http://www2.jsonline.com/news/racine/jul00/doer16071500a.asp
One year later, investigators still seek woman's killer
Body found in Raymond cornfield has some striking similarities to Illinois case
By Jennie Tunkieicz
of the Journal Sentinel staff
Last Updated: July 15, 2000
Investigators know her face.
It's the face they first saw when her body was found in a Town of Raymond cornfield. A close-up photograph of her, taken as her copse lay on the morgue table, has been computer-enhanced to give it life and perhaps lead to clues.
They know how she died.
She was tortured for two, possibly four weeks - burned, battered and starved.
Yet nearly one year later, they still don't know her name and who killed her.
Investigators say, however, that there are strong similarities between the Jane Doe here and the body of an unidentified woman found in Lake County, Ill., on Dec. 9, 1999.
Three men are in custody in the Lake County case in which the dead woman has still not been identified.
Jane Doe was found July 21, 1999. A Raymond resident out for a morning jaunt noticed the rumpled clothes piled just inside a cornfield. Sheriff's Department officials began to swarm the area about 6:15 a.m.
"It was hot," Investigator Eileen Reilly said, recalling the morning she and others were called out to the rural cornfield on 92nd St. between 6 and 7 Mile roads. "I remember thinking when we first pulled up that it was a guy."
The dead woman was dressed in a distinctive western-style men's shirt and men's sweat pants, and it wasn't until the body was examined that investigators knew the body was that of a female.
Reilly was among a group of investigators who crawled through grass and parts of the cornfield looking for clues. One investigator found poison ivy during the hunt.
And Reilly, like everyone else on the scene, hoped this crime would be wrapped up quickly. The case has not left her desk since that day.
Reilly was joined in the search in January by Investigator Dennis Basley.
The investigators have reviewed thousands of reports describing missing young women from across the country. There is a file containing the names, photographs, dental records and other details of 1,427 young women who match the physical description of Jane Doe - 13 to 23 years old, brown/hazel eyes, brown hair, 5 feet 8 inches, 120 pounds, protruding front teeth and both ears double pierced. None of the leads has been an exact match.
Investigators got a boost in May after taking their information to a regional meeting of FBI profilers in Michigan. Reilly and Basley were looking for advice on what they could do to expand their search.
The profilers advised them to play up the things that set the case apart from other missing people.
"She had been neglected," Reilly said of the young woman. "That information might spark people to think about that neighbor who had a daughter they haven't seen in a while."
Then there's the shirt - silver/gray in color, pearl snap-buttons and embroidered with red flowers.
"Someone might say, 'Hey, I know who had a shirt like that,' " Reilly said.
In May, investigators had a new computer-enhanced photograph of Jane Doe, with a newer hairstyle, done by the Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Basley used a photograph of Jane Doe in her shirt and erased her body and the blood stains from the photo, which is being widely distributed.
Investigators here also have great interest in the Lake County case involving three men arrested for the death of a woman whose body was found in the Green Belt Forest Preserve. The woman was white, in her mid-20s, 4 feet 9 inches and 93 pounds, was malnourished and had gaps in her teeth.
She had been so badly disfigured by a severe beating that led to her death that the forest preserve worker who found her mistook her for a mannequin and had dragged her body about 20 feet on the way to the roadside for trash pickup before realizing his mistake.
Arrested in the case were Jason Strong, 24, charged with first-degree murder and attempting to conceal a homicide, and Jeremy Tweedy, 22, and Jason Johnson, 28, both charged with attempting to conceal a homicide. All three had lived at the Motor Inn Motel near Wadsworth, Ill.
Meanwhile, Reilly and Basley work every day to find the identity of Jane Doe, who was buried in Racine County on Oct. 30.
"Once we get her identified, it will give a whole new starting point to the investigation," Basley said.
No one knows that better than Sheriff's Detective John Hanrahan, who has been working on the murder of Amber Creek.
The body of the 14-year-old Illinois girl, who had been strangled, was dumped in Karcher Wildlife Area in the Town of Burlington and found Feb. 9, 1997. Her identity was unknown for 16 months. More than three years later, her killer remains unknown.
Hanrahan said the investigation is ongoing and he continues to pursue leads in the case.
"I speak with Amber's step-mother on a very regular basis. We talk about the case, where it is going and where it has been. I also visit her grave site," Hanrahan said. Creek was buried in Racine as a Jane Doe. The current Jane Doe is buried in the same cemetery.
"She would have been 18 on July 2 and she was 14 when she was murdered," Hanrahan said of Creek. "It is something that is on my mind and always will be."
What drives Hanrahan to continue working on the Creek case is the same thing that keeps Reilly and Basley working to identify Jane Doe.
"My motivation comes from knowing there is somebody out there who is a predator of children and took the life of a 14-year-old girl," he said.
Anyone with information on Jane Doe or who can assist in identifying the shirt should contact Reilly at (262) 636-3170 or Basley at (262) 636-3363. Anyone with information on Amber Creek should call Hanrahan at (262) 636-3175.
Appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on July 16, 2000.
