The Chattanooga Jane Doe

On March 29th, 1999, a body was discovered in a creek bed in Chattanooga, TN. The body was found by workers clearing brush between the northbound and southbound ramps from Interstate 24 to Rossville Boulevard near the intersection with Cannon Avenue.

The body belonged to a woman who was partially clothed, wearing only a pair of red shorts. A red ponytail holder was on her left wrist, along with a rubber band. Her body was in a state of what they called “advanced decomposition” and was skeletal. She was believed to have been dead for several months.

Both January and February were unseasonably warm that year, with temperatures reaching above 70 Fahrenheit, which would speed up the decomposition process significantly.

(The approximate location of the body’s discovery.)

The body was taken to the Medical Examiner’s office on Amnicola highway, where a full autopsy was performed. The medical examiner’s website is where nearly all of the information about this case is located. 

The medical examiner noted that the victim suffered from multiple injuries, but none of them were the cause of death. The victim had fractures on the tops of her feet which had recently healed, and also had fractures on her hand, her rib, and her nose, all of which were healed.

The victim was described as “bow-legged” and may have walked with a noticeable limp.

The victim’s dental health was extremely poor, with only 12 teeth intact at the time of death. She also had an active abscess on her lower left jaw at the time of her death.

Rossville Boulevard was known as a rougher spot of town back then, and it still is. That area at Cannon avenue is home to a few autobody shops, some convenience stores, a tire store, and that’s about it.

Back then, just like today, that area was popular with homeless people who would camp in the underbrush along the creek bed. There are also quite a few drug dealers and drug users who frequent the area. Crack, methamphetamine, heroin, and other opioids would have been a common sight for people who lived there.

This is purely speculation, but I think it’s likely the victim was a drug user based upon the dental health described by the medical examiner. Based on the previously healed injuries, it appears this woman led an extremely rough life, likely full of abuse.

A forensic bust of the victim was commissioned, with several variations. Although the medical examiner doesn’t mention any glasses found near the scene, some of the busts include them.

While the police investigation appears to have reached an impasse, a few people on web forums have tried to help with identifying the victim. So far, all attempts have been unsuccessful. There have been numerous missing persons who appear similar in age and appearance to the Chattanooga Jane Doe, but none have been positively linked by law enforcement.

Sometime in the last few years, it appears that the Chattanooga Police department or the Hamilton County DA’s office ran a DNA test on the victim to find genealogical data that could help them identify the victim. This method has been used successfully in the past to identify other former Jane Does in the area. Unfortunately, it appears no good information was gleaned, except for one detail: The victim is now listed as being 80% African American.

This narrows down the search by at least a small degree.
We still don’t know who this person was or how she died. Was her death due to foul play or did she die of natural causes, or perhaps a self-inflicted injury? Was she even a local to the area? 

Chattanooga is known for a lot of things, but for truckers, it’s known as a major stop along the I-75 corridor. I-75 runs all the way from Sault Saint Marie, Michigan to Miami Lakes, Florida. A major intersection along that route is the 75-24 split. All the east TN and NW Georgia readers know exactly what I’m talking about. The body was found just off of I-24 very close to the 24-75 split, which is one of the busiest interchanges in the country. Thousands of vehicles pass through that area every day, and it’s entirely possible that the victim was a hitchhiker from anywhere along that route. This widens the net significantly when it comes to finding a possible match. 

The hitchhiker angle reminds me of recently convicted serial killer Samuel Little, who has a confirmed victim in the Chattanooga area. A woman by the name of Patricia Parker, whose body was found in 1981 in Dade County, Georgia, just about 30 minutes from where the Chattanooga Jane Doe was found. Ms. Parker’s body was unidentified for almost 40 years before Little confessed to her killing. She was finally positively identified through DNA genealogy testing, likely the same process used on the Chattanooga Jane Doe.

(A Forensic bust of Ms. Parker. Photo from WXIA)

Another Jane Doe in the Chattanooga area was recently identified using the same technology. The body of 18-year-old Stacey Lyn Chahorski was found in Dade County, Georgia just off of I-59, a few miles from the Alabama border. On December 16th, 1988 investigators took the body to the local medical examiner’s office where an autopsy was performed. A post-mortem sketch was drawn of the victim’s face, which attempted to show what she may have looked like in life. Her body remained unidentified for over 30 years.

When DNA tests finally gave investigators a break in the case, it was revealed that Ms. Chahorski disappeared from Norton Shores, Michigan in 1988. Her mother spoke to her on the phone shortly after, and Chahorski said that she was traveling to Flint, and then to Muskegon, Michigan. Her last conversation was in December 1988, when Chahorski said she was hitchhiking in North Carolina, and planned to be back home for Christmas.

Instead, she ended up deceased on the side of the interstate in Georgia, and her family had been wondering for over 30 years where their loved one was.

(A family photo of Stacey compared to the sketch made shortly after her discovery.)

Investigators also named a suspect in the case, thanks to additional DNA evidence. Henry Fredrick Wise, who went by the names “Hank” and “Hoss”. Wise was a truck driver for the Western Carolina trucking company, and had a route which took him from Chattanooga, to Birmingham, to Nashville. An arrest would never be made, however. Wise had been dead for over 20 years. Wise was also a stunt driver. He was killed in a fiery crash at the Myrtle Beach Speedway in South Carolina in 1999.

(A newspaper clipping from the time. Source unknown.)

(Wise stands next to his tractor-trailer. Date unknown.)

While these two cases are now closed, the Chattanooga Jane Doe case remains active. While there are many dedicated and passionate investigators working for law enforcement in this area, they can only spend so much time on a Jane Doe case from 25 years ago. GBI Special Agent in charge of the Chahorski case, Joe Montgomery, said it well when speaking to Oxygen.com.
“You work these cases, and you live with these cases, and you have really good evidence, and you just can’t do anything with it.”

This person had family, had friends, and may have had children. This person was loved by someone. Someone who may still want to know what happened to their missing friend or daughter or mother or spouse. Her life story ended in a creek bed in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Who was she?

Recently, District Attorney Coty Wamp shut down the Cold Case Unit in order to focus on more recent crimes.
If you have any information that could help investigators, call the Chattanooga Police Department’s non-emergency number at 423-698-2525. You could hold the missing piece to the puzzle.