(XENIA, Ohio)—Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine and Greene County Sheriff Gene Fischer today unveiled the forensic facial reconstruction of a woman whose skeletal remains were found in Greene County earlier this year.
The clay model was created by a forensic artist with the Attorney General's Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) in an effort to help Greene County authorities identify the woman.
"This was someone's daughter, someone's family, someone's friend, and she deserves to be identified," said Attorney General DeWine. "Now that we have her face, we hope we can soon determine her name. It is our sincere hope that this model looks familiar to someone."
The woman's remains were found in a wooded area of Spring Valley Township on May 1, 2016. She had likely been there for three months to one year before being found. Her cause of death is unknown.
"We are looking forward to the assistance of the community in helping identify this 'Jane Doe' with the help of the technology incorporated by Attorney General Mike DeWine and the staff of the Ohio Attorney General's Bureau of Criminal Investigation," said Sheriff Fischer.
The woman is believed to be Caucasian, between 25-50 years old, and between 5'5'' to 5'10''. She was wearing a medium-sized white tank top with small stripes, a size 40D bra, and black sweatpants with a pink stripe up the leg and pink heart in the thigh area that said "Babe."
Both the Greene County Sheriff's Office and BCI Missing Persons Unit exhausted all leads in trying to determine the woman's identity before turning to the facial reconstruction process.
"When all the DNA testing, dental records, tattoo records, and more leads have been explored, and there are still no answers, we can offer facial reconstruction to local law enforcement," said Attorney General DeWine.
To create this forensic facial reconstruction model, BCI partnered with The Ohio State University, which used a 3D printer to create a plastic model of the woman's skull. One of BCI's forensic artists then built the clay model on top of the printed skull. The process to create the facial features, which generally takes between 50-60 hours to complete, begins with the creation of muscles and tissue and then uses scientific guidelines to determine the thickness of the tissue in areas such as the chin, brow, nasal bridge, and cheeks. Because it is impossible in this case to know the woman's hairstyle, the forensic artist created an average hairstyle for the model.
It is not known if the woman resided in Greene County or in another part of the state or country, so anyone who sees a resemblance to a missing friend or relative is urged to contact the Greene County Sheriff's Office at 937-376-5111 or BCI's Missing Persons Unit at 855-BCI-OHIO (855-224-6446).
A time lapse video of the creation of the model by BCI forensic artist Samantha Molnar and a video outlining the forensic facial reconstruction process can be found below.
Time Lapse Video:
Forensic Facial Reconstruction Process Video:
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