(tense music)
- [Narrator] A woman is found murdered
along a Minnesota highway
near the small town of Blue Earth.
Her identity is unknown and investigators dub her Jane Doe.
Due to a lack of evidence and no proper ID,
detectives have a difficult time
coming up with a list of suspects,
Jane Doe is buried in an unmarked grave and awaits justice.
But years go by and the case remains unsolved.
- You gotta put your heart into it.
You always gotta have your mind on it
and it doesn't matter what you're doing.
You take that call at 3:00 in the morning.
- [Narrator] And even after detectives finally get a break
in the case,
the victim's identity remains a mystery
until a local resident finally takes an interest
in the case.
- How long would you look for your child?
Forever.
- [Narrator] And makes it her mission
to discover the identity of the young woman
in the hopes of bringing closure to the victim's family.
(tense music)
- The unsolved ones, we have to stand up.
- And approach these cases in a way outside the box.
- Let the world know is
those out there that did commit a murder,
you know, there are people that are coming after you.
- There's just a lotta good people trying
to do the right thing.
- Because it's something
that you have to be passionate about.
- Solve this, bring some peace to the family at least.
Just doing my job.
(tense music continues)
(gentle music)
- [Narrator] The town of Blue Earth was first surveyed
in 1856 and took its name from the Blue Earth River,
which surrounds it.
The river was given the Dakota name Mankato,
meaning blue earth
for the blackish-blue clay found in the river banks.
Interstate 90 is centered on Blue Earth,
bringing a steady flow of traffic and transients.
(tense music)
May 30th, 1980.
A scorching hot day in Faribault County.
A local farmer makes his way down the I-90
when something catches his attention.
He approaches and is immediately struck
by the stench of decay.
(tense music continues)
- Anybody that's been in the water for days,
let alone weeks.
You know, it looks different.
You know, you lose your hair.
The bodies just don't look the same.
They almost look like a mannequin.
- [Narrator] But the farmer sees enough
to know it's a human body.
He rushes home to call 911.
(tense music continues)
The discovery of a body outside the small town
of Blue Earth, Minnesota
will send shockwaves through this quiet community
that will echo for decades.
- This town is a lot smaller
and actually like where we're sitting now,
this sheriff's office, it was farmland.
She was actually discovered not that far from here,
a few miles away from where this location is.
Interstate 90 was still here, but the town was much smaller,
not as much business, probably more industry downtown.
But out here was undeveloped at that time.
(tense music continues)
- [Narrator] Detectives Roger Fletcher and Jerry Kabe
are first on the scene.
(tense music continues)
- A quick examination of the body reveals
there is a shoelace wrapped around the neck,
as well as ligature marks.
This is a clear indication to detectives
that this individual was murdered.
- [Narrator] Detectives branch out and comb the area.
- This individual was very likely killed elsewhere
and dumped in this location.
- Body that's been in the water and heat
for any length of time is going
to experience some rapid decomposition.
One detail the detectives noticed right away
that's highly unordinary is the victim's missing
all their fingernails.
Fingernail decomposition takes years,
which tells the detectives
the victim's fingernails were removed.
- [Narrator] In a county with a crime rate
as low as Faribault, a scene like this is incredibly rare.
However, detectives of training for such a scenario
and are careful to document the body
and the surrounding area.
- Speaking to some of the officers, you know,
it's something they'd never seen either
to talk about DNA or to collect things for the future
is just things they've heard of and talked about,
how to preserve the body that have been in water
to get for an autopsy.
It's memorable to them there, remember yet to the state.
- [Narrator] The body is carefully removed
from the scene and transported for autopsy.
(tense music continues)
- Due to the deterioration,
the sex of the victim is initially unclear.
The autopsy, however, reveals that it is a woman
between the ages of 20 to 35.
Callouses on her feet indicate that she moved around a lot,
possibly a drifter.
The autopsy further reveals that she was raped and tortured.
Her fingernails were removed bilaterally,
meaning that they were removed while she was still alive.
