Officials have recently identified a woman whose remains were discovered nearly 60 years ago, providing much-needed closure to her family who had been searching for her since she went missing.
The woman, Dorothy Vaillancourt, was found dressed in a red cotton dress and an off-white trench coat on a hillside in the San Francisco area in 1966. Sadly, her identity remained a mystery for decades, leading authorities to refer to her as “Marin County Jane Doe,” and she was buried in an unmarked grave.
Dorothy’s daughter, Penelope Vaillancourt, was only 15 when her mother disappeared. For many years, she searched throughout the San Francisco area, often hoping to see a woman who resembled her mother. “I’d jump off the bus, run after them and look them in the face,” Penelope recalled. “But it was never her.”
In 2022, the Marin County Sheriff’s Office partnered with the California Department of Justice to submit evidence to Othram Labs in Texas. Using advanced DNA testing, they were able to build a profile and identify Dorothy’s relatives.
Originally from Tasmania, Australia, Dorothy was a nurse in Sydney during World War II, where she met her husband, Francois Vaillancourt. The couple moved to San Francisco and had seven children, but their family life soon deteriorated. After a divorce, Dorothy faced struggles with alcoholism and was placed in a halfway house, leading to her children being placed in various orphanages.
The last time anyone saw Dorothy was in December 1966 when she visited a fire station asking for money for a taxi or a place to stay. After the fireman declined to help her, he saw her walking away, which was the last known sighting of her. Three months later, Dorothy was deceased, yet her family was still unaware of her fate.
Despite years of searching and reaching out to the FBI and other cold case investigators, Penelope and her family could not find any leads. Some family members suspect that a former romantic partner of Dorothy may be connected to her death, but concrete answers remain elusive. As Penelope expressed, “I don’t know how she ended up there. Was she killed? Did somebody hit her with a car? Did she slip and fall?”
At this time, the Marin County Sheriff’s Office has not provided additional information regarding the case or whether further investigations are ongoing.
