WASHOE COUNTY JANE DOE: WF, 25-35, found near Lake Tahoe, NV - 17 July 1982 IDENTIFIED! *Mary Silvani*

https://identifyus.org/cases/8427

On 07/17/1982 at approximately 1330 hours, hikers found the decedent on the East side of Sheep Flats, south of Mt. Rose Highway. She was found lying prone on the ground with defects to the back of her head. Mens underwear had been used to cover the defects. She was clad except for being barefoot. Her livor mortis was still blanching when she was found.

https://www.washoesheriff.com/sub.php?page=unsolved-homicides
Case#: G82-0433

Victim: Jane Doe-White Adult Female
Location: Sheeps Flat
Date of Occurrence: July 17, 1982

Synopsis:
On July 17, 1982, a white female was found dead in the Sheeps Flat area of Mount Rose. This is the area commonly referred to as the Meadows, just over the Mount Rose Summit as you drop into the Tahoe Basin. It is a forested area in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

The victim had not been there long and was clothed. She wore a bathing suit under her clothing. She also wore a blue top, blue jeans, and yellow tennis shoes. There was no identification and her identity is still unknown.

The victim is believed to be of European decent based upon an inoculation scar and unique dental work. Although many leads have been pursued, her identity and whereabouts prior to her death are still a mystery.

This agency is actively seeking anyone who may have knowledge about this case.

http://www.kolotv.com/home/headline...w-Life-To-A-33-Year-Old-Murder-317665371.html

New Details Released in 33-Year-Old Cold Case

RENO, NV - After years of investigation, a young woman found murdered off the Mount Rose Highway is still only known as "Jane Doe", but investigators in the Washoe County Sheriff's Cold Case Unit have a new theory and want to access a new tool--social media.

July 17, 1982, a young woman, 25 to 35 years of age, about 5 and a half feet tall with slender build, light brown hair and hazel eyes,
walked across the meadow at the top of the highway between the Truckee Meadows and Lake Tahoe, an area known as Sheep Flat.

She was with or met someone who sexually assaulted her and shot her multiple times in the back. Then as now, finding her killer begins with finding "Jane Doe's" real name. No identification was found, but investigators believed they had enough to go on. Extensive and distinctive dental work and a vaccination scar seemed to suggest a European background, but thousands of missing persons reports there and here were examined. No match. A recent reexamination of that evidence now questions that European connection and has led to a new theory.

"Her teeth were in disrepair at the time she was murdered and appeared to have been in decline for a couple of years," says Dave Jenkins, a retired Reno Police detective now working in the Washoe County Sheriff's Cold Case Unit. "So we're looking at someone perhaps who may have had considerable family resources at one time, but this is someone who may have become voluntarily estranged from her family and friends and might have been believed to have left town."

She was dressed for a day at the lake, jeans and t-shirt over a blue bathing suit. The t-shirt was sold only on the West Coast. "We think it's more likely that she may have been residing in one of the western states before her murder."

Jenkins and fellow detectives also have tools investigators didn't have three decades ago. "We have DNA available both from the victim to identify her and from the potential suspect." And they have a new, more accurate sketch of her face, but until they can put a name to the face and that new possible profile, the case will remain unsolved. That's where the public and a new way of reaching them comes in. Tuesday, the Sheriff's office will be posting the sketch and information on its Facebook page and hoping it reaches far and wide.

"I want them to share it with their friends and ask them also if it might have been someone they might have known. It's only appropriate that we make every effort possible to identify her and, in identifying her, that might bring us closer to identifying the suspect as well."

Anyone with information is asked to call the Washoe County Sheriff's Office at (775) 328-3320 or Secret Witness at (775) 322-4900.

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/156ufnv.html

Clothing: She wore a white lace bathing suit, size medium, underneath Lee Rider blue jeans and a powder-blue, size medium, sleeveless T-shirt. She also wore pale yellow tennis shoes, size 6.

https://www.facebook.com/pg/DNADoeProject

Sheep Flat Jane Doe has been IDENTIFIED!

UPDATE:

DDP would like to report that Sheep Flat Jane Doe has been tentatively identified, pending final confirmation. Our Jane Doe was born in Michigan and her father was Italian. We should be able to provide more details once confirmed.

Special Thanks to Carl Koppelman who is always so generous with his amazing artwork. [​IMG]

http://www.carsonnow.org/story/05/07/2019/washoe-sheriff-37-year-tahoe-area-murder-case-solved-dna-genealogy-and-detective-wo

Washoe Sheriff: 37-year Tahoe area murder case solved with DNA, genealogy and detective work

A murder investigation that has baffled Washoe County investigators for more than three decades has been solved thanks to new DNA technologies and some incredibly hard work by a team of law enforcement investigators and genealogists.

“This is an incredible story and I am extremely proud of the work done by everyone who took part in this case over the past three decades,” Washoe County Sheriff Darin Balaam said Tuesday. “Even taking advantage of new genealogical technologies, a great deal of investigative work was done by Sheriff’s Office staff working this case. A reminder that the pursuit of justice never sleeps here at the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office.”

The investigation began on July 17, 1982. The female victim of a shooting was found near a popular hiking trail in the Sheep’s Flat area located just off the Mt. Rose Highway a few miles above Incline Village on the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe.

The victim had no identification or jewelry. She appeared to be dressed for a day at the lake in a powder blue t-shirt, blue jeans, yellow tennis shoes, and a bathing suit under her clothing.

