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to this podcast so you don't

1:00

miss an episode. On

1:29

May 15, 1992, around 3 o'clock p.m., an

1:32

unnamed contractor was painting a vacant home

1:45

owned by his grandfather at 3512

1:47

Reynolds Street on the southeast

1:49

side of Fort Wayne, Indiana. He

1:52

discovered that the dark basement was a flooded mess

1:54

of 8 to

1:56

12-inch-deep brackish standing water, mold,

1:58

and floating debris. And

2:00

one thing floating in the water grabbed his attention. It

2:03

was a very dirty pink sneaker. He

2:06

picked it up and there was something inside it.

2:08

Foot and ankle bones. This

2:10

from a May 17, 1992 article in the journal Gazette. Quote,

2:15

A contractor found a pink sneaker with an ankle

2:17

bone in it and asked a neighbor to call

2:19

police. The neighbor, David Lewis,

2:21

was visiting his father nearby. Lewis

2:23

said he wondered whether a body was inside the

2:25

house when his three-year-old son picked the shoe up

2:27

and began looking at it. Lewis,

2:30

who used to work in a morgue, decided to

2:32

investigate. He said he walked inside the house but

2:34

didn't find anything. It was

2:37

then that he walked around outside and looked in

2:39

the basement window. Lewis said

2:41

he saw the body partially covered by a

2:43

blanket as he looked through the basement window

2:45

of the one-story house at 3512 Reynolds Street. End

2:48

quote. Lewis

2:51

notified the Allen County Sheriff's Office and

2:53

deputies were dispatched to the Reynolds Street location.

2:55

And there was more from where the

2:57

foot came from. Police had to

2:59

pump water out of the basement before removing the

3:01

body. Floating in the

3:03

dark water in the basement was a tightly

3:05

rolled up carpet or heavy moving blanket, the

3:07

kind used to protect furniture on moving crooks.

3:11

And opening up the soaked blanket

3:13

revealed the soaked skeletal remains of

3:15

a person, really just bones and

3:17

clothing, and the other sneaker foot.

3:20

Lewis, the neighbor who, remember, worked in

3:22

the morgue previously, observed that there was no

3:24

odor to the remains. That

3:27

body had been there for a while. The

3:30

Allen County coroner responded to the scene and viewed

3:32

the remains, which were found face down in the

3:34

water rolled up in the carpet or blanket. Dr.

3:37

Philip O'Shaughnessy stated to the media

3:39

that based on his on-scene observations

3:41

and the extreme decomposition, the

3:44

person could have been in that wet basement for months. There

3:47

was no decomposition odor and no way to tell

3:49

how long ago the person had died. There

3:51

was also no immediate way to determine the

3:53

cause of death. An initial

3:56

examination discovered no bullet wounds or

3:58

bone fractures. Early

4:00

articles about the disturbing discovery report that the

4:02

first assumptions were that the remains were of

4:05

a man. This could be

4:07

because the sneaker containing the foot was a size

4:09

10. But an autopsy

4:11

on the remains would prove this wrong. The person

4:13

in the blanket was a woman. She

4:15

was between 20 and 25 years old with

4:17

blonde or light brown hair, Coroner Shaughnessy told

4:20

the media. She stood between 4'6'' and 5'2''

4:22

tall. Her race could not be determined. There

4:27

was no telling how long she'd been in the basement,

4:30

but it could have been since sometime in later 1991.

4:33

Early investigators believed it was possible that the

4:35

woman had wrapped herself in the carpet or

4:38

moving blanket to try to stay warm. This

4:41

was because investigators found evidence that the

4:43

woman might have constructed a makeshift bed

4:45

in the basement, Dr. Shaughnessy told the

4:47

journalist. I don't know how they

4:49

could tell this with the basement flooded, but there you go. There

4:52

was no evidence that her death was from anything

4:54

other than natural causes, exposure or hypothermia.

4:57

Quote, we saw no fractures, no

4:59

bullets, no evidence of foul play, Dr.

5:02

Shaughnessy said after the autopsy. He

5:05

could not rule out strangulation or sharp force

5:07

trauma that didn't impact bone, but he really

5:09

didn't know what caused her death. Dr.

