CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) – A Jane Doe found in northeast Ohio was a victim of one of America’s most prolific serial killers, Samuel Little, back in the 1980s.
Police know who killed her, but decades later, they still don’t know her name.
19 Investigates has learned the FBI is trying to find her identity using DNA and genealogy.
We first profiled this case in our series Unidentified.
Now, we spoke with a possible family member about a new chance for answers.
Inside the case
For more than 40 years, this woman has remained a Jane Doe.
Her skeletal remains were found hidden in the woods off I-271 in Willoughby Hills back in March 1983.
In 2018, detectives learned Samuel Little took her life.
The serial killer from Lorain confessed to killing dozens of women across the country. He said she was a prostitute he picked up in Cleveland.
“So when I dropped her over the fence, she practically disappeared in the weeds and stuff,” Samuel Little said to local detectives during his confession in Texas.
A copy of the case file from 1983 shows Willoughby Hills Police extensively investigated the case at the time, trying to connect her to missing women across the country.
Now decades later, new technology could help crack the case.
Earlier this year, 19 Investigates learned from police that the FBI was trying advanced DNA testing and genealogy in hopes of finding this Jane Doe’s distant relatives.
DNA match to a possible relative
“I wanted to come to you and see if people in the Cleveland community would remember my cousin,” said journalist and author Lee Hawkins.
Hawkins reached out to us after seeing our first story on this Jane Doe.
He was shocked when he said the FBI identified him as a second cousin of the victim.
He said a special agent contacted him after a DNA sample matched him as one of her closest known relatives.
They tested other possible relatives in the Akron area too.
“There were many, many sleepless nights where I wondered who my cousin was, what her name was. Did she come from Alabama? Where my family was from? And how did she wind up in Ohio?” he said.
Hawkins said it’s sad that no one seems to know who she was.
He doesn’t know of any missing relatives in his family and he’s been doing genealogy and family research for years.
The former Wall Street Journal reporter recently wrote a book called “I Am Nobody’s Slave: How Uncovering My Family’s History Set Me Free.”
He learned since 1837, someone in his family has been murdered in every generation, related to land ownership, entrepreneurship and race relations.
He wonders if “Jane Doe Hawkins,” as he calls her, could have been born out of wedlock.
“Or maybe even a man who had a child he never knew about. And I’d like to hope that that’s what it was, you know,” Hawkins said.
The FBI could not comment to us on this case.
It may take awhile to get answers, but Hawkins isn’t afraid to unearth any possible family secrets himself.
“I just want to know her name and I want her to know how much we do love her. And if there was ever a feeling in those five minutes that she was with Sam Little in the end that she was alone and I’m sure she felt very alone. You know, she’s in my heart and I won’t stop until I know her name,” he said.
Investigators believe Lake County’s Jane Doe was 20 to 35 years old and was born between the 1950s and 1960s.
Hawkins believes someone here in the Cleveland area may hold a missing piece of this puzzle.
He hopes he may hear from someone who knows who she was soon.
Call with any information
If you know who Lake County’s Jane Doe was, call the FBI Cleveland division at 216-522-1400.
You can also submit an anonymous tip online at tips.fbi.gov.
Our series Unidentified has profiled about two dozen John and Jane Doe cases in northern Ohio.
Lee Hawkins in Cleveland
Hawkins lives in New York and is in Cleveland this week for a conference for the National Association of Black Journalists and to speak about his new book.
He will also be discussing this Jane Doe case.
You can catch him at his book talk and signing at the ThirdSpace Reading Room this Saturday at 4 p.m. at 1464 E. 105th Street in Cleveland.
Podcast on Samuel Little’s history in northeast Ohio
In our true crime podcast Dark Side of the Land, 19 News investigator Sara Goldenberg traced Little’s roots in northeast Ohio, where he grew up and started his life of crime.
You can listen to Drawn to Death: Confessions of a Serial Killer here.
Need an investigation? Contact 19 Investigates with your request.