We all came together to have identification to identify jane doe. Theres a passion to try and find out who our doe is. To try and think what if this was your family. You want to give them closure. Two homicide detectives. Its way above our heads. And i said i think i know how we can do it. All of these people share some amount of dna with the unknown person. We thought, this is the family. This is it surreal. It felt like someone just punched me in the stomach. Its a funny thing, isnt it . That it would be important to have a stone with your name on it. It is written on stone. Youre never forgotten. Hello and welcome to dateline in many cold cases, a grieving family is desperate to find their loved ones killer. But this mystery was not a whodunnit. The killer eventually confessed to the brutal crime. But who did he murder . That question haunted a small texas town for more than 12 years. Until a team of tenatious strangers put a name to a face. Heres Keith Morrison with the woman with no name. Here is where they put her. Her permanent home. No one really knew anything about her. This Little Cemetery in east texas. One simple marker on her grave. And the name that was not a name. Jane doe. It makes it personal. Because it makes you think, what if this is your family . What if this could be your friend . She . Who was she . This impossible enigma. How is it that a young woman can disappear and die. And no one can figure out who she is . The question that kept them glued to their computer. Participating in Something Like this can be almost consuming. It can really drain us. The obsession. I was hooked i was absolutely hooked this is where it began. October 29th, 2006. Kilgore texas. Two men out target shooting not far from town. They smelled it first. Then they saw it. Something burning. It looked like a mannequin. The men approached. What was that . And then, they recoiled. That was a young woman. Dead and burning we have homicides just like the rest of the world. As far as trying to burn the body . That really struck fear in people around here. Lieutenant eddie hope was still a sergeant back then. Grey county sheriffs department. She had wood piled beneath and on top of her. And there was a gas can lid there. So, it looked like somebody was trying to cover their tracks. She was meant to be part of one big bonfire and disappear forever . Right. The officers who responded, noted every detail they could. That she was young, late teens early 20s. And she was little. Maybe 54, 100 pounds. She was wearing jeans, a pale shirt. The color of lavender. 44 in her pocket. And this was unusual, baby teeth she still had a few. She never lost them. They said that that was highly unusual. Gives you something to work, with anyway. A little bit. Other than that, the young woman was impossible to identify. She had been murdered, of that there was no doubt. Her last moments had been very bad. But in most homicide investigations, Detectives Burrow deep into the life of the victim. Talk to every friend, interview the family. Find out about scorned lovers. Or past mistakes. That is often how murders get solved. But in this case, none of it was possible. We did not have a clue. What could you do . Nothing. If we got tips, we ran them down. Because we had no grounds to know who this could be a where she comes from. They read her dna profile did not match any person. Not known anyways. But the autopsy revealed seamen in her body. And it did match someone. A known, local sex offender. So they called him in. And he admitted he had sex that day with a woman whose name he did not know but he did not kill her. And he had an alibi too. So that was that. We would get people off the internet that would say, i think this might be so and so. And we would follow up on that. What we were thinking out about the time is maybe she is not from here because nobody is missing her here. And so, the county paid for a burial plot. And a little marker on the ground above her body. A small headstone, that just reads jane doe. There is no information we knew on her. And then winter came. But they did not give up. A texas ranger who sometimes worked with them said maybe he could help. And he was able to fly in an artist to try to reconstruct what our victim looked like in real life. And here it was. But it produced no leads. The county even made a clay model using an xray of the victims skull. Including those baby teeth. Sent it around the local media. Still, nothing. And detective work . It is an unending drum. It beats at all hours of the day and night. Felonies, misdemeanors. The lot. Demanding attention we have cases every day. You know, we had three or four cases each a day. They did not forget her as they went about their work. But the young woman remained nameless. No matter how many trails they followed. That just went on for years. Its all we had. A little bit here, a little bit there. Not much. No. No solution . No solution. No name. And then . Something unusual happened. The