California Dreaming - Who Killed Jane Arroyo Grande Doe

Episode # 40 Tammy Terrell

[Shaun] 

It was after 9 pm on Sunday, October 5, 1980, when homicide detective John Trouble Williams was called out to the desert on the far outskirts of Henderson. Two brothers had discovered the remains of a teenage girl along the side of Arroyo Grande Boulevard. 

[John] 

The girl would be known only as Jane Arroyo Grande Doe for more than 40 years until she was finally identified and given back her name. 

(Music - Pause for 8 seconds)

[Shaun] 

Hi and welcome to Sins and Survivors, a Las Vegas true crime podcast, where we focus on cases that deal with domestic violence, as well as missing persons and unsolved cases. I’m your host, Shaun, and with me as always, is the one and only John.

[John] 

I am the only John in the room.

[Shaun]

This week, we have part 2 of our 2 part episode on two Jane Does from Las Vegas history. Last episode, we talked about how it took 43 years for Gwenn Story to be identified, finally, thanks to the hard work of Othram Labs and the Las Vegas Justice League. 

I haven’t stopped thinking about this second case since we started working on it. This is another case that dates back to the late 70s early 80s when the murder rate was terrifyingly high, and the transient culture of Las Vegas made it harder to identify victims and investigate crimes. 

On October 5, 1980, Detective John Trouble Williams, and yes, his middle name was literally “trouble,” was called out to the scene of a homicide. It was after 9pm on a Sunday night, and normally he had that day off.

He was 30 years old, and was the only homicide detective on the Henderson police force. 

He was answering a call near the intersection of Arroyo Grande and what was then called State Road 41 or Lake Mead Drive. 

State Road 41 was an east-west road in the valley that went from the 15 to Boulder Highway and beyond to Lake Mead. Part of that road would later become St. Rose Parkway, with a large section of it being the 215 highway now. 

[John] 

During this time in Vegas history, Henderson was only about 24,000 people and all of the buildings and homes were in what we naturally call “Old Henderson” now – The older parts of the downtown area and the industrial plants near Boulder Highway, Water Street, Lake Mead Parkway. `

Today the population of Henderson is now nearly 350,000 people, and the city limits of Henderson have expanded so there isn’t any open desert between the border of Henderson and the City of Las Vegas anymore.

What is now a massive overpass over a 6-lane highway, was just a dirt road and open desert in 1980. 

Detective Williams had only been a detective for 4 years, and what he saw would stay with him for the rest of his career. He said, this was the one he took home with him. 

[Shaun]

That night, 2 brothers had been driving in the area and saw the remains of a young woman. The girl was naked and face down. Detective Williams would later describe her as “Posed, basically” in the dirt. A piece of orange shower curtain was found nearby. The girl was estimated to be in her early teens or as old as 25. 

She had hair that was described as a light blondish brownish color or red, shoulder length, and with a feathery texture. 

She was around 5 foot 2 and weighed around 100 pounds. Her eyes were blue or perhaps green or hazel.

There had been no girls reported missing from the Henderson or Las Vegas area who matched her description, and the medical examiner determined she had died in the last 24 hours. 

Her injuries and cause of death were violent. She had been beaten in the face with fists and a hammer. A few of her teeth had been broken and one had been knocked out. She had bruising and injuries to her face. She also had been stabbed in the back with a 2 pronged item, or possibly an ice pick. 

The medical examiner believed she had been washed before being left in the desert, and detectives believed that may be why there was a piece of shower curtain at the scene.

[John] 

She was being called “Jane Arroyo Grande Doe”, after the street where she was found. The medical examiners noted that she had silver nail polish on and a scar from a vaccination on her left bicep.

She also had a small homemade tattoo on her inner right forearm, near her elbow. It was made with blue ink and only about a half an inch long. It was just the letter S or it could have been the number 5. 

Her fingerprints were taken and shared with authorities in California and with Las Vegas Metro PD, but there were no matches. Her face would be recognizable to anyone who knew her, so a simple sketch was made and shared. 

Detective Williams and the Henderson PD had no leads or any information to go on, so soon the case grew cold. John Williams and his wife, Jackie, paid for Jane Arroyo Grande Doe to be buried at the Palm Mortuary in Henderson, with a simple grave marker that reads 

Jane Doe 

October 5, 1980

 From your family at the Henderson police department. 

[Shaun]

The police did develop a few theories. Since at the time, State Road 41 was a road used by truckers to get to and from California and Arizona without going through the center of the City of Las Vegas, perhaps she was a hitchhiker and she had been left there by a trucker passing through town. 

There was also a theory that she may have been a victim of serial murderers Henry Lee Lucas and/or Ottis Toole. Based on what I looked into, I’m pretty sure their actions wouldn’t fit these fact. 