The cause of death is determined as asphyxiation
likely caused by the shoelace found wrapped around her neck.
- [Narrator] Authorities are able
to recover a single fingerprint from the victim,
as well as their dental records.
They run these through a database to check for matches.
Due to the level of deterioration,
authorities can't say for sure when the victim was killed,
but put the estimated time of death
between May 23rd and May 27th, 1980.
- The database returns no matches
for either the fingerprint or the dental record.
- [Narrator] With the identity
of the victim a total mystery, authorities dub her Jane Doe.
- Authorities have turned to a sketch artist
in hopes they can render a likeness
of what the victim may have looked like.
- Without an identification of the victim,
it's hard to narrow down the field of possible suspects
since, in most murder cases,
the victim is usually known to the killer.
- [Narrator] Detectives' number one priority right now
is learning the identity of their Jane Doe.
Detectives send out a do-you-know-this-person flyer
with a composite sketch
to other law enforcement agencies nationwide.
Weeks go by and thousands of copies of the flyer
have been distributed across the country.
Investigators have searched through both local
and national databases,
trying to find any missing persons
that would match Jane Doe.
So far they have had no luck
and decide to bury her unnamed in a Blue Earth cemetery.
- Detectives know they're burying the evidence with the body
and they have hit a brick wall
in not only identifying Jane Doe,
but also finding who killed her.
(tense music continues)
- [Narrator] It's absolutely gutting
knowing that this is someone's daughter
and somewhere out there a family is wondering where she is.
- The families want closure.
I understand.
I'd want closure if it was my family.
And something like this, you know,
law enforcement's gonna give it their best effort
because they care, that's their job.
- [Narrator] Two weeks after Jane Doe is discovered,
a couple of local boys make a disturbing discovery
while playing down by the river.
- You just didn't have murders
in small town Faribault County, Blue Earth, Minnesota.
Especially being a young child, it's a bigger deal.
But I can remember all the squad cars around,
guys around and just seeing news articles on it
or reading their news articles
and seeing the TV articles on it.
(tense music continues)
- [Narrator] The Jane Doe case was heavily
in the news at the time.
So when those boys discovered a bloody bra,
they knew to immediately contact police.
(tense music continues)
Investigators collect the bra as evidence
and thoroughly comb the area for any other clues.
- They find some other items of clothes,
but the big discovery comes
when they find a Texas driver's license.
(tense music continues)
It's almost impossible to imagine
that this is just a coincidence.
Hopes run high that they've identified their Jane Doe.
- [Narrator] The name on the driver's license,
Fidencia de Paredes.
Detectives followed this up
to confirm that such a person exists
and that she's in fact missing.
But an inquiry into the driver's license reveals
that there is no such person.
The license is a fake.
- Not only that, the blood on the clothing is tested
and revealed that it is animal and not human blood.
- Of the thousands of women murdered every year in the U.S.,
many remain Jane Does,
sometimes for years, sometimes for decades.
- [Narrator] With no leads in the case,
detectives wonder how long the woman in the unmarked grave
will remain Jane Doe
and whether they'll ever be able
to bring closure to her family.
(dramatic music)
(tense music)
A woman is found murdered along a Minnesota highway,
her identity a mystery.
A single fingerprint and a dental record
are all investigators have,
but no matches come up in the database
and her investigators get no closer
to discovering the identities
of either the killer or the victim.
Finally, investigators bury the body
of the woman they've dubbed Jane Doe in an unmarked grave.
And when at last they believe
they may have a lead in the case,
their hopes are quickly dashed when they learn the evidence
is not connected to their Jane Doe.
(tense music continues)
It's been over three years since the discovery of Jane Doe.
And while investigators hesitate to label this a cold case,
there have been no further developments in that time.
- But for detectives eager to identify the victim
and bring closure to her family,
they're about to receive a glimmer of hope.
