page_title: List of unidentified decedents in the United States
section_title: Fairfax County Jane Doe (1996)
hierarchical_section_title: List of unidentified decedents in the United States / Virginia / Fairfax County Jane Doe (1996)
caption_attribution_description: English: Reconstruction of an unidentified male found in 2014 in Virginia.
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 December 18, 1996, a groundskeeper at the Pleasant Valley Memorial Park Cemetery in Annandale, Virginia found the body of an elderly white woman near the area of the cemetery where infants were buried. She was estimated to be between 50 and 70 years old, was 5 feet tall and weighed 157 pounds. She was found wearing a teal Eddie Baur rain jacket, navy blue and red 'Classiques Entier' sweaters, a red sleeveless silk shirt, navy blue knit wool pants, knee high stockings, black loafers, bifocals with translucent frames, two clip on earrings, a gold watch with a mesh band, 14 karat gold ring with 4 jade stones, and a metal bead chain with a medic alert stating "NO CODE, DNR, No Penicillin". A green knapsack with various cassette tapes and two empty juice bottles was also found with her. Investigators believe she may have gotten her clothes from a high-end store in the area. An 8 inch adorned Christmas tree inside of a plastic sheet was also found nearby, leading to the nickname "Christmas Tree Lady". She had committed suicide by ingesting Vallium and brandy, as well as tying a plastic bag around her neck, suffocating herself. $2.50 USD was also found with her, as well as a note stating it was for the coroner and cemetery. Both had a typed note stating: "Deceased by own hand...prefer no autopsy. Please order cremation with funds provided. Thank you, Jane Doe." She had no receipts on her person for investigators to trace her movements. Investigators have also stated that the location she was found in would most likely have not been known of by a drifter.
caption: FBI Reconstruction of Henrico County John Doe
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