Feb. 28, 1983 in St Louis 26 years ago two men went into an abandoned building at 5635 Clemens Avenue scavenging for copper. Amid filth and debris, the two men stumbled on the body of a girl about 9 years old (African American). She had been murdered, raped and decapitated. Her hands were tied behind her back with a red-and-white nylon rope. She was wearing only a dirty yellow orlon sweater with the label cut out. She had two layers of red nail polish on her fingernails. The girl had medium-to-dark skin, was about 4 feet 10 inches and weighed about 70 pounds. Her body showed no signs of previous abuse - no bruises, scars or broken bones, and she appeared to be well-nourished. Because there was no blood at the scene, police suspect Jane Doe was murdered and decapitated somewhere else and dumped into the basement of the building. The childs body lay in the city morgue for several months. Jane Doe was finally buried Dec. 2, 1983, in a paupers grave on the southern side of Washington Park Cemetery. Four mud-covered gravediggers carried her small, white casket adorned with a single spray of pink, white and yellow flowers. The ceremony lasted five minutes. Months later, a group of schoolchildren raised money to buy Jane Doe a tombstone. The first African-American head of homicide, Leroy Adkins, now 71, was a year on the job at the time of Jane Does murder. Wanting to dispel the belief among many of the citys black residents that the police department cared more about white victims than black ones, Adkins immersed himself in the case. He organized meetings in the black community, urging residents to help. He wrote letters to the St. Louis American, Ebony and Jet magazines. Adkins tired eyes reflect the frustration and resignation that come from this infuriating case. The nightmares are gone, but harrowing memories linger. Jane Doe, he says, enters his mind when hes reading the paper, watching television, in the quiet-time moments before sleep. His wife, Glenda, knows the case nearly as well as her husband. For years shes been the sounding board for her husbands unanswered questions. Theres just so much wonderment in this story, she says. You wonder how no one can be missing a child of that age. Where is the family? What about her schoolmates? Her friends? How could no one report her as missing?
Posted on: Sun, 12 Oct 2014 14:45:23 +0000
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