Description:
On April 27, 2002, the body of a young woman was discovered behind a business on East University Drive in Tempe, Arizona. She is believed to have been between 15 and 19 years old and possibly of Hispanic, Latino or Native American descent. The young woman was approximately 5’1” and weighed 125 lbs. She had long, straight, dark hair and brown eyes. Scars were visible on her left hand and left shoulder.
She was wearing blue jeans with a side zipper and eyelets near the waistband, a red tank top and black wedge heels, size 6.5. She had purple fingernail polish and a purple bracelet and hair tie on her right wrist.
The young woman may have been hitchhiking in the area of 32nd Street and Greenway Road in Phoenix the previous day. According to the driver, she spoke Spanish and may have recently been asked to leave her home due to drug use. She died as a result of a cocaine overdose.
Teenager found in Tempe in 2002 still unidentified
DNA Doe Project needs public to upload DNA
Tempe, AZ – The DNA Doe Project, a national non-profit that uses investigative genetic genealogy to identify Jane and John Doe unidentified remains, is seeking the public’s help with a 2002 Tempe case.
On April 27, 2002, the body of a young woman was discovered behind a business on East University Drive in Tempe, Arizona. Authorities believe she was between 15 and 19 years old and of Hispanic/Latino descent. The teen was approximately 5’1” and weighed 125 lbs. She had long, straight, dark hair and brown eyes, and had scars on her left hand and left shoulder. She died of a cocaine overdose.
The case received support from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), who produced a facial reconstruction.
The Maricopa County Medical Examiner’s office brought the case to the DNA Doe Project in 2022 to try new techniques to identify her. A DNA profile was developed from her remains and uploaded to databases that can be used by law enforcement to identify unknown subjects. Right away, it was clear this case would be difficult to solve.
“Our work relies on finding matching relatives in the databases and building family trees to identify common ancestors between our Jane Doe and her matches,” said team leader Harmony Vollmer. “When there are too few or they are too distantly related, we can’t make our way to the right branch of the tree to identify her.”
Latino and Hispanic communities are largely underrepresented in the databases that can be used for investigative genetic genealogy: GEDmatch.com, FamilyTreeDNA.com, and DNAJustice.org. While direct-to-consumer DNA tests are a $90 million business in the region, few of those taking the tests are uploading to these databases. Meanwhile, nearly a third of the unidentified remains cases in NamUS, the government database, are thought to be Hispanic/Latino.
“Tempe Girl’s case has been extremely challenging due to her low matches, which indicate she may have been from a rural Mexican, Peruvian or Central American community,” said Vollmer. “In order to make progress on her case, we are searching for people from these populations who may be willing to upload their DNA results to the databases.”
Guidance and instructions for uploading a DNA profile to the databases at GEDmatch.com, FamilyTreeDNA.com and DNAJustice.org can be found on their websites, and additional information about this case and how to connect to DNA Doe Project researchers is available at dnadoeproject.org.
NamUs ID:UP1987
Date Body Found: April 27, 2002
Race: Hispanic/Latino/Native American
Gender: Female
Estimated Age: 15-19
Estimated PMI: months
Agency of Jurisdiction:
Maricopa County Medical Examiner’s Office
Christen Eggers
602-506-3322
christen.eggers@maricopa.gov
Links to More Information:
https://www.namus.gov/UnidentifiedPersons/Case#/1987?nav
https://www.missingkids.org/poster/ncmu/1111241
https://doenetwork.org/cases/501ufaz.html
Status: Research in Progress
Image Credit: NCMEC
Doe-Nate Fund Goal: $2,100
This case was fully funded by our generous donors!
Last Updated: December 2, 2024
