The veteran sergeants in charge are Sgt. Brian McGlynn and Sgt. Scott Ecker, with a combined 60-plus years’ experience in police work.
Advances in DNA technology and genetic genealogy have helped police nationwide to reopen investigations. Labs can analyze the tiniest of DNA samples, such as hair and skin cells, once thought too small or too damaged. St. Louis investigators periodically go through the cold-case archives to see what, if any, of the new technology could help.
With newer technologies, Dace added, cases “that we could not investigate five, even two or three years ago, we have got the ability to do that now.”
Even though DNA technology is the big news, police find that, sometimes, the key to making progress is simply time and people’s changing mindset.
“Sometimes,” Dace said, “it takes years before witnesses are comfortable to come forward.”
With that in mind, Dace renewed an appeal this year for help from the public in perhaps the coldest case of all: the death of “Little Jane Doe,” a headless girl discovered 38 years ago and whose identity is still a mystery.
Two men scavenging for pipes found her body Feb. 28, 1983, in an abandoned building at 5635 Clemens Avenue. She had been in the basement about four days, according to police. She was Black, between the ages of 8 and 11, weighed about 58 pounds and was about 4-foot-10 without her head, which had been removed after death and was never found.