Valentine Jane Doe 1991
Written by: Kenzie Desrosiers
Around 8 a.m. on the 15th of February 1991, windsurfers camping near Bahai Honda State Recreation Park in Florida discovered the nude body of a female along a dirt trail in a heavily wooden area. She had been stripped of her dignity, bludgeoned, and strangled with her own bikini top.
When police arrived, they notice drag marks in the dirt, along with blood that led investigators to scattered clothing items; a “Forenza” cardigan sweater with horizontal stripes and silver buttons, denim shorts, and black, ankle-high moccasins with red stitching and leather fringe. She was left for dead; face down in the shallow water of an area known by the locals as the “horseshoe”, just past the Bahia Honda bridge.
The autopsy revealed that she had been dead for less than 24-hours when her body was discovered, and she had been sexually assaulted. The victim, coined the “valentine doe” had stretch marks on her abdomen that indicted a previous pregnancy. Valentine Doe suffered from salpingitis, in addition to a large cyst on her right ovary, as well as, fallopian tubes, for which she likely sought medical attention. She was a white female, between the ages of 16-25, standing roughly 5 foot 5 inches tall and weighed 130 pounds. She had brown hair and greenish-blue eyes. Her ears were pierced four times and she had two tattoos; both appeared not to be professionally done. She had a heart with the word ‘love’ on her upper left shoulder and a radiating cross on her left wrist.
A woman matching Valentine Doe’s description was spotted earlier in the day by motorists, hitchhiking along US 1 in the Florida Keys. Motorists noticed that her clothing and lack of tan lines, which was uncharacteristic for a Florida native. This led authorities to speculate that she was from the northern territories.
She was last seen near mile marker 17 along U.S. Highway 1 - otherwise known as, Overseas Highway – about 18 miles from where her body was discovered. Two witnesses from the “horseshoe” area observed an older model white pickup with a camper shell in the area, driven by two white males. One of the witnesses saw the pickup on February 14th, and the other remembers the truck in the area two to three days prior to her murder.
For 29 years, the ‘Valentine Jane Doe Homicide’ would remain cold. However, through the use of new DNA technology, detectives used databases of GEDmatch and Family Tree DNA to identify the Jane Doe as 18-year-old Wanda Deann Kirkum of Hornell, New York.
Fortunately, detectives were able to identify the suspect as 31-year-old Robert Lynn Bradley from the DNA match from the scene. A year after Kirkum’s tragic death, Bradley was killed in a homicide in Tarrant County, Texas. His cause of death, gunshot wounds to the head. According to investigators, evidence suggested that Bradley lived in the Miami area in late November of 1990.
Sadly, Wanda was never reported missing by her family or friends and both her parents have since passed away. If she had a child before her death, he or she would likely be in their early 30’s. Till this day, authorities don’t know what brought Wanda to the Florida Keys. Thankfully, the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office never gave up on this case and were able to give Wanda back her identity.
Comments