2024/12/10

Forensic Magazine December 9, 2024: After Exhumation, Genealogy Identifies 1973 Jane Doe

On Nov. 19, 1973, the unidentified remains of Jane Doe 1973 were discovered near the bank of the St. Vrain River, four miles west of Platteville, CO.

In 2021, Cold Case Detective Byron Kastilahn examined the investigation with the hope that genetic genealogy might identify Jane Doe. Kastilahn searched for where Jane Doe’s remains were interred, eventually finding her in Linn Grove Cemetery in Greeley. In April 2022, Jane Doe’s remains were exhumed to obtain usable DNA for genetic genealogy.

In February 2024, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Forensic Genealogy Analyst, Melissa Kraker, provided a genetic genealogy report showing evidence that Jane Doe was likely Roxanne Colleen Leadbeater. Unfortunately, Leadbeater’s parents and brother were deceased, so the closest living relatives were first cousins. 

Kastilahn contacted the cousins and learned that they weren’t close to Leadbeater and her family due to living in different states. They all remembered that she had gone missing around 1972, when she was only 15 years old. Leadbeater’s cousins indicated she and her family had no connections to Colorado, and they did not know of any reason she would be there. They said the family didn’t know if Leadbeater was kidnapped or ran away.

Around the time Leadbeater went missing, her cousins believed she and her family were living in the Los Angeles area, maybe around Redondo Beach. Kastilahn contacted law enforcement agencies in the Los Angeles area, including the Redondo Beach Police, Huntington Beach Police, Inglewood Police, Hawthorne Police, Los Angeles Police, and the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department. None of the agencies had any record of Leadbeater being reported as a runaway or missing person. more