On October 21, 1971, the body of a young woman was discovered floating in the Congaree River by a man walking across a railroad trestle. The victim was estimated to have been about 5’3” tall and between 17 and 21 years old. Her race was difficult to classify due to advanced decomposition. It was estimated she'd been in the water for weeks.

New information gained by recent DNA studies may help shed light on Fort Motte Jane Doe's identity. After 5 decades of being erroneously classified as white, recent testing indicates she had a maternal lineage common to African Americans along the Southeastern coastal area of the United States.

One of the inaugural cold case investigations underwritten by the Dean and Tina Linn Clouse Memorial Fund at Genealogy For Justice, FHD Forensics’ sister 501(c)3 organization, Fort Motte Jane Doe was the very first case selected by the Clouse-Casasanta and Linn families. She reminded them of Tina Linn Clouse, identified in 2021 using the same technology. Both young women were lost far too soon.

“She was young like Tina,” explained Cheryl Clouse, Dean Clouse’s sister. “Our hope and prayer is to be able to finally identify this young ‘lady in waiting’ who for years has been left without a voice and a name.”

We have been hard at work to develop a full genetic genealogy profile, hampered by the condition of her remains and the fact that she was not buried with her head, hands or feet. Removal of these body parts for fingerprinting and dental analysis was common forensic practice in the 1970s.

We will not give up on this Jane Doe. She deserves to be reburied with her name.

Your donation will help us pay for advanced AncientDNA studies tailored to sequencing degraded and fragile DNA not measurable with conventional lab processes.

Fort Motte Jane Doe

By Genealogy for Justice™

Fort Motte Jane Doe

Help us pay for additional advanced testing