Texas Jane Doe Was Identified After 40 Years, But Who Killed Her?

It took over 40 years and multiple failed attempts to identify Walker County Jane Doe.

Walker County is most famous for housing the oldest and most notorious prison in Texas- Huntsville, which has operated since it opened over 175 years ago. It is also the exclusive location for Texas executions.

Walker County Jane Doe was looking for directions to another area prison, or so witnesses say. She was headed to Ellis Prison Farm for an unknown reason. Was she looking to meet up with a prisoner there?

Witnesses reported seeing a young woman or girl at the Hitch 'n' Post Truck Stop and at South End Gulf Station shortly before her death- places on the opposite ends of Huntsville and both right off a highway or interstate. She looked dishelved and had on dirty clothes and carried a pair of red leather high heels.

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A day later, her unclothed body was found only two miles north of Huntsville, face down and only 20 feet from the highway.

She was found only with her necklace, her high heels, and some of her clothing stuffed inside of her body. She had been brutally, horrifically sexually assaulted. Her cause of death was ligature strangulation. She had also been severely beaten- and bitten.

Investigators did the best they could for 1980, but couldn't even identify this poor girl. They could only guess at her age and identity. They guessed she originally came from a middle-class family, as she had excellent dental work done.

In time, an effort to identify her was made by attempting to extract DNA from her bones, however, there was not enough usable material there. She had been kindly buried by the Huntsville community with a tombstone that read "Unknown white female. Died Nov. 1, 1980."

Luckily, usable DNA was extracted from preserved tissue samples from her autopsy. In 2021, Jane Doe's true name was announced to the public: Sherri Ann Jarvis, who was only 14 years old when she died.

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Although witnesses said she claimed to be from Texas, she was a runaway from Minnesota.

Discovering her identity was heroic, however, it is still unknown who committed this horrible crime on such a young girl. It is possible she was the victim of an unidentified serial killer. Henry Lee Lucas was ruled out as his dentistry did not resemble the bite mark on her shoulder.

Is it possible the person who so brutally hurt Sherri was caught for another crime, or is already dead? Of course. However, that doesn't diminish the need for justice. It took over 40 years to identify Sherri, now it's time to identify her killer.