Jane Doe identified after 33 years, Twin Cities lake remains named
A severed head and foot found in two Twin Cities lakes in 1993 now belong to Denise Elaine Sexton Hartley, missing from St. Paul for 33 years.
Washington County investigators have finally put a name on the remains that haunted two Twin Cities lakes for more than three decades: Denise Elaine Sexton Hartley, who was 27 when she vanished after moving to St. Paul from Columbus, Ohio, in 1992. For 33 years, she was a Jane Doe tied to scattered body parts; now she is once again a person with a history, a daughter, and a family waiting for answers.
The case began in grim pieces on June 12 and 13, 1993. A severed human head was found floating near the shore of Bone Lake in New Scandia Township, and a human foot was later recovered on the bank of Pig’s Eye Lake in St. Paul, about 20 miles southwest. Investigators described both remains as cleanly cut. At the time, they estimated the victim was a white woman in her 20s or 30s with brown eyes, short dark brown or black spiked hair, and three pierced holes in each earlobe.
The break came in 2024, when Washington County and the Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s Office partnered with the DNA Doe Project. Genealogical work traced Hartley’s family line back to Ohio, and detectives traveled to Columbus to interview relatives. A DNA sample from Hartley’s daughter provided the final confirmation, which was later backed by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.
Hartley was the youngest of 15 siblings, and her family had not seen her since she left Ohio for St. Paul. That family history now fills in part of the blank that surrounded the remains for years, but the death investigation is still active. No suspect has been identified or arrested, and the cause and manner of death have not been determined.
Authorities are still asking for help, with the Washington County Sheriff’s Office urging anyone with information to call 651-430-7850. The Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s Office, which serves both Ramsey and Washington counties, worked alongside Washington County on the identification, while the DNA Doe Project noted that the case is part of its work on more than 250 unidentified-remains cases since 2017. Hartley is no longer an unknown from the lakeshore, but the trail to her killer remains open.
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