page_title: List of unidentified decedents in the United States
section_title: Broward County Jane Doe (1982)
hierarchical_section_title: List of unidentified decedents in the United States / Florida / Broward County Jane Doe (1982)
caption_attribution_description: English: Forensic facial reconstruction of an unidentified decedent found in 1988 in Fort Lauderdale. Despite her unique tattoo, her actual name was never recovered.
context_page_description: An unidentified decedent, or UID, is a deceased person whose legal identity is unable to be determined by law enforcement. Although the majority of individuals are identified soon after their bodies are recovered, it is not uncommon for bodies to remain unidentified for years or even decades. There are approximately 40,000 unidentified decedents in the United States at any given time.
  A deceased body can be identified in several different ways. Most commonly, a relative of the deceased identifies the body by sight. However, if a body is decomposed, skeletal, or unrecognizable due to severe facial trauma at the time of recovery, other methods must be used. Some common modes of identification include fingerprint comparison, dental records, chest x-rays and comparing the deceased's DNA to the DNA sequence of relatives such as a parent or sibling. Since identification of a deceased individual is a legal matter, officials require a high degree of certainty in order to make a formal identification.
context_section_description: On the afternoon of August 3, 1982, a young woman was killed after being hit by a tractor trailer in Fort Lauderdale, Broward County, Florida. She was probably between fourteen and seventeen, although she may have been as young as twelve or as old as twenty-five. She had on jeans, a dark blue or brown top, and brown sandals; and she had dark blond or light brown hair that was curly in texture. She was of slender build, but with large breasts, at a height of five feet two inches (157 cm) and a weight of 110 pounds (50 kg). She had possibly been hitchhiking around the southern United States, in Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana and Nevada; and may have spoken with a Cajun or Southern accent. It is possible that while in Nevada she used the name "Donna", and that she had friends or family living in the area. She had thirty dollars and three business cards; one was linked to a police officer who provided information involving a runaway who stated the details about Nevada.
caption: 1988 Broward County Jane Doe
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