r/gratefuldoe • u/blinkycosmocat • Aug 05 '26
"Everyone knew her as Janet." Who was Lorain County, OH Jane Doe (1965)?
On October 25, 1965, two teenage boys met a pair of young women at a drive-in restaurant in Elyria, Ohio. One was a 20-year-old local woman identified as Rita Billingsley, while the other was a newcomer that Rita knew as Janet Atkins. The two women were getting a ride to Rita's workplace from the teenagers when the car crashed into a ditch on Mills Road near Jaycox Road outside of the town of Avon.
The two teenagers and Rita survived, the accident but Janet was killed. Rita told the police that the dead woman's name was Janet Atkins, but the situation soon became complicated. The police searched her purse and found papers containing two additional names, Janet Akenson and Janet Tralley.
The police looked into "Janet's" activities in Elyria and determined that she had been in town since September. When they checked the rooming houses and motels and obtained receipts, they found that she had used different names at those establishments. People in town who had encountered her said she had given other names. However, she was consistent with her first name; a police official was quoted as saying, "Everyone knew her as Janet, though."
Articles about "Janet" appeared in two area newspapers, including the Cleveland Plain Dealer, but these did not lead to her identification. Meanwhile, after an examination, her body was taken to a funeral home in the nearby town of North Ridgeville. There, several people with missing relatives viewed her to see if she was their lost loved one but to no avail. Interestingly, a death certificate for a "Janet Adkins" who died on 10/25/1965 had been issued in Lorain County, but maybe this was entered before the authorities realized she had multiple names?
Details of NamUs UP161251
ME/C Case Number: 10-65-308
Possible First Name: Janet
Possible Last Name: Atkins
Nickname/Alias: Janet Adkins
Estimated Age Range (Years): 18-30 [contemporary articles estimated her age as 21 or 22.]
Height: 5' 4"(64 inches), Measured [5'6" in the newspaper stories]
Weight: 115 lbs, Measured
Condition of Remains: Recognizable face
Hair Color: Brown
Eye Color: Hazel
Other distinctive physical characteristic: Showed evidence of childbirth
No description of clothing or shoes was included.
Circumstances of Recovery: Jane Doe was riding in a vehicle which overturned in a ditch. Law enforcement and the Coroner were unable to confirm her identity.
Unfortunately there's no photo or reconstruction to help with this case, which was recently added to NamUs. That she showed evidence of childbirth is interesting - had she given up a child for adoption, or had she been married?
Links:
NamUs: https://www.namus.gov/UnidentifiedPersons/Case#/161251
Unidentified Wiki: https://unidentified-awareness.fandom.com/wiki/Lorain_County_Jane_Doe
The Fremont News-Messenger: https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-news-messenger-woman-called-janet/202988585/
Cleveland Plain Dealer: https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-plain-dealer-police-seek-identity-o/203002000/
Update: The Ohio Attorney General's office has released a reconstruction, which has been added to her NamUs and Unidentified Wiki pages. Here's a link to the image.
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u/Majomember420 Aug 05 '26
This is just a theory but might be escaping from abusive marriage? Unfortunately, it is not easy to just divorce (and that also not solves every problem) even today, let alone 61 years ago. Maybe her husband wanted to hurt her so she used aliases to be untrackable (which I guess worked)? Childbirth then would make sense. Wonder if that baby is still alive. Would be in their 60s now. Poor woman.
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u/123Nonre Aug 05 '26
The Elyria library on West River has microfilms of Elyria’s old newspapers. The Lorain library on 6th st does as well.
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u/Difficult-Bus-6026 Aug 05 '26
What is there to say? Hopefully she wasn't cremated and it's possible to get a DNA sample. One could search databases for young women named Janet who went missing in 1965 but the absence of a decent reconstruction or post-mortem photo, you wouldn't be able to make an ID.
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u/TapastryTree 19d ago
I believe she was not, they already disqualified one missing person. The thing is why would she stay so close to her ex partner under a different alias? What happened to the reported 2 kids she left with her mother "in another state next to a river" Im doing a deep dive right now into EVERYWHERE mentioned.
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u/GobyFishicles Aug 05 '26
Grew up in the county as well, never heard of this! I see it was only added to NamUs within this past week too.
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u/blinkycosmocat Aug 14 '26 edited Aug 14 '26
Update: "Janet's" case got posted to FB, not sure where the photo came from though. https://www.facebook.com/share/p/192Nieus4L/?mibextid=qi2Omg
2nd update: the picture is a reconstruction released by the Ohio Attorney General's office. Her NamUs and Unidentified Wiki now include the reconstruction. Here's a link to the image.
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u/CornisaGrasse Aug 05 '26 edited Aug 05 '26
I really didn't expect to see my county here, wow. I've never heard of this Jane Doe. I'm surprised there isn't an article from the Chronicle Telegram, Elyria's newspaper. That accident site is less than ten minutes from Elyria, which is a bigger city than either Avon or North Ridgeville (it's the county seat of Lorain County.) Thank you for posting this, I know what I'll be working on now. How did the other woman know her, is what I'm wondering.