Murder In A Cemetery

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A caretaker at the Ceder Ridge Cemetary in Blairstown, N.J. discovered Princess Doe's body on July 15, 1982 at 8:00 a.m.

The small town of Blairstown, N.J. was shocked when the murdered body of a teenage girl was found partially decomposed in their cemetery on July 15, 1982. Her face had been bludgeoned beyond recognition, her body discarded like trash.

Police say the body was clad in a red v-neck pullover short sleeved shirt with yellow piping on the shoulder, and blue and black piping on the neck, sleeves, and waist. The victim also wore a red, white, and blue wrap-around skirt with a strip of peacock printing around the bottom. Cops say a gold chain with small white beads and a 14-karat gold cross pendant with an ornate design was entangled in her hair. She wore no underwear or shoes.

She's Somebody's Princess

The community was horrified and baffled by the discovery. Not wanting the child to be buried in a potter's field, the entire town donated money for a proper burial. They gave her a gravesite in the same cemetery in which she was found, and a headstone marked with her new name, "Princess Doe," because she had to have been somebody's princess.

An autopsy of Princess Doe's body revealed she was 5'2" and approximately 105 lbs. Forensic odontologist reports suggested she was between 14 and 18 years old when she was murdered. Experts took swabs for toxicology testing -- laboratory results came back negative for drug use, although cops say those results are not 100% reliable because they believe the body had been in the cemetery between one and three weeks before it was found.

The story stayed in the media spotlight because of the mystery surrounding the horrifying murder. As the years went by, technology advanced, giving hope to the case.

Technology Steps In

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In June 1984, these flyers depicting both Diana Dye and Princess Doe were distributed nationwide.

On January 4, 1984, experts reconstructed her skull, literally piecing it together like a puzzle because of the damaged that had been inflicted. After the skull was put together, specialists created a bust, depicting what Princess Doe may have looked like. Cops distributed thousands of flyers with the bust photo, hoping someone would recognize Princess Doe. In June 1984, somebody did.

Someone in San Jose, Calif. received the flyer with Princess Doe's bust pictured, and recognized it as a missing female named Diana Dye who disappeared from San Jose in 1979. New flyers were distributed with both Princess Doe and Diana Dye's faces on them to see if it helped people come forward. In July, forensic odontologists compared Diana Dye's dental records to Princess Doe's. They came to a stale mate -- some experts concluded it was a definite match, while others insisted it wasn't. The findings were inconclusive.

As time passed, the case turned cold. It seemed like it would never be solved.

New Investigator, New Developments 

In 1998, Lt. Stephen Speirs, of the Warren Co. Prosecutor's Office, was assigned to the case. He immediately began looking through the evidence and information -- making it his mission to find Princess Doe.

He didn't have to look long before he got a possible break in the investigation. That year, Lt. Speirs received a phone call from N.Y. authorities who had some interesting information. A former prostitute and her pimp were arrested in Calif. The cops told Lt. Speirs that the woman had been charged as an accomplice to at least one murder committed by her pimp -- and while cooperating with police, she'd told them the pimp was responsible for the beating death of a teenager in a N.J. cemetary. N.Y. cops told Lt. Speirs she'd be willing to talk to him about the murder.

Lt. Speirs traveled to Rikers Island Prison to meet with the woman. She told him the killer was a big-time pimp in Long Island who preyed on runaways and throwaways. She said he lured Princess Doe into his pimping business -- but she was naive, inexperienced, and invaluable to the pimp. Several times, he tried selling her to other pimps because she wasn't doing well as a prostitute, but no one wanted to "buy" her. Lt. Speirs says the woman's story made sense, but she was a criminal who lacked credibility -- and the pimp she named wouldn't talk to him. Lt. Speirs was at a standstill with the new lead.

Princess Doe's Body Exhumed 

In the meantime, Lt. Speirs focused on a different avenue -- Princess Doe's body. In September 1999, he had Princess Doe's body exhumed from the grave the Blairstown citizens so lovingly had arranged for her. What they found wasn't great news.

Unfortunately, Princess Doe's remains were so degraded and contaminated, there was not enough substance to obtain a standard DNA sample. Instead, they decided the only thing they could do was create a mitochondrial DNA (MtDNA) profile. MtDNA is found in sub-cellular organelles called mitochondria. Multiple copies of MtDNA are generated using a polymerase chain reaction to create enough DNA to make a pattern. The MtDNA profile has a catch, however. Only maternal relatives of those with a MtDNA sample can be used to compare DNA.

Knowing  this, Lt. Speirs had Princess Doe's completed MtDNA profile compared to a blood sample given by Diana Dye's mother. On March 27, 2003, Diana Dye was excluded as a possible match.

Possible Killer Claims Responsibility

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The witness who cops say saw Princess Doe beaten to death in the Blairstown Cemetary helped create this composite sketch.

Then, in 2005, Lt. Speirs received a copy of a letter originally sent to the Attorney General's Office. The letter was from the pimp himself, and in it, he accepted responsibility for Princess Doe's disgusting murder. Although the letter was not addressed to Lt. Speirs directly, the letter mentioned his name -- likely because the pimp had remembered it from 1998 when Lt. Speirs had reached out to him and refused to cooperate.

Lt. Speirs was thrilled by the new development, and began to correspond with the pimp by mail, then by phone. In May 2005, they made arrangements to meet face-to-face at the Wendi Correctional Facility in upstate N.Y., where the suspect was being held.

There, the pimp gave Lt. Speirs some vital information. According to Lt. Speirs, the pimp admitted to the murder in person and gave some specifics, lending credibility to his story -- but he left out some key elements. Lt. Speirs says it may be because the pimp has a long criminal history, and may be confusing parts of his other crimes with Princess Doe's murder. But that wasn't all. The pimp also revealed something new about the former prostitute Lt. Speirs had interviewed back in 1998.

A Witness To Murder 

The pimp told Lt. Speirs that she hadn't been telling him the whole truth. The pimp told cops that not only did she know about the murder -- but she was there during the murder. Lt. Speirs knew he had to go back and talk to her -- this time as a murder witness.

When Lt. Speirs and the former prostitute met up later that month, she admitted she'd been at the cemetery during the murder. Lt. Speirs says she was clearly uncomfortable during the meeting -- appearing guilt-ridden, and scared to death of retaliation from her ex-pimp. But despite her fears, Lt. Speirs says she was willing to cooperate and wanted to move on with her life.

Thanks to the witness's cooperation, Lt. Speirs learned some important details about Princess Doe. According to the witness, Princess Doe was definitely from N.Y. -- probably the Long Island area. She also agreed to meet with a forensic sketch artist to create a sketch based on her eyewitness account of what she looked like. Once the sketch was completed on September 13, 2005, Lt. Speirs recalls the witness said, "Yes, that's her!" He could tell by looking at the witness' eyes as she looked over the final product that she was clearly looking into the face of the victim.

Filling In The Blanks

Police hope national exposure of the new composite sketch will lead to Princess Doe's identification. Once authorities know her identity, they can backtrack through her life story, fill in the details of the case, and finally charge the man cops think is responsible.