The Girl Next Door

48 Hours

The episode chronicles the investigation into the 2003 murder of an unidentified teenage girl found in Castro Valley, California. Through fo

Key takeaways

• Forensic artist Gloria Noosey created a clay sculpture based on skull landmarks that proved vital for identification.
• Detective Scott Dudek traveled to Yahuilica, Mexico, to distribute flyers and find the victim's family.

Main topics

• Unidentified homicide investigation
• Forensic facial reconstruction

Notable quotes

No child should ever die alone. No child should ever go nameless.

Conclusion

The case demonstrates how the intersection of forensic science and com

Transcript preview

Speaker 7 (0:13) She was 5'1", 110 pounds. She had a butterfly clip in the back of her hair. She had beautiful gold hoop earrings. No drugs, no alcohol in her system. If you put that all together, it tells you that this is the girl that was living next door. This girl could be from Louisiana. This girl could be from New York. This girl could be from Rhode Island. We have no idea where to even start. Speaker 7 (0:53) Unfortunately, we're gonna have to dig up her body to find out who she is. I'm Sergeant Scott Dudek. I'm a detective with the Alameda County Sheriff's Office. I can vividly recall pulling in here that night. It was late at night. They found a bag behind the local restaurant here in Castro Valley. You know, and the sad part about it too is outside of being discarded like a piece of trash behind a tree... Speaker 7 (1:29) She had a rag stuffed down her throat. She died of asphyxiation. So it was just a horrific, horrific ending. We have to figure out who this little girl is to go forward with the homicide investigation. Speaker 3 (1:52) One, two, three, up. Speaker 7 (1:56) We're hopeful that the new pathologist that looks at her little body can tell us something that maybe we missed. Okay, Speaker 3 (2:06) hold on a minute. This was Speaker 1 (2:11) a living, breathing person. Speaker 1 (2:16) She does have a story to tell us. And she's trying very hard tonight to tell us what she can. Speaker 7 (2:25) There are a million clues inside a skull. It just takes the right person to bring them out. Speaker 1 (2:31) Facial reconstruction is kind of a last-ditch effort. Speaker 7 (2:36) We were Speaker 3 (2:37) desperate to find out who killed this young girl. I knew we would. I just didn't know how. But it just proves that you really shouldn't give up. Speaker 8 (2:52) The Girl Next Door, tonight's 48 Hours Mystery. Speaker 7 (3:01) I think it haunts me a Speaker 2 (3:02) lot. I think it haunts everybody that's worked on this case. Like any good homicide detective, Sergeant Scott Dudek can sometimes get a little obsessed with his cases. But this case troubles him more than any other. What makes this one so different? Speaker 7 (3:18) She's just a child, and no one knows who she is. Speaker 7 (3:25) If anybody deserves everything you got and then 50 % more than that, it'd be a child. Speaker 2 (3:32) A 22-year veteran of the Alameda County Sheriff's Department in Northern California, Dudek has solved his share of gruesome crimes. But murders are rare in the suburban community of Castro Valley. Speaker 7 (3:46) It's a beautiful community. It's about 75,000 people. It's middle to upper middle class, most of it. Not a lot of crime, not a lot of violent crime especially, so very Speaker 2 (3:57) nice area. So what he saw the night of May 1st 2003 was especially shocking even to a seasoned detective the body of a young girl murdered stuffed into a trash bag and discarded behind a restaurant Can you show us exactly where she was found if Speaker 7 (4:18) you go behind this tree right here her body? Speaker 7 (4:22) was down here by the cyclone fence. She had been dead for about 10 days, so it was fairly well decomposed. Speaker 2 (4:30) And the way she died, with a rag in her throat, suggests someone may have wanted to silence her. Do you think she saw something? You know, there had to be something very, Speaker 7 (4:40) very terrible, obviously, that went on for her ultimately to be killed. Maybe she was a witness to something. Speaker 2 (4:49) What usually happens when you find an unidentified murder victim? Speaker 7 (4:53) Normally, for us, within the first 24 to 48 hours, we know who they are either by looking at missing persons reports or having a parent contact us. Speaker 2 (5:03) But sadly, no one seemed to be looking for her. Because her body was so badly decomposed, a local artist did the best she could to give her a face. They also gave her a name, Jane Doe. Police had to rely on her autopsy for other clues. We