Baltimore County police will be in Alexandria to dig for more clues in the case of “Woodlawn Jane Doe” — a Virginia teen whose body was found in the Maryland county 45 years ago.
She was identified Wednesday as Margaret Fetterolf through DNA testing.
“This is a really big break in the case, because without knowing who she is, or where she came from, we really don’t have too much to go on, because we need to know who she may have been with in order to get some leads for this case,” Baltimore County Police Cpl. Dona Carter said in an update.
Carter added that Fetterolf had been going to Hayfield Secondary School in Alexandria.
Now that she’s been identified, “We want to go back to where she came from and try to figure out who she may have been with who may have seen her last, if anybody knows who she may have left that area with because she had to get here to the Baltimore area somehow, or wherever she may have been in the in between time,” Carter said.
Police want to talk with classmates who may have known Fetterolf, or anybody who may have been friends with her who might be able to provide information about the time leading up to her death.
Carter said family pictures of Fetterolf, as well as a yearbook photo, might jog someone’s memory — even if they don’t remember her name or too much about her.
They could remember certain things about what led up to her going missing,” Carter said.
Fetterolf’s body was found Sept. 12, 1976, in the 5600 block of Dogwood Road, near the Lorraine Park Cemetery in Woodlawn. She had been strangled and sexually assaulted.
She was 16 years old when she was killed, and her family told police that she went missing in 1975.
A witness recalled a white van in the area, and said that the body was dumped between 9:20 a.m. and 10:20 a.m.
Fetterolf’s body was found along a cemetery access road, and police said that she had been bound, beaten, strangled and raped. Chlorpromazine was found in her system, which may have been used to sedate her, police said.
Among the items police found were one of her shoes and two sets of keys on a safety pin in a pocket. She was wearing a rawhide necklace with a turquoise bead.
Anyone who may have more information about this case is asked to call Baltimore County police at 410-307-2020.
You can see a timeline of the case here.
WTOP’s Abigail Constantino contributed to this report.