5:12

Shaughnessy said, quote, unless we have some clues,

5:14

we'll have an open verdict on the cause of

5:16

death. So

5:18

the cause of death was undetermined and remains

5:20

so to this day. But one

5:23

fact about the deceased woman that was gleaned from

5:25

the autopsy. She had been about 26 weeks

5:28

pregnant when she died. This information

5:30

was not released to the public at the

5:32

time. At the autopsy,

5:34

dental records were collected from the woman's skull.

5:37

Fingerprints were not applicable. A

5:39

sample of the remains was submitted for a talk

5:41

screen, but it was deemed very likely that any

5:44

results would be reliable given the state of the remains. Fort

5:48

Wayne Police Department PIO Sergeant Jim

5:50

Zamora issued a plea to the public

5:52

to help investigators identify the dead woman

5:55

in the basement. The investigators Had

5:57

reviewed all missing persons reports from the

5:59

area using the information. the dental records

6:01

or just general descriptions of youngest blonde

6:03

females and struck out. So

6:06

they release some information on what the deceased

6:08

woman was wearing. These. Were

6:10

a very stated gray or light blue

6:12

extra large when crests Jacket a gray

6:14

blue and white knit t shirt with

6:17

white stripes and dark coloured cross strikes.

6:20

A black bra. White. Underwear.

6:22

Black sweatpants and tank Reebok

6:24

shoe size Ten. To

6:26

was also wearing a gold colored braided necklace

6:29

and a gold colored loot necklace with three

6:31

star. No

6:34

one called to identify the woman a

6:36

week after she was found on May

6:38

Twenty First, Ninety Ninety Two Seats and

6:40

her baby were buried together in Linden

6:42

Would Cemetery. Sex and Twenty Sex with

6:45

a headstone that read Mary Jane Doe.

6:48

The burial was paid for by local businesses.

6:50

Investigators had not attempts at a. Facial. Reconstruction

6:53

using her skull the only comparable

6:55

they retain for future rule out

6:57

where. Dental records and autopsy photos of

6:59

her ruined face. When Mary

7:01

Jane Doe was found, Dna was not

7:03

yet the standard for identification and know

7:05

samples were retained. The.

7:07

Known details. About Mary Jane Doe were

7:10

entered into the National Crime Information Center

7:12

database on June. Twenty Nine Ninety Ninety

7:14

Two It was hope that this might

7:16

alert other agencies who might have a

7:18

missing person to the find. That's all

7:21

that had really hope for because without

7:23

fingerprints, dna, and a recognizable face, The.

7:25

Investigators hands are tied. Attempts

7:28

to identify the origins of her clothing did

7:30

not lead anywhere. With. A

7:32

major case file due to lack of

7:34

investigative avenues to pursue. Mary Jane Doe

7:36

remained a Jane Doe. For years to

7:38

come. Home

7:42

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available savings off the home policy. Allstate Vehicle and

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Property Insurance Company and affiliates Northbrook, Illinois. The

