A Jane Doe case has finally been solved nearly two decades after an unidentified woman’s body was found.
Partially skeletal human remains were discovered in the woods of La Vergne, Tennessee, back in 2007, and police leads proved unfruitful at the time – meaning the female remained a ‘Jane Doe’ for the next 18 years.
But modern genealogy and DNA work have now been able to crack the cold case and identify the remains as those of Mary Alice Maloney.
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The 40-year-old, originally from Connecticut, was living in Nashville at the time of her disappearance in the spring of 2007, with her remains found that November.
The genetic genealogists at DNA Doe Project, a US-based team who work for free to help solve cold cases, were asked to assist.
The information was limited: the woman was believed to be African American or mixed race, between 5’5” and 5’6”, and was estimated to be between 25 and 49 years old at the time of her death.
No clothes were found at the scene, just two bracelets and a ring.
Using public databases with DNA information, they were able to identify distant relatives of Maloney’s and, eventually, found a closer DNA match, a distant cousin.
From there, they were able to begin building a family tree, and within weeks made a crucial discovery – a distant relative of the new match had married a man of Puerto Rican descent in 1963, and four years later they’d had a daughter named Mary.
Further research revealed that Mary had been living in the Nashville area up until 2007, but after that, she had disappeared from the records.
The information was passed on to the La Vergne Police Department, who later confirmed that the woman formerly known as ‘La Vergne Jane Doe’ was in fact Mary Alice Maloney.
DNA Doe Project’s team leader Jenny Lecus said in a statement shared with Need To Know: “Our work is often complicated by the lack of people who have uploaded their DNA profiles to the public databases we can use for our cases.
“That’s why one of the recommendations we make to families of the missing is to make sure your DNA profile is online at GEDmatch, FamilyTreeDNA, or DNAJustice.”
La Vergne Police told local press that a cold case investigation into Maloney’s death is underway.
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