The victim’s sister called police after watching the ABC TV show “The Forgotten,” which deals with a fictional group of volunteers who help identify John and Jane Does. In each episode, a link to a missing persons database is shown.
Stephanie Clack searched the database for her older sister. “The characteristics of my sister, her tattoos, led me to Ohio,” Clack said.
With the identification, Englewood police are pursing leads that might lead them to a suspect, possibly a convicted serial killer spending the rest of his life in a Missouri prison.
Englewood police Sgt. Mike Lang said the department has worked the death of Davis for the two-plus decades since her body was found along Interstate 70.
“Every time a new detective came on board, he was handed the file,” Lang said. “Every year, we’d get tips, but they all came up dry.”
That was until an October weekend when a call from Kansas City came into dispatch. The caller left a message for Lang, claiming the I-70 Jane Doe was her missing big sister.
The caller was Clack. Earlier in the week, she was watching the ABC television program “The Forgotten”, which deals with a fictional group of volunteers who assist police in identifying John and Jane Does. A critic for the Hollywood Reporter said the show lack realism and was hampered by “the sloppy melodrama that washes over this show like an oil spill on a coastline.”
But at the close of each episode, information on the Department of Justice's NamUs — National Missing and Unidentified Persons System — database is given, including its Web site, www.namus.gov.
In a Friday morning telephone interview from Kansas City, Clack said she went to the Web site’s database and searched for her older sister. The details convinced her Englewood’s Jane Doe was her sister.
Davis’ body was found on a grassy slope near the Hoke Road entrance ramp to eastbound I-70. The victim had two fresh tattoos — a rose and a unicorn above each breast. She appeared well-nourished, her brown curly hair was held back by a blue bandana. She was partially nude and had no shoes. The Montgomery County Coroner’s Office ruled she died by ligature strangulation.
Englewood police did not wait for official confirmation of identification to gather information from Davis’ friends. “We do not believe she was killed in Ohio,” Lang said.
Lang went to Florida two weeks ago to interview Davis’ best friend, the last person who knew her to see her alive.
“In her own words, she said they were prostitutes and junkies who turned tricks at truck stops,” Lang said. The best friend said she and Davis were at the Oak Grove Truck Stop on I-70 outside of Kansas City when Davis disappeared. The best friend told Lang she filed a missing person’s report the next day when Davis failed to return to their apartment. “She said she knew something was wrong,” Lang said.
Lang said the crime lab is reprocessing all the evidence with the hope of finding biological evidence from which to extract DNA. There was no sign that Davis was sexual attacked, Lang said.
“There was a serial killer in the Kansas City area at the time,” the sergeant said. “He was convicted two years ago, and there are some similarities between his victims and Davis. It’s worth a look at.”
Lorenzo Gilyard was sentenced to life in prison in 2007 for the murder of six women in the Kansas City area. Authorities have said they believe he was involved in the deaths of at least 13 women, most of them prostitutes. Many of Gilyard’s victims were strangled, found partial nude and without shoes. Lang noted the apartment Davis and her friend shared was within 2 miles of where some of the bodies were dumped.
Ken Betz, the crime lab director, said it has become more common for families to discover the fate of missing loved ones online.
“We post (details of cases) to databases. That allows the public to do searches. Then they contact us,” he said. “It is incredible what technology can allow us to do. It’s great to bring closure.”
“It means a lot,” Clack agreed. “It’s been amazing. And there is a sense of closure.
“Our mom died in 2005. She went to the grave not knowing what happen to her daughter.”
Clack said the family is raising money to bring her sister’s remains back to Missouri from a potters field grave at Westmont Cemetery.
“We will bury her next to mom.”
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2290 or dpage@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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