(tense music continues)
- [Narrator] In the summer of 1983,
a man named Henry Lee Lucas is arrested
on charges of unlawful possession
of a firearm by Texas Rangers.
- While in custody,
Lucas freely admits that he killed two women,
one being his former employer
and the other a young woman he claims was his girlfriend.
- [Narrator] Lucas takes officials
to the burial site of both women,
thereby corroborating his claims.
- Lucas has now established his credibility.
He goes on to tell authorities
that he went on a murder spree
and killed approximately 600 women across the United States.
He claims he left many of them in the same state
as this Jane Doe was found.
- [Narrator] News of Henry Lee Lucas
and his alleged crimes reach detectives
in Faribault County.
Lucas alleges to picking up female hitchhikers,
killing them, and dumping their bodies
along the side of the road.
- Detectives note striking similarities
in Lucas's MO and the style
in which their Jane Doe was killed and discarded.
They contact officials in Texas to set up an interview
with the incarcerated killer.
- [Narrator] Authorities in Texas arrange
for Faribault County detectives to interview Lucas.
- By all accounts, Lucas is very cooperative.
Detectives believe that if he's responsible
for their Jane Doe, he will readily admit to it.
- [Narrator] Faribault County detectives
finally have the opportunity
to sit down and interview Henry Lee Lucas.
(tense music continues)
- The interview is promising.
This is the moment of truth.
They can tie this case up right here.
- [Narrator] Lucas, as promised, is being cooperative.
He recalls being in the Blue Earth, Minnesota area
and that he picked up a hitchhiker
on the I-90 roughly three years ago.
So far, Lucas' account matches the Jane Doe crime.
For the investigators, things are looking good.
- When detectives question Lucas
on the method he used to kill her,
he responds that he stabbed her to death.
Because the method of execution differs,
detectives must admit that Lucas is not their man.
- [Narrator] Unfortunately, they've hit another dead end.
(tense music)
Later it is learned that the taskforce created
to look into Lucas's alleged murders
and confessions is compromised.
His confessions are tarnished
when it's discovered that he had been given access
to the information on the files
of cases he was confessing to.
- There are indications in the interview tapes
that show Lucas read the reactions
of those interviewing him
and then altered his story to fit the murder.
Therefore, Faribault detectives eliminate him as a suspect.
- [Narrator] Though the case goes cold,
it is never out of mind for Faribault County detectives.
(melancholy music)
- You gotta put your heart into it,
you always gotta have your mind on it.
And it doesn't matter what you're doing,
you take that call at 3:00 in the morning
to get the tip that may solve that case.
- [Narrator] In the summer of 1989,
nine years after the murder of Jane Doe
detectives get a phone call
from a sheriff in Smith County, Texas.
It's a call that could blow the case wide open.
- The sheriff informs detectives
that they've apprehended a man on child abuse charges
and that, while in custody, the man gave a confession.
He also discloses that years earlier
he picked up a hitchhiker on I-90 and murdered her.
Furthermore, he claims to have strangled her,
but the big bombshell is that this man, Robert Leroy Nelson,
is a former Minnesota State Highway Patrol officer.
- They knew who he was.
I don't believe they had ever suspected him.
I know there's some issues in some ongoing things
that they maybe would've assumed,
but they didn't have any ties to him and this Jane Doe.
And I know investigators from this office
went down and had done an interview.
(tense music)
- [Narrator] Before investigators can be sure
that Nelson is responsible for their Jane Doe's murder,
they need to conduct a thorough interview.
- Nelson's able to provide a lot of detail.
He describes picking up the young female hitchhiker
after his shift and offering her a ride.
(tense music continues)
Instead, he takes her somewhere remote,
forces her to have sex with him,
strangles her with a string from her jacket,
and dumps her naked body in a ditch along the I-90.
The big revelation comes when he describes the method
by which he tortures her before killing her.
- Officials purposefully withhold details of the torture.
So only those close to the case
or the real murderer would know them.
- And he was able to provide details
that would've never been released to anybody else,
including the State Patrol officer.
