Madera County Jane Doe - #UP125443 Was Found September 24th, 1989

By: Shane Lambert

#UP125443 is a Jane Doe that was recently added to the NamUs system. There is a big gap between the entry date and the date that this person was discovered. I did find some journalism coverage on the discovery of the body dating back to September 1989.

Jane Doe. Madera County Jane Doe.

There were not a lot of details available with the NamUs report. But this person was determined to be a female of an uncertain race. She was placed in the Adult Pre-40 category with journalism suggesting an age in her 20s.

She had a weight of 130 to 135 pounds and she was between 4'8" and 5'2". Using the upper estimates, she would be upper normal on a lot of BMI scales. She may have appeared slightly chubby in life if she was 5'2" and 135 pounds.

She had black hair that was called shoulder-length in journalism. NamUs says she had a condition called "Enamel hypoplasia," which is when enamel does not develop properly.

Location of her body: About 10 miles southwest of Madera in a vineyard. Avenue 6 and Road 23, about 50 feet from the paved road, 36.83692288193394, -120.12828210216904 are the approximate Google Map coordinates. There are still a lot of vineyards in the area in modern times.

Who found the body: A crew of grape pickers.

Time of death: There is no post-mortal interval provided at NamUs but the journalism in September 1989 suggested that she had been at the location where she was found for 2-3 weeks. I felt like this information had to be taken lightly.

Clothing: At the original time of writing, NamUs did not have any clothing entered. According to journalism, she was wearing a multibanded silver-colored ring with a cluster of silver-colored balls. The ring described in the clothing sounds like what one would call a cocktail ring. 

Her Jane Doe report appeared in The Fresno Bee on September 28th, 1989, which was four days after she was found. As described from that source, it appeared to be a body dump.