CINCINNATI — Hamilton County Coroner Dr. Lakshmi Sammarco again asked the public in a press conference Thursday morning to help in identifying a woman found dead in 2018.
Thursday's announcement was held because the coroner's office worked with the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation and Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost's office to create new digital images depicting what the woman may have looked like when she was alive.
“There’s few things that are more bothersome on a human level than someone that doesn’t even have a name,” said Ohio Attorney General, Dave Yost.
The Forensic Artist who worked with The Ohio State University to create the images was also at the news conference.
“What this new technology allows us to do is we can take, just with an iPhone, a bunch of photos of the reconstruction that I’ve completed and create a 3D model of that digitally," Samantha Molnar said. “Maybe she always wore her hair back in a ponytail and so people wouldn’t recognize her as much with her hair down or vice versa.”
It's not the first time Sammarco and officials have made this plea for information: In 2021, officials presented a clay facial reconstruction done by BCI, but Sammarco said the sculpture did not yield as many tips as they'd hoped.
"We've had several public notices and press conferences trying to get the public to help identify her," said Sammarco. "It's been five years."
Sammarco said they know at least one person out there, at one point, knew this woman. When her body was discovered, she was buried in a shallow grave in a mulch bed near a playground outside of an Avondale apartment complex on Glenwood Avenue.
She'd been wrapped in cloth, a rose placed carefully on her chest.
Still, Sammarco and Yost both said they don't believe the woman was murdered, or a victim of foul play.
The Coroner's Office said her cause of death is currently undetermined, but she had drugs of abuse in her system.
"When she was discovered there was a rose on her chest," said Yost at the press conference. "That didn't happen by accident, someone loved that woman and knows who she is."
Yost encouraged the person who lovingly buried the woman to come forward and help officials identify her — even anonymously, if necessary.
"She deserves to be laid to rest with an identity and that's our appeal today," said Yost. "Help us to write that last chapter in her life."
The woman was wearing gray, silky pajama bottoms and a gray tank top. The name “Schrader” was written in permanent marker on the tag inside the pajama bottoms. A white metal hair stylist-type hair clip was in her hair. She was wearing silver hoop earrings and three hair ties on her wrist.
Sammarco said those clothing items aren't the most helpful for identifying Jane Doe because no one can know whether she borrowed the items or got them from another person.
The woman's estimated age is between 35 and 60, her height is 5-foot-3 to 5-foot-10 and her hair is brown.
Anyone who may have information on the woman's identity or the circumstances surrounding her death can contact BCI at 740.845.2406 or the Hamilton County Coroner's Office at 513.946.8700.
You can watch the full press conference below:
