FLAGLER COUNTY, Fla. — It was a normal afternoon in 1993. Two young boys were playing basketball on Sea Ship Place in Flagler County, when the ball bounced into the woods near their home.
They went after it, but what they found was terrifying. A dead body down to just skeletal remains.
Detectives from the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office responded.
"They determined she was Native American between 20 to 35 years old at the time of her death and was there between two and three years," tells Detective Sarah Scalia with the Flagler County Sheriff's Office Cold Case Unit.
Scalia says the initial investigators in 1993 went through missing people's reports, but didn’t find any that matched. That could be because her race was unclear in the reports. The first detectives said she was Native American, but the medical examiner’s report states she was white.
More recently, DNA testing has revealed both were wrong. She was actually African American and died from blunt force trauma to the head.
To investigate her murder, detectives first need to know who she was.
"That’s step one," said Scalia. "We have to identify her, to know what happened to her."
A facial re-creation was done in 1993 with clay, but Scalia says while it was done with good intentions, it isn’t very accurate.
So in reopening this case, the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office asked one of the premiere forensic artists in Florida, Autumn Krick with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, to help with a new digital re-creation using information they had from the DNA and the skull.
Investigators believe the new re-creation is a better representation of what the victim may have looked like.
With still no leads on who she could be, Scalia says she turned to genetic genealogy, and there the trail started to heat up. DNA says Jane Doe is a descendent of George Washington Coleman and Clarissa Minnick who lived in the late-1800s.
"From there we go down the tree," explains Scalia. "So, Clarissa and George had 12 children, their children had multiple children, so the branches of the tree are spread out."
Most of the Coleman/Minnick family are in the Aiken/Edgefield, South Carolina area. But some have branched out to Florida and other states.
Scalia says the members of the family have been cooperative. She’s been working with Williams, a member of the Coleman/Minnick family and a co-owner of Genealogy Adventures, to help build out the family tree of more than 300 descendants and see if anyone recognizes the victim.
"They don’t know, they simply don’t know. The ones we have spoken to, they have absolutely no idea who she is," explains Williams.
Williams says her focus is figuring out who the parents of Jane Doe could be, which she thinks will unlock the woman’s identity.
"So, we are really focused on the grands [of George Coleman and Clarissa Minnick], which we think would be her parents. They were born between the '30s and the '40s," explains Williams.
It is unknown if she lived in Florida or if her body was just dumped there, but considering she was believed to be between 20-35 years old when she died in 1993, Scalia and Williams say Jane Doe had a life, friends and maybe connections to family.
Someone has to know who she is.
"We want to put her to rest properly," Williams said. "She wants to be found, her ancestors want her to be found and I think it should be done."
For now, the body remains at the medical examiner’s office, waiting for the day she finally gets her name uncovered and then the investigation into her murder can begin.
"I want to reconnect her with her family in whatever way I can do that," Scalia said. "And give the family some kind of resolution."
If you have any information about who you think she could be, please contact the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office Cold Case Unit at (386) 313-4911 or you can email TIPS@FlaglerSheriff.com.
