Union County advocates seek clues to identify 1978 Jane Doe

A skeleton found on a wooded hillside near Elgin nearly 48 years ago still belongs to a young woman without a name, and Union County advocates are asking the public for the kind of memory that can crack a cold case open. Investigators believe she was pregnant when she died, and they want anyone who remembers a missing teen or young woman, especially around Finley Creek, La Grande or eastern Union County in the 1970s, to come forward with tips.

Two hunters discovered the remains on August 27, 1978, near Finley Creek Cow Camp, about 18 miles from La Grande and roughly 100 feet from a nearby road. Crime Stoppers of Oregon says the case remains open and estimates the woman was between 14 and 25 years old, about 5-foot-2 and 120 pounds, with light brown to blonde hair. Investigators also believe she was in her sixth to eighth month of pregnancy and place her year of death between 1970 and 1975.

The list of items found near the body gives the case some of its clearest clues. Those items included a halter or bra, red Catalina-brand pants in a junior size 15/16 that appear to have been altered, ankle-high lace-up shoes, red and white cloth, zippers and pieces of nylon cord. For years, those details have been the best guide for anyone trying to match the remains to a missing person report, a family story or a memory from the highway and ranch roads around Elgin.

The Oregon State Police Cold Case Unit now handles the file as part of its work on unsolved homicides, missing persons and unidentified human remains cases. In August 2022, state forensic staff, detectives and Union County Search and Rescue searched about three acres around the burial site after cadaver dogs flagged interest. They recovered more than 50 bones, but none were determined to be human and the search turned up no evidentiary value.

The Finley Creek Jane Doe Task Force has kept pressure on the case by commissioning a forensic facial reconstruction from Redgrave Research Forensic Services and by pushing the file across social media and tip lines. That work has also renewed attention on possible identifications, including Patricia Otto, a Lewiston, Idaho mother of two who disappeared on August 31, 1976. Her daughter, Suzanne Timms, has publicly urged investigators to compare the cases, though at least one advocacy database lists Otto as ruled out.

The larger urgency is simple: Oregon has about 120 unidentified human remains cases, and cases sit in nearly every part of the state. For Union County, the hope is that someone still remembers a pregnant young woman who vanished, a set of altered red pants, or a sighting near Elgin that never seemed important at the time.