Sahara Sue

"Sahara Sue"
Reconstruction of the victim's face by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
Born	1954-1964 (approximate)
Status	Unidentified for 35 years, 8 months and 16 days
Died	August 14, 1979 (aged 15-25) Las Vegas, Clark County, Nevada, United States
Cause of death	Homicide
Resting place	Woodlawn Cemetery, Las Vegas, Clark County, Nevada, United States
Other names	Jane Las Vegas Doe
Known for	Unidentified victim of homicide
Height	5 ft 6 in (1.68 m)
Weight	100 lb (45 kg) to 105 lb (48 kg)

Sahara Sue is the informal nickname given to an unidentified murder victim who was located in Las Vegas, Nevada in 1979. Her true identity has yet to be found. She was a Caucasian female between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five and is known for wearing dentures, despite her young age.The girl was nicknamed "Sahara Sue" because her body was discovered near the Sahara Hotel's Las Vegas location and was also located at an intersection between Sahara and Las Vegas avenues.^[1] The victim was photographed, reconstructed, fingerprinted and had her DNA analyzed, yet she has remained unidentified for over thirty years.^[2]

Discovery

In Las Vegas, Clark County, Nevada, the body of a female between fifteen and twenty-one (although she may have been as old as twenty-five)^[3] was discovered lying face down in a parking lot on August 14, 1979, estimated to have died three to four hours before.^[2][4] She had been stabbed several times in the abdomen no earlier than four hours prior.^[5] It was reported that a female matching her description was seen with a white man before the body was discovered.^[6] Despite her young age, she had lost all of her teeth and she had worn dentures, although the mandibular piece was not present.^[4]

Description

She was a white female with brown eyes and wavy light brown hair. She stood at five feet six and weighed approximately 100 to 105 pounds. She wore a shirt and hip-hugger jeans, along with white gold necklaces and a ring on her right hand. Her shirt was blue, made of linen, with a tie near the waist area, containing red embroidered designs and sequins. The ring, like the necklaces, was also made of white gold, consisted of a band without a stone. One necklace contained a pendant with a metal leaf design with a round turquoise stone on the bottom. The other pendant was plastic and heart-shaped contained a rose design. Although she wore these pieces of jewelry, she did not wear earrings, nor did she have her ears pierced. Her nails on both her feet and hands were manicured and were decorated with red polish and her shoes were never located.^[3]

Investigation

Second reconstruction of the victim, illustrating the clothing that she wore

Because Sahara Sue had died within hours before her body was found, her fingerprints were taken and entered into national databases but resulted with no matches. Her recognizable face has also been released to public websites, although multiple reconstructions of her face also exist.^[2][4] Her body was exhumed in 2003 to obtain DNA after a possible match was found, but no match was made.^[7][8] At least seven missing people have been ruled out to be possible identities for Sahara Sue.^[2]

External images

Second profile reconstruction

Shirt

Pendants

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Unidentified murder victims.

• Sahara Sue at the NCMEC
• Sahara Sue at the Doe Network
• Sahara Sue at NamUs ^{Postmortem photo at link}
• Sahara Sue at Find a Grave