- [Narrator] When Nelson describes
how he removed the victim's fingernails with pliers,
detectives know for certain that he's the killer.
But when they press him on the identity of Jane Doe,
he's unable to help.
He doesn't know who she is.
It's disturbing for detectives to learn
that one of their own brutally killed this young woman.
It raises several questions.
How was he able to operate for years and go undetected?
How many other violations might he have committed
in that time?
And how did investigators overlook him as a suspect?
(tense music continues)
But the biggest question of all
that still needs to be answered is, who is Jane Doe?
(dramatic music)
(tense music)
In the summer of 1983,
Minnesota investigators learn
of a serial killer caught in Texas named Henry Lee Lucas.
They're hopeful that he may also be responsible
for the murder of their Jane Doe.
But after interviewing Lucas,
they realized that his story doesn't align
with the manner in which she was killed.
Their investigation once again stalls out.
(tense music)
But in the summer of 1989,
detectives get a call from a Texas sheriff
informing them that a former Minnesota Highway Patrolman
has confessed to the crime.
(tense music continues)
Detectives interview Robert Nelson
and confirm that he's responsible
for torturing and murdering Jane Doe.
But Nelson isn't able to provide any information
on her identity.
The question remains, who is Jane Doe?
Detectives are still coming to grips with the fact
that their killer was under their noses the whole time.
But one officer, Jerry Anderson,
recalls an exchange he has with Nelson
that, at the time, meant nothing
but now carries a significant weight.
- Jerry Anderson, who was a road deputy,
but acting as an investigator through that,
had told me once I was assigned this case
that one night in the records room in the old building,
Robert Nelson had passed by him and said,
"Jerry, I can solve this case for you."
And Jerry said, "Oh yeah?"
"I did it."
And Jerry goes, "Yeah, whatever Bob."
"No, I did it."
"Yeah, whatever," and walked on.
And I always thought to myself
after Deputy Jerry Anderson told me that story,
that was a way for Robert Nelson to get it off his chest
and say, "Well, I confessed, I can move on now.
I told somebody."
- [Narrator] With virtually no evidence
in the case and a former officer
with access to the investigation,
detectives are certain
that if it wasn't for Nelson's confession,
they likely would never have solved the crime.
But Detective Adams doesn't believe the confession
is an act of altruism, but rather a bargaining tactic.
- In my heart, I believe he confessed
'cause he wanted to serve his time in Minnesota
opposed to a Texas prison.
- [Narrator] Nelson pleads guilty
to first-degree manslaughter
and for his cooperation and confession,
he's sentenced to only 16 years to be served
on top of his sentence in Texas for child abuse.
And his attempt at getting transferred
to a Minnesota prison fails.
He serves both sentences down in Texas.
- The community probably figures
for the most part, the general public,
that you should get a lot stiffer sentence
than what you get at the end of the day.
You know, we have a court system and a judicial system
in place and that is what it is.
We can't go around it.
(melancholy music)
- [Narrator] It is 26 years since the murder
and the victim's identity remains a question.
This is when Detective Scott Adams
becomes involved with the case.
- I got in law enforcement in 1994.
And then in 2006, the sheriff
at the Faribault County Sheriff's Office at that time,
Scott Campbell, assigned the case to me.
And again, I'd kinda stayed up on it my whole life.
Read articles.
You know, little things would pop up every so many years.
And I would read up on it
in the local newspaper and the news.
And it was almost an honor to be assigned that case in 2006
because I had a great deal of care for it from day one,
watching as a young child
and now being newly assigned investigator
in getting this case.
- [Narrator] But Detective Adams isn't the only one
interested in solving the mystery
of Blue Earth, Minnesota's Jane Doe.
In 2002, four years before Detective Adams
takes over the case,
Blue Earth resident, Deb Anderson, learns from a friend
about the unidentified woman buried in the cemetery.
Hoping to learn more about her, she goes online,
but is disappointed to find
that there isn't much information about Jane Doe.
