The Murder of Colleen Audrey Rice

On January 23, 1971, three hunters came across a white cotton canvas sack on a dirt road approximately 2.2 miles east of U.S. Highway 93 on Hackberry Road in Mohave County, Arizona, roughly 30 miles southeast of Kingman. Inside the sack was the body of a woman. She was approximately 5 feet 4 inches tall, weighed between 125 and 140 pounds, and had curly brown hair with some grey. Investigators estimated her age at between 35 and 40 years old. She carried no identification.

The canvas sack was loosely woven and white, printed in green lettering with the words "Deer-Pak Ames Harris Neville Co." It was tied at the top with white cotton rope. Several items of clothing were found with the body: a size 14 multi-colored long-sleeve blouse, a black long-sleeve cardigan sweater, size 12 burnt orange stretch pants, and black leather ankle-high boots with white bobby socks. A physical examination of the remains revealed a long scar on the abdomen, consistent with a Caesarian section. A bone indentation on the ring finger indicated she had worn a wedding ring regularly. A pathologist determined she had likely given birth at least three times, including one birth by Caesarian section.

The cause of death was listed as unknown. The body showed no signs of blunt force trauma or gunshot wounds, but investigators were certain the death was a homicide. The manner in which the remains had been transported and discarded in a remote location inside a tied canvas sack left no reasonable alternative conclusion.

Detectives worked to identify the woman through dental and fingerprint records without success. An artist from the Museum of Northern Arizona produced a forensic sketch of what the victim may have looked like, based on the features of her skull. The sketch was released to the public; motels, hotels, and airports were contacted. No one came forward to identify her. The case went cold and the relevant documents were filed away in the Mohave County records room.

In 1999, the Mohave County Sheriff's Office established a Special Investigations Unit to revisit unsolved cases. Investigator Lori Miller was assigned the "Mohave Desert Jane Doe" case in 2001 and reviewed the same leads repeatedly over the following two decades. In 2022, Othram Inc., a Texas-based forensic genealogy laboratory, partnered with the sheriff's office to attempt advanced DNA testing and forensic-grade genome sequencing. The community crowdfunded the required $6,500 in five days. Testing began in late 2022. On January 23, 2023, exactly 52 years after the body was discovered, Othram confirmed the victim's identity through DNA comparison with a family member: she was Colleen Audrey Rice, born March 17, 1931, in Portsmouth, Ohio. Her killer has never been identified.