The woman known only as Jane Doe #79 was about 71 years old when she died on Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2011. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, she died after sustaining blunt force trauma. Her death was ruled a homicide, but the Los Angeles Times Homicide Report entry for her gives no address or city and lists the investigating agency simply as "None." She has never been identified.
The short entry hides a much longer story. According to a summary of her case in the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, NamUs case UP10011, published by the website Solvepedia, she was found "down in an alley" near Inglewood on Jan. 8, 1988, suffering from head trauma. She was taken to a hospital in Inglewood and then moved through the Los Angeles County hospital system. She was never able to tell medical or convalescent staff who she was, and she remained a Jane Doe from the day she was admitted until her death more than 23 years later in a nursing home in Los Angeles.
That timeline means the blunt force trauma listed as her cause of death appears to refer to injuries from the 1988 assault, which suggests that the coroner traced her death back to whatever happened to her in that alley. The record does not say who hurt her, whether anyone was ever questioned, or whether the original attack was investigated as a crime at the time.
Her NamUs record describes her as a black woman, about 5 feet 3 inches tall and roughly 127 pounds, with gray or partly gray hair. Her eye color is listed as unknown, and no clothing, jewelry or tattoos are recorded. Her age at death is an estimate, and the Medical Examiner carries her case under number 2011-08342.
Her case has drawn some attention from online amateur investigators, including a discussion on the Reddit forum r/UnresolvedMysteries, but no family member has come forward publicly, and no name has been officially attached to her. If her age was estimated correctly, she would have been in her late 40s when she was found in 1988, which suggests that somewhere there may have been children, siblings or friends who wondered for decades where she had gone.
Inglewood is a city in the South Bay area of Los Angeles County, just east of Los Angeles International Airport. In 1988 it was best known as the home of the Forum, where the Lakers and Kings played, and of Hollywood Park racetrack.
Hundreds of people are killed in Los Angeles County every year, and a large share of those killings end without an arrest.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Jane Doe #79 could be found in news archives or public records. More than 14 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who knew a black woman in her 40s who disappeared from the Inglewood area around January 1988, or who remembers an assault in an alley there that winter, may hold information that could help investigators give her back her name and learn who hurt her. Even a small detail, such as a name overheard, a vehicle seen nearby or a conversation remembered, can help detectives move a case forward. Anyone with information can contact the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner, citing case number 2011-08342, or submit information through NamUs under case UP10011, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS.
