Oklahoma City Jane Doe (1995)

Oklahoma City Jane Doe
Discovered	April 19 - May 5, 1995
Unidentified for	29 years
Sex	Female
Location	Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Age	N/A
Race	Unknown
Height	Short
Postmortem interval	April 19, 1995
Cause of death	Terrorist attack

Oklahoma City Jane Doe was a woman whose leg was found in the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing on April 19, 1995. The unidentified leg continues to be a sources of speculation.

Case

At 9:02 AM, a bomb exploded in the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. The bomb destroyed one third of the building and killed 169 people, injured 680 people, and destroyed or damaged 324 other buildings. A couple days after the bombing occurred, two men, Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols were arrested and charged in connection of the attack. McVeigh stated the attack was motivated by revenge against the United States federal government for their actions during the Waco siege and the Ruby Ridge Incident.

Between April 19 and May 5, all but three of the victims were recovered from the scene. During that interval, a severed, decomposed, and shaven left leg in a black leather boot was found. Although initially identified as male leg, the leg was identified as investigators as belonging to Lakesha Levy, an airman at Tinker Air Force Base and was buried with her in her above-ground crypt in New Orleans. Following a 1996 exhumation, it was determined the unidentified leg was misidentified and Levy's actual left leg was reburied with her. Since then, it was reported the leg was embalmed, preventing DNA collection. The FBI referred to the leg as "P-71" ("Part-71").

There are two theories in regarding the unidentified leg. One is theory is that the person is and unidentified 169th victim of the bombing. Fred Jordan, the state’s chief medical examiner at the time of the bombing said it was his "gut feeling" the leg belonged to another victim. He once told reporters, "I've always thought this had to be a mistake on our part. There were a lot of missing parts. But we have looked and looked and looked. Other pathologists have looked. Other anthropologists have looked. And we can’t find it. Could it be another individual? I have to say, 'Could be. I don’t know.' I do not know whose leg it is. That’s the bottom line."

Another theory is that the leg belonged to a third unnamed conspirator. It has been reported by a mechanic that McVeigh was with a man only known as John Doe #2 at Elliott’s Body Shop in Junction City, Kansas two days before the attack. John Doe #2 did not match Nichols' description and was described as a muscular-looking man with a short neck, square jaw, and a tattoo and wore a California Panthers cap. However in June 1995, federal authorities have stated they identified John Doe #2 as Todd Bunting, an Army private who was at the body shop with a friend. Bunting fit the John Doe #2's description and wore similar clothing, including a Carolina Panthers cap. He was cleared of any involvement and the mechanic admitted he might have been in error.

When asked if there were other conspirators, McVeigh denied there being any. He once responded, "You can't handle the truth! Because the truth is, I blew up the Murrah Building, and isn't it kind of scary that one man could wreak this kind of hell?" On the morning of his execution, he wrote, "For those die-hard conspiracy theorists who will refuse to believe this, I turn the tables and say: Show me where I needed anyone else. Financing? Logistics? Specialized tech skills? Brainpower? Strategy? ... Show me where I needed a dark, mysterious 'Mr. X'!"

Nevertheless, McVeigh's defense attorney, Stephen Jones, has repeatedly insisted that the leg belonged to a third unnamed bomber that was either in the building when the bomb went off or was murdered by McVeigh and was left near the bomb to hide the evidence. In his book, "Others Unknown: The Oklahoma City Bombing Case and Conspiracy," Jones writes about additional witnesses who saw McVeigh with someone besides Nichols days prior and that McVeigh denies the existence of John Doe #2 because he wants the glory to himself. In a letter to Houston Chronicle, McVeigh responded to Jones' claims with, "Does anyone honestly believe that if there was a John Doe 2 (there is not), that Stephen Jones would still be alive? Think about it."

McVeigh was convicted on eleven counts of murder and conspiracy on June 2, 1997 and was executed on June 11, 2001. Nichols was convicted of conspiring to build a weapon of mass destruction and of eight counts of involuntary manslaughter of federal officers by the federal government on June 4, 1998 and of 161 counts of first-degree murder on May 26 2004 and was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. Two other individuals, Michael and Lori Fortier, were considered accomplices because of their foreknowledge of the attack. Michael was sentenced to 12 years in prison and fined $75,000 for failing to warn authorities about the attack on May 27, 1998 and Lori was granted immunity because of her testimony. Michael was released on good behavior on January 20, 2006 and lives under a new name in the Witness Protection Program.

In 2015, it was reported by the Washington Times that DNA actually was extracted from the leg by the Oklahoma State Medical Examiner's office. Ten of the victims have been ruled out as the owner of the leg. The FBI was unaware of this, with Special Agent Ann Todd saying, "the last known tests on the leg, identified as P-71 was performed in 1997." According to a Oklahoman article that came out the same year, most experts believed the leg belonged to a short woman.

Sources

• Oklahoma City bombing on Wikipedia
• Oklahoman
• Fox 25
• Fox News