http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2007/07/80_attend_memorial_service_for.html
by Ralph R. Ortega Sunday July 15, 2007, 5:19 PM
Eighty mourners showed up for a memorial service in Warren County today to remember Princess Doe, a still-unidentified teenage girl found dead and beaten beyond recognition 25 years ago today.
The brief service just after noon at the girl's grave inside the Cedar Ridge Cemetery in Blairstown, where the girl's body also was discovered, was attended by residents from the small town, joined by others from neighboring communities and police who have not let up on the case.
After exhuming the body in 1999, authorities have continued working to match her DNA with that of other missing girls, said Lt. Stephen Speirs of the Warren County Prosecutor's Office, who is investigating the murder, and attended the service.
Former Blairstown Police Lt. Eric Kranz, who originally worked on the case after the young girl's discovery inside the cemetery by maintenance workers, and who still assists the prosecutor's office, used today's service to "rededicate" himself to the cause of identifying Princess Doe.
Kranz had come up with the name, having referred to his own daughter as "princess," around the time of the murder discovery.
"It's an odd thing indeed to see how something like Princess Doe's murder can be a beacon of hope for all those families out there that don't know the fate of their kid," he said on the rocky grass hill where the girl's grave site is located. Kranz called for dedicating the site as a national memorial, "for all those missing and those that have never been identified post mortem."
Princess Doe, according to a Web site devoted to her by a former Blairstown resident, was described as 14- to 18-years-old, weighing 110 pounds, and standing 5 feet 2 inches tall. She had medium brown, shoulder-length hair. Her eye color is unknown. Both of her ears were pierced. The left one was pierced twice.
