’95 case: Still no ID for woman

March 9, 2008 at 12:15a.m.

The cold case is being featured this week on Crime Stoppers.

YOUNGSTOWN — After 12-plus years, she’s still a Jane Doe.

The decomposing body of a woman found Oct. 31, 1995, inside a Westlake Terrace housing project apartment has never been identified. Her race is thought to be white.

“There’s really nothing to go on,” said city Detective Sgt. John Patton. He’s working the cold case with the idea that “it would be nice to tell someone, ‘We have your daughter.’”

Vindicator files show a Youngstown Metropolitan Housing Authority employee found the front door partly open at 111 Wirt St., Apartment 286, at 1:40 p.m. Another door was unlocked, the front window screen was damaged and the shade torn. The refrigerator was missing and the North Side apartment was in disarray.

The body was on the living room couch.

“I remember being at the scene,” said coroner’s investigator Tom Pappas. “She’s still a Jane Doe. We had several inquiries at the time but none panned out.”

The circumstances surrounding the woman’s death will be featured this week by Crime Stoppers of Greater Youngstown. Tipsters who call (330) 746-CLUE receive a code number. Up to $2,000 is being offered as a reward.

Pappas, who retrieved the file from archives, said the woman had been in her mid to late-30s, 5 foot 3 inches to 5 foot 5 inches and 100 to 120 pounds with a slight to medium build. She had dark straight hair, natural teeth with fillings and an old fracture of her right leg.

“She was possibly white, fair complexion,” Pappas said. “Her jeans were size 28 waist and 32 inseam. She was wearing a T-shirt — ‘Golden Age Games Sanford, Florida’ — a multicolored midriff top, blue and white down sweater and white and black Nike Air tennis shoes.”

The cause of death, Pappas said, was undetermined.

The cold case was passed on to Patton with the retirement of another detective.

Thumbing through the old file, Patton said no injuries were noted and the toxicology report showed no drugs.

In 1995, Westlake “was infested with drugs, but none were in her system,” he said.

Referring to a crime scene photo, Patton said the head was mostly skull.

The apartment where she died was not hers. The apartment had been vacant, not rented at the time, he said.

The detective believes the woman had been a transient who went from vacant apartment to vacant apartment.

It’s possible, Patton said, that she had been a dead about a month.

meade@vindy.com