Credit: DDP
After more than 39 years, the long-standing mystery surrounding the identity of Smith County Jane Doe 1985 has been resolved. The Texas Department of Public Safety, in collaboration with local law enforcement, forensic experts, and the DNA Doe Project, has successfully identified the former Jane Doe as Sindy Gina Crow.
In October 1985, a highway mowing crew made the grim discovery of human skeletal remains in a brush-covered gully on the south side of I-20 in Smith County, Texas. Without any identification, the case quickly went cold, and would remain so until 2021 when investigators with the Smith County Sheriff’s Department brought the case to the DNA Doe Project to try investigative genetic genealogy to learn her identity.
A forensic assessment conducted by investigators with the Crime Forensics Laboratory in Dallas concluded that the remains belonged to a White/Caucasian young woman, between 20-25 years old with reddish-brown hair tied in a ponytail. They estimated she was 5'5"-5'7" tall and 110-125 lbs. Investigators felt her remains had been purposely concealed, and had been in the location where she was found for 12-15 months.
The DNA Doe Project, a national nonprofit organization, worked with specialty labs to produce a DNA profile that was uploaded to the databases at GEDmatch Pro and FTDNA - two consumer websites that allow law enforcement cases. Then, a team of 15 volunteer investigative genetic genealogists came together on a weekend in October 2023 to analyze the DNA matches to Jane Doe and build her family tree. In a matter of hours, they had found the branch of Sindy Crow, and were unable to find any proof of life for her after 1985.
Investigative genetic genealogy work is often stalled when the unknown person’s ancestry includes recent immigration, or they are a person of color. Access to records and underrepresentation of these populations in the databases make these cases especially difficult to research. With a father born in Italy and a Hispanic mother, this case should have been nearly impossible. One great match made the difference.
“We had one great match that pointed us in the right direction,” said team leader Rhonda Kevorkian. “All other matches were distant relatives. Without that great match, this would have taken much longer.”
“We happened to be working together in person for this case and, as the night wore on, it felt like we couldn’t take a break until we were confident she was our candidate,” said team member Emily Bill, who had traveled from California to Texas to work on this case. “Ultimately, we returned to the same conclusion again and again, and we all went to bed that night knowing Gina was our Smith County Jane Doe.”
The DNA Doe Project is grateful to the groups and individuals who helped solve this case: the Smith County Sheriff’s Office, who entrusted the case to the DNA Doe Project; Astrea Forensics for extraction of DNA from hair and bone, whole-genome sequencing, and financial support; Kevin Lord for bioinformatics; GEDmatch Pro and FTDNA for providing their databases; our generous donors who joined our mission and contributed to this case; and DDP’s dedicated teams of volunteer investigative genetic genealogists who work tirelessly to bring all our Jane and John Does home.
Republished courtesy of DNA Doe Project