8:45

Allen County coroner's office and the Fort Wayne police

8:47

opened the Mary Jane Doe case file on

8:49

occasion over the years when a

8:51

report of a missing woman crossed their deaths

8:53

or they received inquiries about whether Mary Jane

8:56

Doe might be so and so. In

8:58

the mid 2000s, Mary Jane Doe's dental

9:00

records were compared to dental records from a woman who

9:02

went missing in 1991 from Florida. This

9:06

was Teresa Kaiser, but she wasn't

9:08

Mary Jane Doe. Teresa Kaiser remains

9:10

missing. Time

9:12

passed. In August 2016,

9:14

the Allen County coroner's office

9:16

undertook a new effort to identify Mary

9:18

Jane Doe, but they quickly realized that

9:21

the physical evidence was lacking. They

9:23

were going to have to exhume her in order

9:25

to obtain new dental radiographs to conduct

9:27

a complete autopsy, to complete

9:29

an anthropology study, and to conduct

9:31

DNA analysis. By the

9:33

time the case review was completed, it was winter in

9:36

Indiana, and they had to wait for the frozen ground

9:38

to fall. In the meantime,

9:40

the coroner's office entered Mary Jane Doe

9:42

into the National Missing and Unidentified Person

9:45

System, NamUs, on November 8th, 2016, listing

9:48

the contact person as Fort Wayne

9:51

police homicide detective Brian Merton. On

9:55

March 17th, 2017, they dug up

9:57

Mary Jane Doe. Dr. Scott

9:59

Wagner, Forensic Pathologist Complete is

10:01

an autopsy of the completely skeletal

10:04

remains. Doctor Craig Nelson,

10:06

a Forensic or don't Holds Us

10:08

completed a dental study which included

10:10

Radio Grass and students at the

10:12

University of Indianapolis Anthropology Unit transported

10:14

the remains to their department for

10:16

Doctor Crystal Lake Them to complete

10:19

an anthropology examination of the remains.

10:21

Structuralism. Collected Mary Jane Doe's

10:23

left femur and on March twenty

10:26

fourth, submitted it to the University

10:28

of North Texas Center for Human

10:30

Identification for dna testing. Additional

10:32

skeletal remains were sent to the Indiana

10:34

State Police Lab for dna testing as

10:36

well. The U N T

10:38

was able to obtain a parcels as see

10:41

our Dna profile from the seamer material. And

10:44

on October nineteenth, twenty seventeen the you

10:46

Anti data profile recover from the femur

10:48

was entered into the coldest on identified

10:51

remains and missing persons database. To

10:53

be searched periodically. Unfortunately,

10:55

There. Were never any hits. For Mary Jane Doe

10:57

in the system. Now

11:00

they knew from the Dna analysis that

11:02

she was caucasian, but that didn't help

11:04

them identify her son of Mary Jane.

11:06

Those peace and other femur were submitted

11:08

to Stacey Bows, an Ascii, a Forensic

11:10

Scientists with the State Police Crime Lab

11:12

on June eighteenth. Twenty nineteen. Mids,

11:15

lows and off. He also attempted to

11:17

obtain a more complete as see our

11:19

Dna profile for Mary Jane Doe, but

11:21

was unsuccessful. It was

11:23

now September twenty nineteen and Doctor Lay

11:25

some the doctor who had examined Mary

11:28

Jane Doe's skeletal remains after her Zoo

11:30

mason suggested that the investigators. Table their

11:32

Dna analysis of the time being. So.

11:35

Was that within a few years technology

11:38

would likely advance to the point that

11:40

enhance dna analysis. For degraded human

11:42

remains may become impossible. The.

11:46

Investigators had hit a brick wall the had

11:49

done all they could do as far as

11:51

using the remains. So name is connected. The

11:53

Fort Wayne authorities would best Buchholtz a detective

11:55

would Public Safety department. of longmont

11:57

colorado miss buchholz was in

12:00

clay facial reconstruction and she began the process

12:02

using Mary Jane Doe's skull on May 1st

12:05

2019. On August 5th 2019 photographs of

12:07

the facial reconstruction

12:11

were released to the media. The Allen

12:13

County coroner's office issued a media

12:15

release with the reconstruction images the

12:18

information they had about Mary Jane Doe that she was white

12:20

4 foot 6 to 5 foot 2 a description

12:23

of her clothing and that she died

12:25

from undetermined causes in late 1991

12:27

or early 1992. But

12:30

they also revealed two pieces of information that were new

12:33

to the public. One was that

12:35

Mary Jane Doe was approximately six months pregnant

12:37

when she died and the other was

12:39

that additional pathology on her skull found

12:42

healing fractures on her right and

12:44

left nasal bones. Mary

12:47

Jane Doe had a healing broken nose. Of

12:49

course the question on everyone's minds was was

12:52

the person who got her pregnant the same person who

12:54

broke her nose and who was he? The

12:57

Fort Wayne Journal Gazette did an interesting article

12:59

on detective Beth Buckholz and the process she

13:01

used to create the clay reconstruction images. This

13:04

is all a quote from the April 2019 article

13:06

by Corinne Brock. Beth

13:09

Buckholz provides several professional services

13:11

in unidentified deceased persons cases

13:14

including 3d forensic facial

13:16

reconstruction and approximation, 2d facial

13:19

reconstructions, post-mortem photo cleanups

13:22

and Photoshop cleanup of clothes and personal

13:24

items. She also provides

13:26

3d scanning and printing of skeletal

13:28

elements and the reassembly of

13:30

fragmented craniofacial remains. In

13:33

Mary Jane Doe's case Buckholz created a

13:35

bust in the unidentified woman's likeness to

13:37

give the public a better idea of

13:39

what she looked like when alive. I

13:42

prefer sculpting clay into 3d printed copy

13:44

of the craniofacial remains finalized with digital

13:46

enhancements of the sculpture. I find I

13:48

get a better likeness using this method

13:51

because I can see the three-dimensional shape

13:53

of the facial bones Buckholz said in

13:55

an email. So far

13:57

Buckholz has assisted with 16 forensic articles.