little details, like the baby teeth, caught the eyes of an amateur Internet Investigators on sites like reddit, and web sleuths. Before too long, they began referring to the Mystery Woman with kinf of shorthand. It was the color of her shirt that did it. One of those Armchair Detectives took to calling her, lavender lavender doe. This was the case that was followed online very closely by many people. People like this guy. And, what happened after that . Well. Remember what we said about obsession . A Murder Victim without a name. And detectives without any clues. Making this a very hard mystery to solve. But help is on the way coming up. I spent a lot of my spare time looking into a Missing Persons cases. I was impressed that people cared. Cared, and knew how to help. I said i think i know how we can do it. She said bingo all we need is dna. 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Now you can stay reliably connected through Power Outages with unlimited cellular data and up to 4 hours of battery backup to keep you online. Only from xfinity. Tomorrow, and a decade went home of the xfinity 10g network. By. But 11 years after the murder of a young woman they called lavender doe, and more than 200 miles from the spot where her body was found, in the town of killeen, texas. A man was feaverishly at work. It wasnt his profession that work that consumed him. Not yet at least. I kind of spent a lot of my spare time looking into Missing Persons cases, really just trying to kind of flesh out the stories of some of these lesser known cases. His name is kevin lord. He is, well, many things. A former software developer, a tshirt salesman, a passionate and Loyal Consumer of all things true crime. He wasnt an investigator or a Law Enforcement officer, just someone plagued by unanswered questions. I was looking for jane does in the area in texas. That might be a match to one of these missing girls. And thats how we came across hundreds of pages of online forms, about a Mystery Woman nicknamed lavender doe. Could she be one of the missing woman he was trying to locate . And so, kevin called the gregg county sheriffs department. And found himself on the phone with a lead detective, lieutenant eddie hope. I was glad people cared. Because we live in a world where a lot of people are just worried about themselves and not others. And here was evidence that maybe there are people yes. Some other investigator might have blown off. Just as other civilian with an Internet Connection and a theory. But kevin seems to know what hes doing, and his internet skills, way beyond what Lieutenant Hope could do. And before long, they didnt actually meet in person, they began acting almost like partners. We just flew together. Whatever he needed, that he couldnt get that i could get, Law Enforcement wise, he would send it to me. He kind of meshed together these bits of information. Yes. And two things happened. One, kevin realized lavender doe was not one of the missing woman hed been looking for. And two, he got hooked on the case of the girl in the lavender shirt, but he kept hitting dead ends. He needed some specialized help, very specialized. I reached out to Dna Doe Project to see if i might be able to come out as a volunteer. The Dna Doe Project, a nonprofit founded by a former Rocket Scientist named Colleen Fitzpatrick and novelist and genealogy enthusiast margaret press. I barely knew what john and jane does meant, but i had been retired for about a year and come back to the west coast to be near my daughter and grandchildren and to relax. It was winter 2017, when margaret, not the retiring type, was struck with an idea. Shed already been deeply immersed in genealogy. Helping adoptees find their birth parents. If i can figure out jane doess parents, will know who jane doe. Margarets plan . Obtained remains from jane and john those retest their dna and upload their results to a public database, where maybe that dna would lead them to some relative of their victim. So i had my recipe, and i reached out to colin and i said we know how to do it. And she said bingo, all we need is dna. And i know a couple of people. At first, they paid their dna test with their own saving. And then they set up a nonprofit, and started taking donations. And after just six months, they solved their first case. The mystery surrounding a few weeks later, another case made headlines around the world, showing the power of genealogy. Police arresting a man they believe is a golden state killer, and the suspect a former police officer, discovered using dna. That one to change the world because that was a violent killer, and that was a huge impact on the world, on the community. Sure. It opened everybodys eyes. Yeah. And suddenly, colleen and margaret had company. Geneologists just came out of the woodwork, and i could see us as a very unique organization where Law Enforcement agencies could come to us with their bones and no money, and we could bring in Volunteer