Oak Grove Jane Doe

Oak Grove Jane Doe is an unidentified murder victim found dismembered in the Willamette River south of Portland, Oregon near Oak Grove over a period of several months in 1946. Media at the time referred to the case as the Wisdom Light Murder, as the initial discovery of the woman's torso occurred near the Wisdom Light moor in April 1946. Portions of the woman's body were recovered from the river over the following six months, with her head ultimately being discovered in October 1946. The case received national media attention, appearing on the front page of numerous news outlets, but her identity and killer remains unsolved. In 2004 her murder case was formally reopened, but remains a cold case. The evidence as well as the woman's remains were lost by law enforcement some time in the 1950's, rendering contemporary DNA testing impossible. Discovery: On April 12, 1946, three people walking along the bank of the Willamette River near Oak Grove, Oregon (south of Portland) discovered a burlap sack floating in an eddy offshore. Inside, they found the torso of a caucasian female, along with clothing and curtain sash weights. Initially, the individuals who found the sack believed it was a "sack of drowned kittens." The following day, April 13, the woman's right thigh and both arms were discovered in the river in similar burlap packaging, floating above Willamette Falls, approximately 6 miles (9.7 km) from the location where the torso was discovered. Sash weights were also discovered in the package containing the arms and thigh, and it had been wound with telephone wire. The hands had been severed from the arms, and the foot severed from the leg, neither of which could be located. Two fishermen made the discovery, and told authorities they had noticed the burlap package floating in the area at least 30 days prior, but did not immediately find it suspicious; however, after reading of the discovery of the torso downstream, they returned to the area, and found the package still floating against the falls' lock system, after which they notified law enforcement. Three months later, in July 1946, the woman's left thigh was discovered floating under the Oregon City Bridge near McLoughlin Boulevard. In September, "what appeared to be fragments of a human scalp" were discovered near Willamette Falls. The following month, on October 13, 1946, a package containing the woman's severed head was found near the location her torso had been discovered by a married couple from Oak Grove. The hands and feet of the woman were never recovered. At the time, the murder was referred to by the media as the Wisdom Light Murder, based on the fact that the torso had been discovered near the Wisdom Light moor. Investigation- Initial: Dr. Warren Hunter, a pathologist from the University of Oregon medical school, examined the torso upon its April 12, 1946 discovery, and estimated it was a female "past middle age...about 50." It was also believed that the torso had been placed in the water no more than 36 hours prior to its discovery. Prior to the pathologist's analysis, local newspapers had reported the body was of a girl in her "teens or early twenties," resulting in a barrage of phone calls to law enforcement from concerned parents. The pathologist concluded the woman was between 5 feet 2 inches (1.57 m) and 5 feet 4 inches (1.63 m) tall, weighed approximately 140 pounds (64 kg) to 150 pounds (68 kg), and had light brown hair. The lower portion of the torso showed burn marks, possibly from a blow torch, leading police to believe the victim had been tortured. The day after the torso was discovered, on April 14, 1946, a false confession was made by a man from a telephone booth in Milwaukie; the man claimed to have known the woman's identity, as well as the location where she had been dismembered. Law enforcement however determined the call was a prank, and dismissed any connection to the murder. On September 9, 1946, it was reported by the Albany Democrat-Herald that law enforcement were investigating a possible connection between the remains and Marie Nastos, a 47-year-old woman from Seattle, Washington, who had gone missing on August 24, 1945 en route to Seattle after a trip to Wenatchee. Nastos matched the physical description of the victim, standing at 5 feet 2 inches (1.57 m), weighing approximately 120 pounds (54 kg), and having brown hair. Upon the discovery of the victim's head in October 1946, it was revealed the woman wore dentures. The cause of death was determined to have been blunt-force trauma to the head. After death, the victim was dismembered—potentially via saw—and disposed of in the river. Law enforcement at the time investigated a potential connection between the woman and two missing persons cases in California and Indiana, but were unable to make a connection between the two. In July 1951, agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation interviewed convicted murderer Roy Moore from his prison cell in North Carolina; he purportedly recounted in detail his murder and dismemberment of a woman who he claimed to have disposed of in the Molalla River, but provided no information linking him to the Oak Grove Jane Doe. 2004 reopening: In 2004, the case was formally reopened by the Clackamas County Police Department. In a 2017 interview with Portland Police Bureau cold case detective John Krummenacker, it was revealed that evidence in the case—including the location of the woman's clothing, jawbone, dentures, and other remains—were unknown. It is believed the evidence was lost sometime in the 1950's. In the 2016 book Murder and Scandal in Prohibition Portland: Sex, Vice & Misdeeds in Mayor Baker's Reign it was written that "no new leads" have surfaced in the woman's murder, and "there is little hope of ever being able to solve the case" based on the lack of living witnesses and the loss of remains and other physical documentation. Theories: Crime writers J.D. Chandler and Joshua Fisher speculated that the identity of the woman was Anna Schrader, a married Portland woman who allegedly had an affair with William Breunning, a married police lieutenant. In 1929, Schrader and Breunning had a heated argument in which a gun was fired; Breunning stopped Schrader by jumping on top of her, and turn broke several of her ribs. In April 1946, around the time the body was discovered, The Oregonian ran a notice seeking Anna Schrader, who had disappeared; she had previously told friends she was considering moving to Minnesota, but as of 2017, no public records of residence or her death are known. Local crime writer Theresa Griffin-Kennedy also stated that the Jane Doe's remains matched the physical description of Schrader.