Newspaper article about Jane Doe
Real Name: Unknown
Case: Unidentified Remains
Location: Ellis, Missouri
Date: April 21, 1877
Case[]
Details: An unknown woman was found murdered in a field alongside the Katy railroad tracks near Ellis, Missouri, on April 21, 1877. Her body was decomposed and may have been there for several weeks. She had been beaten and then shot through the chest. There was nothing to identify her or reveal where she had come from. She was believed to be around the age of twenty.
According to local legend, the woman was seen getting off the train at Ellis, near Highway 43. She was fashionably dressed and seen crying and arguing with a man. Witnesses reported that it appeared to be a lover’s quarrel and that the couple stormed east down the tracks. The man was later seen returning to the station alone. He boarded another train and left town.
According to the legend, the woman’s body was later discovered alongside the train tracks, and railroad workers buried her in a field a few yards from where she was found. Since the murder, the woman’s grave has been maintained by railroad workers, adorned with flowers every Memorial Day.
Geneva Fuchser has since come to believe that her missing grandmother, Conradina Olson, might be the unknown woman buried near Ellis. Bill Carpenter of Fort Scott, Kansas, told Geneva about the woman. A psychic’s predictions also led Geneva to her conclusion. Historian Pat Brophey, however, remains skeptical about Geneva’s claims. He says there are newspaper articles about the unknown grave dating from before 1910, when Conradina disappeared.
One newspaper article, in particular, seemed to discount Geneva’s conclusion. It was published in 1888, twenty-two years before Conradina disappeared. It stated that the woman’s body was discovered on April 21, 1877. It also described the dead woman as being less than twenty years old. Conradina was thirty-eight when she vanished.
Bill Carpenter, however, says that around 1950, he talked to an eighty-five-year-old man who had worked for the railroad his entire life. The man said that the woman they had found along the tracks was approximately in her thirties. Bill believes that the woman was Conradina.
The 1888 newspaper article indicates that the woman may have been Lula King of Indiana.
Suspects: The man seen arguing with the woman is presumed to be responsible for her murder. However, he has never been identified.
Extra Notes: This case first aired on the December 19, 1990 episode, which focuses on Conradina's disappearance.
Results: Unsolved
Links:
- Mysterious Murder - May 4, 1877
- The Mystery of the Unknown Grave - February 5, 1986
- Unknown grave in Nevada cemetery still a mystery - October 29, 2003
- Jane Doe Facebook Page
- Jane Doe at Find a Grave