Trans Doe Task Force Aids Lake County Sheriff’s Office in Identifying Unknown Transgender Murder Victim
On September 25th, 1988, a Lake County man was scavenging wood by the side of a rural road near Clermont when he stumbled across human remains.
The Lake County Sheriff’s Office took on the investigation and initially determined the body to be that of a female’s, between the ages of 22 and 35. The investigators learned a lot from the body – the victim had received breast implants – no later than 1984. She had had a nose job. She had long, blonde hair and manicured nails. She was wearing a green tank top and denim skirt when she died. Scarring on her pelvic bone told detectives that she had given birth – maybe multiple times. The body had been by the road between two and four weeks. But the remains told the investigators nothing about who she was. She was simply referred to as “Julie Doe” – a moniker cribbed from the film “To Wong Foo, With Love – Julie Newmar.”
For 27 years, the case remained open . . . and cold. In 2015, a DNA profile by the University of Texas revealed a piece of the puzzle that turned the investigation on its head: Julie Doe was born a man.
The investigation shifted gears with this new information – and a new investigatory organization was spawned to address a gap in the way detectives look at crimes.
The Trans Doe Task Force spun off of the similarly named DNA Doe Project. Both use DNA technology to identify unknown victims – the Trans Doe Task Force focuses on identifying transgender victims. Earlier this year, the task force was able to put a name to the victim: Pamela Walton. She was born Lee Allen Walton and adopted by a family in Kentucky. A family fight drove her from her home and she took off for Florida. Little about her life is known after that.
Dr. Anthony Redgrave is a co-Founder of the Trans Doe Task Force – he joined Engage to talk about the case and his organization - along with Lieutenant Tammy Dale of the Lake County Sheriff’s Office, who worked Pamela’s case with a dedicated team from the department.
