She had no ID, no missing person report, nothing to connect her to anyone. For 37 years, she was buried under a headstone that read only "Jane Doe." Then a new kind of DNA science gave her back her name.
The Discovery
On April 24, 1981, three young men walking along Greenlee Road west of Troy, Ohio, found a woman's body in a ditch. She had been strangled and beaten, and had likely been dead only a few hours. She wore a distinctive handmade buckskin jacket with leather fringe, which led investigators and media to dub her the "Buckskin Girl."
Decades Without a Name
An autopsy estimated her age between 18 and 26. Her fingerprints weren't in any database, and no missing person report matched her description. Police created sketches, released them to newspapers and local television, and pursued hundreds of leads over the following decades -- none led anywhere. She remained unidentified for 37 years.
A Breakthrough Through Genetic Genealogy
In 2018, the newly formed DNA Doe Project took on her case, extracting a DNA profile from a blood sample that had been preserved in storage since 1981. Volunteer genetic genealogists uploaded the profile to GEDmatch, a public genealogy database, and within about four hours found a close family match. On April 9, 2018, the Miami Valley Regional Crime Lab confirmed her identity through comparison with a relative: she was Marcia Lenore Sossoman King, born June 9, 1959, in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Who Marcia King Was
King had left her family's home around age 20 without explanation and spent roughly a year hitchhiking across the country, with known stops in Oklahoma, Texas, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky. Because she'd left voluntarily, no missing person report had ever been filed, which is why her fingerprints and description never matched anything in law enforcement systems. Her mother had kept the same phone number for 37 years, hoping her daughter would eventually call.
The Killer Remains Unidentified
While King's identity was solved, her murder was not. The Miami County Sheriff's Office has continued reexamining physical evidence from the scene using newer forensic techniques, including attempts to extract DNA from rootless hair samples collected in 1981, in hopes of identifying her killer.
FAQ
Who was the "Buckskin Girl"?
Marcia Lenore Sossoman King, a 21-year-old woman from Little Rock, Arkansas, identified in 2018 through genetic genealogy, 37 years after her murder.
Has her killer been identified?
No. Her identity was solved, but her murder remains unsolved.
How was she finally identified?
The DNA Doe Project used genetic genealogy on a preserved 1981 blood sample, matching it to a relative through the public database GEDmatch.