May K. Toney
07-15-2003, 03:05 AM
Push Made to ID Precious Doe
Previous Coverage: Little Girl Lost
Jun 9, 2002
By Hugo Kugiya
Staff Writer
With recent promises of help from some of the nation's top forensic experts, Kansas City, Mo., police say they expect Tuesday to exhume the body of the unidentified young girl known as Precious Doe, whose nude, decapitated body and severed head were found in the city's greenbelt more than two years ago.
The investigation has remained one of the most widely followed cases in Kansas City and its most painful mystery. Some residents feel that because Precious Doe is black, she has received relatively little national attention compared with missing or murdered white children such as Polly Klaas, Jon Benet Ramsey and Elizabeth Smart.
Activist Alonzo Washington said the exhumation and involvement by federal agencies is a step toward closing the disparity. "Now the case is so big in Kansas City, you'll have all kinds of groups and politicians trying to associate themselves with it," said Washington, who has used his comic book business to publicize the cases of several missing African-American children and also raised funds to offer a reward for information on the Precious Doe case.
Profilers from the FBI with expertise in child crime cases are expected to join the investigation as are scientists with the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology and a forensic anthropologist from Louisiana State University, who police said is an expert in the facial features of black victims. The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, an agency of the Defense Department, is known for its work identifying remains of military war dead and the victims of high profile disasters such as the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack, and the 1996 TWA Flight 800 plane crash off Long Island.
The homicide unit of the Kansas City Police Department has received and acted on almost 1,000 tips, none of which have gotten detectives any closer to identifying Precious Doe, estimated to be between 3 and 6 years old when she died. She has been linked to the cases of 10 missing girls, most recently in March to Brittany Williams, a Virginia girl.
Precious Doe is, experts said, one of about 800 children in the nation whose remains, which were found on April 28, 2001, have never been identified.
"We've learned in last two years not to be too optimistic," said city Councilman Alvin Brooks. "But this may just be what we need."
Copyright © 2003, Newsday, Inc.
Previous Coverage: Little Girl Lost
Jun 9, 2002
By Hugo Kugiya
Staff Writer
With recent promises of help from some of the nation's top forensic experts, Kansas City, Mo., police say they expect Tuesday to exhume the body of the unidentified young girl known as Precious Doe, whose nude, decapitated body and severed head were found in the city's greenbelt more than two years ago.
The investigation has remained one of the most widely followed cases in Kansas City and its most painful mystery. Some residents feel that because Precious Doe is black, she has received relatively little national attention compared with missing or murdered white children such as Polly Klaas, Jon Benet Ramsey and Elizabeth Smart.
Activist Alonzo Washington said the exhumation and involvement by federal agencies is a step toward closing the disparity. "Now the case is so big in Kansas City, you'll have all kinds of groups and politicians trying to associate themselves with it," said Washington, who has used his comic book business to publicize the cases of several missing African-American children and also raised funds to offer a reward for information on the Precious Doe case.
Profilers from the FBI with expertise in child crime cases are expected to join the investigation as are scientists with the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology and a forensic anthropologist from Louisiana State University, who police said is an expert in the facial features of black victims. The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, an agency of the Defense Department, is known for its work identifying remains of military war dead and the victims of high profile disasters such as the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack, and the 1996 TWA Flight 800 plane crash off Long Island.
The homicide unit of the Kansas City Police Department has received and acted on almost 1,000 tips, none of which have gotten detectives any closer to identifying Precious Doe, estimated to be between 3 and 6 years old when she died. She has been linked to the cases of 10 missing girls, most recently in March to Brittany Williams, a Virginia girl.
Precious Doe is, experts said, one of about 800 children in the nation whose remains, which were found on April 28, 2001, have never been identified.
"We've learned in last two years not to be too optimistic," said city Councilman Alvin Brooks. "But this may just be what we need."
Copyright © 2003, Newsday, Inc.