Name: Jane Ellen Wakefield
Case Classification: Endangered Missing
Missing Since: September 6, 1975
Location Last Seen: Iowa City, Johnson County, Iowa
Date of Birth: November 19, 1948
Age: 26 years old
Race: White
Gender: Female
Height: 5'2"
Weight: 112 lbs.
Hair Color: Brown
Eye Color: Green
Nickname/Alias: Unknown
Distinguishing Marks/Features: Wore glasses at the time of her disappearance
Dentals: Missing tooth #14
Fingerprints: Not Available
DNA: Not Available
Clothing: Unknown
Jewelry: Unknown
Additional Personal Items: Unknown
Jane was last seen at on September 6, 1975 by a neighbor who spoke to Jane after she returned home from a bicycle ride with friends. The neighbor said Jane was behaving normally. Late that evening, one of Jane's neighbors heard someone yelling or screaming but assumed it was coming from a nearby party.
She was reported missing on September 8, 1975, by the Penn school principal, where she was a teacher. A police check of Jane's trailer revealed her bicycle locked to a yard lamp and her Fiat parked in its assigned space. The trailer was orderly and nothing was missing or out of place.
Jane separated from her husband in 1975. She filed for divorce 6 months before she vanished and was dating another man.
At the time, a series of lie detector tests narrowed the list of suspects. However, one major suspect had refused to take such a test questioning the validity of such tests. On September 10, 1975, Iowa City police drained two city lagoons near the victim's trailer court, but no evidence pertaining to the case was uncovered.
In January 1976 police armed with search warrants went to an Iowa City tavern where the suspect worked and an Iowa City apartment house and a billiard parlor, both managed by Jane's estranged husband.They removed bone fragments, a piece of metal believed to be a tooth filling, and 5 vacuum cleaners from his property. Ashes sifted from an incinerator at the apartment in question were sent to the Bureau of Criminal Investigation Laboratory in Des Moines; lab analysis of bone fragments found in the incinerator were found to be inconclusive. Subsequently, a stretch of 1-80 north-of Iowa City was also searched by some 20 officers. No official explanation for the search has ever been released. Jane has never been seen again.
Agency Name: Iowa City Police Department
Agency Contact Person: Detective David Gonzalez
Agency Phone Number: 319-356-5451
Agency E-Mail: N/A
Agency Case Number: J16-75
NamUs Case Number: 18981
NCIC Case Number: M-703329643
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Added: 2005; Last Updated: 05-18-2022 - By: Htmlcnvtr
Questions or comments? Please contact appropriate member of the Area Team
** Listed information is from the time of disappearance.
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