PHOENIX (AP) — Dorothy Gay Howard's family spent 55 years not knowing if she was alive or dead.
The Phoenix woman disappeared in 1954 when she was 18. Only one surviving person in Howard's immediate family — her younger sister Marlene Howard Ashman — was alive when the not knowing finally ended last month.
It took a determined family member, a historian and a police detective to realize that Howard could be "Jane Doe," a young woman whose nude and battered body was found along a Boulder, Colo., creek in 1954. It took a DNA test to confirm their suspicions.
Now Howard's family is relieved to finally know her fate but is grappling with the fact that she was murdered and aching to know who killed her.
To add a comment, please register or login.