She Was Found Dumped In A Graveyard After Someone Took Her Life: 39 Years Later We Still Don’t Know Who This Young Woman Is
Warren County, New Jersey. It was July 15th, 1982, and a groundskeeper employed by the Cedar Ridge Cemetery in Blairstown was doing work on the grounds.
While that person was working on that hot, summer day, they happened to come across the body of a young woman that had been dumped there after someone took her life.
She was on her back, not far from where a creek runs through the cemetery, and she had been placed there several days before she was found.
She was dressed in a short-sleeve, red v-neck shirt, and close to her was a red and white wrap-style skirt that featured little peacocks at the bottom of it.
On her was a gold cross necklace with white beading in the chain, but the necklace was not clasped around her neck.
She was 5’02” tall and weighed 110 pounds. She had brown hair, shoulder-length, but since her body had decomposed, nobody knew for sure what color her eyes were.
She was as young as 15 and as old as 20. She had suffered blunt force trauma to her head.
Lieutenant Eric Kranz with the Blairstown Police Department was the first person to get to the cemetery to investigate the death of this young woman.
National Center For Missing & Exploited Children; pictured above is a reconstruction of the young woman
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He thought it would be a good idea to take her clothing, place it on a mannequin, and take photos to then give to the press, hoping someone would be able to identify her that way.
Although Lieutenant Kranz went through with that plan and photos of the young woman’s clothing were published in local papers, nobody knew who she was.
Lieutenant Kranz then decided to speak to every school in the state of New Jersey, and ones in Pennsylvania and New York as well, but still, not a single person recognized this young woman.
Lieutenant Kranz also frequented diners, gas stations, and truck stops in 5 different states, hoping he would encounter someone with information that would lead to her identity.
Nothing ever panned out though, and this young woman remained without her name.
Speaking to an HBO documentary team, Eric later said, “I’m in this thing with a passion. It’s not a case to me; it’s not a number.”
“It’s not a number. I’m talking about a person that’s dead. I got tired of writing the name Jane Doe… there’s a million Jane Does.”
Warren County Prosecutor’s Office; pictured above is the skirt Princess Doe was found with
“They’re all in a cemetery and they all have unmarked graves. I just wanted to give her some personality; some identity. That’s why I named her Princess Doe. She was probably someone’s princess along the line.”
And so, this young woman became known as Princess Doe after the name Lieutenant Kranz gave her in absence of her real one.
At one point during the investigation into who she really was, it seemed she could have been Diane Dye, who was a 13-year-old girl that had run away from home.
Home for Diane was San Jose, California, and she had disappeared on July 30th, 1979, which was around 3 years before Princess Doe was found in the Cedar Ridge Cemetery.
Diane Dye was ultimately ruled out as Princess Doe’s real identity, and Princess Doe was then buried in the same cemetery she had been discovered in.
Volunteers with the Blairstown Museum now generously volunteer their time keeping Princess Doe’s grave kept up and covered with beautiful flowers. The museum also holds an annual memorial for her.
Warren County Prosecutor’s Office; pictured above is the cross necklace Princess Doe was found with
“As we often state, Princess Doe was someone’s daughter long before she became our town’s homicide victim,” the Blairstown Museum wrote in a Facebook post dated August 12th, 2019.
“On a national level, we tend to gloss over the ugly parts of our history and this rings true on a local level as well. While the Blairstown Museum does exhibit and celebrate our frontiersmen, founding families, farmers, and incredible contributors to the community, we also need to be cognizant of the tragedies which have occurred and provide the community with facts regarding them as well.”
“This particular case is personal for each and every one of us. There is hardly an individual who learns of this case and forgets about it. There are so many theories of who she was, how she arrived here, and what happened to her. However, we cannot base our facts on theories, we have to base our theories on facts and that’s precisely the Blairstown Museum’s motivation in respect to the Princess Doe case.”
“History is beautiful, but it also encompasses tragedy and those tragic events cannot be intentionally or unintentionally forgotten. This child deserves to have her story and the facts surrounding her untimely death told. We would all want the same for our loved ones.”
It’s been 39 years since Princess Doe was found dead, and she remains without her real name.
If you have any information related to the case of Princess Doe, please contact the Warren County Prosecutor’s Office at 908.475.6275.
Facebook; pictured above is a post from the Blairstown Museum
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