One other theory was that in Vegas on October 2, 1980 was the Larry Holmes Muhammed Ali fight at Caesars Palace. Police believed that perhaps a sex trafficker had taken Jane Arroyo Grande to Vegas to exploit her during that event. 

These were just theories, and they didn’t have any solid leads as to her identity, where she had come from, and who had killed her. 

Detective Williams said they had done everything they could do. As we mentioned this case stuck with him throughout his career. He and his wife visited Jane Arroyo Grande’s grave at least once a year and left flowers for her. Williams has said that he considers her to be family and in many interviews, he refers to her as “My girl” or Janey. 

This case was actually one of the first cases that led to Henderson PD developing their cold case unit, and after more than 20 years without answers, the Clark County coroner, Michael Murphy, decided to use a new tool that was available to him. 

[John] 

Michael Murphy is said to be the inspiration behind the character of Gil Grissom, the main character of CSI - Las Vegas. He had the idea in 2003 to use the internet to try to identify the John and Jane Does that had been found in Clark County by uploading their autopsy photos. 

The website was part of the Clark County’s website, with a link to click that asked the public to help them identify deceased individuals. 

Michael Murphy put photos of Jane Arroyo Grande’s face online. The photo was edited so it did not look as bruised as it was. They also uploaded the photo of the S tattoo on her arm. 

This was a few years before NamUs was launched, and at this time, putting the actual autopsy photos of the decedents drew a lot of criticism from his colleagues. They thought that it was disrespectful to the dead to share their photos online. 

John Williams was asked what he thought about the photos being online and he said this:

"If you look on TV, you'll see worse than what you see in this photo of my girl. 

If it's my daughter, I'd definitely feel bad to see a picture of her dead. But it would not bother me if someone saw it on the Internet or TV to give me some closure and my family some closure. I'm sure things will offend people, but so be it. 

You got a young kid, dumped in the desert. That's more offensive."

Michael was sure that he had made a mistake that would end his career. However, calls started coming in from family members right away. Within the first 24 hours, one of the Does was identified. Several more individuals were identified that first week, and in the first 10 years that Clark County was sharing those photos, more than 67 Does were identified. 

Sadly, no one had come forward to identify Jane Arroyo Grande. 

There were numerous missing women – more than 30 – who were compared to Jane Arroyo Grande over the years and ruled out. 

She was exhumed at least 4 times to try to gather additional evidence. But despite all of these efforts, she remained unidentified. 

Before we move on, we’re going to pause here for a moment to share our friend Jaime Beebe’s trailer for her new podcast, The Last Trip. 

[Shaun]

Thanks Jaime. 

Detective Williams retired in 2006, and in 2015 Joseph Ebert became the lead detective. A new sketch was made and released of Jane Arroyo Grande Doe in hopes that someone would recognize her. 

One of the many roads the Henderson police used to try to identify her was through her dental records. She had a unique dental procedure where one of her teeth had been straightened with a procedure called a suture. The uniqueness of this procedure narrowed down her age to 17-19. 

This also indicated to investigators that she was from a family with dental insurance or coverage or access to this kind of dental care

In October 2016 there was an article in the American Dental Association Newsletter with photos & x-rays of her teeth asking dentists for help to identify her, but again, no one came forward. 

As DNA technology was advancing, in 2018, the decision was made to exhume her again, to extract additional material for potential DNA testing. Henderson police worked with Astrea Forensics, a lab similar to Othram that we've mentioned before, to perform whole genome sequencing and create a genotype file that could be compared in the GedMatch database. 

[John] 

Astrea partnered with genealogist Barbara Rae-Venter to perform the genetic genealogy matching. Barbara Rae-Venter is probably best known for her work on identifying the Golden State Killer - Joseph James DeAngelo. 

The DNA had a genetic match to a man named Jerry Terrell who was living in Arkansas. And, luckily, his wife Janice had been working on putting together a family tree.  One part of that family tree stood out to the investigators.  

On one branch, Jerry and Janice had 4 nieces, all sisters, One niece had a note that she was deceased, but the status of one was listed as “unknown.” That niece would have been 17 years old in 1980, and the genealogists were very confident they had finally identified Jane Arroyo Grande Doe. 

Detective Ebert reached out to one of the sisters, Carla, and showed her the autopsy photos of Jane Arroyo Grande Doe. Carla knew right away it was her sister. The surviving sisters provided DNA samples for confirmation. 

It was a definitive match. 

When all of this was being discovered, according to Detective Ebert, John Williams was in the hospital with an illness. Ebert went to the hospital with photos that Carla had given him. 

Ebert showed Williams the photos and he said immediately, “That's Janie. That's Janie. That's Janie.” 

[Shaun]

On December 2, 2021, the Henderson Police Department held a formal press conference to announce, that finally, after more than 40 years, Jane Arroyo Grande Doe had her identity back.

