After more than three decades, the woman long known only as “Bone Lake Jane Doe” finally has her name back. Authorities on Thursday said remains recovered in 1993 have been identified as Denise Elaine Hartley, who was 27 when she disappeared. A skull pulled from Bone Lake in Scandia and a left foot that later washed ashore near Pig’s Eye Lake in St. Paul were ultimately tied to living relatives through lab work, and investigators say the case is still very much open.
Washington County detectives and the Ramsey County Medical Examiner teamed up with the nonprofit Pioneer Press reported, reopening the cold case and working to obtain family DNA to confirm a match. The effort drew on volunteer genealogists and specialized laboratories, as outlined by the DNA Doe Project, and investigators say a social-media post mentioning Denise’s disappearance around 1993 turned out to be crucial. “Cases like this stay with you,” Detective Clayton Evens said, adding that new forensic tools gave the team hope that old questions might finally get answers. Anyone with tips is asked to call 651-430-7850.
How the remains were found
On June 12, 1993, someone walking near Bone Lake in New Scandia Township spotted what looked at first like a discarded mannequin head floating in the water. It was a human skull. A few days later, a left foot surfaced along the Mississippi River bank near Pig’s Eye Lake in St. Paul. Examiners concluded the skull and foot came from the same person but could not match them to any missing individual, so the unidentified remains went into national databases.
The original descriptions, preserved in The Doe Network case file, became a reference point that volunteers and investigators kept returning to as genetic technology evolved. For years, though, the woman’s identity stayed stubbornly out of reach.
How DNA led to a name
The Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s Office eventually submitted DNA extracts from the remains for advanced sequencing, and the case was accepted by the DNA Doe Project. With help from partner labs, volunteers used investigative genetic genealogy to build out family trees and narrow in on a likely match, a process Pioneer Press detailed…