BY DOUGLAS QUAN
The Press Enterprise

April 20, 2003

Most people reeled when news broke in January that a woman's headless, handless body was found dumped off the Ortega Highway.
Kathy Rivera took it as a call to action.
The 56-year-old grandmother and retired corrections officer is a member of a growing Internet-based group of amateur sleuths trying to crack John and Jane Doe cases around the world.

They take whatever details are known about an unidentified body, and hit the computers, scouring missing persons Web sites for potential matches.
"There's so many thousands who have never been found. It's heartbreaking," Rivera said. While the recent discovery of missing Utah teenager Elizabeth Smart encourages Rivera, she knows that many people who disappear are either never found or end up dead.

In the early stages of the investigation into the Ortega Highway case, authorities had little to work with. Investigators said the woman was white, probably in her late 20s to late 30s, 5-feet-8-inches to 5-feet-10-inches tall, 165 to 175 pounds, with red or strawberry blond hair.
First, Rivera posted newspaper articles about the story to the network. Then she began to search missing-person sites across California to see if anyone matched that description. She found none, so she started looking at sites in Oregon. She said she found one possible match and forwarded it to investigators.
Investigators thanked her for the information, she said. As it turned out, the woman, Jane Bautista, had been living in Riverside and her two sons were charged with murdering her.

600 members

Still, Rivera didn't think she had wasted her time. Simply getting the word out on a Doe case, getting people talking, helps.
The discussion group she belongs to, groups.yahoo.com/group/coldcases started in 1999 and has since grown to nearly 600 members. In 2001, members of that group formed the Doe Network (www.doenetwork.org), an Internet-based resource devoted to missing people and unidentified victims.
The volunteers who run the nonprofit network, which covers the U.S., Canada and Europe, say the network has played a role in cracking four cold cases.
The site publicizes numerous cases involving missing persons and unidentified victims, and contains links to law enforcement, missing-person sites and newspaper articles.
"It helps to keep a case from being cold," said Todd Matthews, the Doe Network's media director based in Tennessee.
"You can tie cases together and cross-publicize them. You might find a clue that way," he added.
Among the network's members are a group of forensic artists who donate their time to create computer-aged photos and three-dimensional busts.

Mixed response

Members admit that some law enforcement agencies don't take the group seriously. But others are willing to share information with the network, Matthews said.
Deputy Rick Bogan, of the Riverside County Sheriff-Coroner's office, whose Web site is linked to the network's Web site, said the networks can be a valuable resource for the families of missing people.
"I'm glad they're out there doing things," Bogan said.
Like many members, Rivera has a personal connection to a missing-person case. A close friend of hers went missing in 1984. The case went unsolved for several years until police said a man confessed to her murder.
Rivera said she devotes a part of each day reading e-mails from other members of the discussion group. If there's a case she's particularly keen on, she can spend hours on the computer doing research.
While she's especially sensitive to cases of unidentified children, Rivera said all cases deserve equal attention.
"It doesn't matter if they're adults or children, they're somebody's children."

CASES
Cases the DoeNetwork says it has helped to solve:

• Angela Parks, of Bowling Green, Ky.: hit by a train in July 1993 in Texas; identified in 2001.
• Brenda Wright, of Baltimore, a murder victim: Her body was found December 2000; identified in 2002.
• Kelly Stevens Zaezical, of Flint, Mich.: killed in 1992 train collision in Texas; identified in 2001.
• Roger G. Jeffreys, of Clay, Ky.: disappeared in September 1984; identified in 2003 as the person found dead in 1985 in a wooded area in Glover, Vt.