had ten perfect Speaker 7 (5:23) prints that we got off of both her hands, which is a rarity. Speaker 2 (5:28) Investigators guessed she was in her early teens. She was in good health with perfect teeth. This Jane had all the appearances of a typical teenage girl next door, from her painted nails to her choice of clothing. We Speaker 7 (5:42) had a seamstress read... do the exact clothing that she was wearing. We found out it's a Tommy Hilfiger knockoff, and this is a teenager's outfit. It's very common. This is what all the kids were wearing. Speaker 2 (5:55) Detective Dudek released this sketch, hopeful it was good enough for someone to recognize this girl once it was splashed all over the local media and posted on websites dedicated to finding missing children. With this sketch being released, we probably had Speaker 7 (6:10) 150 possible. clues or sightings of people that thought they knew who our Castro Valley Jane Doe was. Speaker 2 (6:17) One clue seemed so promising that Dudek and his partner, Ed Shequin, followed it all the way down to the Texas-Mexican border, where they collected DNA samples from several mothers of missing teenage girls, including a girl whose picture bore a remarkable resemblance to Jane. And every single one of those were checked out, Speaker 7 (6:37) and it Speaker 2 (6:38) wasn't her. There would be many more dead ends, but Scott Dudak remained determined, even though his frustration was mounting. I'm a father. Everybody that Speaker 7 (6:49) works on this case is a father. And it just pulls at you every single day as far as why can't we just solve this? Speaker 2 (7:00) Then another clue that seemed almost too good to be true. From a possible witness. Speaker 7 (7:07) We Speaker 2 (7:08) thought it was a huge break. We got an anonymous letter in the mail. The letter writer claimed to have seen someone get something from the trunk of a car and dump it in the very same bushes where the body was found. So basically, the person who wrote this letter was telling you that they got a look at the person who dumped the body Speaker 7 (7:28) of Speaker 2 (7:28) Jane Doe. Correct. Speaker 7 (7:30) We asked this person to come forward, told him we would keep him anonymous. However, unfortunately, he chose not to come forward at that point. Speaker 2 (7:40) This potential witness admitted in the letter that he was reluctant to come forward because he himself had been in that parking lot waiting for a married girlfriend. Anything you want to say to that person now? Speaker 7 (7:51) He's a huge witness for us, and we need him to make that decision and do the right thing. Speaker 2 (8:04) As the weeks turned to months, the letter writer never came forward, and no one claimed this young girl. But her case touched the people of Castro Valley, and an unlikely hero emerged. He had no way of knowing that what he was about to do would one day help solve this mystery. Speaker 8 (8:24) From day one, she touched me, and to this day, she still does. Speaker 2 (8:33) Dave Woolworth, a landscaper, was best known around town for his signature tie-dyed t-shirts. When Speaker 8 (8:40) I read the story, I started crying. And I looked at my wife. And I told her no one will come and claim her. It was eating at me. Speaker 2 (8:52) Once the forensic investigation was completed, Jane was destined for cremation. But that was unacceptable to Woolworth, himself a father who had once been estranged from his own daughter. If Speaker 8 (9:04) the mother come forward, what are you going to hand her? A bag of ashes. We think this is your daughter. Speaker 2 (9:12) Woolworth decided to take the lead in raising donations from the community. Nobody knows her name Speaker 6 (9:19) or exactly where she came from, but the tragedy of a young girl found dead in the East Bay has touched many people. Speaker 3 (9:27) The whole community in this area has adopted her. She's known as Castro Valley's Jane Doe. Speaker 2 (9:36) And so four months after her body was abandoned in a parking lot, Castro Valley's adopted daughter was given a funeral befitting a dignitary. No Speaker 8 (9:45) child should ever die alone. No child should ever go nameless. Speaker 2 (9:52) As several more months went by, this child was still nameless and her killer faceless. The leads had slowed to a trickle. We Speaker 7 (10:02) solve a lot of cold cases, a lot of homicides. Very proud of that fact, okay? But all those have a name. We know who they are. Speaker 2 (10:12) So Sergeant Dudak made that agonizing decision to exhume the young girl's body. Speaker 2 (10:21) and search again for the clues that could close this case. I Speaker 7