Jane Doe

Status:

Open

Jurisdiction:

Economy Borough Police Department Beaver County District Attorneys Office (PA)

Recovery Location:

Economy Borough, Pennsylvania

Summary:

An unidentified elderly woman whose embalmed, severed head was discovered in a wooded area near Economy Borough, Pennsylvania on December 12, 2014. Investigators believe she was between 60-80 years old with gray hair. Despite extensive investigation and publicity, including a 2024 Netflix feature on Unsolved Mysteries, her identity remains unknown.

Vital Statistics

Circumstances of Recovery:

On the afternoon of Friday, December 12, 2014, a fifteen-year-old boy was walking through the woods to a deer meat processing plant in Economy Borough, Pennsylvania. At around 12:30pm, he found a severed human head in an overgrown field next to Mason Road and immediately called 911. The head was located about 31 feet off of the roadway, it was not decomposed, and it appeared to have been severed with precision and medical expertise after the body had already been embalmed. The head was fully embalmed and in good condition; her skin was smooth with two moles still visible on her cheek. Her hair was whitish-gray, soft, curly, fluffy, and appeared to be styled.

Additional Details:

Her head had likely been severed by someone with anatomical knowledge and her eyes had been replaced with red rubber balls, which is inconsistent with practices in the funeral industry. The method in which she was embalmed suggests that it was done in a funeral home rather than a medical school or something similar, and the technique used revealed it had been done professionally. Hair samples sent to the FBI revealed traces of methadone, lidocaine, atropine, and methacrolein in Jane Doe's system, indicating that she suffered from chronic pain and a cardiac ailment and may have died from the latter. Traces of a medication used to treat heart failure was found in her system and she may have died from this or a similar condition. Foul play is not suspected in her death. According to Chief O'Brien, they have made at least five attempts to get DNA, most recently in 2023. But each time, they cannot get a DNA profile because the embalming fluid deteriorated the DNA from the samples. Stable isotope oxygen testing done using her hair and tooth enamel determined that during the last seven months of her life, she had traveled through parts of Beaver County, south and central Pennsylvania, eastern Ohio, northern West Virginia and Maryland, and eastern New York extending north to Lake Ontario. Investigators believe she died somewhere in the region of the Allegheny Mountains. Jane Doe was buried in Beaver Cemetery on December 12, 2015, exactly one year after she was discovered. A headstone being made reads: "Jane Doe discovered 12/12/2014." An increased reward was temporarily offered for information on the embalmed head found in Economy on December 8, 2022. Her case was featured on the fourth season of the Unsolved Mysteries reboot in an episode titled "The Severed Head," in 2024.

Case Last Updated:

Sep 04, 2026