Barbara Rose Rotella recently created these lifelike images of a woman whose body was found in the town of Ellery in December 1983. To date, the woman has not been identified. Photos by Barbara Rose Rotella
Barbara Rose Rotella recently created these lifelike images of a woman whose body was found in the town of Ellery in December 1983. To date, the woman has not been identified. Photos by Barbara Rose Rotella
Newly generated images bring to life a woman whose identity has remained a mystery for 40 years.
The lifelike photos of the person known locally as “Ellery Jane Doe” were created by Barbara Rose Rotella and were recently shared by the Unsolved Crimes Unit with the Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Office.
Rotella heads an organization that specializes in detecting missing person cases. She first heard about Jane Doe almost two decades ago.
“I created these photos of her because I wanted to use modern technology to show people what she might have looked like when she was alive in the hopes that someone will recognize her,” she told the Post-Journal. “Her autopsy photos show a recognizable face; However, since it is socially unacceptable to share autopsy photos online, I thought I would make her photos look as lifelike as possible. I did the same thing on a few other cases.”
A Niagara Mohawk Power Corp. truck driver. discovered the body of a woman along the Southern Tier Expressway on the morning of December 6, 1983. The woman was found face up and partially clothed with no shoes, jewelry or personal items and had no purse or identification.
At the time, police believed that “Jane Doe” may have been in the ditch for between 24 and 36 hours before she was found. The blanket of snow would have buried her out of sight until showers of rain revealed her body.
According to investigators, the unidentified woman was shot four times with .38 or .357 caliber bullets, twice in the chest, once in the back and once in the mouth.
The victim was believed to be 30 to 37 years old, 1.75 meters tall and weighing around 50 kilograms. She had brown eyes, a spot above her left eye, a birthmark behind her left ear, and a scar on her neck. She was also believed to have had a child earlier in her life.
Based on genetic testing, it is believed that the woman comes from the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium.
At the time of her death, she was wearing a V-neck undershirt sourced from Italy and a high-quality, multi-colored reversible olive wool trench coat. She also had expensive dental work with gold fillings, leading police to believe she was not from the area; She also had an IUD, a form of contraception that was made abroad at the time and available in Canada, but was not allowed for sale in the United States.
To date, the woman has not been identified and her murder remains unsolved. Her case is one of several being reviewed by the Unsolved Crimes Unit.
“I love the fact that the police put so much emphasis on identifying them,” Rotella said. “I have spoken to the investigators working her case and they have worked tirelessly to bring her name back. Her DNA has already been extracted and processed and is currently being analyzed by a forensic investigation company. I created photos and shared her story.”
She added: “Because Ellery Jane Doe’s genealogy analysis shows she may not live in the United States, a language barrier could make it difficult for people she may have known to find her story online.”
Rotella runs a website – Undergroundmysteries.com – and shares her posts on Facebook under “Underground Mysteries: Unreported & Underrepresented Missing People.” Sometimes someone reaches out to them to raise awareness about a missing person case.
“I learn about other missing person cases through word of mouth, social media posts, attempts to identify a deer, old newspaper articles, old online forums and threads and more,” she said. “Some of these missing people have not been reported for many years. Some cases were reported years ago, but many of the older reported cases fell through the cracks.
“Often the files themselves are lost or destroyed over time, or never make it into newer computer systems. The missing person report often has to be submitted again. I always call on the relatives of the missing people to report it to the police immediately.”
Anyone with information about Ellery Jane Doe is asked to call the sheriff’s office at 716-753-2131.
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