How police identified body of teenage 'Jane Doe' whose remains were left unidentified for over 20 years
When the remains of a deceased woman were discovered encased in cement in New York back in February 2003, police had no idea that it would take them over two decades to identify the victim.
Dubbed the 'Midtown Jane Doe' due to authorities' inability to attribute a name to the body, the dead woman was quickly determined to have met a gruesome end with her hands and feet bound by extension cord.
She was found in the Midtown Manhattan area of Hell's Kitchen when construction work led to her skull rolling onto the ground.
In 2003, law enforcement commented: "At this point, we believe she was a young, middle-class woman who probably hopped on a bus to New York full of dreams, but who ended up on the streets."
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Last week, however, the harrowing mystery was subject to a mind-bending twist, with the identification of the remains being helped along by DNA left behind after the 9/11 attacks.
The deceased teen was identified as Patricia Kathleen McGlone, a teenager hailing from Sunset Park in Brooklyn. She was last seen in the late 1960s.
Investigators believe McGlone was between 17 and 19 when she was murdered, bound, wrapped in carpet and entombed in cement within the building's walls.
The teenager’s name matches a signet ring engraved with the initials 'PMcG', which was found encased in the cement with her body in 2003.
Along with the ring, police found a wristwatch and a plastic toy soldier.
NYPD Detective Ryan Glas was able to finally identify McGlone after years of following leads paired with forensics and the DNA of a woman killed on 9/11 - who, eerily, was also called Patricia.
The DNA was handed over to police by family members who hoped to find the female 9/11 victim’s remains, and she turned out to be somehow related to ‘Midtown Jane Doe’.
Law enforcement have also stated that another DNA lead showed up that they believed to be a parent of ‘Midtown Jane Doe’, which further led to the identification.
It has now emerged that McGlone attended Catholic school before enrolling into a public high school for just eight days. She then married a man in his 30s around the year of 1968, and disappeared.
Detective Glas confirmed that McGlone’s husband can be linked to the Hell’s Kitchen building where her body was found encased in cement.
Glas commented: “We’re still working on getting information on him, trying to verify what his situation was with her.
“At this point in the investigation, what I can say is, he does have a connection to where she was found.”
The investigation remains underway.
Rhianna Benson