WARNING: This post contains graphic details regarding sexual abuse, child murder, and decapitation. Viewer discretion advised!
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| Enhanced image of her sweater |
There's a lot of sick and sad feelings I have when it comes to writing my true crime posts. To know lives have been unfairly taken, young souls with lost innocence, and sometimes being buried without a name. All of this induces feelings of sadness.
This however might be one of the most horrific, depressing, and infuriating Doe case you'll ever read about.
Let me tell you about the disturbing and infamous case of St. Louis Jane Doe (1983), also dubbed Little Jane Doe and Precious Hope.
The Abandoned House
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| The infamous apartment |
February 28th, 1983. Two men walk into an abandoned Victorian apartment building, in St. Louis, Missouri. They're looking for scrap metal for their go-cart, and they enter the basement.
It's dark in there, but everything is going normally. One of the men then lights a lighter, about to light his cigarette. But the light illuminating from it reveals something...unexpected. He takes a closer look to make sure he's seeing it right. He is.
It's a female's headless body, lying on it's back, with it's hands tied behind it's back.
Both men, horrified, left the area and alerted authorities. Detectives Joe Burgoon and Herb Riley arrive, initially thinking the victim would've been a sex worker or drug addict of some sorts. Maybe from Cabane Courts, a house nearby known for such.
Then they turned their body...and realized the victim was prepubescent. A child or pre-teen girl.
The horror of this case was only started to be realized.
Death & Description
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| Edited crime-scene photo with rope |
The victim had been hogtied with a red and white nylon rope. She had been horrifically raped (semen had been recovered from the scene) before being strangled to death. Afterwards, a large knife was used to behead her. Her head has never been recovered.
It's believed she had been killed elsewhere due to a lack of blood at the scene, before being brought to the empty house. There was no other abuse marks on her body, and her stomach was empty. She had been dead for at most 5 days.
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| Nylon rope |
St. Louis Jane Doe was an African American preteen girl around the ages of 8 to 11, about 4'10 - 5'6, and weighed anywhere from 70 to 80 pounds. She had a medium brown complexion, but no scars, marks, or tattoos of any kind.
She did have spina bifida in her sacrum, but this may have been asymptomatic or unnoticeable. She was well-nourished and had two coats of nail polish, red and purple.
The only clothing found on her was a yellow V-neck sweater. This sweater would be the symbol of this case for years to come.
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| Original photo of sweater |
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| Nylon rope and her sweater |
There are what I believe, two post-mortem pics of the victim, neither of which I will share on this blog for obvious reasons.
The first is a lesser-known one, which I found in a video called "St. Louis Jane Doe - The Case That Haunts". It's actually a touching video dedicated to the victim, but it also features a PM of what I believe is the victim's decapitated body (with beheaded neck in frame). While there isn't much blood, it's still horrendous to even describe, so be careful if you end up coming across it.
The second post-mortem of the girl isn't of this, but it is still highly disturbing. It depicts her bloodied and little hands at the scene, being tied with the rope. You can also see the red and purple nail polish I described. It's much easier to find this rather triggering and upsetting PM pic online, so be careful when searching this case up.
Investigation
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| Press conference held to bring attention to the crime |
The horrifying details of the case quickly lead to it's widespread infamy in Missouri. Despite this, the case would prove hard to solve. Of course, biological evidence like the semen recovered would likely be more important nowadays, but it sadly seems that was more or less ignored when originally investigated.
That wasn't to say there wasn't an attempt to know what happened to this girl. After checking Missouri school records, police believe she may have been from out of state. Ads on the girl's murder were ran in "every African American newspaper and magazine in the country", in hopes her family or friends would make the connection and claim the girl. Sadly, this was to no avail.
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| Newspaper detailing the murder |
Then comes one of the most infuriating details of this investigation- when authorities looked at psychics. I'm very iffy on using psychics for criminal cases in the first place, but what happened here genuinely hurts me.
One psychic claimed the girl's head would be discovered on a boat in the Gulf of Mexico. It hasn't. Psychic Sharon Notle was even more specific: she said the child was a
Chippewa Indian named Shannon Johnson, and her killer was currently living in southern Texas. This has also been disproven and resulted in a dead-end. The most infuriating incident however was- get this- *inhale*
The sweater and nylon rope recovered at the crime scene were sent to a psychic in Florida. But then they...they got LOST in the mail and have NEVER been recovered. No, really. HOW IS SUCH MISHANDLING POSSIBLE?!!
Burial & 2013 examination
Ten months after her discovery, with no leads and the case sadly going cold, St. Louis Jane Doe was buried in a well known but "derelict" African American graveyard, Washington Park Cemetery. To humanize the girl, she was named "Precious Hope" on her grave.
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| Original grave and burial |
In 2013, the case was re-opened and authorities wanted to re-examine her body. However, due to the poor condition the cemetery was, her body had been misplaced. Low quality records for her 1983 funeral were used to recover her.
The NCMEC did isotope analysis on the girl, and it's proposed the girl had spent most of her childhood in two possible U.S. sections:
A) One of ten south-eastern states:
- Florida
- Georgia
- Alabama
- Mississippi
- Louisiana
- Arkansas
- Texas
- Tennessee
- North or South Carolina
B) One of midwestern to midtlantic states:
- Pennsylvania
- Ohio
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Wisconsin
- Indiana
- West Virginia
After re-examination, she was buried in the Calvary Cemetery, more specifically the Garden of Innocents, where other unidentified and unclaimed murdered children are laid to rest. And with that, the tragic case of St. Louis Jane Doe remains unsolved.
