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Sunday, March 3, 1991
Section: NEWS
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UNSOLVED CHILD KILLING HAUNTS POLICE
By Bill Bryan Of the Post-Dispatch Staff
It's been eight years since one of the most baffling cases in the annals of the St. Louis Police Department began, and the mystery remains.
On that cold, crisp, clear day of Feb. 28, 1983, two men looking for a piece of metal to rig a broken drive train on their car made a grisly discovery. While rummaging through a vacant apartment house at 5635 Clemens Avenue in the Cabanne neighborhood, they found the body of a girl on the boiler room floor.
The body was clad only in a dirty yellow sweater with the hands bound behind the back with a red and white nylon rope. The head was missing.
An autopsy disclosed that the girl, who was black, was 8 to 11 years old and had been sexually assaulted. She had been killed elsewhere.
After eight years and countless hours of detective work, police still don't know the identity of the victim, much less who may have killed her.
''I don't suppose I'll ever forget that case,'' said Chief of Detectives Leroy J. Adkins, who was the commander of the homicide squad when the case began.
''It still bothers me,'' said Adkins. ''I guess I'm perplexed more than anything else because we've never identified her after all these years.
''Here you have a child, 8, 9, 10 years old and there's no relatives, parents, neighbors, schoolmates or friends who have reported her missing. Nobody has come forward to offer any information about her.
''What is most distressing is how a child that age can't belong to anybody.''
Adkins called the investigation ''one of most extensive, thorough, painstaking investigations in the history of the department.''
Homicide Sgt. Joe Burgoon has been the primary investigator in the case. He points to a file cabinet stuffed with information such as leads, lists, computer printouts of missing children and stacks of school rosters.
''We've even got information from psychics in there,'' he said.
In 1986, Burgoon sent a report to the FBI Academy in Quantico, Va., which runs a special program that analyzes unsolved killings throughout the country.
''The FBI could find nothing to compare to our case anywhere in the United States,'' Burgoon said. ''It's amazing.''
But Burgoon has not given up hope. ''Right now, I'm looking at an abduction case from Chicago,'' he said. ''A 7 1/2-year-old girl was reported abducted in January 1980, and she's never been found.''
Another homicide sergeant thinks that a man on death row in Missouri may be the killer of the girl, and the detective plans to question the man soon.
Dr. Mary Case, the medical examiner for St. Louis County and St. Charles County, remembers the ''Jane Doe'' case well because she was deputy chief medical examiner for St. Louis at the time.
''I remember there were more hours spent on that case than any other I can recall,'' she said.
''In this part of the country, for a child to be murdered like that and not identified is just so unbelievable.''
Adkins says, ''There are so many theories. The girl lived a secluded life. Her mother, or parents, were involved in the murder. The possibilities go on and on.
''She probably was from out of the state, though,'' he said. ''We checked school records around here very, very thoroughly.
''We conducted a nationwide search,'' Adkins said. ''We ran ads in every black newspaper and magazine in the country and corresponded with every state police agency.
''Still nothing. It's frustrating.''
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Friday, June 5, 1992
Section: NEWS
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SKULL MAY BE LINKED TO UNSOLVED MURDER
By Bill Bryan Of the Post-Dispatch Staff
The recovery of a human skull has authorities optimistic that they may have the first solid clue in one of St. Louis' most baffling unsolved murders - the decapitation of an unknown girl nine years ago.
''Obviously, we're very interested in this skull,'' said Dr. Mary Case, the St. Louis County Medical Examiner. Her office has custody of the skull, which was obtained by a Charlack police lieutenant on May 14 from a man he had stopped to question on St. Charles Rock Road, near the Interstate I-170.
''The skull is definitely that of a child, but at this time we don't know the sex or race,'' Case said. ''DNA testing will be able to tell us if the skull belongs to the body of the murder victim.''
If the skull and body are matched, Homicide Sgt. Joe Burgoon said police will ''backtrack the origin of the skull and hopefully get her identified.''
He said discoveries of human skulls - particularly those of children - are rare and have piqued police curiosity.
Burgoon has been the primary investigator on the ''Jane Doe'' case for the last several years.
''It's too early to get too excited, but I'm encouraged,'' he said. ''It's the best lead we've got thus far.''
The DNA tests could take several weeks to complete, Case said.
Meanwhile, authorities plan to have archaeologists examine the skull to determine its age. The owner of the skull says it is 1,100 years old.
The skull came to light May 14, when Charlack Lt. Tony Umbertino saw a man in a storage rental shed on St. Charles Rock Road and questioned him to see if he belonged there.
The man was later identified as Danny L. Davis, 33, of Pagedale.
''As I was talking to him, I noticed a couple of animal skulls in the shed,'' Umbertino said. ''One was a rat's skull with a German Army helmet on it.
''I asked him about the skulls, and he told me he was a 'skull freak' and had a human skull as well,'' Umbertino said. ''He had it right there inside a Tide Bleach box. It was wrapped with electrical tape.''
Umbertino confiscated the skull and turned it over to Case's office.
In an interview, Davis said he bought the skull for $35 in 1977 or 1978 at a souvenir-gift shop on Lindbergh Boulevard near Northwest Plaza shopping center. The shop has since gone out of business, he said.
''I collect skulls,'' Davis said. ''I have skulls of cows, birds and deer, but this was the only real human one I had.''
Davis said a tag that came with the skull claimed it to be authentic and 1,100 years old. ''The skull was that of a Navajo Indian woman, 22 years old, from New Mexico,'' Davis said.
''She had been killed by a blow from a tomahawk at the base of the skull.''
Davis said that shortly after buying the skull, he took it to a museum. ''They told me it was a little over 1,000 years old, and they wanted me to donate it to them,'' he said.
''But I wasn't about to give it to them. This was my pride and joy. It was the only real one I had. A lot of folks think I'm weird, but I'm fascinated with the way bones are put together,'' Davis said.
Police plan to question Davis again if the skull is matched to the body.
The murder victim's body was discovered Feb. 28, 1983, by two men who were rummaging around in the basement of a vacant apartment building at 5635 Clemens Avenue.
Despite thousands of hours of investigation, police could never identify the body, let alone solve the murder.
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