Decades Old Murder Case Reopened
KAYE: Welcome back, 10 minutes past the hour. All morning we have been talking about murder in America. Crime trends and now the latest technologies that could free thousands of wrongly convicted felons. This week the FBI and Justice Department announced it will review criminal cases dating back to 1985. In all cases the guilty verdicts were based on forensic methods that no longer stand up to scientific scrutiny. The Justice Department did not estimate how long it will take to get through, but even with the frantic breakthroughs and technological advances, there are still countless gruesome murders that have never been solved, cases like Princess Doe. In 1982 her body was discovered beaten beyond recognition in a cemetery in a rural farm town of Blairstown, New Jersey. This is a sketch of what investigators believe she may have looked like. Police determined she was between the ages of 14 and 18, but that's really all they know. In 30 years they've never discovered her identity, background or who might have killed her. Joining me now is Lieutenant Stephen Speirs, the lead investigator on this case, and Christie Napurano, author of "The Untold Story of Princess Doe." Good morning to both of you.</s>CHRISTIE NAPURANO, AUTHOR, UNTOLD STORY OF PRINCESS DOE: Good morning.</s>KAYE: Now, I know you have something new, never-before-seen information that you hope will crack the case and you're going to share that with us, lieutenant, in just a moment. Let me ask you, lieutenant spears, can you tell us more about the story of Princess Doe?</s>LT. STEPHEN SPEIRS, WARREN COUNTY, NEW JERSEY PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE: Princess Doe's body was discovered in the cedar ridge cemetery in Blairstown, New Jersey, which is in warren county northern part of New Jersey. At the time she was discovered she was beaten severely. As a result of that her identification has not been something we were able to do. Throughout the years there have been a number of investigators involved in this case. I took the case in 1999. And my focus then and continues to be trying to identify Princess Doe. And we are trying to do that now that we are armed with a DNA profile of Princess Doe.</s>KAYE: One of the first things you actually did back in 199 was have the body exhumed. Why was that? What were you looking for?</s>SPEIRS: At the time I needed a reference sample from the victim. And speaking with experts in 1999, they indicated to me I need a femur bone or long bone from Princess Doe at the time. Of course she was interned at the Cedar Ridge cemetery. So I had to exhume her body in order to retrieve that femur born.</s>KAYE: And, Christie, you were born in 1982 shortly before Princess Doe was found. What drew you to this case?</s>NAPURANO: I think what drew me most to the case was the fact it happened in my hometown.</s>KAYE: And then you've had unprecedented access to the case files and inspired you to write this book about her life. Why write the book?</s>NAPURANO: The reason I wrote the book was twofold actually. The first was because I felt that just like everyone else, Princess Doe deserved a life. She deserved a name. She deserved an identity. And the second reason was because I hope that this book will help raise awareness on the case and finally, figure out who she is.</s>KAYE: Lieutenant, have there been any key suspects over the years? I mean, anyone that you've looked seriously at? And is there a person of interest at all at this point?</s>SPEIRS: Throughout the case even prior to me being assigned the case there were persons of interest. There were several persons of interests developed since I've had the case. The unfortunate thing is we do not have any physical evidence at this point to connect any of those persons of interest to the case. And quite honestly, without the identity of Princess Doe, it's quite difficult to connect the dots, so to speak, with any persons of interest. So we need to identify her.</s>KAYE: And still no leads in finding Princess Doe's identity. But after your research, Christie, do you have theories of your own about who she might be or what happened to her?</s>NAPURANO: I do have several theories. Just from doing the research, I think that what's -- what I wrote in my book, that's what my theory is.</s>KAYE: Do you want to share that theory with us?</s>NAPURANO: Yes. My book follows the life of a girl who was from long island. And she just had a family tragedy and fell in with the wrong people, which ultimately led to her demise.</s>KAYE: All right, certainly a lot of theories out there trying to get this case solved. Thank you very much. Princess Doe has been nameless for decades, as we said, but thanks to the latest techniques and forensic science, investigators now have new information that may just help finally close this case. We're going to show you some images of what Princess Doe looked like before her death. They've never been seen before, and we have them first right here on CNN. And Detective Speirs will be back with us right after this.