Never Forgotten - The Murder of Jamie Sheldon

[Shaun] 

We’ve covered quite a few missing and unsolved cases this first season on Sins & Survivors, and so many times we end up mentioning the same thing, that the news media often has very little to say beyond the basic details of a case, and maybe the physical attributes of the victim.

Every victim we’ve talked about this season was so much more than what happened to them, and we think it’s important to tell their stories whenever possible.

[John] 

We have a case like that today for you, but happily, we were able to get in touch with some people who were close to the victim, and who have agreed to share what they remember about her.

(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] 

On February 13th, 2004, a man was walking his dog in a remote desert area south of Las Vegas when the dog started digging in a hole in the sand. When he caught up with his dog, he realized to his horror that he was looking at human remains. The site was excavated, and it turned out to be the body of a teenage girl, encased in concrete, and buried in a shallow grave.

The area we’re talking about here is about an hour south of Las Vegas. It’s about 25 minutes west of Searchlight, NV, a small town you probably haven't heard of.

Well… you may have heard of it if you’ve driven from Las Vegas to Lake Havasu, or…. If you work for a mining company. Mining is a huge industry in Nevada also known as the Silver State. Besides Silver, the mining industry here in Nevada produces Gold, Copper, Lithium, Limestone,  and “aggregates”. 

The term “Aggregates” just collectively refers to materials like sand, gravel, and crushed stone that are mostly used in the construction industry, and are an important part of asphalt and concrete. As you can imagine in a place like Nevada with vast swaths of open desert, we produce a LOT of aggregates, and there are a lot of aggregate mines.

The remote location of this grim discovery was about 100 yards or so off of a dirt road which led to an aggregate mine called the “Liteweight” mine, so initially this unknown victim, who was determined to be female, was known as  Jane “Liteweight” Doe.

[John] 

Remember, this was 2004, so DNA was an increasingly useful tool in identification, with the FBI CODIS (combined DNA index system) which we’ve talked about a lot having been established 6 years earlier.

It was clear to the investigators that our victim was murdered, and then encased in the concrete, so their approach was to essentially pull a mold from the “death mask” on the interior of the concrete to recreate a model of her face. From that, a plaster model was made, and then a forensic artist worked off of that plaster model.

As we mentioned in the episode about Tammy Terrell, in the early 2000’s the Clark County Coroner was posting forensic artwork and autopsy photos on their website to help facilitate identifications, so in this case they posted the forensic artwork (which was pretty good, better than many of the ones we’ve shared).

Unlike the other cases we’ve covered recently, this one was solved with the help of a web sleuth who was able to connect the forensic artwork and a photo of a missing teenager named Jamie Sheldon.

[Shaun] 

Investigators got dental records and DNA from her father, and they were a match and led to her positive identification. It was Jamie. Looking through the newspaper archives, we found only one mention of her discovery, and then nothing else until she was identified, and even then there were only a couple of articles with some basic information. There were no leads on who murdered her or why

Jamie Sheldon was born on February 19th, 1985. She was petite at 5’3” and 115 lbs, and she had been missing since May 6th, 2002. She lived at the Desert Sky Apartments with her dad Gary Sheldon and her Stepmother Pam Sheldon, and we know she was an honor student. 

From the standard sources we have access to like newspaper archives and online news sources, that's about all we were able to learn about Jamie as a person, but that’s really not acceptable. Of course, she was so much more. We’re happy to tell you, as we mentioned in the intro that we were able to get in touch with some of Jamie’s friends, and at this point, we’re going to play portions of the interviews we had with Heather and Zoe.

[John] 

Zoe was a close friend of Jamie starting in elementary school. Here’s what she had to say about Jamie and what it was like growing up in Vegas 20 years ago:

(Interview)

[John] 

We wanted to give a special shout-out to Zoe and Heather for helping us understand a bit more about Jamie, and what a wonderful person she was.

Anyone who knows anything about this case is encouraged to call the LVMPD Homicide Section at (702) 828-3521, or to remain anonymous, you can get in touch with NV Crime Stoppers at https://crimestoppersofnv.com/ or by calling (702) 385-5555

[Shaun] 

Please follow us on social media and share this podcast with a friend. We need as many people to know about Jamie as possible. 

Thank you as always for listening. And remember, what happens here, happens everywhere.