The Rahway Jane Doe from March 25, 1887 (New Jersey)

By: Shane Lambert
Updated: February 16th, 2021

The Rahway Jane Doe is an individual who was murdered in the town of Rahway, New Jersey on March 25th, 1887. The mystery of the murder victim's identity stands out, because it is the oldest unsolved mystery listed at DoeNetwork.org. 

I researched this mystery using online newspaper databases for a good two hours on February 5th, 2017. In my opinion, there is very little chance of conclusively solving this mystery for websleuths even with modern technology, like searchable newspaper databases, that wasn't available in 1887. The "clews" in this case (that's the 1887 spelling of "clues") are 99% red herrings if you ask me. Perhaps the best chance in identifying her is through DNA and the family-tree method. 

Why bother with this case?

If you are interested in this case then it's not so much about justice or helping surviving relatives learn where a loved one went, is it? After all, the perpetrator can only be dead at this point and the same could be true of any kid sibling the victim may have had, right?

The matter is a curiosity for many and, for me, a matter of testing out online newspaper databases as a modern technology for finding "clews" in historical crimes. In this case, I wanted to see if anyone nationwide in the United States searched for a missing woman in the years that followed 1887 that was last known to be heading to New Jersey, something that might be revealed in archived newspapers, including in classified advertisements and/or in news pieces. 

It may prove a viable way of looking into solving this murder or other murders or at least generating a lead. In fact, I successfully used this method in the Saskatoon case of the Lady in the Well and managed to generate a tip for the police. But on the night that I devoted to the matter of the Rahway County Jane Doe, I certainly failed.* But that doesn't mean I didn't find out a lot of details involving this case.

*Update: in December 2021, I retried this method and found one name that might be of the Rahway County Jane Doe

Four brothers and a dog

Four brothers named Frank, Irving, Thomas, and Alfred Worth found the mystery woman dead at 6:30am on Saturday, March 26th, 1887. She may have been a rail passenger the night before as a woman like her got off of the train at about 10pm on the 25th.

According to one J.H. Brunt, an individual that lived near where the deceased was found, his dog named Pete was behaving strangely between 11pm and midnight on the 25th. Reportedly, his dog would bark to try and get the owner's attention and then run in the direction of where the body was eventually found the next morning. This could be used to assume that the woman was murdered in the very late hours of the 25th and perhaps the dog was aware of the commotion or heard her calls for help.

Incidentally, that description of how Pete acted reminded me of dog behavior associated with another unidentified person's case (NamUs UP 7582). I think dogs know when someone is in trouble and they instinctively try to summon attention from nearby humanoids (see the relevant excerpt from the article immediately below).

Boston Daily GlobeThursday, March 31, 1887, Boston, Massachusetts

Loads of names are associated with this case, but whether they should be is a legitimate question. It stands to reason that only one of them could shed light on the woman's identity, unless she had some aliases.

The woman's throat was slashed and she was probably robbed (one article I read said one of her pockets had been inspected by a bloody hand). She had no money when found, but rings that were on her fingers weren't taken. That could be taken as evidence that robbery wasn't the motive. However, it could also be taken as evidence of just a bad and rushed plan. 

Whoever killed her may have been a destitute opportunist that only happened on her by chance. He may have made a haphazard decision to murder her and simply didn't do a complete robbery in panic. Could be that Pete himself scared the fellow into not doing a thorough job. 

But one "clew" in this case is that the woman's pocket was inspected with a bloody hand. Knife-wielding criminals often cut themselves when they stab or slash. That can be due to the momentum of the knife coming to a stop when it strikes someone while the momentum of the hand that holds the knife continues to travel up the blade. Many knife-wielders have been identified or cast into suspicion because of wounds to their hands. The man that looked in the Jane Doe's pockets with bloody hands might have cut himself.

Handkerchief with name the big clue

Blood was found smeared on a railing 600 yards from the victim after she was found. Near this point, a handkerchief was found with a name that resembled K.M. Noorz, writing that could not be made out clearly. A rubber stamp of some sort was also found with the name Timothy Byrne in the print.

Identifying blood, like the smear on the rail, in 1887 wasn't like it is in modern times. Something 600 yards away from ground zero (think 6 American football fields) cannot be tied to an event conclusively without a serologist. I found nothing on this matter that satisfactorily answered to how the secondary scene could be tied to the first with certainty.

"Noorz," which was on the handkerchief, has been suggested to be a Danish name of "Noorse." Other victim names associated with this case are "Mary Cregan," "Mary Craney," "Mary Malthey" (or Maithey), "Kate Jennie Neary," "Mina Noorse," and "Kate M. Noony." None of the names were fruitful for me in terms of finding them in the newspaper databases I searched in hopes of finding missing people with those names. A 'eureka' moment would be if an article appeared anytime and anywhere in the world of newspapers after March 25th, 1887 about a mother, father, or brother looking for a "Kate M. Noony," for example, but no such moment happened in this case.

Reward generated false leads?

The authorities offered a $500 reward, part for finding the murderer and part for finding the woman's name, to anyone who provided a good lead. I actually wonder if the 'leads' and 'tips' in this case are run amok because of the reward. That is, were all the attempts to name her just attempts to make some money? That is a sad thought to think that people would falsely name a dead woman just to try to make money without due concern for justice and preventing the murderer from claiming more victims. However, that seemed to be the case based on how many people tried to name her.

For instance, one postal clerk claimed that he knew of a Timothy Byrne in the company of the so-called Kate M. Noony. The clerk claimed she received general delivery mail at the clerk's place of employment. Seems to me that would be a fantastic lead if true. Seems to me that her mail would keep coming from people far away that would not have known of her death. I wondered if the clerk just got the names from the newspapers, which covered this murder from coast to coast, and then just tried his luck at making a buck with his tip.

July 15th, 1887 - Lebanon Daily News (click to make bigger)

Victim was not a prostitute

Something to note is that in my research I found a report that claimed that the Mayor of Rahway, one Mayor Daly, claimed that the "medical examination" of this Jane Doe "proved beyond all doubt" that she had "never been married." I'm taking that to mean that they inspected her vagina and figured she was a virgin. 

The deceased was buried in a grave that called her "An Unknown Woman" according to the picture at DoeNetwork. I read one article that grotesquely misquoted what was actually written on her grave. Furthermore, her grave is actually wrong in reporting that she was found dead on March 25th, which was the day she was murdered according to Pete the dog (she was found the next day).

Apparently, she was buried far away from the deceased snooties of 1887 Rahway out of fear that she wasn't a decent enough woman to merit burial near them. As a late-night murder victim, she was believed to be a possible prostitute. Her virginity, however, attests to the fact that she wasn't one.

Lastly, I found an interesting article somewhere that said there was a picture of her post-mortem in the March 30th, 1887 edition of "New York World." If anyone has access to that I would be interested in the picture. Lastly, please make one comment just so I know someone is out there that also bothers with 130-year-old Jane-Doe mysteries.