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From 16 WAPT News Jackson
Authorities in Ohio have sent an alert to Mississippi and five other southern states in an attempt to identify a woman believed to have been slain by a convicted serial killer.
The Ohio Attorney General's Office on Tuesday said Shawn Grate confessed to killing a female in Marion County in 2004 or 2005. Her body was found in 2007. The female's age has been estimated at between 15 and 30 years old.
An isotope analysis of the female's bones by the University of South Florida show she was likely born in one of the states receiving the alert, which include Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. The testing also indicated that she likely spent the last five years of her life in Texas, Florida or the Caribbean, authorities said.
A forensic artist created a facial reconstruction of Jane Doe last year. She had brown hair and likely stood between 5 feet 3 inches and 5 feet 9 inches tall and weighed between 100 and 150 pounds. Her teeth were well cared for and had no obvious dental work or fillings, authorities said.
Grate, 41, was sentenced to death last week for killing two women in Ohio's Ashland County.
Gate confessed to the murder of Jane Doe, but told investigators that he didn't remember her name. He did, however, recall that she was a magazine saleswoman, authorities said.
“The victim is believed to have died at the hands of a cold-blooded killer who later went on to kill others, and the fact that she has been unidentified all this time makes her case even more tragic,” Attorney General Mike DeWine said in a news release. “By sending this bulletin, we hope this case will get more attention outside of Ohio and that someone will recognize a face they haven’t seen in more than a decade.”
Grate is also a suspect in two other homicides in Marion County, Ohio, authorities said.
Anyone with information about the identity of Jane Doe is asked to call the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation at 740-845-2406.
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