OREGON CITY, Ore. — Police have exhumed the partial remains of a woman known only as “Oak Grove Jane Doe,” nearly 80 years after her murder shocked Oregon and made national headlines.
Remains Unearthed at Mountain View Cemetery
On Monday, September 22, the Oregon State Police announced that investigators had recovered degraded remains at Mountain View Cemetery in Oregon City. The remains are believed to belong to the unidentified woman whose body was first discovered in 1946.
“This exhumation represents an important step forward in an almost eight-decade-long investigation,” the agency said in a statement.
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The 1946 Discovery
The case dates back to April 12, 1946, when a burlap sack containing human remains surfaced in the Willamette River in Clackamas County. Over the following months, additional remains were found near Willamette Falls and the McLoughlin Bridge. Investigators also discovered clothing believed to belong to the victim in the Clackamas River.
Forensic examiners determined the victim was a woman between 30 and 50 years old. She had suffered blunt-force trauma to the head and was dismembered after her death. Detectives believed her remains were placed in multiple burlap sacks and discarded in the river, which explained the scattered discoveries.
The victim has since been regarded as Oregon’s oldest unidentified person.
Missing Evidence Stalled Progress
Although the case drew national attention in the late 1940s, key evidence—including portions of the remains—went missing from police custody in the 1950s. That loss made further investigation nearly impossible.
The Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office briefly reopened the case in 2008, but with no physical evidence to test, the effort stalled once again.
Renewed Hope With Modern Forensics
Now, nearly 80 years later, forensic advancements have revived hopes of solving the mystery. The Oregon State Police Medical Examiner’s Office, in partnership with the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office, Clackamas County Medical Examiner, and Mountain View Cemetery, carried out the exhumation.
Officials said DNA testing and forensic analysis could finally provide the woman’s identity.
“Now, with advanced forensic testing and analysis, the State Medical Examiner’s Office hopes to finally give her a name and bring resolution to this decades-old case,” the agency said in its release.
Forensic Experts Optimistic
Forensic anthropologist Hailey Collord-Stalder expressed optimism about the renewed investigation.
“For decades, this case was presumed impossible to resolve,” she said. “Now, after nearly 80 years, we are hopeful we can restore this victim’s name and return her identity to history.”
A Chance for Closure
The discovery and exhumation of Oak Grove Jane Doe’s remains offer investigators their first real opportunity in decades to close Oregon’s oldest unidentified case. Officials and forensic scientists now hope that modern technology will succeed where past generations of investigators could not — and finally return a name to a woman lost to history.
