I'm feeling particularly disturbed by the mystery of the woman murdered and tossed away like garbage in a trash can on Dublin Canyon Road.
Now that there's a face to see, we can start to piece together who she was. She's no longer just a body in a trash can. She was someone's baby girl one day not so long ago. She could be a sister, a mommie, a cousin, a wife, a girlfriend.
There are so few details to go on, but even the little things are clues. She liked bright nail polish colors and wore funky pierced jewelry. I look at the tiny worn brassy feet-shaped earrings she was wearing, and it really gets to me.
Did she pick out those earrings with girlish purple rhinestone gems because they made her smile? Did they reminder her of a baby's feet? Did they just seem like a fun thing to wear for no reason at all?
When someone who is loved goes missing, it's usually big news because their relatives and friends will stop at nothing to get them back. Names like Sierra LaMar, Sandra Cantu and Michelle Le become imprinted on our minds as their faces are put on posters plastered all over our communities.
But there are so many more others out there we never hear about. According to the Department of Justice's California Missing Persons page, there are about 25,000 active missing person cases.
Robert William McIntosh of Solano County. Athena Zamora of Oakland. Kaelyn Aragon of San Bruno. April Downing of San Ramon.
Just peruse the pictures on the site. They're babies, teens and grown-ups of many different races. They look happy or miserable. Smug or defiant. Innocent or angry. Some simply look utterly and completely desperate and frightened. Some seem as normal as any kid in a yearbook snapshot. Two, sisters just a year apart, are wearing frilly summer hats with flowers on top.
And all of them are gone.
Of all the missing people, 2,100 of them haven't been identified. Just like our Pleasanton Jane Doe.
Murders are rare in the Tri-Valley, so I'm just guessing that Jane Doe was killed and dumped off here from somewhere else.
But I hope that won't stop us from adopting her as our own.
Because if she remains unidentified, it's likely no one else will. And it doesn't seem fair that she be forgotten the way she was left, just a body in a trash can.
If you know anything about this case, call at (925) 931-5100. You can also call the Missing Children Hotline at 1-800-222-FIND or email missing.persons@doj.ca.gov if you have any information about any missing child or adult.