- I went out there on crutches
to see her stone at the cemetery.
But I just kept thinking who, you know,
how long would you look for your child?
Forever.
I would.
- [Narrator] Deb Anderson resolves
to bring awareness to the case and help identify Jane Doe.
Deb goes to Blue Earth Police
to inquire about the status of the case.
(tense music continues)
- They didn't have a fingerprint database back then either.
And so I was like, has anybody run this lately?
Like, no.
None of my business basically what I was told
and they just treated me so poorly that it made me mad.
Had they given me the answers probably right up front,
I would've went away and probably never done it.
But then they just,
I just wasn't gonna quit.
Not for a whole lot of reasons,
but that was very much part of my drive
just to prove 'em wrong.
(tense music continues)
- I'd honestly got to the point
where I don't know if we'll ever find a name for Jane Doe.
That doesn't mean we quit caring at any time
and we still put as much work into it.
I kept that Rubbermaid case file tote right next to my desk
in my office every day.
I'd look at it when I walk in.
Even though it was in a Rubbermaid tote,
I could get to whatever form, whatever match.
We kind of just,
we'll keep working leads
and didn't know if we'd ever get an answer.
(tense music)
- [Narrator] Over the years,
Deb pursues any and every lead she can
to try and identify the murdered woman.
It takes over a large part of her life.
- At one point there was a retired deputy here
who had worked the case back in the 80s.
And he firmly believed that it was
this missing woman named Jacqueline Lerman.
And they had pursued the possibility of it
when he was back in the 80s.
But DNA wasn't a thing.
And the dental records,
somebody determined the dental records weren't a match,
but there was not any real good documentation
one way or the other.
Things had been lost.
The case file was nowhere to be found.
So I thought, well, I'm gonna go down that road again
and see what I can find.
Her last name was Lerman.
She was from New York.
And she had gone missing and everything lined up,
dates, coloring, everything that we had lined up.
Police departments won't tell me anything
about a missing person 'cause I'm not law enforcement.
So the only way I could find out was
to find the family of this Jacqueline Lerman
who had gone missing in '79.
And I didn't have any idea
that there's thousands and thousands of Lermans in New York.
So I printed lists of Lermans, just Lerman phone numbers.
Lists and lists and lists of 'em.
And I just started at the top
and started calling 'em, each one.
In my drive to work or whatever day, whatever.
When I didn't have anything else to do, I'd call.
And I probably made 100 calls, I don't know.
One day it was a Sunday and I was here.
I was sitting on the floor and I called this woman
and she answered and I went through my spiel at,
you know, and she says, "No, I don't know.
No, I don't know anybody by that name."
And I didn't think anything of it.
Went on, called some more people, whatever.
And about half hour later my phone rang
and it was this woman again.
And she goes, "Yeah, you the one
that called me about Jacqueline Lerman?"
I said, "Yes."
And she said, "Did you mean Jackie..."
And she had some other last name.
- [Narrator] Deb is put in touch with the woman's brother,
a producer of a popular TV show.
- And he says, "But before we go into this,
I wanna tell you something just so you know
where I'm coming from, whatever."
And he says,
"I'm the executive producer of 'America's Most Wanted.'"
And I said, "Yeah, you are."
Now I'm thinking like, okay, somebody's having some fun.
I was kind of,
I actually got kind of snippy with him
and said, "Yeah, yeah, or whatever. This is not a joke."
- [Narrator] However, the caller is able
to convince Deb of his identity.
And given his position,
he's able to get some traction on the case.
- He pulled a few strings, so to speak, maybe,
and did manage to get the sheriff's department at the time,
which not the current ones,
but the ones before that to send some hair samples
to the FBI for testing.
- [Narrator] After over two decades
is the mystery of who Jane Doe is and where she comes from
about to be solved?
(dramatic music)
(tense music)
Robert Nelson pleads guilty to manslaughter
and is sentenced to 16 years to be served
on top of his current sentence in a Texas prison.