14:00

Cater. Although relatively new to the

14:02

field, Buckles came into it with

14:04

a bachelor's degree in biological anthropology

14:06

and years of experience both in

14:08

law enforcement and unexplained deaths investigations

14:10

which have helped her understand the

14:12

challenges of the cases she helped.

14:14

Solve through her work. Because.

14:17

It is not possible to create an

14:19

exact portrait of a person based on

14:21

the skeletal features alone. She said the

14:23

bus might not be an exact replication

14:25

about a person looks like in life.

14:27

However, it can be a step closer

14:29

in a case with significant deterioration. When

14:32

photos of the three D reconstructions are

14:35

released, the person is more likely to

14:37

be recognized. His information about the persons

14:39

close personal effects, tattoos, and details about

14:41

where they were found is included with

14:44

images. Buchholz said. And Mary

14:46

Jane Doe's case. Investigators believe the

14:48

woman was never reported missing. One.

14:51

Of the biggest challenges with this work

14:53

occurs when the unidentified deceased person has

14:55

not been reported as missing person their

14:58

name may not appear in missing persons

15:00

databases. Buffalo said. This. Could occur

15:02

if the person has been estranged from their family for

15:04

some. Time or has been living a

15:06

transient lifestyle. In those cases family

15:08

may not be looking for them and may

15:10

not know anything is wrong. As

15:13

many other people in her field buckled set,

15:15

her ultimate goal is solving. Those cases.

15:18

I. Find this work extremely rewarding. When

15:20

someone has identified it's a good feeling.

15:22

to now. I may have helped return

15:25

someone to their family. Buchholz said it's

15:27

also reward into now especially and homicide

15:29

cases. Once the person's identity is known,

15:32

the investigation into their death can finally

15:34

again. All. That from the Fort

15:36

Wayne Journal possessed. So.

15:40

The images were released in early Twenty

15:42

nineteen and the investigators were hopeful that

15:44

they would generate tips. I don't know

15:46

how many tips came and but the

15:48

any that did lead nowhere by December

15:50

sixteenth, Twenty Twenty Two name is as

15:52

listing for Mary Jane Doe reflected that

15:54

there were seven official. Rule out in

15:56

her case, Of course

15:58

by this time for. forensic genealogy had been

16:01

solved in cases for years. And

16:03

Detective Brian Martin of the Fort

16:05

Wayne Police Department was intimately familiar

16:07

with its powers, having used the

16:09

then brand new technology to solve Fort

16:11

Wayne's most notorious cold case, the

16:14

abduction and murder of April Tinsley. I

16:16

covered that case with input from Detective Martin

16:18

way back in season one. And

16:21

genealogist Lisa Niedler, co-founder of Ignite

16:23

DNA, saw some of the articles

16:25

in the Fort Wayne media discussing

16:27

the Mary Jane Doe case. Ms.

16:29

Niedler is from Fort Wayne and

16:32

based in Indiana. So in April

16:34

2023, she contacted the Allen County

16:36

coroner's office, Chief Deputy Coroner Chris

16:38

Meals, to offer her services. By

16:41

this time, Meals told WANE on

16:43

June 16, 2023, quote, we believe

16:45

there's enough material to do the

16:47

sequencing. But there was no money. DNA

16:50

extractions, sequencing, bioinformatics, none of

16:52

it is free. County

16:55

coroner Meals explained that if Mary Jane Doe

16:57

were a homicide victim, federal grant money could

16:59

be tapped for the testing. Here,

17:02

the cause of death was undetermined, albeit

17:04

with suspicious circumstances. On

17:06

June 16, 2023, the Allen County

17:09

coroner's office announced that Lisa Niedler

17:11

of Ignite DNA was seeking to

17:13

raise the funds, about $4,000, to

17:16

pay for updated DNA testing of the

17:18

remains of Mary Jane Doe. She

17:20

set up a crowd-sourced fundraiser on

17:23

givebutter.com under the title, Who

17:25

Am I? Mystery of the death of

17:27

a young, expectant mother in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

