HARLAN, Ky. (LEX 18) – A body discovered in 1969 by a young boy picking wildflowers has been identified 47 years after she was found.  The Harlan County 1969 Jane Doe has been identified as Sonja Kaye Blair- Adams by DNA. She was found stabbed to death and buried in a Harlan cemetery. She was known by locals as ‘The Mountain Jane Doe.”  Her Harlan County grave had a marker identifying her as such.

Karen Stipes, the daughter of Sonja Blair-Adams searched the National Database of Missing and Unidentified Persons System and contacted Detective Josh Howard and Harlan County Coroner Philip Bianchi when she realized there was a possibility the 1969 Jane Doe may be her mother.

Sonja was originally from Letcher County, Kentucky and was 21 at the time she went missing. Investigators exhumed Jane Doe’s body and compared a sample of her DNA with a DNA sample from Sonja’s family. LEX 18 spoke to officials with NMUS when they took on the case.  “It’s one of those cases that I’ll never forget and I’d love to send this person home,” Todd Matthews told LEX 18’s Jessica Reyes.Wednesday, Matthews got his wish.

The remains were sent to University of North Texas in 2015 and in September 2016 it was confirmed the DNA matched and the 1969 Jane Doe was Sonja Blair-Adams.

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