Grace Doe Identified After 31 Years: What Does the Autopsy Reveal about Her Killer?

DNA links Shawna Beth Garber to a troubled childhood

Artist’s rendition of Grace Doe (left). Childhood photograph of Shawna Beth Garber (right). Source: McDonald County Sheriff’s Office

This is the first in a series on the Shawna Beth Garber cold case. You can find part 2 here:

For three decades, the murdered young woman remained nameless. After a couple found her behind an abandoned farmhouse in southwest Missouri, the McDonald County Sheriff’s Office spent 31 years trying to find out who she was. Because of the body’s deteriorated condition, detectives dubbed her Grace Doe because “only by the Grace of God” would she be identified.

Earlier this year their persistence paid off. They finally put a name to the county’s only unresolved missing persons case: Grace Doe was, beyond a doubt, Shawna Beth Garber. According to Lieutenant Michael Hall, who worked the case 15 years:

I am pleased that after all this time there is some closure as to the identity of “Grace” aka Shawna. It was sad for the family to find out what happened to Shawna, but I’m glad they got to lay her to rest.

Like so many cold cases solved during the past few years, it was DNA that ultimately gave investigators their answer.

A skull in the grass