On August 18, 1971, a traveling father and his son stopped along the Redwood Hwy. in Josephine County to spend the remainder of the night. The next morning, they both stepped into the nearby woods and discovered the scattered skeletal remains of a young female. At the time, Sheriff’s did all they could to identify who the remains belonged to, the cause, manner of death and how the remains came to be in Josephine County. When all the investigative leads were exhausted, the case was deemed “inactive” and the remains were placed in storage at the Sheriff’s Office warehouse and listed simply as “Jane Doe-Josephine County 71-940”.
In August 2004, Cold Case detectives renewed activity in the case as forensic science now allowed investigators to put a face on Jane Doe-Josephine County 71-940. Forensic Artist and Clackamas County Sheriff’s Deputy Joyce Nagy completed a clay facial reconstruction of our Jane Doe. Deputy Nagy ironically nick-named her work “Jane Annie Doe” as she felt the likeness she created displayed features inspiring the name “Annie”. Investigators distributed the image of Jane “Annie” Doe nationwide resulting in numerous leads that kept the case active for several more years.
In the latter part of 2016, forensic isotope analysis of Jane Annie Doe’s hair, teeth and bones indicated she was most likely from the northeast portion of the United States and migrated along the northern US border to the Pacific Northwest. The revelation along with a new forensic drawing of what Jane Annie Doe may have looked like was also published nationwide with emphasis in the New England States. Again, several leads were generated with one particular lead having strong similarities to a state of Massachusetts missing person. Investigators from the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children based in Alexandria Virginia worked those leads, but DNA failed to make a match.
In February of 2017, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, funded and sponsored a case study of this Josephine County Sheriff’s Office investigation.
In November of 2018, Sheriff’s Cold Case Investigator and retired Major Crimes Unit Detective Sergeant Ken Selig, received news that at the request of the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children and the DNA Doe Project, DNA from Jane Annie Doe was submitted to the DNA Doe Project by Dr. Nici Vance of the Oregon State Medical Examiner’s Office. The Oregon State Medical Examiner’s office assumed custody of her remains in 2013.
The DNA Doe Project is a non-profit all-volunteer organization which uses donated funds to analyze DNA from John and Jane Does to compare with GED match, a public genetic genealogy database to identify them through their “DNA-cousins”. After weeks of careful analysis and painstaking ancestral research, Jane Annie Doe’s family was traced to relatives in England, New Zealand and Canada. In February, DNA Doe Project volunteers were able to notify Detective Selig that a potential match was found with a sister living in Washington State. As a result, Detective Selig, with the help of the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children, established contact with the sister and obtained a DNA sample from her.
On Thursday, March 14th, Sheriff Dave Daniel announced that Jane “Annie Doe had been identified as Anne Marie Lehman of Aberdeen, Washington. She was identified through a confirmed match with her full sister’s DNA. The family has been notified.
Anne Marie Lehman would have turned 65 years old this year.
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