26 years after the murder,
Detective Scott Adams is assigned to the case.
He's hopeful he can identify the victim
and finally bring her family some peace.
But Detective Adams is not alone.
Local Blue Earth resident, Deb Anderson,
takes an interest in the case
and makes it her mission to identify Jane Doe.
Deb follows every possible lead
until finally the name Jacqueline Lerman
comes across her desk.
She's hopeful that a DNA test
will finally determine the identity
of the young woman killed 2 1/2 decades ago.
The hair sample is sent off for testing,
but it comes back negative.
Jacqueline Lerman is not Jane Doe.
(tense music continues)
- I found out that,
at the time when they said they did that
and he said they did that and all and it wasn't a match,
it wasn't her.
We were like, I jokingly said to my husband,
"You don't suppose one of those clowns clipped
their own pubic hairs and sent them up there, do you?"
And we laughed because it was so stupid.
Who would do that?
Well, years later I find out that that DNA
that had been sent to the FBI
to be compared with the Lerman's DNA
was a man's pubic hairs.
I don't know where they came up with it,
but it wasn't hers and it wasn't ever gonna match
'cause it wasn't even a female's.
- Given that Nelson may have had access
to the evidence in this case,
it's possible that he may have tampered with it
and planted a hair.
Unfortunately, there was never an answer
as to where the hair came from and how the mix up occurred.
- Deb is certain the best way of identifying Jane Doe is
through DNA, which, as a science,
has come a long way since 1980 when she was murdered.
- [Narrator] Deb learns of the national database for DNA.
She's convinced that this may be the only way
to positively identify Jane Doe.
But the issue is
that Jane Doe is buried six feet underground
and police don't have any of her DNA on file.
In order to obtain a sample,
they'll need to dig her up, an expensive procedure.
(tense music continues)
- You know, we have a $5 million budget here,
but that's pre-planned for general expenses
you have every day, every year.
We have to run a building,
we have to run a jail, a dispatch center,
you know, and just all of a sudden come up with 30,000,
especially in 2006.
It's just tough to find that kinda money.
And who's gonna do this work
and who's gonna do that work, lining it up.
- However, Detective Adams agrees with Deb
that the best method of identifying the body
is going to be through DNA.
- DNA is always changing, always evolving.
We use it in our everyday process now.
You know, cigarette butts, pop cans,
you know, in Faribault County,
you know, we're on average homicide every four years,
so it's not like we're using it for homicides,
but we're using it in burglaries, thefts, robberies.
And it's amazing how fast we're getting results
and convicting people.
(tense music continues)
- [Narrator] But without the police budget
to exhume the body,
Deb is going to have to find another way.
She decides to engage friends, family,
and the community to see if she can't help raise the money.
- The big ticket item that was holding it all back
was the exhumation, the cost of the exhumation.
(tense music continues)
My husband pours concrete
or he used to pour concrete for a living
and he was friends with the GNS Drainage,
which Gary Sunken was very gracious
and he was the one that buried her.
Well, now he runs an excavating business
and he very much believed
in doing whatever we could do to find her family,
find her identity, and he offered to dig her up for free.
And I had repeatedly told former county
and sheriff's department, but they weren't interested.
So there was a website
for the Bureau of Criminal Apprehensions up in Minneapolis,
has a website that I had spent years trying
to get her listed on.
I called up there and this woman answered and she said,
"Oh yes, yes, I know the case.
And we'd love,
and I'll make sure it gets back on the website.
I'd love to do something about all of these.
We just don't have the money."
I said, "You don't need any money for this."
And she said, "Why not?"
And I said, "Because I'm friends with the guy
that buried her and he's volunteered his equipment,
his time, his people, and everything.
He will dig her up and not charge you."
And that's what started the ball rolling.
- [Narrator] On August 12th, 2014, the body is exhumed.
The $10,000 cost is covered by a local construction company
and a funeral home.
- When they did agree to finally exhume her,
I told my daughter, I said...