17:30

Well, they raised the money in just three

17:32

days. People wanted to help, moved

17:35

by the story of the young pregnant woman

17:37

who had now been unidentified for more than

17:39

30 years and whose baby never had a

17:41

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August 1, 2023, at the request of the

18:51

coroner's office, the University of

18:53

North Texas shipped the DNA extracts

18:56

taken from Mary Jane Doe's left

18:58

femur to nonprofit lab Intermountain Forensics

19:00

for sequencing and bioinformatics. That

19:03

lab created a SNP profile for Mary

19:05

Jane Doe based on the DNA extracts. Intermountain

19:08

Forensics role was completed on January 13, 2024,

19:12

and then Ignite DNA uploaded

19:14

the SNP profile to GEDmatch

19:16

and commenced the genealogy analysis.

19:21

The genealogy in this case took only a couple

19:23

of days. Ms. Niedler said they struck

19:25

gold when they uploaded the SNP profile to

19:27

GEDmatch. Two DNA relatives

19:29

in that database shared approximately 1,600 and

19:32

1,000 centimorgans, respectively,

19:35

with Mary Jane Doe. There were

19:37

also several lower-level DNA relatives of varying

19:40

degrees of cousins. These people

19:42

were all related to one another, and

19:44

Ms. Niedler suspected that they were on Mary Jane

19:46

Doe's maternal line, which proved to be correct. They

19:49

were able to identify a woman they believed

19:51

was likely Mary Jane Doe's mother. However,

19:54

she was deceased, had been married

19:56

numerous times, and had no identifiable connections

19:58

to Indiana. weren't all

20:00

that clear-cut. On the

20:02

paternal line, the highest DNA relative shared

20:05

approximately 200 centimorgans with Mary

20:07

Jane Doe, a not insignificant amount.

20:10

Additional relatives on this tree were traced

20:12

to a most recent common ancestor, and

20:15

surnames cross-checked with the suspected mother

20:17

on the other side of Mary Jane

20:19

Doe's tree until they found the

20:21

connection between the paternal and maternal trees. On

20:25

January 16th, Ms. Niedler reformed the

20:27

coroner's office that she had identified

20:29

people whom she suspected were likely

20:31

Mary Jane Doe's father, mother, and

20:34

two aunts. Her

20:36

father's name was Robert Bowers Sr. Her

20:38

mother was Darlene Beasley. Ms.

20:41

Niedler found one female child from the

20:43

Robert Darlene Union who had been adopted

20:45

out, but that daughter had a death

20:47

record dated 2022, so she was not

20:50

Mary Jane Doe. The genealogist

20:52

just could not locate a name that she

20:54

could attach to Mary Jane Doe. Once

20:57

Ms. Niedler gave this highly scientific tip

20:59

to the Fort Wayne authorities that she

21:01

believed Mary Jane Doe was a daughter

21:03

of Darlene Beasley and Robert Bowers Sr.,

21:06

it was up to the coroner's office to investigate. Darlene

21:09

had died in 2013, so Deputy Coroner Chris

21:12

Meals contacted the woman identified by

21:14

Ms. Niedler as a likely biological

21:16

aunt of Mary Jane Doe. Her

21:18

name was Angelina Pribitt. Angelina

21:21

confirmed that she had a niece

21:23

named Tabitha Ann Slain Merlin who

21:25

hadn't been seen or heard from

21:27

in decades. On

21:29

January 22nd, 2024, Chris Meals contacted the suspected

21:33

father Robert Bowers Sr. still living in

21:35

the area and informed him that they

21:37

may have identified his daughter Tabitha. Meals

21:40

asked Bowers for a buckleslob for comparison against

21:42

the DNA of Mary Jane Doe. Robert

21:45

Bowers spoke to CBS News. He

21:47

said, quote, the coroner came to my house, they

21:49

talked to me, and they told me that she

21:51

passed away. I couldn't believe it. I

21:53

couldn't believe she died like that. I thought she

21:56

was still alive somewhere. He told the

21:58

news outlet. swab

22:00

from Robert Bauer Sr. was submitted to

22:02

the Indiana State Police Crime Lab for

22:04

testing. The ISP crime

22:06

lab had, in July 2023,

22:08

implemented next-gen sequencing using a

22:10

varigen forensic DNA signature prep kit.

