TOWN OF ELLERY, N.Y. (WKBW) — A woman found shot to death along Interstate 86 in Chautauqua County 42 years ago remains unidentified, as investigators continue their efforts to solve the cold case.
I visited the spot where the mystery woman was found dead on the morning of December 6, 1983, in the Town of Ellery.
Linemen working for Niagara Mohawk were driving by that snowy morning when they noticed what they thought was a mannequin on the side of the road. They backed up and went to investigate. It turned out to be the body of a woman who had been shot four times.
Tom DiZinno, an investigator with the Unsolved Chautauqua Unit of the Chautauqua County Sheriff's Office, showed me the exact location where the body was discovered.
"See this creek here, she had been down in the creek," Dizinno said.
The woman was found covered in snow, investigators believe she was killed sometime between the late evening of December 5 and early morning of December 6, 1983.
Four decades later, the woman still has no name. She is known only as Ellery Jane Doe.
Dizinno is working with forensic labs and the FBI in an effort to solve her case. Investigators believe she may have been traveling through the area when she was killed.
"I don't think she's from here," Dizinno said. "She has all apparent signs of being a traveler. Everything on her is European. Her affect and effects are European. What gives a lot of people the confusion is that note in her pocket."
That note was from the Blue Boy Motel in Vancouver, Canada. That leads DiZinno to think she may have been traveling with a truck driver.
Despite the challenges of solving such an old case, Dizinno remains committed to identifying the woman.
"I pray and hope we could find her identity because when I go out to that cemetery, it's cold, it's always cold," Dizinno said. "There's a little county marker. It just feels cold and lonely. Nobody deserves that. No one. Nobody deserves to die as a Jane Doe."
The woman is buried in Chautauqua County with a grave marker that simply reads "Jane Doe 1983."
Anyone with information about "Ellery Jane Doe" or anything related to her case is asked to contact unsolvedchautauqua@sheriff.us.
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