Genealogists who were begging to help us. What you could bring to this process is a crowd sourced investigation like you know a bunch of bees forming a hive and disperately they are not gonna do much but all together, they could really accomplish something significant. Right, exactly. Kevin lord one of those bees. He joined Dna Doe Project as a volunteer, and then others followed. Kind of a mini hive, looking for the truth about a Mystery Woman they called lavender doe. Coming up, the bees get busy. We spent hours working together, talking to each other. Oh my gosh, did you see this . And what about . This was this . Whos this guy . Were kind of the last resort. When dateline continues. Ontinues were traveling all across america, talking to people about their hearts. Hows the heart . 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You cleared up decades of frustration in a second. Order now and well ship your pair of fda registered hearing aids in your choice of style with incredible savings. Pay as low as only 29 a month you get a 45day money back guarantee, free 24 7 us based support, a portable charging case, and Free Shipping. With rca, you can be hearing better in just days order yours now it was a kind of an call this number or go to rcahearingaids. Com now obsession now. A determination to give her back her name. To identify the anonymous young woman, murdered and set on fire, and then buried. Here in longview, texas. God knows Law Enforcement had tried every trick in the investigative book. Except for a new book, if you could call it that. The Dna Doe Project. A bunch of amateurs, really. But committed, oh yes. Its not that Law Enforcement has not tried. Most of the cases that come to us were kind of the last resort. Us, meaning a group of people who had never actually met in person. Who labored away in a kitchen, or a bedroom, or a basement. Who knew each other only online. Like lori gaff. A former blackhawk helicopter pilot, who stumbled on facebook posting about dna doe. I was completely enthralled and me being me, had to know everything about it. And i thought, i totally want to be part of this. And was soon addicted. It will consume your life if you let it. So, ive been making and effort to kind of set limits. One hour turns into ten, pretty quick, i would think . Ten might be a slow day. This has become an obsession. Then there was missy koski. A selfdescribed search angel, who use Genetic Genealogy to find her biological father. What was that like to find him . It was incredible. It was absolutely incredible. So, she began helping other adoptees find at their birth parents. And one day, while i was helping an adoptee, that adoptee got a phone call from the Dna Doe Project. And she was told that she was distantly related to a jane doe. I just got intrigued. And i said, can i talk to them . Before long, missy was hooked, too. And the three, kevin, lori and missy, formed a team. So you are like the three musketeers sitting there together. We spend hours working together, talking to each other, almost exclusively on line. And we just get in there and blab all day long about, oh my gosh, did you see this . And what about this . And where is this . Whos this . I cant find this . Whatever. Back in gregg county, after more than a decade chasing leads on lavender doe, Lieutenant Hope understood that investigations had changed. Genealogy is the way of the future. To us homocide detectives, its way above our heads. To be honest with you. So, you welcomed their help. We did. And across the country, someone else had taken notice of the amateur investigators working with dna doe. I liked to write about how ordinary people and see how genealogy are dealing with the. Is a staff writer for the atlantic magazine. I like the fact that kevin was so invested in this case. Passion like that was a story worth following. And she did. Watching their process. For one thing, using the victims skin, hair or blood generated the dna profile. Which they have little to a genealogy site called gen match. We get a whole list of dna matches that in all of these people share some amount of dna with our unknown person. Its important to understand the volunteers work with public dna data bases. And where it is all this dna material come from that youre able to look at . So, these are all people who have taken tests with Companies Like ancestry dna or 23 and me. The consumer test. And who have given access to others to view their results. Thats a relatively tiny percentage of the population, so the odds of finding an exact match . Vanishingly small. But just by the pure probabilities, were often lucky enough to get a decent enough match. By decent match, he means a distant relative. Someone who likely doesnt even know the victim. We kind of look for a match thats in the neighborhood of maybe a second or third cousin or so is a good Starting Point. A Starting Point to work, backwards, and try to reconstruct branches of the family tree. By scouring the int