22:13

Varigen, FYI, owns GEDmatch. Anyway,

22:16

this tool permits the enhancement of

22:18

DNA profiles from complex, degraded samples

22:20

like Mary Jane Doe's. And

22:23

it also takes into account about 200 SNP

22:25

markers that can provide ancestry

22:28

and phenotype information. I

22:30

know it really sounds like I know what I'm talking

22:32

about here, but I got all this information from

22:34

analyst Stacey Bozanovki at the ISP crime

22:36

lab. There, Mary

22:38

Jane Doe's DNA was sequenced by the

22:40

lab using the SIG prep kit. A

22:43

more complete profile was obtained, and

22:45

then, using the STR profile obtained

22:47

by that process, kinship testing against

22:49

the buccal swab profile obtained from Robert

22:51

Bauer Sr. was performed. On

22:55

February 12, 2024, the testing

22:57

confirmed the likelihood of Robert Bauer Sr. being

23:00

Mary Jane Doe's father was 1 in

23:02

7.5 million, considered a very

23:05

strong likelihood. And Bowers

23:07

was the father of record of Tabitha Slaine

23:09

Merlin, who had last been seen by her

23:11

family sometime around 1988. The

23:14

top DNA relative in GEDmatch proved to

23:16

be her half-brother, and the second was

23:19

her half-aunt. So

23:21

who was Tabitha? Tabitha

23:23

Ann Slaine was born on January 20, 1969,

23:26

to parents Robert Bowers and Darlene

23:28

Beasley. 21Alive did

23:30

a fantastic article on her, from which much of

23:33

this information is taken. Tabitha was

23:35

born in California, but moved to Fort Wayne with her

23:37

family when she was an infant. As

23:40

a young child, Tabitha was adopted by

23:42

her father's sister, her aunt Norma Slaine.

23:45

Norma and her husband Donald raised Tabitha

23:47

alongside their other children. This

23:49

was one reason why it was difficult for the

23:51

genealogist to identify Tabitha by name. She

23:54

did not reside with her biological mother or father, and

23:56

she didn't have their last name. sisters.

24:01

One, Paula Slane Jones, told Eleven

24:03

Alive her younger sister Tabitha was a

24:05

happy child who loved to sing and dance.

24:09

Tabitha was very close to her other sister,

24:11

Lois Slane Gorny, as the two were

24:13

less than twelve months apart and age. They

24:15

shared a room and spent all their time together. Lois

24:18

spoke to Eleven Alive and said, We loved

24:20

each other. A friend of

24:22

the family, Chris Ann Shields, told Eleven Alive

24:24

that she went to camp with the Slane

24:26

sisters and they often got together for Taco

24:28

Tuesdays. Tabitha's early childhood,

24:30

in other words, sounded quite

24:32

normal. But then, when

24:34

Tabitha was fourteen, Norma, whom she called

24:36

her mother, passed away from cancer. The

24:39

death apparently hit Tabitha very hard. Norma's

24:42

sister, Tabitha's aunt Marla Spencer, told

24:45

Eleven Alive that Tabitha had been

24:47

a happy-go-lucky child, an extremely loving

24:49

little person who, quote, would do anything

24:51

for you. Marla said

24:53

she didn't have a mean bone in her body.

24:56

But when Norma died, Tabitha went into

24:58

a tailspin. Marla told

25:00

Eleven Alive her mom was Tabitha's rock

25:02

and, after Norma's death, she became troubled.

25:05

She was strong-willed and rejected efforts of her family

25:07

and friends to support and guide her. She

25:10

rebelled, was arrested one time for shoplifting,

25:12

and got married when she was just

25:14

eighteen. That marriage ended.

25:16

Tabitha drifted from place to place, her family

25:18

lost track of her, and Tabitha did

25:20

not tell them where she was or whom she was with.

