Renewed efforts to identify unidentified woman
Jul. 24—HANOVER TWP. — A forensic anthropologist and her team from the University of South Florida coordinated the exhumation of an unidentified female Wednesday in a second attempt to get an identity through forensic testing.
A back-hoe operator began the process just after 12:30 p.m. in Maple Hill Cemetery. Within minutes, the casket was reached and the digging was taken over by hand with shovels by the Pennsylvania State Police Forensic Services Unit.
The unidentified female known as I80 Jane DOE was found along the westbound lanes of Interstate 80 near mile marker 250.6 in Black Creek Township on Aug. 9, 1973. An autopsy by the late Dr. George E. Hudock could not reveal the cause and manner of death but noted the presence of sulfuric acid over the body.
District Attorney Samuel Sanguedolce and Assistant District Attorney Carl Frank filed a petition, signed by President Judge Michael T. Vough, on July 9 to lawfully exhume the unidentified female.
Sanguedolce and Frank in the petition believe advance and current forensic applications by Dr. Erin Kimmerle at the University of South Florida will increase the chance of identification.
The unidentified female was exhumed in 2016 but a DNA profile could not be developed and samples were expended.
The second forensic examination is expected to involve a medicolegal autopsy, skeletal examination, forensic dental examination, x-rays and a MRI scan and additional DNA samples.
County Coroner Jill Matthews took possession of the unidentified female for forensic testing to be performed at the coroner's office in Hanover Township.
The woman was estimated to be between 20 and 30 years old, brown eyes, 4 feet 190 inches to 5 feet 2 inches tall, and weighed approximately 100 pounds. When discovered, she had brown hair pulled into a short pony tail, and wore blue/green shorts, a pink blouse with white lace and blue slippers, according to NamUS, a national database of unidentified and missing persons.
Once completed, the unidentified woman is to be re-interred at the same grave plot.
