After 35 years, Blue Earth’s infamous murder victim, known only as Jane Doe, has finally been identified.

Her name is Michelle Yvette Busha, of Bay City, Texas, who was 18 years old at the time she was murdered near Blue Earth in May of 1980.

Her body had been exhumed from its grave in Riverside Cemetery in Blue Earth on Aug. 14 of last year for the purpose of using several new DNA testing techniques to try and find out her identity.

“We knew that if this didn’t work, nothing would,” says Faribault County Chief Deputy Scott Adams. “And then we would never know her identity.”

But, it did work, and last Tuesday morning the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension held a news conference to announce the results of the DNA match of Jane Doe to Michelle Busha.

At that conference, Faribault County Sheriff Mike Gormley stated that this was not a case of ‘who done it,’ but rather, ‘who is it.’

An on-duty Minnesota State Highway patrolman, Robert Leroy Nelson, confessed to killing the girl who had been hitchhiking on Interstate I-90 and then dumping her body in a drainage ditch just off the freeway, between the Blue Earth and Frost exits.

Nelson’s confession came nine years after the body had been found. He is currently in prison in Texas for this and other crimes, but has been up for parole, both in 2008 and in 2014.

Parole was denied both times.

His victim’s body was buried in Riverside with a marker stating “Unidentified woman found May 30, 1980 near Interstate 90 east of Blue Earth.”

Over the past 35 years, the Faribault County Sheriff’s Office has received hundreds, or even thousands, of leads as to her possible identity, but none have panned out.

The investigation was first conducted for many years by then-chief deputy Jerry Kabe, who says not a day has gone by for the past 35 years that he hasn’t thought about the case.

Deputy Adams took over the job of researching the leads since 2008.

“We have continued to get leads every year, and we check them all out,” Adams said. “We continued to monitor missing persons reports as well.”

When Adams first learned of Jane Doe’s real name, he spent a Sunday afternoon going through the large tub that held all the Jane Doe case file material.

“Michelle Busha’s name was never on our list of possible missing persons,” he says. “We would never have known it was her, except by this DNA match.”

There were several things thathappened to make the identification a reality, Adams says, and if any had not happened, the ID would not have been possible.

After the body was exhumed in August, the remains were taken to Rochester where forensics took over. They would check for mitochondrial DNA, nuclear DNA, Isotopic analysis and 3D Imaging.

“Around Christmas time we received word they (BCA) were concerned there might not be enough material to get a DNA sample,” Adams said. “But then on March 4 we learned they had found enough to make a DNA profile.”

Just a day later, March 5, the BCA told the Faribault County Sheriff’s Office that they had a match to an 18-year-old missing girl from Texas named Michelle Yvette Busha.

They were 99 percent sure of the match on March 5, Adams explained. Then they checked dental records and became 100 percent positive on March 13.

“It was all because of Michelle Busha’s family,” Adams says. “In 2007 they had given their own DNA samples to the authorities,” he says. “So, while her DNA was not on file, theirs was and it was a family match.”

Adams says he and Sheriff Gormley had hoped to make a possible match with one of Busha’s family members who might have a criminal record and thus have DNA on file. Instead, the family had taken the initiative themselves.

Busha’s father still lives in Bay City, Texas, but her mother lives in South Carolina. She also has a sister and a brother.

Minnesota authorities contacted Texas officials who made the notification to the family.

“The family wants everyone to respect their privacy at this time,” Sheriff Gormley said at the press conference.

Both Gormley and Adams have been in contact with Busha’s sister, who lives in Utah.

“She said the family was experiencing both sadness and some relief,” Adams says. “They had some very small glimmer of hope that Michelle might still be alive, but they knew it was a long shot. Now that hope has changed to a sense of finally knowing what happened to her. They didn’t even know she had been in Minnesota. Their last contact with her had been on May 9, a few weeks before she disappeared.”

Busha’s remains will now be taken back to Texas. They have been returned to Faribault County by the BCA and currently are in the Faribault County Law Enforcement Center.

Sometime in the next several weeks, Gormley and Adams are going to drive Busha’s body back home to Bay City, Texas.

“We will meet with the authorities in Texas and turn the remains over to the county sheriff there,” Gormley says. “They will take over the responsibility of making arrangements with the family.”

Both of the two Faribault County officers will go over the case files with the Texas authorities and bring the case to a close.

“They have a missing persons case file and we have a found body case file,” Gormley says. “We will go over both files and then close them.”

While in Texas, the sheriff and deputy also are arranging to meet with Busha’s family. They will then relate all of the details of the 35-year-old case, including the grim details of Busha’s death.

“We will have all the case file with us and will be able to answer any and all questions they have,” Adams says. “Hopefully it will help them and bring some closure.”

Gormley and Adams will also be discussing with the family a memorial for Busha at the Faribault County Law Enforcement Center.

“We have already moved her gravestone into a spot by the building,” Gormley says. “And we also plan on putting a memorial plaque by it as well.”

Both law enforcement officers say they have a sense of accomplishment in having finally found an answer to a question that has plagued their office for more than three and half decades.

“I am glad we finally are able to give a name to this unknown victim, and some closure to the family and to all of us here in the area,” Adams says. “It feels great to bring this case to an end.”