25:23

Her close sister Lois started trying to find her sister in

25:26

1993, when she began really

25:28

worrying that Tabitha had not been heard from for years.

25:31

They knew she was a, quote, free

25:33

spirit, and Lois and their friend Chrisanne

25:35

talked about Tabitha, especially on her birthday

25:38

and holidays, wondering where she had ended

25:40

up. They both kind of assumed she

25:42

would show back up one day. As

25:44

time advanced, they both spent time looking for Tabitha

25:46

on the Internet, but never found any trace of

25:48

her there. After years had

25:51

passed, although Lois hoped and prayed that Tabitha

25:53

was just living her life out there, she

25:55

told Eleven alive she started to get a gut feeling

25:57

her sister was dead. the

26:00

family never filed a missing person report for Tabitha.

26:03

And when the Allen County coroner released photos of

26:05

the clay reconstructions of Mary Jane Doe

26:08

in 2019,

26:10

it looked nothing like Tabitha to her family and

26:12

did not occur to them that it could be their sister.

26:15

Now that she knew what happened to Tabitha,

26:17

Lois Gorney told 11 Alive she didn't understand

26:19

how her sister ended up in the flooded

26:22

basement of 3512 Reynolds Street. Did

26:24

someone wrap her up in that blanket or did she

26:26

just wrap herself up to stay warm, Lois questioned. She

26:29

noted that the house where Tabitha was found was

26:31

just seven miles from the family home where she

26:33

had lived prior to leaving. And

26:36

the cemetery where Tabitha ended up buried as

26:38

Mary Jane Doe was a mere 20-minute drive

26:40

from the home she had left sometime in

26:42

her teenage years, reportedly to head to Tennessee.

26:49

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28:04

Wayne police homicide detective Brian Martin and

28:06

Chris Meals of the coroner's office started

28:09

investigating the circumstances surrounding Tabitha's

28:11

death. Tabitha's aunt

28:13

Angela Privet told investigators Tabitha had

28:16

married Jerry Merlin on August 8,

28:18

1987. She was able to produce

28:20

the marriage license documenting this life's

28:22

end. Detective

28:25

Martin and Chris Meals were able to track down Ms.

28:27

Jerry Merlin. They met with him on February 2,

28:29

2024. Jerry

28:31

told them all about his early marriage to Tabitha.

28:34

The two were both very young and impulsive and

28:36

had married quickly. Jerry worked

28:38

all day for a fencing company and Tabitha stayed

28:41

home. They butted heads a little

28:43

because Tabitha would want to go out at night but Jerry,

28:45

exhausted from a day of physical liver, didn't.

28:48

He told the investigators that one day in 1988

28:51

the two had a disagreement after work when Tabitha

28:53

wanted to go to the mall and he did

28:55

not. He gave her some cash,

28:57

she left for the mall and he simply walked

28:59

out and moved back in with his parents in

29:01

New Haven. Tabitha never

29:03

followed him there although she was driven off his

29:06

family's property by his father in November of 1989

29:08

after she showed up there. The

29:11

couple never formally dissolved their union.

29:14

Jerry hadn't seen Tabitha since his

29:16

1989 incident and he didn't know what had happened to her.

29:19

He did not report her missing either. He assumed

29:21

she had just moved on. According

29:23

to Detective Martin, Jerry was cooperative and

29:25

is not considered a suspect in Tabitha's

29:27

death but merely a witness. Tabitha's

29:32

father, Robert Bowers Sr., told the investigators

29:34

that he last saw his daughter in

29:36

1988 when she said she

29:38

was leaving for Tennessee with her boyfriend Travis.

