US investigators say a woman they believed may have been killed in 1954 after a body was found in a creek in Boulder, Colorado, has been living in Australia for the last 46 years.
The Boulder County sheriff's office announced on Thursday that the woman they thought was the most likely candidate for Boulder's infamous "Jane Doe" murder case was located last week.
A local historian found her after "a bit of dumb luck" through an internet contact in Queensland.
Investigators thought Katharine Ferrand Dyer, now 84, might have been the victim in the unsolved homicide.
"While it's a relief to know that Katherine is alive, it's also discouraging in that we are back to square one with essentially no viable candidates for who 'Jane Doe' might be," said local police spokesman Phil West.
The sheriff's office reopened the "Jane Doe" murder case in 2004 at the urging of the historian, Silvia Pettem, who had been researching the mystery for some time.
The woman found in the canyon had been beaten and stripped naked before being tossed in the creek.
She was believed to be in her early 20s and had strawberry blonde hair.
A detective working on the case said Dyer had always been a "mysterious woman".
"Even before she disappeared, there is not a whole lot known about her life,” Detective Steve Ainsworth said in an interview last year.
"I think, for some reason, she didn't want to be found."
Police have once again stepped up their efforts to find anyone with information about the crime.
Front page
RSS Feed