It has been 43 years since an unidentified little girl was found decapitated in the basement of an abandoned building in St. Louis, and investigators still don't know her name. The FBI and the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department are renewing their public appeal in the case of “Little Jane Doe,” asking anyone with information to come forward.
Her remains were discovered on February 28, 1983, in the basement of a vacant apartment building, according to ksdk.com. The location is listed by St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department as the 5600 block of Clemens Avenue, where the girl was found beheaded inside the abandoned structure along with several items. The case was amplified again this week when FBI Kansas City reshared a message from FBI St. Louis on X, asking the public to help bring justice to the girl more than four decades after her death.
A Body Without a Name, and a Head That Was Never Found
Investigators had little to go on at the time. The victim was described as an unidentified Black girl, estimated to weigh 60 to 70 pounds and stand approximately 4 feet 10 inches tall without her head, according to the station's reporting. The station's report cited forensic experts who estimated she was between 8 and 12 years old.
Her arms had been bound behind her back with red and white nylon rope, and she was dressed only in a long-sleeve yellow sweater, per the same account. Detectives believed she had been strangled somewhere else, with her head removed afterward using a serrated blade before her body was left in the basement. Police searched a 16-block radius for her head but never found it.
Exhumation and Conflicting Forensic Leads
In June 2013, St. Louis police exhumed Little Jane Doe's remains for additional forensic testing, the station reported. The results of that testing have been described differently across accounts: one report stated that minerals in her bones pointed to six central U.S. states, including Missouri, Illinois or Indiana, while another said isotope testing suggested she may have lived in one of 10 southeastern states. Investigators have also tested her DNA against multiple databases without a match. “Nothing has ever clicked in this case,” the outlet reported investigators saying.
The St. Louis City Cold Case Unit, formed in 2019, keeps a room devoted entirely to her case. Little Jane Doe's file has remained open. Lieutenant Scott Aubuchon said investigators had not received a worthwhile tip in the case for 10 to 15 years.
A Reddit Post Reopens the Search
That changed somewhat in 2023, when a social media post from a user known as “finding-jeanetta” caught the attention of St. Louis homicide detectives. The author wrote that their older sister was last remembered alive in Terre Haute, Indiana, on February 14, 1983 — just two weeks before Little Jane Doe's remains were discovered in St. Louis. Police Sergeant Charles Wall said at the time that the post contained a fair amount of information that could potentially fit with what investigators already knew.
It remains unclear whether that lead was ever confirmed to connect to the case. No arrest, suspect, identification, or resolution has been announced. As fox2now.com summarized the case's status: “An unidentified victim, no murder weapon, no suspect, and—unfortunately—no arrest.”
How to Submit a Tip
The renewed appeal from the FBI and SLMPD this week asks anyone with information to come forward. According to the FBI Kansas City
post, tips can be submitted by phone at 1-844-458-6622 or by email at [email protected]. The
Missouri Attorney General
's cold-case division lists that same toll-free number as a public automated tipline tied to the same email address. More than four decades after she was found, Little Jane Doe still has no name, and investigators say any new information could finally change that.
