Saturday, Jul. 26, 2008

Sculpture puts fresh face on 1971 murder case

In September 1971, a federal government worker found the body of a woman near the Delta-Mendota Canal in Westley. She had been stabbed 65 times, according to the Stanislaus County sheriff's investigators who handled the case.

The case remains unsolved 37 years later, but a renewed effort to solve it is under way. In April, investigators exhumed the woman's remains from Patterson District Cemetery.

On Friday, forensic sculptor Gloria Nusse of Mill Valley brought a clay reconstruction of the victim's head and face to the Sheriff's Department.

Working from stored evidence such as a photo of the woman -- believed to have been in her early 20s when she died -- and other items, Nusse was able to create an image she hopes will trigger the memory of someone who might have known the victim.

"She is a statement of the times as well as a statement of herself," Nusse said of the woman known only as Jane Doe. "This is such a luxury to have the (photo, hair and clothing) to work with. They're all just little clues and pieces of a puzzle."

"We wanted to bring this person back to life so that someone might recognize her," Chief Deputy Coroner Kristi Ah You said.

Nusse spent roughly 50 hours on the re-creation, working with Modesto forensic odontologist Garry Found and others.

Photos of the sculpture will be sent to agencies throughout the United States in the hope that a family member or someone else who knew the victim will come forward with information.

Investigators also hope that technology that wasn't available in the 1970s, such as DNA analysis, will play a role in solving the case.