TOLEDO, Ohio — Toledo police received funding to investigate a cold case involving the 1987 death of a person whom authorities described as a young woman who has never been positively identified.
In a press release Wednesday, a nonprofit called "The Porchlight Project" said Toledo Police Detective Jason Mussery requested funding from the organization, which raises money to help solve cold cases. The Porchlight Project said they would fully fund DNA testing and genetic genealogy to assist in determining the deceased's identity.
The deceased in question is an unidentified young woman who has been dead for nearly 40 years. With the help of The Porchlight Project, they are hoping to identify the person, whose body police said was discovered behind an auto repair shop on Collingwood Boulevard near I-75 on June 16, 1987.
“The Toledo Police Department has never given up on giving this young woman her name,” said Porchlight Project spokesman Nic Edwards in a press release. “There have been several missing persons that have been officially excluded as a match over the years. We hope to finally provide a positive identification. I believe this young woman’s parents and siblings are still alive and I’m sure they’re heartbroken, not knowing where she has been all this time.”
According to police and The Porchlight Project, the deceased's body appeared as if someone had set fire to them in an attempt to destroy the body. Police estimated the woman had been dead for several days.
Since then, the deceased has never been identified. Police did not specifically say if the incident was being investigated as a homicide.
Police described the victim as a female estimated the victim to have been between 16 and 20 years of age at the time of death, had short-cropped strawberry blonde hair, was between 5 feet, 4 inches and five feet, 7 inches tall and weighed about 110 pounds.
Investigators said the person's body was found wrapped in a pink-colored cloth, similar to a blanket. She was wearing Jordache jeans, and her toenails were painted pink. She had five piercings in each ear, with small, round pear earrings, police said.
Anyone with information in this case should contact the Toledo Police Investigative Services Bureau at 419-245-3142.
The two pictures below are police renderings of what the unidentified woman may have looked like.
