Someone's Daughter: In Search of Justice for Jane Doe

by Silvia Pettem

Overview

In 1954, two college students were hiking along a creek outside of Boulder, Colorado, when they stumbled upon the body of a murdered young woman. Who was this woman? What had happened to her? The initial investigation turned up nothing, and the girl was buried in a local cemetery with a gravestone that read, "Jane Doe, April 1954, Age About 20 Years."

Decades later, historian Silvia Pettem formed a partnership with law enforcement and forensic experts and set in motion the events that led to Jane Doe's exhumation and eventual identification, as well as the identity of her probable killer. The 2023 paperback edition includes an epilogue with updated information on how the mystery finally was solved.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781493072880
Publisher:	Globe Pequot Publishing
Publication date:	02/01/2023
Pages:	300
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Silvia Pettem is a Colorado-based historical researcher, writer, and author. After local history research led her to the identification of a decades-old murder victim, Pettem switched from writing about history to the genre of true crime. Her latest book, In Search of the Blonde Tigress: The Untold Story of Eleanor Jarman (Lyons Press, 2023), combines biography and prison reform in the 1930s with modern-day evidence that has helped to unravel a long-standing mystery.

Pettem's other books that relate to cold case investigations include Cold Case Research: Resources for Unidentified, Missing, and Cold Homicide Cases (2013); The Long Term Missing: Hope and Help for Families (2017); and Cold Case Chronicles: Mysteries, Murders, and the Missing (2021). Pettem lives with her husband and two cats in the mountains west of Boulder, where she continues her research and writing. She can be reached through her website, silviapettem.com.

Editorial Reviews

Cold case investigations, by definition, require digging into the past, but not all are as thoroughly researched as Someone's Daughter. This Jane Doe case documents a unique partnership between law-enforcement, the forensic community, and a historian who worked together—and got the job done.

Frederick A. Bornhofen

Silvia Pettem has written a book the reader will remember long after the last page has been turned. The power of her writing left me shaken and in grief for Jane Doe. I am already looking forward to her next book.

Roy Hazelwood

Highly recommended reading!

Defrosting Cold Cases

Someone's Daughter is a lot of fun. Pettem puts you right in her detective's gumshoes on almost every page, and you can't help but absorb some of her emotional connection to the case. ...[T]his well-written, exhaustively detailed investigation has helped bring a notorious Boulder cold case out of deep freeze.

Daily Camera

Silvia Pettem is a real-life Agatha Christie.

Frank Bender

With a journalist's flair for language and a historian's eye for detail, Silvia Pettem takes her readers through all of the twists and turns of a real-life murder mystery spanning fifty years, leading from an exhumed grave in Colorado to San Quentin's gas chamber. Someone's Daughter—replete with frustrating dead ends and tantalizing breakthroughs—is a compelling and accurate glimpse into the world of cold-case investigations.

James C. Oleson

Someone's Daughter is a lot of fun. Pettem puts you in right in her detective's gumshoes on almost every page, and you can't help but absorb some of her emotional connection to the case. ...[T]his well-written, exhaustively detailed investigation has helped bring a notorious Boulder cold case out of deep freeze.

(Boulder) Daily Camera