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| Her current grave |
Theories & Rule-Outs
With a crime as brutal as this, it makes sense why many Websleuths (including myself) wonder more about who this girl was and why she was horrifically murdered.
A common theory on what happened to this girl was that- as abhorrent as it sounds, the girl had been killed by a family member. Sadly, abuse and murder between relatives is not uncommon. The theory would also explain why there may not have been missing reports on the girl, despite her being only around 9 and clearly vulnerable.
A similar case like this happened in 2001, also in Missouri, where the headless body of a toddler was found. Thankfully, unlike this victim, her head was eventually found. She was similarly nicknamed Precious Doe, until 2005, when her identity was revealed to be 3-year-old Erica Green. She had been killed by her mom's abusive boyfriend. Both of them were charged. [I may talk about Erica's murder in a future post]
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| Erica Michelle Marie Green, who faced a similar fate to St. Louis Jane Doe |
Of course though, in Erica's case, the autopsy revealed the victim had previous abuse marks, which makes sense considering her living situations. As you may recall from earlier, St. Louis Jane Doe, aside from the obvious traumatic injuries, had no signs of previous abuse. In fact, she was well-nourished, with nail polish, suggesting she came from a decent house-hold. How sudden was her killing? Had she been kidnapped?
There also is one named suspect in the murder- a suspected serial killer named Vernon Brown. He raped and murdered women and young girls during 1985 and 1986. Most of his victims were pre-teen Black girls, just like our victim. He was prolific in Missouri and possibly Indiana. He's also a suspect in some other murders, although there hasn't been any confirmed link between him and the St. Louis Jane Doe. He was executed for his crimes in 2005.
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Vernon Brown
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Here's all rule-outs for the victim as of 2025, according to NamUs:
- Nikole Betterson
- Sharaun Cole
- Yohanna Cyr
- Telethia Good
- Shaunda Green
- Toya Hill
- Sherise Magee
- Sheila Quinn
- Sherri Truesdale
- Beverly Ward
- Northampton County Jane Doe (1983) [ruled out as her missing head]
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| Shauran Cole (12), one of the rule-outs for St. Louis Jane Doe. |
Thoughts
Well...it was hard to sit through that one. Like, this case genuinely tears me up a bit.
This case always pains me in many ways. To know a child had been subjected to rape and violent murder. To know some sick induvial(s) hogtied and decapitated a young girl. To know her head has never been recovered. To know they likely got away with it. To know at some point, this girl had an identity- a life, and it, along with her innocence, was ripped away. To know that CRUCIAL EVIDENCE was likely LOST!
And tragically, for decades, we still haven't solved ANY of it. Not only has she been buried without a name, but without a face. This is a horrible injustice that just makes me mad and sad. I just wish I could know this poor girl's name. She went through horror the last day of her short life, and someone did it only for their demented lack of remorse. Officers involved in this case were both traumatized, but also deeply involved and continue to think about this girl to this day.
I take passion in talking about true crime, both because it's intriguing, but also because it makes me seriously think about things, and spread awareness on topics like this. I think it's important we remember this girl was not just some case for you to read on my blog or on Wikipedia- this girl was a somebody. She could've been a daughter. A sister. A cousin. A neighbor. A student. A friend. Anyone.
"Is all hope lost?"
(Ignoring the accident pun...) As pessimistic as I know it is, I kind of want to say no. But.. hopefully not. Genetic genealogy has identified decedents we've previously thought would be unidentified forever. For example, Joseph Zarelli was discovered dead in 1957, and got his name back in 2022.
If we could, we may be able to locate the relatives of this victim and uncover her identity. It'd be especially important because it is harder to identify Black does due to their different ancestry. According to the
DNA Doe Project (when they identified Vickie Smith):
"African-American Jane and John Does are often much more difficult to identify than people of Northern European descent because African-Americans are underrepresented in the public databases that allow law enforcement cases like this."
This is made even more complicated by the lack of a head. It's things like that prove we need to share more stories on Black murders and disappearances, without politicization, as they need just as much attention as White cases.
I really hope one day to read an article entitling "St. Louis Jane Doe identified as..." I desperately want this girl to be identified sometime in my life, especially because she didn't get the chance to live one. Sadly, for now, things remain as unsolved as they've almost always been.
There's evil people out there. Her killers could still be alive, possibly elderly. I hope they never lived a good life. Someone out there knows/knew what happened to this poor child and/or who she was. When we don't say anything, nothing happens. If you have any possible information on the identity of her and/or her killer(s), please contact authorities. You might just be able to put this tragic cold case to rest.
Even though a lot of details of this case are atrocious and angering, there is at least one bittersweet detail of it- the victim's burial. To humanize and respect her, we gave her a precious nickname that reminds us she was not just a Jane Doe. And hopefully, we will know even more beyond that placeholder name.
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| Funeral before being re-buried in 2014 |
Rest in peace, St. Louis Jane Doe, our precious Hope. I hope we do know more about you. One day.
SOURCES & FURTHER READING
NCMECNCMEC - Video
There also exists a 2022 documentary made on the murder with a lot of updated details, called "Our Precious Hope: Revisited".
Other cases mentioned:
- ninesevenpotatoes, 2025
