A partnership between the Collin County Medical Examiner's Office and a forensic lab near Houston aims to reunite families with unidentified bodies.
A new partnership with a forensic lab near Houston aims to reunite families with unidentified and unclaimed bodies in Collin CountyThe Collin County Medical Examiner's Office 'Unidentified Project' has solved a 20-year-old mystery surrounding the identity of a 'Jane Doe,' replacing her gravesite headstone.
The weight of the years-long search for answers hit Alvarez who wiped away tears recalling the call that confirmed this Jane Doe’s real name was Lisa Jaqueline Mellay, 47, of California.“When the initial call came in I remember sitting at my desk and breaking down crying out of nowhere and I remember my boss saying 'Are you OK?' I was like 'We found her,'” she said with a smile.
Alvarez poured over each name and city linked to her ‘Jane Doe,’ finding a pattern in name often used by the mysterious woman. It is a sense of relief and gratitude Alvarez hopes to bring the rest of the families on her list of unidentified bodies. “We've worked on thousands of cases at this point,” said Othram Chief of Staff Colby Lasyone. “Every case that we work, there's an unidentified individual, be that individual, unidentified human remains, someone who dies without their identity or the suspects of a crime, and so it's important for us to bring answers to victims and their families.”
Forensic science has cracked open decades-old murder or unidentified persons cases across the country, he said.
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