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On April 24, 1985, FBI agents met with local detectives from five states at a special conference in Nashville, Tennessee. Their purpose: to coordinate investigation into homicides of female victims in a five-state area, from mid September 1984 through early April 1985. Although the victims were reported to have certain traits in common, leading homicide detectives to suspect their deaths may be related, none have been identified, so far. In law enforcement parlance, they are all "Jane Does" While one account refers to eight established victims, murdered since October 1983, the only published list is limited to six. In age, they range from roughly eighteen years to forty; their hair color ranged from strawberry blonde to deep auburn, with every shading of red in between, suggesting a killer fascinated by red-heads. All were strangled or suffocated, their bodies discarded near interstate highways forming a corridor of murder between Arkansas on the southwest to Pennsylvania in the northeast. The first "Jane Doe" was found near Shereville, Arkansas, on September 16, 1984. Two days before Christmas, a second corpse was found in Comru Township, Pennsylvania. New Year's Day found number three near Jellico, Tennessee, and a fourth victim was retrieved near Hernando, Mississippi, on January 24. On March 31, Ashland City, Tennessee, was the site of another gruesome discovery. The last "official" victim was found on April 1, 1985, along Interstate 75, near Corbin, Kentucky. Prior to the Nashville conference, a list of potential victims had included twelve "Jane Does." With the meeting behind them, lawmen felt secure in dropping four women killed in Fort Worth, Texas, between September 1984 and February 1985; another found beside I-81, near Greeneville, Tennessee, on April 14, 1985; and yet another, found in Ohio on April 24. In March of 1985, detectives had been prematurely optimistic, pinning hopes upon the testimony of a living victim. Linda Schacke had been choked unconscious with her own torn shirt, near Cleveland, Tennessee, and left for dead in a culvert beside Interstate 40. The crime seemed to fit, and Schacke was able to pick her assailant from a police lineup. Truck driver Jerry Leon Johns was arrested on March 6, 1985, charged with felonious assault and aggravated kidnapping in Knox County, Tennessee, but he possessed an airtight alibi for every other date in question. At this writing, neither the "Jane Doe" victims nor their slayer have been publicly identified. Since April 1985, no further victims have been added to the list. Without viable suspects, police can only speculate on the killer's location and possible motives for his apparent retirement. |
