Robin Pelkey: Robert Hansen's Eklutna Jane Doe

On July 21, 1979, construction workers clearing timber for electric power lines along Eklutna Lake Road, north of Anchorage, Alaska, noticed human skeletal remains partially exposed in a shallow woodland grave. For over four decades, she was known as "Eklutna Jane Doe"—one of the unnamed victims marked with an "X" on the aviation hunting map of Alaska serial killer Robert Hansen, the "Butcher Baker."

Discovery & Serial Killer Confession

The victim was found fully skeletonized, lying in a shallow depression covered by moss and brush. An autopsy revealed she had been stabbed repeatedly in the chest and back with a bladed weapon. Her estimated age was 16 to 25, standing 4 feet 11 inches to 5 feet 2 inches tall.

In 1984, after FBI profiler John Douglas and Alaska State Troopers tied local baker Robert Hansen to dozens of missing women, Hansen accepted a plea agreement. In a multi-day taped confession, Hansen guided detectives on a helicopter flight over the Matanuska-Susitna Valley, pointing out burial sites. He admitted that in late 1979, he kidnapped a young woman from downtown Anchorage, drove her in his car to the remote Eklutna gravel road, and murdered her when she attempted to flee into the spruce forest. Because he never learned her name, she remained an unidentified Jane Doe.

Chronological Case Timeline