Cops Think Killer of Junkyard ‘Jane Doe’ Wants to Confess
Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/Getty/Handout
For decades, a woman found slain with ligature and binding marks was known only as Mount Vernon Jane Doe. She’s finally been identified—but the hunt for her killer continues.
Shortly before noon on Valentine’s Day, 1988, police in Mount Vernon, New York, responded to a macabre scene near a junkyard at 22 Carlton Avenue. On the sidewalk, the body of a dead naked woman in her late teens was laid on top of a set of used garage door springs. The victim, a sandy haired blonde about 5 foot 3 inches tall and weighing between 100 to 120 pounds, was posed with her legs crossed at the ankles.
According to the autopsy, the young woman had bruises above her left eye, as well as ligature and binding marks on her wrists, ankles, and neck. She had been strangled to death about six to 12 hours before her body was discovered, and whoever killed her dumped her remains where she was found.
George Ossipo, a former Mount Vernon Police homicide detective who investigated the murder between 2004 and his retirement in 2010, told The Daily Beast that the victim’s killer neatly placed her head against an old washing machine and left her body in a spot where she would be discovered.
