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Investigators Hope FBI Can Assist In Jane Doe Case

Pictured is the grave marker at Sunset Hill Cemetery for Jane Doe. P-J photo by Eric Tichy

A DNA test between the daughter of a missing Montreal woman and Chautauqua County’s Jane Doe homicide victim has come back negative. However, renewed efforts to identify the woman found dead in December 1983 along the Southern Tier Expressway in the town of Ellery could soon be bolstered with the help of the FBI.

The negative DNA test result was announced Monday on the Jane Doe Chautauqua County Facebook page, a site established by the Sheriff’s Office this year to shed light on the cold case. In a statement, the department said it attempted to match a sample of Jane Doe’s DNA to the daughter of a woman — identified as Erzebeth Szita — who went missing in October 1981 in Montreal.

Szita did match some of Jane’s profile, including her age, the time frame of when she went missing and that she was a resident outside the United States.

Investigators have been following up on several new leads in the case, many the result of the Facebook page and recent media reports highlighting the unsolved homicide. One of the suggestions led investigators to the Szita case in Canada.

“We are listening to you and your suggestions,” the statement posted to Facebook read Monday. “Erzebeth Szita was one of the suggestions. We spoke with Montreal Police who contacted the Szita family directly. We finally were able to have DNA run between our Jane Doe and a daughter of Mrs. Szita. Unfortunately, the DNA did not match.”

Kristie Lyon, an investigator with the Sheriff’s Office, said other tips and suggestions resulted in closed leads due to the lack of similarities with Jane Doe. She did note that after exhausting all current leads, documents in the cold case will be submitted to the FBI for the agency to possibly take on the case.

“The FBI has been a crucial aspect recently with the help with contacting Canadian authorities as well as working with us to get Jane Doe’s DNA submitted to their genealogy labs,” Lyon said. “The process will be lengthy but we are hoping for a positive ID via this route.”

“We will continue to check the Facebook page and if new tips and suggestions come along, we will look into those as well,” she continued. “We are very determined to get Jane Doe identified. We appreciate all of the help from everyone on the Facebook page.”

A truck driver with Niagara Mohawk Power Corp. discovered Jane Doe’s body between 8:30 and 9 a.m. Dec. 6, 1983, in a drainage ditch along old Route 17, between the Chautauqua Lake bridge and Westman Road in Ellery. The woman, determined to have been shot multiple times, had no purse or identification; she was found face up and “partially clad” without shoes, jewelry or personal belongings.

The victim was described as a white female about 30 to 37 years old, 5 feet, 4 inches tall and weighing about 128 pounds. She had brown eyes, a wart above her left eye, a mole behind her left ear and a scar on her throat. She also was believed to have had a child earlier in her life and resided in Canada or Europe.

To this day, Jane Doe has not been identified, and no charges have been filed in the case.

Information regarding the case can be sent to the Sheriff’s Office at 753-2131 or through the Jane Doe Chautauqua County Facebook page.

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