Her name was Tammy Corrine Terrell.

Tammy was born on July 4, 1963. She was from Artesia, NM, and as we mentioned, had 3 sisters: Nancy, Sofia, and Carla. Carla was interviewed by Fox 5 Vegas and also for the Unsolved Mysteries podcast and graciously shared information about her sister. 

Carla was only 13 years old when Tamy went missing. According to Carla, the 4 sisters were split up as young children and had grown up in different foster homes. Carla and Tammy had been placed in the same home and grew up together. 

Tammy loved listening to music and watching movies like a typical teenager. Carla shared the very happy memories she had of when Tammy would let her come into her room and just dance with her. 

According to Carla, as Tammy got older, she started to struggle in school and she was acting out. Typical teenage high school stuff.  Her foster family made the decision to place Tammy in a group home located about 40 miles away from Artesia in Roswell, New Mexico.

The group home was called Assurance Home. The staff at the group home described Tammy as being really sweet and really shy.

[John] 

One staff member, Olga, told the Unsolved Mysteries podcast what she remembered about the last time she saw Tammy.

On September 28, 1980, the staff at Assurance House decided to take their 20 teenage residents to the Roswell State Fair. Olga explained that she and another staff member had a system for keeping track of the kids. They would give them a couple of tickets for the games or rides, but they had to come back to the meeting spot to check in and get more tickets. The plan was to leave at 9pm.

Olga saw Tammy throughout the evening, as she kept returning along with the other teens to get more tickets. When it got close to 9, the teens all showed up to get their final ride tickets, including Tammy.  But when the group gathered to leave, Tammy was nowhere to be found. The staff looked for her on the fairgrounds but they couldn’t find her. They assumed that she had run away, which wouldn’t be an uncommon thing for teens living in the home to do. 

They decided to head back to the Home and file a police report. 

[Shaun] 

Just an hour later, around 10pm, Jerry and Janice, Tammy’s aunt and uncle, ran into Tammy at the Roswell Denny’s restaurant. She was eating with a man and a woman in their 40s. Tammy told her aunt and uncle that she was leaving with the couple to go to California. Jerry and Janice didn’t know where in California, or why Tammy was going. But they did tell her they didn’t want her to leave. 

This was the last sighting of Tammy. It was only a week later that her body was found 12 hours away in Henderson.

Her sister, Carla, did not find out for 7 months that her sister was missing. As we mentioned, she was only 13 years old in 1980, and her contact with her sister was sporadic. This was of course long before cell phones. Carla told the Unsolved Mysteries podcast that in 1981, one of their aunts passed away. Tammy had been very close to that aunt, so Carla wanted to reach out and tell her.

She called the facility and was told that there was no one living there named Tammy. It was at that point that Carla realized Tammy was missing. The home had filed a police report, but they never reported to the family that she had run away or disappeared.

[John] 

According to Carla, the police in Roswell did not put any effort into finding Tammy. From their point of view, she was a troubled teen who had run away several times before. Also, she was 17 and would be 18 soon, so they didn’t see that as a priority. 

Carla said she never stopped looking for Tammy. In crowds, she would study people’s faces looking for her. Carla shared that since Tammy’s birthday is the 4th of July, of course, she would think about her every year and the holiday was never much of a celebration for her. 

Carla feels more at peace now knowing where her sister is and having some resolution. However,  as Henderson police captain Jonathan Boucher said when Tammy’s identity was announced, “Now we’re only halfway there. Now the pursuit of Tammy’s killer or killers begins.” 

[Shaun]

The only lead to who may have murdered Tammy is the people she was seen with at the Denny’s in Roswell. They were described as a white man with dark brown hair and a white woman with light brown hair, both of average build, and appeared to be in their mid-forties in 1980. One theory is that they may have been carnival workers at the New Mexico State Fair in Roswell. 

Anyone with any information or tips in this case is urged to call the Henderson Police Department at 702-267-4750, or to remain anonymous, call Crime Stoppers of Nevada at 702-385-5555. 

Sadly, Detective John Williams passed away late last year, in December 2023 at the age of 73, and his wife Jackie had passed way just the year prior. He and his wife never gave up on caring for Tammy, and thankfully he got to see her case come to somewhat of a resolution. 

Carla is grateful for all of the hard work he did and how the couple tended to her grave all those years. 

I see a clear contrast between the effort made by the Roswell police and the effort made by the Henderson police, and John and I are going to talk about that in our Swing Shift bonus episode this week. 

John and I urge anyone with information about Tammy to contact Henderson PD. If you have friends or colleagues who may have lived in Vegas around that time, please share the podcast with them. You never know who may have the tip that finally breaks the case. 

[John] 

Thank you for listening. One of the ways you can help us grow the show is to leave us a review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts or whatever platform you’re listening on. 

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