. Investigators recruited George Mason Professor Stephen Burmeister and his ground penetrating radar to scan the cemetery and pinpoint the body. Current Virginia law bars burying unidentified individuals. The woman's remains are in the custody of the state medical examiner while Loudown County negotiates with the state to secure her a dignified burial and detectives work to attach a name to the bones. We're doing everything we can to determine who she is and lay her to rest properly.

4:05 A firm Sheriff's Office spokesman Chad Quinn forensic genealogy firm Othrum, credited with breakthroughs in cold cases nationwide, including a nearby Fairfax County, analyzed adna sample extracted from the skeleton. Comparing the genetic code against a database of over 4 million profiles yielded links only to distant ancestors of the victim generations Removed. Founder and CEO David Middleman acknowledged the tricky genealogical puzzle this case presents, but expressed faith that combing through family trees would eventually lead to a branch bearing the victim's name. Autram's analysis suggested ties between the mystery woman and possible relatives in Georgia, Louisiana, Michigan or Mississippi with surnames like Booker, Shepherd or Loving. Looking to generate more leads, Garcia turned to Joe Mullins, a top forensic imaging specialist at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

5:07 Mullins applies his skills crafting age progressed renderings of long lost children to reconstructing the Loudown Jane Doe's likeness. A proud Loudown County native and alum of the local high school, Mullins blends his Fine Arts training with cutting edge techniques gleaned at NC Mech. His expertise inspired him to develop forensic sculpture classes at George Mason, enabling students to translate classroom learning into real world cold case contributions. Solving a mystery in his home county only deepens his motivation. Mullins poured over a 3D skull scan and DNA phenotype data indicating eye color, hair color and stature. Forensic anthropologists estimate the woman stood about 5-7, weighed around 145 lbs.

5:57 She wore an orange blouse, orange knit slacks and a Plaid jacket. Manicured nails painted purple and red, and an 18 karat gold ring with a square blue Swarovski stone on her right hand hinted at a life cut short. Garcia divulged that the timing of Memorial Day sparked a theory. Perhaps the woman's festive attire meant she attended a holiday weekend gathering that Saturday. An acquaintance from the party or a stranger encountered afterward may have snuffed out her life for two weeks. Mullins hunched over the clay bust, aware of his students intent gaze.

6:37 He recognizes the moment a sculpture's eyes reflect a glimmer of the person's soul meeting his own gaze. The completed bust depicts a woman in her prime, a medium length Afro framing a face with eyes fixed in the distance. Over the years these cases have not only consumed detectives, but they had to identify the nameless victims, had to ensure they weren't forgotten in death as they may have been in life. The cold case team felt the same. Burning Dr. Naming the Jane Doe was a crucial step, but only the first. They delved back into the files and evidence, scouring for any missed clues or connections, clinging to the conviction that they would crack this decades old murder. Somewhere in the tangle of faded memories and dusty reports, the truth lay hidden, defying all who sought to unearth it. But Mullins and the detectives would keep digging, keep hoping with relentless determination, no matter how long it took. They would drag the truth into the searing light of day and deliver justice at last for her, for all the lost souls whose names had been stolen by violence and time. They wouldn't let the truth stay buried forever. She's no longer an abstract.

7:58 She looks like she's about to speak. Blood stained scraps of fabric from the 1973 murder investigation were used to recreate the vivid outfit she was wearing the day her body was discovered by farm workers near Foundry Road and Taylor Rd. in Lincoln, VA, not far from Percival. The victim, a Black woman in her mid 20s, was found shot to death on an embankment created during the Civil War for a railroad that was never built. She'd been there for about two days. Her shoes were missing, but she was wearing this bluestone ring. News 4 was there as Loudon County Sheriff Mike Chapman and detectives investigating the cold case saw the sculpture for the first time at the George Mason University classroom of forensic artist Professor Joe Mullins.

8:41 Just the first time, but I've done work on a case that's from my backyard because I grew up at Loudon County. The detectives described a case that began with the 2021 discovery of a single document worn thin, with years, lucky breaks and people with long memories. He's helped them locate an unmarked grave at the Mount Olive Cemetery in Lincoln. In October of 2023. They exhumed the victim. DNA extracted from her remains has been tested, but no matches so far. More tests are underway. So the hopes come down to letting Professor Mullins bring her to three dimensions in the hopes someone, somewhere remembers the face of a young woman who just disappeared in 1973. But. This one really struck a chord with me, so I couldn't, couldn't wait to get started and build that face up. And the students here have become emotionally invested as well, because they've seen her from bare skull to finished. Portraits.

9:38 Mullins describes the process as intense and personal. I was asked, you know, how do you know when you stop? And I said I stop when I see somebody staring back at me. Thank you for tuning in to No Tears for Black Girls, now a part of the Alive Podcast Network, the first Black female owned and operated network dedicated to amplifying Black voices. If you enjoyed this episode, please show your support by following us on the Alive Podcast app, available on both iPhone and Android. You can also stay connected with us on social media and YouTube at No Tears for Black Girls or on X at No Tears for BG Remember to stay loved, stay blessed, and stay safe.

10:19 Until next time.