Kings County Jane Doe (1992)

Kings County Jane Doe
Discovered	May 13, 1992
Unidentified for	33 years
Sex	Female
Location	Brooklyn, New York
Age	20-50
Race	White
Height	5'7
Weight	140 pounds
Body condition	Decomposed
Postmortem interval	Months
Cause of death	Homicide

Kings County Jane Doe, also known as Victim 9, was a woman who was killed by serial killer Joel Rifkin in 1992.

Case

The victim was discovered by sanitation workers floating in Newtown Creek at North Henry Street. The victim was discovered in a 55-gallon oil drum. Initially, police suspected she was a drug mule who died from an overdose because of the cocaine in her system and drug-filled condoms in her stomach.

However, after his capture in 1993, serial killer Joel Rifkin confessed to her murder. He told authorities she was the ninth victim out of seventeen victims he killed. He could not remember her name, but he remembered her tattoos and that she was a pickup from Manhattan.

Rifkin's victims were usually white females with drug addictions and involved in sex work. Rifkin is now serving 203 years to life in prison for the murders of nine of his victims in the Clinton Correctional Facility. This victim and another, whose remains have not been recovered, remain unidentified.

Efforts are underway to locate this victim’s remains for DNA extraction, after she was buried at a location designated for unclaimed remains, prison inmates, or those unable to afford internment within a traditional cemetery.

A previously unidentified victim, Heidi Balch, was identified in 2013. Prior to this, Mary Williams remained a Jane Doe for seven months after her December 1992 discovery.

Characteristics

• Long brown hair.
• Tattoos according to Rifkin, but no description is available.
• Enlarged left ovary, caused by a dermoid cyst.
• Possibly had a history of cocaine use.

Accessories

• Rifkin stated a snake-shaped piece of jewelry he kept as a “trophy” was worn by the victim.
  • Swabs were taken in hopes to obtain a DNA sample, but proved unsuccessful.

Media

• The case was discussed in the 2023 two-part series Cold Case Files: The Rifkin Murders.

Exclusions

The following have been ruled out as the victim per NamUs:

• Valerie Smith, who was later matched to a different set of unidentified remains.
• Patricia Schmidt

Sources

• Kings County Jane Doe at the Doe Network
• Kings County Jane Doe at NamUs
• ThoughtCo.
• Murderpedia
• Cold Case Files: The Rifkin Murders