Jane Doe

Status:

Open

Jurisdiction:

Suffolk County Medical Examiner (MA)

Recovery Location:

Dorchester, Massachusetts

Summary:

An unidentified woman was discovered on October 14, 2005 in a chimney at an apartment complex in Dorchester, Massachusetts. The skeletal remains indicate she had been deceased between 3 months and 5 years, with her death classified as a presumed homicide. She remains unidentified as of 2026.

Vital Statistics

Circumstances of Recovery:

On October 14, 2005, a retired firefighter and chimney sweep Mike Scanlan was working with his son David on a job in Dorchester to clean out a furnace at 17-19 Winter St., an apartment complex in the Meeting House Hill section of Dorchester. When they went down to the basement and opened the clean-out door to the chimney, they found it blocked with concrete. They could see nails on the hands with painted nails, and from that point they did not go any further and called the police. The skeletal remains of a female were discovered in a chimney at an apartment complex in Dorchester, Massachusetts. The chimney was used as an incinerator in the 1960s, but was out of commission since and blocked by an air conditioning unit. Investigators believed that Jane Doe had been there since 2002, as between January 2002 and January 2005, the access door was usually left unlocked and the remains found were skeletal.

Additional Details:

Upon examination, the victim was believed to have been born between 1965-1980 and was described as being of small to medium build, with dark brown hair past shoulder length. The victim was believed to be of mixed ethnicity, with no scars, tattoos, or broken bones, and had borne a child(ren). The victim had significant dental work, to include a distinctive dental plate that may have been constructed in a Caribbean nation or in the Northeastern United States by a dentist with training in the Caribbean. In December 2005, authorities announced that the woman had been murdered. A spokesperson for the Suffolk District Attorney's office told the media the remains had been examined by a forensic anthropologist and the chief medical examiner's office. The victim's case was discussed on the September 23, 2006 episode of America's Most Wanted.

Case Last Updated:

Oct 25, 2026