Forensics Journal - Stevenson University 2010 | Page 12

STEVENSON UNIVERSITY

Princess Doe: Will Her Identity Ever Be Known?
Myron Bretholz

This article describes and analyzes some of the more intriguing aspects
of a crime that occurred over a quarter century ago. It also examines
the efforts of one man who created a website for the express purpose
of solving this murder.

Still more recently, a website, www.princessdoe.org, was created by
a man named Travis Riggs. The site, which is devoted solely to the
murder victim, is professionally laid out, with numerous links and
a wealth of information,3 and notes that Princess Doe became “the
first Missing Person/Unidentified Person case entered into the NCIC
[National Crime Information Center] computer database by [then]
FBI Director, William Webster.”4 The site lists her cause of death as
blunt force trauma to the head.5

In July 1982, the remains of a young Caucasian female – who would
eventually become known as “Princess Doe” – were found adjacent
to a cemetery in Blairstown, a small town in Warren County, New
Jersey, a mostly rural northwestern section of the state. Investigators
quickly concluded that the woman had probably been killed elsewhere and then dumped where she was found. Princess Doe’s remains
were laid to rest in the cemetery next to where she was initially
discovered, and have been there since that time, undisturbed but for a
single exhumation in 1999, performed in order to extract DNA. The
crime had occurred before the advent of DNA technology, but many
years subsequent to the murder, it was used in order to try to fill in
some of the crime’s missing pieces.

This internet site dedicated to Princess Doe is a model of thorough
construction, easily legible text, and grammatical and contextual precision and clarity. The breadth and depth of information on the site is
a testament to a small but devoted group of people – whose information and knowledge Riggs has cohesively assembled and organized
– who simply refuse to let their dedicatee’s passing go unnoticed, and
who relentlessly continue to pursue their mission of releasing the
victim from her anonymity, as well as finding her murderer.

A short time after her remains were found, the anonymous young
woman was dubbed “Princess Doe” by Blairstown Lieutenant Detective Eric Kranz, the original investigator assigned to the case, who
explained that “there were too many Jane Does already, so at least our
victim should have a distinctive name.”1 Kranz left the Blairstown
police department three years after Princess Doe’s discovery. A series
of articles on Lt. Kranz’s work in the case explains, “[F]rustrated with
his constant run-ins with other investigators assigned to the case
by the New Jersey State Police, Kranz resigned from the township
department in 1985. He is now disabled, recovering from a back
injury.”2

On the 25th anniversary of her discovery, a graveside service was held
to commemorate her anonymous life and mysterious death.6 And yet,
despite the initial flurry of investigative activity that naturally ensued
just after her body was found and the wealth of technological and scientific advances that have occurred since, as well as the single-minded
dedication of at least two law enforcement officers7 and one private
citizen (Riggs), two critical facts still remain unknown to this day: the
identity of the victim and the identity of her killer.
The author of the Princess Doe web