NamUs #UP85987 - Jane Doe in Arizona's Mohave County

By: Shane Lambert

I researched the Mohave County Jane Doe tonight, an apparent murder victim whose dead body was found on January 23rd, 1971. The case received some mainstream media coverage with Fox10 in Phoenix. NamUs says that the "Jane Doe was found on a private ranch in a canvas sack with a rope outside of Kingman, Arizona on 01/23/1971."

 

This artistic rendering of the victim was undertaken in early 1971, I believe by a Flagstaff police artist. 

Here are her details, many of which are as per the Mohave County Sherriff's Office Facebook post on October 20th, 2021, however, I source other sources throughout this article:

Body found: January 23rd, 1971

Cause of death: murder by strangulation (sourced below)

Date of death: Undetermined but early speculation was that she was thought to have been dead for several weeks; later speculation was that she had been dead for a month when she had been discovered. By my research, I think she was thought to have died around December 23rd, 1970.

Sex: Female

Age: estimated to be about 40 years old (35-40 years old by another source)

Height: 5'4" (estimated: she had been dismembered, according to another source)

Weight: 125 to 140 pounds

Hair: curly, brown

Location: a deserted area near a dirt road that was 2.2 miles east of US Highway 93 on Hackberry Road

Clothing: a size-14 multi-colored long-sleeve blouse, a black long-sleeved black cardigan sweater, a pair of burnt-orange stretch pants with the words "Symphony, It's what's happening" written on a tab (size 12), a pair of black leather and ankle-high boots, bobby sox, and no jewelry.

Scar: she had a c-section birth scar (sourced below)

Fingerprints: sent to FBI

Dentals: Her dental work was considered expensive. She had two missing molars. She had a "$500 microband bridge."

Family: Thought to have been married (she had a bone indentation that was thought to have been caused by wearing a wedding ring) and she was thought to have had three children.

Find-a-grave: I think this might be the Jane Doe's grave picture. However, the date is off. Then again, with Jane Doe cases the dates on the graves aren't always right.

"Deer-Pak Ames Harris Neville Co.": What does this mean?

The woman was discovered by three hunters. The bag that the woman was in had the following phrase: "Deer-Pak Ames Harris Neville Co."

"Ames Harris Neville Co" gets hits in the newspapers.com database throughout the last century, but mostly in the early parts.  The company sold bags, tents, camping gear, awnings, and canvas goods. The Fox10 news article said the sack was a canvas bag so "Ames Harris Neville Co." was likely the brand name of the bag. The ad below shows that this was a large company on the west coast of the USA.

 

30 Jun 1960, Thu The Californian (Salinas, California) Newspapers.com

"Deer-Pak" appears to be a hunting term. Deer-Pak is a kind of bag that someone would buy to haul away deer after making a kill. With that in mind, it's not surprising that this woman was found by hunters. I think this Jane Doe was stuffed into a hunting bag that would have been meant for wild game. In the second clipping below, see the ad in the bottom-left. It uses the phrase "Deer Pak" amidst hunting equipment.

 

06 Oct 1967, Fri The Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles, California) Newspapers.com

01 Oct 1963, Tue Tucson Citizen (Tucson, Arizona) Newspapers.com

"Symphony, it's what's happening": What could this phrase mean?

The phrase "Symphony, it's what's happening" is something I found little information on at first. However, someone at Etsy.com was selling some clothes that were vintage from the 1960s that had "symphony it's what's happening happening happening" written on the tag. I kept a screenshot in my notes. That gave me the idea to just search for "happening happening happening" with my beloved newspaper archive membership and I found a company that used the slogan with some variety.

I believe the Jane Doe's clothes were associated with a brand name called Monsanto's and may have been sold somewhere called Velma's as per the advertisement below. However, many chains may have carried the brand. As you see in the advertisement, they use a variation of the slogan. It's not "Symphony, it's what's happening" but rather "symphony is what happening, happening, happening!"

I am not sure what "symphony" means: maybe it's a line of clothing within the overall brand? But I really do think that the murdered woman was rich or at least well-off, stylish, and chic.

06 Apr 1969, Sun Panama City News-Herald (Panama City, Florida) Newspapers.com

Journalistic Coverage

I found only a little bit of media coverage with this case. The articles I found are below. Journalist Paul Dean of The Arizona Republic wrote that she was stuffed into "a muslin deer sack" ("muslin" means lightweight cotton cloth in a plain weave), confirming what I wrote above about the canvas bag that she was found in being that of a hunter's. The second article below, the one by Paul Dean, is basically required reading for this murder mystery.

25 Jan 1971, Mon Arizona Republic (Phoenix, Arizona) Newspapers.com 27 Apr 1971, Tue Arizona Republic (Phoenix, Arizona) Newspapers.com