I was open with her about what had happened,
and I said,
"You're welcome to come to the cemetery if you want to
for the exhumation, or you don't have to.
It's up to you."
But I thought it was important that,
ever since she was born,
it was important for her to know that we have an obligation
to do this for other people
if we would ever expect it done for us.
And that I was gonna live up to that because I'm human,
because people are not disposable,
because if anybody matters, if anything matters,
she matters too just as much.
And we have to give it every effort that we can.
So my daughter said yes, she would go.
And I gotta tell you, it was actually very surreal.
Like I just couldn't believe it was happening.
Just so surreal.
And then they got the concrete vault out
and then they took her out of that.
And she was in what appeared to be,
originally had been like a plastic body bag.
There was not an actual casket.
The plastic was real brittle
and it was cracking and breaking
as they tried to lift her to the,
put her on a, like a gurney thing.
And they laid her down
and you have all these ideas of what it's gonna be like
and how you're gonna feel and you...
And then she's in front of you
and we still don't know her name.
How is that possible to me?
Like my brain doesn't wanna accept that.
You're just praying to God that it does some good,
that it all was worth, you know, that something comes of it.
- [Narrator] Now Deb must wait as a DNA sample is taken
from the body and added to the national DNA registry.
Hopefully somewhere out there
the family of this Jane Doe have also submitted their DNA
to the registry.
It's the only way now that she can be identified
and her family can finally have closure.
(dramatic music)
(tense music)
Deb learns that Jacqueline Lerman
is not the Blue Earth, Minnesota Jane Doe.
Not only that,
but it's discovered that the hairs recovered
from the body are male.
Someone has tampered with the evidence in the case.
It appears the only way to properly identify Jane Doe
is to exhume her body for a new DNA sample.
But as Detective Adams explains to Deb,
the procedure is expensive and unaffordable at this time.
But Deb isn't about to let a price tag stand
in the way of her mission.
She petitions local businesses
and arranges for the costs to be covered.
The body is exhumed on August 12th, 2014,
34 years after the murder.
- We exhumed her and shipped her immediately
to the Mayo Hospital.
They basically reconstructed the body, got a fresh DNA.
- [Narrator] In addition to the single fingerprint
and dental records,
a new facial reconstruction is also created
by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
from an MRI scan.
The Smithsonian Institute also performs isotope testing
on a tooth to identify the regions
where the victim may have lived before her death.
The results from this testing
also indicate she's between 17 to 23 years old,
not 20 to 35 as previously reported.
She's also determined to be white
with a possible African admixture.
- When they exhumed her body,
this friend of mine had given me a bottle of champagne
as a, you know, congratulations,
you finally got her exhumed.
I said thank you.
And I said, "We're gonna put this away
and we aren't gonna open it until we have a name."
So I tucked it up on the cupboard
and didn't think about it again.
- So I can remember just like it was yesterday.
You know, my office is right next door
to where we're sitting in here
and I was walking down the hall and my cell phone rang.
And it said Minnesota BCA on my caller ID.
I picked it up and it was one of the agents said,
"We have a match."
And it was just, I mean it was like you won the lottery.
And I remember looking out my office door
and the sheriff was down the hall
and I told him to come to my office.
And part of it was we wanna kinda keep it under wraps
to get a plan together, make sure the family was notified.
We didn't want it blown all over the media here
until the family was properly notified.
But it was pretty exciting then
to keep all that in until we could release it.
(awe-inspiring music)
- [Narrator] After all these years,
Jane Doe finally has a name,
Michelle Busha.
Michelle grows up in Alexandria, Louisiana,
but Michelle wanted more than the small-town life.
Michelle runs away numerous times
and once makes it as far as Burlington, Colorado.
She's picked up by police
and given the option of going to jail
or going to live with her biological father.
Michelle opts to live with her dad
and they drive the thousand miles to Bay City, Texas.
But Michelle and her dad butt heads.
(tense music)
And in 1978 they have a blowout fight,
that ends with Michelle running away from home
for the last time.
