Certain outcomes can and always will be hard to accept- especially when one is consumed with knowing all the answers. The case of Wadesboro’s Jane Doe is one that has captured the attention of not only Ansonians but now through social media, the world. And it is one that leaves a slew of questions in its wake.
An opinionated person, I often see very little gray area when it comes to what I believe justice should look like.
In the case of Jane Doe, whose body was found behind the North Carolina National Guard Armory May 12, 2022, it is hard to envision justice because it is impossible to know what vindication would look like in her case. Life experiences condition us to immediately jump to the conclusion she was murdered. Half-naked woman, barefoot, alone in the woods, and later found dead? Definite foul play there, right?
Maybe.
What we do know is she was last seen alive on a private landowner’s trail camera Sunday, August 22, 2021 in a heavily wooded area behind the armory. In the first set of still images, taken around 1:33 a.m., Jane Doe is moving quickly, the trail camera catching one fleeting image of her moving briskly past a nearby deer feeder. In the next set of images, taken between 4:30 and 4:33 a.m., she is moving slowly, cautiously maneuvering through the dense underbrush with the aid of a walking stick.
It is not hard for me to imagine the young woman, who appears injured in the later images, falling prey to animals- be it coyotes, bobcats, snakes, or perhaps, even bees.
Of course, it is entirely plausible Jane Doe was wandering around half naked in unfamiliar woods because she escaped from a car — maybe the one that drove her into Wadesboro? Or maybe because she escaped from a nearby house?
Did she run into the woods, and using the deer feeder as a reference point, hunker down and hide? Did she spend those three hours in terror of someone stalking her or of someone waiting for her to leave the camouflage of the trees?
Maybe it is as simple as Jane Doe had a heart attack.
All possibilities for her demise aside, basic facts remain in her case.
Jane Doe traveled to Wadesboro from somewhere. She ended up barefoot and half-naked in the woods somehow. She managed to disappear into the woods for nearly three hours, possibly become injured, and have the wherewithal to walk in a straight line past the same trail camera a second time. Why was she not picked up on any of the other trail cams in the area? Why were the trail camera images not made public immediately? Why was the fact that a young woman’s body had been found kept a secret for nearly two years?
Her case has spanned the tenure of two of the county’s sheriffs’ and several of its detectives, current and former. From the outside it could seem as though her case has been shuffled around, forgotten, and ignored.
I cannot speak to the inner workings of the Anson County Sheriff’s Office, but I can say common sense shouts what my heart is all too happy to deny- there are very little facts or information to go on in this case.
At the time Jane Doe was found, her body had lain at the mercy of the elements for nine months. Reports indicate her DNA was not collected at this time, nor was the discovery of her body made known to the public.
The sheriff’s office has never denied mistakes were made in her case initially.
Under Sheriff Scott Howell, Jane Doe’s NamUs [National Missing and Unidentified Person’s System] profile was established, her DNA sent off for analysis, and a new detective assigned to her case.
With the public now aware, and movement finally occurring in the case, tips to Jane Doe’s identity began pouring in from all over.
Close to home, April Reid, missing from Lenoir and possibly hitchhiking towards Myrtle Beach, became an early contender in Doe’s identity as she fit the body type of the woman on the trail camera and reportedly required a walking stick. Reid was later ruled out by her dental records and remains missing.
Another contender is Amber Johnston who took an ill-fated trip on a greyhound bus to Winston Salem and disappeared from the station. Allegedly, she was headed to meet her ex- boyfriend in Myrtle Beach.
I can only imagine the headache and heartbreak of trying to solve a case in reverse and the only clues you have to work with are two-year old skeletal remains exposed to the elements for nine months. Two years in and every business with a security system has already wiped its footage from August 2021. Every witness is struggling to remember what they ate for breakfast last Saturday, nevermind trying to recall a thin, blonde woman of average height they briefly interacted with two years ago.
Jane Doe was found still wearing her black Secret Treasures size 34C bra and what could be legging-like material wrapped around her lower torso. If more than one set of DNA was found on either of those items, the sheriff’s office has remained tightlipped.
The unsettling eeriness of the case keeps Jane Doe’s story alive. Few who have seen her haunting last images can forget we still do not know her name or how she came to be there.
At this point in Jane Doe’s story I am hopeful law enforcement can give her back her name and return her to her family.
It seems so simple to get DNA results — we watch the TV “experts” do it in seconds on crime shows. In real life there is a backlog of cases, each one representative of a family waiting for answers.
As we wait to learn the identity of Wadesboro’s Jane Doe through DNA testing, I am afraid her story still never will be fully told — and we may just have to learn to live without knowing all the answers.
