PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — In 1995, a group of kids discovered the body of a woman in the woods behind the Club House Diner in Bucks County. For decades, her identity remained unknown, but today she finally has a name: Merrybeth Hodgkinson.
When the kids found some bones behind the diner on Sept. 18, 1995, Bensalem Director of Public Safety Fred Harran said the kids originally thought it was a turtle. But it was actually a young white woman, around five feet tall, with long brown hair. She was naked and wrapped in a tarp.
Harran said they also found two crucifixes on her, along with a shirt that read "Alcatraz Penitentiary Swim Team."
County officials buried the unidentified woman in an unmarked grave, but exhumed her body in May 2004 to take DNA samples, which they entered into CODIS, the federal DNA database. Despite trying several times, they never got any hits.
In Nov. 2021, detectives turned Bode Technology, a DNA analysis lab, to reconstruct her family tree. Jennifer Moore, of Innovative Forensic Investigations, helped police with additional genealogy research and they used GEDmatch, the same public DNA database used to solve the Golden State Killer case. Together, they were able to identify the Club House Diner Jane Doe as Merrybeth Hodgkinson, a woman from Warminster who went missing three years before the grisly discovery.
Detective Chris McMullin says Hodgkinson went to William Tennent High School, had at least one child and was an exotic dancer.
"When she is returned to her family, they can give her a proper burial and they can put 'Merrybeth Hodgkinson' to rest," said McMullin.
Now, McMullin is asking for the public's help to investigate the case.
"On Facebook, there is [a] William Tennent High School Class of 1979 group. I know that when somebody disappears, there’s got to be somebody saying whatever happened to so and so," said McMullin.
"Whether they were friends with her, whether they worked with her in the club circuit, if anybody knew her, would you please call us, because we want to find out what was going on in her life during the time she disappeared, who was in her life during the time she disappeared."
Anyone with information about Hodgkinson can call Bensalem police at (215) 633-3719.
Detective McMullin was also the detective assigned to the Publicker Jane Doe case, which KYW Newsradio's True Crime podcast ‘Gone Cold’ profiled last year. You can listen to that episode below or wherever you get your podcasts.