By: Shane Lambert
Original Time of Writing: December 19th, 2021
I researched the case of the Rahway County Jane Doe almost five years ago, as of the original time of writing this article. If you are not familiar with the case, then, in a nutshell, in March 1887, a woman was found murdered in the town of Rahway, New Jersey. The details of her case became a bit of a media circus. Perhaps this is just like more modern murder mysteries, like the case of JonBenet Ramsey.
The Rahway County Jane Doe was thought to have been a passenger who had recently alighted a train before being murdered. That she was supposed to be a traveler made the case difficult to solve back in the late 1800s because it suggested that the woman was not a local. Accordingly, missing persons from anywhere in the world were -- and still are -- actually in play with this case.
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Searching the Classifieds to Research the Case
Back in February 2017, I attempted to find a classified advertisement where someone was looking for a missing woman who was last seen in 1887. It used to be that if you lost touch with someone, then you might take to the newspaper classifieds to find the person.
Newspaper classifieds have been featured in other missing person cases that I have worked on. The case of Beverly Sharpman, last seen in Philadelphia, comes to mind as does the case of The Lady in the Well who was discovered in Saskatoon in modern times but thought to have been dead since the 1920s.
When I originally looked for someone back in early 2017 who might have been searching for the Rahway County Jane Doe, I failed in that effort. It could have been that the exact newspaper I needed was not in the databases I used at the time. I made a second attempt in December 2021, one that was successful in finding a lead that I can only call tenuous at this time.
Please read the classified advertisement below, which appeared in a Buffalo-area publication in 1902.
Could Annie Primroe be the Rahway County Jane Doe?
Is Annie Primroe the Rahway County Jane Doe? This is something I want to prove or disprove.
Firstly, the year of disappearance matches up to the year that the Rahway County Jane Doe was murdered. The person who placed the classified advertisement, one "J.J.T.", says Annie had been "missing since 1887."
Secondly, there is a question as to whether Annie Primroe may have changed locations: in the final statement, J.J.T. seems to acknowledge that Annie may no longer be in the Buffalo area, the city where this classified advertisement was placed.
Furthermore, I do know that the train line that served Rahway, New Jersey, served New York state. I read a story in The Morning Call newspaper from February 26th, 1886, that attested to this (Page 8). The first clues, in this case, are very tenuous, but there's nothing to contradict a match between Annie Primroe and the Rahway County Jane Doe.
To better understand the potential connection, the following table cross-references key details between Annie Primroe and the Rahway County Jane Doe:
| Attribute | Annie Primroe | Rahway County Jane Doe | Notes/Observations |
|---|---|---|---|
| Year of Disappearance | Missing since 1887 (per 1902 classified ad by J.J.T.) | Murdered in March 1887 | Timelines match exactly, supporting a potential connection. |
| Location Connection | From Buffalo, New York; last known location per ad. | Found in Rahway, New Jersey; believed to be a traveler, possibly via train. | Train lines connected Buffalo and Rahway in 1887, making travel between them plausible. |
| Marital Status | Likely unmarried in 1887 (ad suggests her name might have changed later, possibly due to marriage). | Presumed unmarried; autopsy indicated she was a virgin, ruling out prostitution. | Both appear to be unmarried in 1887, a point of corroboration. |
| Travel Context | J.J.T. acknowledges Annie may have left Buffalo, suggesting she traveled. | Believed to have alighted a train shortly before her murder. | Both cases involve potential travel, aligning with the transient nature of the Jane Doe. |
The family tree information can't be discounted. Annie is the cousin of J.J.T., she is the sister of Hattie Lesher, and, very importantly, Primroe appears to be a maiden name. This is actually a small clue that corroborates with the Rahway County Jane Doe.
J.J.T., in the classified advertisement, says "Her name was...Annie Primroe," in 1887, but the statement tacitly acknowledges that her name may have changed in the 15 years after that time. The most likely reason for a woman's name to change is through marriage. Thus, we can assume that Annie Primroe was not married at the time of her last contact with J.J.T. in 1887. The Rahway County Jane Doe, coincidentally enough, was actually thought to not be married.
On that matter, there was some discussion in a newspaper article I read that the Jane Doe, in some circles of gossip, was thought to have been a prostitute. However, during her post-mortem, I inferred they inspected her vagina and concluded that the Rahway County Jane Doe was a virgin. This discounted the notion that the Rahway County Jane Doe was a prostitute, and it strongly implies that she was not married. There seems to be some corroboration with Annie Primroe that is, admittedly, tenuous, but I felt intrigued enough to look at this lead deeper.
Research Angles and Challenges - Find a Record for Annie Primroe
For me, this is a work in progress that I invite others to look at. If you are interested in researching whether Annie Primroe might have been the Rahway County Jane Doe, then remember one important point: the primary goal is to try and disprove it. If you can't do that, then you can look at proving it.
One way to disprove that Annie Primroe was the Rahway County Jane Doe is to find her death record that proves she lived past 1887. She can't be declared dead in absentia or anything like that: in fact, dead in absentia might mean she was the Jane Doe. However, if you can prove that Annie Primroe lived past 1887, then it would mean she wasn't the Rahway County Jane Doe.
I have done some introductory work on this subject with Ancestry records. However, the name Primroe is not very common. I've wondered if it is meant to be "Primrose," however, as soon as you start working on angles like that, you are often going on futile tangents.
But finding Annie Primroe in Ancestry would be a great first step. The challenge is that her first name is the kind that has a lot of derivations, like Anne, Ann, or Anna. If you find someone who might be her, then keep in mind the family tree connections in trying to identify her. She has a sister named Hattie Lesher, with Lesher probably being a married name. "Hattie" can stand alone or it can mean Henrietta or Harriette. Hattie Lesher should be dead by June 18th, 1902. Also, Annie should have a cousin with the initials "J.J.T" who should be alive as of June 18th, 1902.
Any connections to Buffalo and Rahway County, New Jersey, would be very interesting, of course. If you build off of this article, please just be sure to properly cite me and link back.
Summary: Annie Primroe vs Rahway County Jane Doe
- Annie Primroe went missing 1887, the year that the Rahway County Jane Doe was found deceased.
- Primroe was from Buffalo, which has train connections to Rahway
- Primroe was not married and the Rahway County Jane Doe was not married, presumptively, because she was a virgin
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