More than 40 years after a young woman was found murdered beneath a Houston freeway, a new forensic sketch could bring fresh leads in the case.
The unidentified woman, discovered under a discarded mattress along I-45 in 1980, was wearing distinct gold jewelry that investigators hope someone may recognize.
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The gold bracelets and necklaces tell part of her story, but not her name. Who was the young woman found under Houston’s freeway in 1980?
What happened?
It was just another workday on Dec. 10, 1980, for a billboard crew working in the 3600 block of Stokes Street, just six miles from downtown Houston. But what started as a routine afternoon turned into a chilling discovery.
Beneath the Interstate 45 freeway, alongside a set of railroad tracks, the workers noticed something odd: a foot sticking out from beneath a discarded mattress. What they uncovered was the body of a young African American woman. She was lying face-down, her life tragically cut short, and her identity a mystery to this day.
She was a woman between the ages of 16 and 40, standing 5′2″ tall and weighing 135 pounds, with a recognizable face, found just hours after her death from strangulation. The unidentified woman was wearing a pink pantsuit with a vest and had a scar on her left wrist.
Her jewelry included two thin gold bracelets and one orange bracelet on her left wrist, and two necklaces hung around her neck—small clues that investigators hoped might lead to her name. But despite efforts to identify her, including a composite sketch created by renowned forensic artist Lois Gibson based on her morgue photo, she remains unidentified.
The Houston Police Department Cold Case Squad continues to appeal to the public for help. If you recognize the jewelry, if you know someone who went missing around Dec. 1980 and matches her description, or if you have any details that could bring her justice, please come forward.
If you have any information about this case, please contact the HPD Cold Case Squad at 713-308-3618 or Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS.
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