Ventura County Jane Doe (1980)

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Ventura County Jane Doe
Discovered	July 18, 1980
Unidentified for	41 years
Sex	Female
Location	Westlake, California
Age	15-30
Race	Hispanic/ Native American/ Asian
Height	5'1 - 5'3
Weight	110 - 115 pounds
Body condition	Recognizable face
Postmortem interval	Hours
Cause of death	Stabbing/Strangulation

Ventura County Jane Doe was a young woman found murdered in 1980 after she was raped, stabbed and strangled. She was pregnant with a boy who also died. Her murder was solved in 2018 after Wilson Chouest was previously linked by DNA to her and Shirley Soosay, who was also previously unidentified. He denied knowing their names.

Recent developments from genealogical research by the DNA Doe Project have uncovered potential surnames and locations where the victim possibly originated.

Case

The woman's body was left at the edge of a parking lot of a high school and was found hours after her death. It is possible that she was abducted from Los Angeles, Kern, Ventura or Tulare Counties. It is theorized she was taken to the scene from a significant distance. She may have been hitchhiking near the College of Sequoias in Visalia, California. It is unknown if this theory originated from a sighting.

Her case was linked by DNA to Wilson Chouest who also killed Shirley Soosay. He was convicted in May 2018.

2020 developments

The DNA Doe Project released the surnames and locations of distant relatives of the Jane Doe, in hopes to narrow the search for her identity. The list included:

• Southern Texas (between San Antonio and Brownsville) and Northeastern Mexico (Coahuila, Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon) with the names "Bermea," "Cantu," ''Casares'', "DeLeon," "Garcia," "Garza," Gonzalez," "Guerra-Canamar," "Guevara," "Leal," "Quintanilla," "Robles," "Talamantes," "Tijerina," "Treviño," "Vela," "Villarreal" and ''Zuñiga''.

• Central Mexico (Zacatecas, Guanajuato, and San Luis Potosi) with the surnames "Aguirre," "Alvarez," "Arriaga," "Ayala," "Bañuelos," "Chavez," "Escobedo," "Esquivel," "Perez," "Rubio," "Sustaita," and "Zavala."

• Northern New Mexico and Southern Colorado with the surnames "Cordova," "Gallegos," "Martin-Serrano," "Martinez," "Montoya," "Peralta," and "Romero."

• Indigenous California with the surnames "Rios," "Uribes," "Soto," "Lara," and "Romero."

• Guatemala with the surname "Lopez."

Characteristics

• Brown eyes.
• Pierced ears.
• Black hair dyed blonde at the ends.
• She was about five months pregnant with a boy.
  • She likely had a child before, as an episiotomy scar was present.
• She had shaved her natural eyebrows and had penciled brown lines in their place.
  • The artificial brows were a 1/4 inch above the natural location.
• A large amount of mascara.
• Nails were painted red.
• Some birthmarks on her face and a mole below her left index finger.
• Scars were noted on her left knee, along with two vaccination scars on her left arm.
• She was 60% Native American with some Hispanic and White ancestry.
  • Additionally, a small amount of Asian heritage was discovered.
  • She seems to have a grandparent several generations back from England or Ireland.

Clothing

• White blouse.
• Black bra.
• Red corduroy pants.
• White underwear.
• Open-toe high-heeled shoes were located nearby.

Exclusions

• Melanie Flynn

Gallery

Earlier reconstruction by Carl Koppelman

Reconstruction by NCMEC

Mortuary photograph

Crime scene photograph of the body

Sources

• Ventura County Jane Doe at the Doe Network
• Ventura County Jane Doe at NamUs ^{POSTMORTEM WARNING}
• Ventura County Jane Doe at NCMEC
• Wilson Chouest on Wikipedia
• Ventura County Jane Doe at the DNA Doe Project
• Fillmore Gazette
• KGET