With no means of identification, she became known as Sheep’s Flat Jane Doe.

Initially the victim was believed to be of European origin based upon an inoculation scar and unique dental work. Forensic comparisons (DNA, fingerprints, and dental records) excluded hundreds of reported missing persons who matched the general physical description of the victim.

In 2015, Detective Dave Jenkins with the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office Cold Case Unit put forward a fresh theory that the victim may have come from the western United States. Detective Jenkins believed she may have become voluntarily estranged from her family and/or friends in the years prior to the murder which would explain why no missing person reports were found for her.

Detective Jenkins hoped that, based on this new theory, someone may have known of a young woman who left her family in the late 1970s early 1980s and who has not been heard from since.

Still, Sheep’s Flat Jane Doe’s identity remained a mystery.

In February 2018, criminalists with the Sheriff’s Forensic Science Division attended a lecture on forensic genealogy presented by Dr. Colleen Fitzpatrick of Identifinders International and the DNA Doe Project during the annual meeting of the American Academy of Forensic Science in Seattle.

Detectives and criminalists believed these organizations could help with the ongoing Sheep’s Flat investigation and the Sheriff’s Office began working with them in April 2018 to try and identify the victim and the suspect.

DNA samples from Sheep’s Flat Jane Doe were sent to a private DNA lab and the resulting file was uploaded to the DNA database GEDMatch to try and identify family members. During this time it was announced that these same techniques were used successfully in the Golden State Killer investigation.

Based on the GEDMatch results, the DNA Doe Project was able to determine that Jane Doe was the biological daughter of John and Blanche Silvani of Detroit, Michigan.

This focused the investigation on the Silvani’s only daughter, Mary Edith Silvani, who was born in Pontiac, Michigan on September 29, 1948.

Based on a set of fingerprints provided by the Detroit Police Department from a 1974 misdemeanor arrest, Washoe County Sheriff’s Office detectives and criminalists were able to confirm the identity of Sheep’s Flat Jane Doe as Mary Silvani.

The only known photo of Mary is a photo of the Class of 1966 from Detroit’s Mackenzie High School’s yearbook.

Mary Silvani was identified as the victim in this case in late summer of 2018. Detectives chose not to release her identity at that time as the murder investigation was ongoing and the identity of the suspect was still unknown.

The suspect was much more difficult to identify.

DNA evidence from the crime scene had been entered into the FBI’s criminal DNA database CODIS but no matches were found.

Last year, the Sheriff’s Office worked with Dr. Fitzpatrick, an internationally recognized forensic genealogist, in an effort to identify the suspect’s family.

The suspect’s DNA was sent to a private DNA lab and uploaded to GEDMatch. Dr. Fitzpatrick and a group of dedicated genealogists from Identifinders International performed what would amount to more than two thousand hours of research.

The Identifinders team found that the suspect was the grandson of a couple who lived in the Dallas, Texas area. The couple had three sons but only one known grandson. Additional investigation cleared that grandson of being the suspect in the Sheep’s Flat case and indicated the suspect was an illegitimate child fathered by one of the sons.

Through the tenacity of genealogist Cheryl Hester, the suspect’s mother was identified as one of two sisters who lived in the same neighborhood in Dallas, had a son out of wedlock, and raised him under a different family name.

Investigators now had a possible suspect, James Richard Curry.

Curry was born in Texas in 1946. During his time in Texas, he was arrested for robbery and sentenced to prison in Huntsville. He was released in 1977 and moved to Waukena, California where he was reported to have worked at J & M Locksmith.

In early January of 1983, just over five months after the murder of Mary Silvani, Curry was arrested and confessed to three other murders. Two of these occurred on January 2, 1983 in the San Jose area; the third occurred in early January of 1982 in Santa Clara.

Based on evidence found at the scene where the Santa Clara murder victim was located, investigators suspected Curry may have also murdered a coworker from Waukena however, that victim’s remains have not been located.

Curry attempted suicide after being taken into custody and was pronounced dead January 7, 1983.

Curry’s two children voluntary provided DNA samples to a Washoe County Sheriff’s Office detective. The Forensic Science Division determined their DNA was consistent with children of the Sheep’s Flat murder suspect and identifying the suspect as James Richard Curry. Case closed.

Washoe County Sheriff Balaam expressed his agency’s appreciation to the tireless efforts of Dr. Margaret Press, Dr. Colleen Fitzpatrick, and the passionate genealogists who assisted the DNA Doe Project and Identifinders International. Sheriff Balaam also acknowledged the hard work and dedication of the Sheriff’s Office Detective Division and Forensic Science Division staff in working this case over the years and bringing it to a successful conclusion.

The Sheriff also thanked the San Jose Police Department, Santa Clara Police Department, San Mateo Sheriff’s Office, and Santa Clara Sheriff’s Office for their assistance in providing historical information pertaining to these cases.

Dr. Fitzpatrick described the case as an excellent example of the teamwork required to solve these cases.

“The genealogical research is only part of the story,” Dr. Fitzpatrick said. “With so few family members still alive, and with the fragmentation of the Silvani family, our hard-won success story would never have been possible without the investigative efforts of the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office.”

Dr. Press added that the project was a valuable experience for the many passionate volunteers who work the DNADoe Project.

“We also wish to thank our volunteers for their dedication to this project. They invested about 2,500 just to identify Mary Silvani. Each of our cases has been an amazing learning experience,” she said.