On Oct. 23, 1994, the body of a woman was discovered two miles south of Dora on the intersection of Interstate 40 and U.S. Hwy. 64D.
The woman’s body had been carefully wrapped in landscaping material and tied up neatly with twine. Her head was found 15 feet away.
As if this gruesome discovery wasn’t enough, the story gets worse: Her heart and left lung were missing.
The woman, never identified, was eventually buried at Roland Cemetery on Mayfield Road. She was given a name: Dora Doe.
Little is known about this horrific crime. The only “witnesses” told investigators that 19 days before the discovery of the body, on October 5, 1994, between 4 and 4:30 pm, they saw a white male dragging a black bag near the area where her body was found.
The man is described as having dark brown hair, a moustache, and is approximately 6 feet tall.
The man was reported to have been driving a blue 1990’s model Chevrolet Blazer with Arkansas tags.
Investigators believe that Dora Doe was 5-foot-3 with a small build and short, dark, graying hair. A medical examiner determined the woman was close to 50-years-old and was of a mixed race: Caucasian and possibly Asian or American Indian.
Over the years, investigators have poured over missing persons cases all over the United States to find out the true identity of Dora Doe. In their search, they have been able to rule out the following women who are listed as missing:
Rose Baker, born in 1940, missing from Texas; Juanita Bardin, born in 1944, missing from Texas; Gloria Berreth, born in 1956, missing from Colorado; Ronda Bosquez, born in 1959, missing from Texas; Linda Davis, born in 1946, missing from Oklahoma; Vivian Elliott, born in 1943, missing from Texas; Buffy Harris, born in 1958, missing from Oklahoma; Carolyn Harris, born in 1969 missing from Texas; Linda Joyce Hefner, born in 1942, missing from Oklahoma; Patricia Kelley, missing from Tennessee; Jeanie Lofton, born in 1972, missing from Texas; Fae Loo, born in 1900, missing from Alabama; Bobbi Parker, born in 1940, missing from Oklahoma; Tina Marier Reynolds, born in 1967, missing from Arkansas; Tracy Samuels, born in 1968, missing from Oklahoma; Patricia Schmidt, born in 1964, missing from Virginia; Grace Webber, born in 1900, missing from Oklahoma; and Jerry Yell, born in 1940, missing from Oklahoma.
In 2010, a petition was filed to exhume the body of Dora Doe. According to the petition, in July 1995, Ruth Henderson was found murdered in her home just outside of Fort Smith. (Charles Ray Vines was convicted of her murder).
According to authorities, a small piece of tissue was found lodged in Ruth Henderson’s left ear canal. The Arkansas State Police laboratory revealed the substance found lodged in Henderson’s ear was lung tissue — and it did not belong to Henderson.
Did the tissue found belong to Dora Doe? If so, is this another victim of Charles Ray Vines?
Has Dora Doe’s body been exhumed yet for DNA testing?
To date, the Sequoyah County Sheriff’s office has not returned my calls and Charles Ray Vines has not responded to my letters.
Seven years ago, in January of 2010, Courtney Coble, a staff writer for the Sequoyah County Times reported the following:
“On Jan. 4 an attempt was made to extract a DNA profile from Dora Doe’s known hair samples, but the attempt was not successful. Because of the new technology available for DNA testing, the OSBI will exhume Dora Doe’s body and try to successfully extract DNA from her remains.
Sequoyah County Sheriff Ron Lockhart said although there has been an order issued to exhume Dora Doe; a date has not been set to begin digging.”
I think the public has a right to know if the order signed by A.J. Henshaw, Sequoyah County associate district judge to exhume Dora Doe’s body was ever carried out. After all, this woman was brutally murdered, decapitated, and some of her organs were ripped from her body.
The only hope to identify Dora Doe and her killer is to collect her DNA for testing.
I don’t know about you, Fort Smith, but I want some answers.
… to be continued.