29:41

This was a whole other angle that had to be investigated. Detective

29:44

Martin tracked down Travis, whom Tabitha had

29:46

met in Fort Wayne, and confirmed that

29:49

the two moved to Memphis together. They

29:51

both worked but money was tight and they could not pay

29:54

the rent on their trailer. So Tabitha

29:56

returned to Fort Wayne, although not to her

29:58

family home. never

30:00

saw her again. Like Jerry, Travis

30:02

is not suspected in Tabitha's death. A

30:07

press conference was held by the Fort

30:09

Wayne and Allen County authorities announcing the

30:11

identification of Tabitha Merlin. Robert

30:13

Bowers, Sr., his wife Virginia, and

30:15

Tabitha's brother Robert Bowers, Jr., all

30:18

attended. Allen County

30:20

coroner Dr. John Brandenberger said he

30:22

had been a deputy coroner under

30:24

Dr. Phil O'Shaughnessy for five months

30:27

when Tabitha's remains were found. So

30:29

for his entire tenure in the coroner's office,

30:31

she had been unidentified. He

30:34

presented a photograph of Tabitha Merlin in life

30:36

and said, quote, she has been

30:38

Mary Jane Doe to us for these years, and

30:40

now we are able to attach her name and

30:42

family. So it's an exciting day

30:44

for us, although couched in the sadness of a

30:47

loss. He addressed the family,

30:49

this is Tabitha's day, and you've been waiting to have a

30:51

day for her for all this time. Dr.

30:54

Brandenberger spoke about how unidentified remains cases

30:56

are the most challenging of the hundreds

30:58

of cases his office handles each year.

31:01

He said as a scientist, it's a wonderful

31:03

time to be alive with regard to everything

31:05

that's developed in terms of science and technology.

31:09

Detective Brian Martin also addressed the media

31:11

saying, quote, the work that was

31:13

done in this case and the tenacity

31:15

that was shown by the coroner's office,

31:17

the state police lab, and everyone involved

31:20

is amazing. It obviously gives us hope

31:22

in all the other missing person's cases,

31:24

unidentified cases and cold case homicides, end

31:26

quote. Lisa

31:29

Niedler spoke about the forensic genealogy she

31:31

had performed and how that analysis located

31:33

Mary Jane Doe's parents within hours. Robert

31:38

Bowers Jr. spoke with a reporter from

31:40

WFFT and held up Tabitha's photo for

31:42

the camera. This is her. This is

31:44

my sister. Of her being

31:46

given her name back, he said, this is good, but

31:48

we need to find out what happened. We

31:52

do indeed. Tabitha was approximately 23 years

31:54

old when she died sometime between late

31:56

1991 and early 1992. Her birth stays

32:00

in January, so her exact age is uncertain.

32:03

She was pregnant, a very dangerous time for

32:05

women, and her nose had recently been

32:07

broken. Detective Martin told

32:09

me that based on the photos of

32:11

the crime scene and the recovered evidence,

32:14

he does not believe Tabitha rolled herself

32:16

up in that large, heavy carpet or

32:18

blanket that she was found floating inside.

32:20

Her death, in his seasoned opinion, is

32:22

highly suspicious. Detective

32:25

Martin has conducted six to eight interviews with

32:27

people who knew Tabitha, trying to

32:29

reconstruct her movements and find out who she might

32:31

have been spending time with and how she ended up

32:33

in the basement of that house. But

32:35

at this time, the investigation has sort of run its

32:37

course. Of course, I had

32:40

to ask him the million dollar question. Is

32:43

DNA testing being conducted on the

32:45

fetal remains of Tabitha's child? Detective

32:48

Martin told me they are exploring that very possibility.

32:51

The baby's bones are tiny and degraded, so

32:53

it's unclear whether they'll be able to obtain

32:55

results. But if they are able to

32:57

obtain DNA from the fetal skeleton and use

33:00

that to identify the baby's father, I have

33:02

to believe there will be a first. It

33:05

could take years, so we'll have to be patient. In

33:08

the meantime, the investigation into Tabitha's

33:10

death is continuing. And if

33:12

you have any information about Tabitha's disappearance or

33:14

death, please call the Fort Wayne

33:16

Police Department Detective Bureau at 260-427-1201 or

33:18

Crimestoppers at 260-436-7867. While

33:27

Tabitha's baby's remains are in the possession

33:29

of the Allen County investigators, Tabitha

33:32

herself has been returned to her family. If

33:35

you'd like to donate to the family's

33:37

GoFundMe seeking funds to enter Tabitha in

33:39

a place of the family's choosing with

33:41

a headstone, please

33:43

go to www.gofundme.com/f

33:47

slash Tabitha

33:49

slain slash donate.

33:52

Recently, I let listeners know about a new

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benefit available to them called an abject insider

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