dnadoeproject.org
More than a decade after her body was discovered in Thurston County, Washington, Peter Kalama Lane Jane Doe has been identified as
Jennifer Elaine Vawter. Vawter was born in 1981 in Oregon, and her last known residence was in Yelm, Washington, just a few miles from where her remains were found.
“This case was complicated both by very distant matches in general and by recent immigration from Poland on one side of the family tree,” said Harmony Vollmer, the team co-leader. “But in spite of these hurdles, our team persevered.”
The team on this case built out a family tree for the Doe that eventually grew to contain over 12,000 people. Finally, after months of research, they made a crucial connection. A marriage announcement from 1960 recorded a couple marrying in Indiana, and the team’s research connected the Doe’s DNA to the families of both the husband and wife.
After this breakthrough, it wasn’t long before the team discovered that this couple had a granddaughter, whose last known residence was just miles from where the Doe’s remains were found. Her name was Jennifer Elaine Vawter, and the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office later confirmed that she was indeed the woman formerly known as Peter Kalama Lane Jane Doe. Investigators are asking the public to come forward with any information they have related to her death.
This identification was only possible due to the hard work of the DNA Doe Project’s volunteers, who had a top DNA match of just 43 centimorgans to work with. Cairenn Binder, the then co-team leader, said that despite the low matches, “the dedicated and skilled genetic genealogy team for this case did not give up, and eventually identified Jennifer”.
