Looking Back at the Non-existent Missing Person Case of Carolyn Eaton

Author: Shane Lambert

On February 14th, 1982 a Department of Public Safety officer found a dead body roadside off of Interstate 40 in Arizona. It was Carolyn Eaton, a minor who had run away from home in December of 1981. It would take 39 years before she would be identified. Below is a snippet of the original journalism from the time.

UID-AZ - #UP9864 - Valentine Sally Jane Doe - Williams, AZ - 14 Feb 1982 16 Feb 1982, Tue Arizona Republic (Phoenix, Arizona) Newspapers.com

The Jane Doe had numerous profiles online and she was dubbed Valentine Sally. She was talked about extensively at her Websleuths.com forum. Honest attempts at naming her were made but they all failed until the individualization process known as DNA profiling zoomed in on her. There are probably hundreds if not thousands of Does that are waiting to be identified in the same way but the highly skilled labor that's required to perform the work only inches forward case by case.

The lengthy process of identification through familial DNA requires that a Doe's DNA be compared to a relative's. The problem is, finding a relative to compare to isn't easy: one has to have their DNA in an accessible databank to begin with. If a relative is found, that still doesn't end the task of matching the Jane Doe to someone who is missing. If the relative was a distant one, then the branches of the family tree have to be explored to find a worthwhile candidate for comparison. This process can be difficult.

What might be easier is good old-fashioned online Websleuthing. The catch is that in order for the Websleuths to do their thing, there has to be a report online of the missing person. For Carolyn Eaton, I found no missing person reports associated with her name prior to her identification as Valentine Sally.

The Jane Doe mystery was popular enough among Websleuths that if Carolyn Eaton simply had a missing person's profile online at one of the websites that offer such publishing that the case of Valentine Sally might have been solved a long time ago. Timely solving would do a lot: it would help apprehend any murderer, for starters. Why should we let those guys grow old in the comforts of their homes? 

Adding profiles to databases would streamline the process of identifying Does. The familial DNA process is too slow and too expensive. Websleuths aren't necessarily fast -- but they are cheap because they are volunteers and they are hobbyists. They are effective too but there's that 'catch' to think about: where the DNA people need DNA profiles to compare, if Websleuths are going to identify a Jane doe then they need a Missing Person's report to compare to.

If you have filed a police report for a missing person, then that's a good first step in trying to find the person. However, you should also make an effort to get the case profiled at Canada's Missing or NamUs, the latter being for the USA. If you can't get something up through those avenues in a timely manner, there's always DoeNetwork, CharleyProject, or this blog that you're looking at right now.