Ballinamona Woman

Ballinamona Woman
Jean pocket motif found on the jeans.
Discovered	December 12, 1995
Unidentified for	28 years
Sex	Female
Location	Kilmuckridge, County Wexford, Ireland
Age	25-40
Height	5'9 - 5'10
Body condition	Skeletal/Decomposed
Cause of death	Suspected drowning

The Ballinamona Woman (also known as the Wexford Jane Doe) was a woman whose remains washed up on the Ballinamona Strand near the town of Gorey in County Wexford. Her body was exhumed in 2007 for DNA testing to compare to a missing woman's, but the DNA was deemed not a match. Unfortunately, the media has reported that her jawbone and skull have since been lost.

Foul play is not suspected in her death, and she is believed to have drowned accidentally.

Case

On December 12th, 1995, the corpse of a female washed up on the shores of the Ballinamona Strand in Kilmuckridge. She was determined to have been in the water for a prolonged period of time, though remnants of clothing on her body remained intact. The upper half of her body was skeletonized while the lower half of her body remained unmarred. Upon investigation, the gardaí, Ireland's police force, discovered an unusual motif on the back of the decedent's jeans that belonged to a particular type of "Lee" brand jeans that had been manufactured in Belgium in the 1980s and were never sold in Ireland. In addition to this lead, "Made in France" was branded on the insole of her shoes, thus indicating she may have been from Belgium or France.

The Ballinamona Woman was found with a set of Volkswagen car keys, though the vehicle they belonged to was never found. The Gardaí then worked with Interpol to investigate if the decedent could have been a visitor to Ireland, though this search provided no substantial results. With the case receiving little press coverage, the Ballinamona Woman was buried alongside other unidentified bodies found in Ireland and widely forgotten about until years later.

A few years later, investigators began looking into the cases of Priscilla Clarke and Imelda Keane who both disappeared before the Ballinamona Woman was found. Clarke had last been seen in 1988 when she was swept away by the Dargle River in County Wixlow, which neighbored County Wexford. Keane had disappeared in 1994 in County Waterford. Thus, in 2007, the Ballinamona Woman's body was exhumed and tested to be compared to Clarke's DNA among others. Unfortunately, the decedent's DNA did not match Clarke's, nor did it match with any missing person recorded in Ireland and the international mission persons database. That same year, it would be revealed that the Irish state had lost the woman's skull and jawbone before her first burial, hindering any further DNA that could be obtained.

As of 2015, the Ballinamona Woman was reburied and now rests at the St. Ibars graveyard alongside other unidentified decedents.

Clothing and accessories

Shoes found with the decedent.

• "Lee" brand jeans with a diamond-shaped motif on the back pocket. The jeans had been manufactured in Belgium in either 1986 or 1987 under the fashion name "Rumour".
• Brown, flat, lace-up shoes, size 39. Branded in the insole of the shoe is a symbol with four stars and the phrase "Made in France".
• White socks.
• Two Volkswagen keys held on a ball-shaped keyring found in the jean pocket. The car these keys belong to has never been found.

Sources

• Ballinamona Woman at the Doe Network
• Irish Central
• The Journal
• Belfast Telegraph