by DAVID POLAKIEWICZ, Staff Writer

November, 2003

For the State Police, the nearly two-decade-old file of the investigation into her death is referenced as U-177829897.

But to Bedminster resident Teresa Rusmisel, she is an unidentified woman, believed to have been 28 to 37 years old, whose skeletal remains were found in a wooded area near southbound Interstate 287 in Basking Ridge on Nov. 25, 1985. And Rusmisel wants to help learn her name.

On that date, nearly 18 years ago, a Jersey Central Power & Light worker who had pulled off along the highway found the skeletal remains.

It was an era before the use of genetic DNA by police became commonplace to identify criminal suspects and victims. It was also an era before the Internet made natiowide data base searches possible for anyone with a computer.

Enter Rusmisel, an amateur sleuth who is one of 300 volunteers nationwide who research cases listed on the Doe Network website, attempting to match the physical traits, clothing and jewelry of unidentified crime victims with official missing persons reports.

"This case needs to be solved," said Rusmisel. "She needs her name back."

Rusmisel, a resident of Burnt Mils Road, has delved into the case with enthusiasm in recent weeks, even driving what might have been the path taken by the person who killed or dumped the body of the Basking Ridge Jane Doe.

Investigators, however, acknowledge that identifying the remains almost 20 years after her death is a long shot.

"It's hard to believe that someone could go totally unidentified for this long," said Bernards Township Police Chief Thomas Kelly, who was a detective in 1985 when Jane Doe's remains were found.

"For her identity to be determined, it's a matter of some piece of the puzzle coming to the attention of the State Police."

Rusmisel, who moved to the township in 1997 when she married her husband, Stephen, a New York attorney, has researched cases for the Doe Network since 1999.

'Didn't Come Back'

Her interest in the organization stems from a family tragedy that occurred in Nevada the year before.

"My father went to the grocery store one night and didn't come back," she said. "Four days later he was found dead."

Rusmisel's dad had no identification on him when he left his home that tragic evening. His daughter and wife, however, put out a missing person report on him when he did not return.

His corpse was ultimately discovered by a woman who was riding her bicycle along a road, according to Rusmisel.

"Two kids, who didn't have anything to do, wanted to carjack his car," said Rusmisel. "They're now serving their time. They got five dollars from him. They could have just asked him for it and he would have given it to them."

Later, Rusmisel was surfing the Internet and found the Doe Network's web site. "I had figured my situation wasn't one of a kind," she said.

Doe Network volunteers, according to Rusmisel, "aren't a bunch of kooks." Like herself, they are people who donate their time trying to do something positive.

Rusmisel, who is also pursuing a criminal justice degree at Raritan Valley Community College in Branchburg, spends about 10 hours a day working on network cases. Her children are in college, she said, giving her the time to pursue the matter.

Cases Solved

Since its inception in October 1999, Doe Network volunteers have solved 11 identity cases and provided law enforcement agencies with links allowing another four to be solved, according to the group's web site. If volunteers believe they have identified a victim, a regional network coordinator is contacted, who then notifies police.

The group's prime sources of potential victim identities are publicly accessible missing persons and "cold case" files, which some states list on the Internet. Rusmisel has already ruled out about a half-dozen potential identities for the Basking Ridge Jane Doe.

"All were women who had been reported missing at some point," said Rusmisel. "But none of them panned out."

Jane Doe's Traits

Rusmisel appears to face long odds in successfully identifying the Basking Ridge Jane Doe. Shortly after the remains were found in 1985, a State Police official acknowledged that the lapse of time between the death and finding of the remains would be a significant hurdle for investigators to overcome.

Contacted last Friday, State Police Detective Sgt. Joseph Soulias of the Missing Persons Unit referred questions about the case to Donna Fontana, a forensic pathologist. Fontana was not in the office early this week and could not be reached for comment.

Rusmisel is working from the following description in trying to identify the Basking Ridge Jane Doe.

The victim was believed to be 5-foot-5 to 5-foot-7 in height and weighed 120 to 160 pounds. She had brown or blonde hair and surgical breast implants. Jane Doe probably bore at least one child. Healed fractures of several ribs indicate the likelihood that she had a prior motor vehicle accident.

Her teeth were in good condition. She had a full metal/porcelain crown and root canal on the lower right, second molar. She had a partial upper denture with two teeth, one in each canine/eye tooth position. Her upper natural canine teeth had been moved forward into the lateral position next to the central incisors so that the lateral teeth appeared more pointed than usual.

Jewelry was found with her remains. It included blue earrings described as a pearl with silver post, wing-type in sterling silver and a hoop in 14K gold. She also wore a sterling wire bracelet, an obelisk ring in sterling/turquoise and a starburst sterling ring. The ring sizes were 5 1/2 to 6.

For more information on the Doe Network, residents can view its website at www.Doenetwork.org.