Jane Doe Sketch

Faribault County authorities are hoping fingerprints turned over to the FBI will help identify the “Jane Doe” buried at Riverside Cemetery in Blue Earth.

About three months ago, fingerprints taken from a female murdered 28 years ago by a state trooper were discovered in an envelope misplaced in an evidence case file.

“They are being (sent by) FedEx today to Mankato and will be routed to the appropriate place from there. They will be in the FBI’s hands tomorrow,” sheriff’s deputy Scott Adams told the Register on Monday, May 5.

County authorities decided to re-submit the fingerprints so they could be electronically scanned and posted on the FBI’s Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System.

Adams, who was assigned to the “Jane Doe” case about two years ago by then Sheriff Scott Campbell, says it took a awhile to arrange delivery of the prints to the proper authorities.

Sheriff Mike Gormley says Adams has been working on the case, “When he’s free and has the time.”

So far this year, Adams has received nearly 20 leads from organizations involved with missing persons cases and private citizens. On Tuesday alone, he received 12.

“I get calls from all over the country, from California to New York,” Adams says.

Last year, Adams checked out six leads and about 15 in 2006.

“I’ve noticed more and more of the phone calls have been from younger people, perhaps a niece or nephew who has never met a missing aunt,” Adams adds.

On Monday, Adams spent the day comparing a missing person’s medical information with Jane Doe’s, and it was not a match.

“The person had her appendix removed when she was young. Jane Doe still had her’s,” Adams says.

In addition to checking out new leads, county authorities have re-examined old evidence.

Adams says to erase any doubts that Jane Doe is a missing person from New York, he contacted Blue Earth dentist Roger Grandgenett in April to analyze dental records of the two victims.

“The development of the wisdom teeth didn’t match. The fillings were similar and close, but they didn’t match,” says Grandgenett. “One would have been in her 30s and the other in their 20s.”

Gormley still has not decided whether he will seek court permission to exhume Jane Doe’s body in hopes of determining her identity.

Blue Earth resident Deb Anderson for the past five years has tried to convince county authorities that an exhumation should be conducted.

Gormley agrees with Anderson that determining Jane Doe’s identity is the right thing to do.

He says he’s not sure what additional information exhuming the body would provide.

“You have to make the right choice and not do something foolishly. I’m not sure we would gain anything by doing it,” says Gormley.