Doe ID: 'Government Camp Jane Doe' Wanda Herr

DNA: ID

AbJack Entertainment

True Crime, Society & Culture

4.7 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 17 November 2025

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Episode 165 Doe ID: 'Government Camp Jane Doe' Wanda Herr

In August, 1986, a human skull and some bones were found of Highway 26 near Government Camp, Oregon. There was nothing to help ID the victim, who the authorities believed was a female between the ages of 17 and 30. An expert believed that the skull had been there for as long as ten years, but some time later, that idea would be challenged.

Eventually, DNA & genealogy would prove that 'Government Camp Jane Doe' was actually Wanda Ann Herr who was described as a "chronic runaway" and had last been seen by her family in Oregon in 1976. Her case is being investigated as a possible homicide, although it's likely due to very little potential evidence, the mystery surrounding her death will never be solved.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to DNAID.
0:03.1	Brought to you by Abject Entertainment.
0:05.4	Be sure to check out some of the other great true crime podcasts from this network, including
0:10.2	The Murder in My Family, Missing Persons, Scene of the Crime, Zodiac speaking, Beyond Bizarr True Crime,
0:18.3	Campus Killings, and Killer Communications.
0:21.8	All of these podcasts are available for you to binge on right now, wherever you listen to podcasts.
0:27.3	Subscribe where you're listening to this podcast so you don't miss an episode. The
0:40.3	The The On August 2, 1986, two U.S. Forest Service workers were walking on an old logging road,
1:29.3	a mile south of government camp, off Highway 26 on Mount Hood, Oregon.
1:34.0	In the brush on Still Creek Road 2612 near Road 145, they discovered a large piece of a distinctively
1:41.1	human skull. Searches of the area revealed additional bone fragments
1:45.0	and a human tooth. Police called in to search the scene found nothing more, no clothing,
1:50.5	jewelry, shoes, or personal possessions. The skull was turned over to an Oregon State Police
1:56.1	forensic examiner who concluded that it originated from a Caucasian female or a small male in their 20s.
2:03.5	Based on the wear on the skull fragment, he posited that it had been in the elements for about
2:07.7	10 years. That would mean the skull was likely put in the woods on Mount Hood sometime around
2:13.1	1976. And that was all the 1986 investigators had to work with. Further, the skull they had recovered
2:20.3	was missing its mandible. So a black and white sketch of the decedent was complicated by the
2:25.6	artist having to make an educated guess as to the shape and size of her jaw. No one recognized the
2:31.4	sketch and no missing person's cases from the area connected to Jane Doe,
2:35.5	so she remained unidentified.
2:39.4	Nothing happened with government camp Jane Doe's case for nearly 20 years.
	...

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