There is no word from Michelle for almost two years.
However, Don realizes that he can track her whereabouts
when he notices long distance calls on his phone bill
that have been charged to his number.
Every month, his phone bill contains a few
of these long-distance charges.
Don Busha Sr. recalls hoping that one day she will show up,
call, or surface somewhere.
Don recalls feeling like a failure as a parent
and waking up in the middle of the night crying.
Then, over time,
Don notices there are no longer any long distance charges
on his phone bill.
On May 9th, 1980,
the family files a missing person report for Michelle.
During all that time, Don Busha Sr. doesn't give up hope
that his daughter is alive.
He maintains the same address and phone number
in case she ever wants to get ahold of him.
(tense music continues)
- I think I made the call to the Texas authorities,
talked to investigator
and the sheriff called back to make sure I was
who I was supposed to be.
And they made the notification down there.
And then after that, we spoke to the family.
I still have their numbers in my phone to this day.
- [Narrator] After decades of holding onto hope,
Don gets the phone call that every parent dreads.
He's informed that a DNA match has been found
and that his beloved daughter, Michelle, is dead.
Meanwhile, Deb Anderson has heard no update
as to whether officials have found a DNA match.
- So my phone rang and I picked it up and I said,
"This is Deb, can I help you?"
And she goes, "Is this Deb Anderson?"
And I said, "Yes, it is."
And she said,
"Is this the woman that's been taking care
of my sister for all these years?"
And I was speechless, absolutely speechless.
And I think I just started crying.
And I said, "Are they sure? Are they sure?"
Because there had been so many, you know,
oh, this is gonna be it.
This is gonna be it.
And so many of those that then, no, it's not.
And she said, "Yes, they're sure."
And it was her sister, it was Marla Busha.
- [Narrator] Deb hangs up
and immediately calls her husband to come get her from work.
(bright music)
- And we drove home in silence pretty much the whole way.
And as we got to town, he looked over at me, he goes,
"I gotta tell you,
I thought you were crazy like everybody else.
I never thought ever that this would happen, ever."
And he goes, "But you were right."
So then we got home and I ran in here
and I got that.
It was like nine o'clock in the morning by then.
And I grabbed that bottle of champagne
and I went over to my friend's house
'cause I knew she had the day off.
And I walked in the door with it and I said,
"Shall we open it?"
And she kinda looked at me like, what?
I go, "Well, you know, this is the one you gave me."
And she goes, "Yeah."
And then you could see her,
like she knew that why I was standing there with it,
'cause we had a name.
We finally had a name.
And I popped it and we each had a glass and.
- [Narrator] Michelle's body is cremated
and the ashes are sent to her family.
Don recalls having mixed feelings
about finally having closure.
He sometimes wonders
if it wouldn't have been better off not knowing.
In spite of that,
he applauds the work that Deb Anderson did
in helping to identify Michelle.
"Deb Anderson is an angel.
She's a prime example that persistence pays off.
There's always good people in this world.
Those people that did those things for an unknown stranger
are the salt of the earth."
Don Busha Sr.
This is a case that investigators worked tirelessly on,
but acknowledge that they owe a huge debt of gratitude
to Deb Anderson for helping finally solve it.
- I often refer to her as basically
like the lead investigator on it.
You know, she and I would talk a lot,
she'd come up with different ideas.
She'd message me, you know.
We just can't thank her enough for what she did
through this whole case.
And I know the Busha family feels the same way.
(bright music continues)
- I do think I did the right thing,
but it's a double-edged sword.
It's not a pleasant thing.
It's not...
It does maybe give families closure or give her a name,
but it also, in this case,
it exposes, you know, some of the worst fears, I'm sure.
It would be mine anyway.
And nobody wants to hear
these horrible things that happened to their child.
I think I still would've done the same thing,
but I would've been much more mindful of what it
means to people or how it might affect them.
(bright music continues)
(tense music)
(tense music continues)