February 28, 1983. St. Louis, Missouri. The body of an African-American girl is found in the basement of an abandoned apartment building. She is believed to be between eight-to-eleven years old and has her hands tied behind her back and it turns out she was sexually assaulted and strangled to death before she was beheaded. Since the victim’s head is never recovered and she cannot be identified, she becomes known as the “St. Louis Jane Doe”. Over the years, investigators explore a number of different leads, but they are unable to determine the girl’s identity or figure out who was responsible for killing her. On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we explore one of the most horrific and tragic stories you’ll ever find about the murder of an unidentified decedent, who has also been known by such as names as “Little Jane Doe” and “Precious Hope”.
Additional Reading:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Louis_Jane_Doe
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/54ufmo.html
https://unidentified-awareness.fandom.com/wiki/St._Louis_Jane_Doe_(1983)
“Our Precious Hope: St. Louis’ Little Jane Doe Revisited” Documentary
https://www.riverfronttimes.com/stlouis/the-case-that-haunts/Content?oid=2460475
http://fox4kc.com/2013/06/17/authorities-try-to-locate-body-of-girl-killed-beheaded-30-years-ago/
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/new-hope-in-cold-case-of-decapitated-girl-found-in/article_ef7aca67-2f9f-5c76-9516-4285802f338f.html
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/research-unlocks-some-secrets-about-decapitated-girl-for-st-louis/article_36de5a5c-b615-5292-b5aa-abb99a888a6c.html
https://fox2now.com/news/true-crime/little-jane-doe-grizzly-1983-st-louis-child-death-remains-unsolved/
https://www.foxnews.com/us/who-was-she-new-technology-brings-hope-to-identifying-headless-girl-killed-30-years-ago
https://www.riverfronttimes.com/movies-tv/new-documentary-digs-into-st-louis-cold-case-of-headless-child-38416649
https://www.stlamerican.com/arts_and_entertainment/living_it/unsolved-mysteries/article_297141c6-43c2-11ec-b8af-db4f4c92958b.html
https://www.newspapers.com/image/151783522/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vernon_Brown_(murderer)
https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/10456sw/st_louis_jane_doe_documentary_gives_a_lot_more/
“The Trail Went Cold” is on Patreon. Visit www.patreon.com/thetrailwentcold to become a patron and gain access to our exclusive bonus content.
“The Trail Went Cold” is doing a weekly livestream show on Vokl every Thursday from 7:00-8:00 PM ET as part of their “True Crime Thursday” line-up. For more information, please visit their website.
“The Trail Went Cold” is going to be appearing on podcast row at “Crimecon UK” at the Tower Bridge, Leonardo Royal Hotel & Spa in London on June 10-11, 2023, as well as “Crimecon” at the World Center Marriott in Orlando, Florida on September 22-24, 2023. To get a 10 % discount on the purchase of tickets to either event, please use our specialized promo code, “COLD23”, by visiting https://www.crimecon.co.uk or https://www.crimecon.com.
The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote.
All music is composed by Vince Nitro.
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 324 – Eric Coy & Jeremy Stoner
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 323 – Lisa Myers Neugent
The Trail Went Cold – Bonus Episode – Deceptions & Resurrections
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 322 – Bobby Bizup
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 321 – The Bellingham John Doe
The Trail Went Cold – Bonus Episode – Larry Race
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 320 – Verna Bjerky
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 319 – Natasha Jennings
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 318 – The Eleven Who Went to Heaven (Part 2)
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 317 – The Eleven Who Went to Heaven (Part 1)
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 316 – John & Shelly Markley
The Trail Went Cold – Bonus Episode – My Bloody Valentine
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 315 – Hugh & Dian Harlin, Larry Costine & Melissa Jo Sermons
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 314 – Lindsay Buziak
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 312 – Bryan Nisenfeld
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 311 – Bernd Goericke & Andrea Scherpf
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 310 – Update, Part 3
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 309 – Q&A
The Trail Went Cold – Episode 308 – Ricky Jean Bryant
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