NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Metro Nashville Police are working to solve an almost four-year-old cold case. The victim is an unidentified young woman whose cause of death has yet to be determined.
The Jane Doe was found September 8, 2018, on Sulpher Creek Road in the northwest Nashville area. Her body was found on the side of the road, in a mainly wooded area, severely decomposed which made it impossible to determine how she died. Police confirm there was no evidence of a hit and run on that road.
Metro Police said she was a Black or possibly Hispanic, woman between 15 to 25 years old with black curly hair. She was somewhere between 5 feet and 5 feet 5 inches in height.
"Certainly, there's somebody out there that's missing a family member," said Detective Matthew Filter.
Filter says there was no evidence she was shot, stabbed or hit by a car but he believes she is a victim of foul play.
"Oftentimes when we have a deceased individual, we don't have anything that immediately tells us who they are usually within two or three days. We've got them identified. In this particular case, we haven't been able to do that we haven't had success with fingerprints. We haven't had success with DNA," Filter said.
The only leads police had at the time were from the clothes she was wearing.
"She had a Vanderbilt pullover on, she had Vanderbilt leggings. She even had a Vanderbilt like waistband that's used by runners to carry their ID and maybe money and stuff."
Jane Doe was also wearing a white metal From the Heart brand necklace that appeared to have been missing a charm, a green and black leopard print bra, black undershirt, white socks, and no shoes.
A review of missing persons’ cases, including discussions with Vanderbilt University, did not show anyone who matched this description.
Because of her potential young age, a forensic artist with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children provided a sketch of what she believed to have looked like.
"They were able to do a rendering of her face based on skull features, which is given us this, this picture this forensic photograph today that at least gives us an idea of what she may have looked like in life and hopefully somebody will see that and recognize that," said Filter.
Known as Jane "Nashville" Doe 2018 for nearly four years. Filter wants to give this young woman back her name.
"We want to get her name, we need to know who she is because without knowing who she is, we have no idea why she was found where she was found. We don't know why she was even in Nashville or who she would be associating with or anything like that."
Detectives are going back to check registration information with Vanderbilt University.
Anyone with information about the woman’s identity or circumstances surrounding her death is asked to contact Cold Case Detective Matt Filter at 615-862-7803 or The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678).
