NORTHAMPTON COUNTY — Betty D. Brown needs help in finding some peace for a deceased unidentified Jane Doe found in Northampton County.

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Brown, an advocate for the missing and unidentified in North Carolina, who lives in Winston-Salem, has worked for years seeking the identity of a child found behind a rest area on I-95 on Dec. 26, 1983. She has been given the name Christmas Jane Doe.

“A rabbit hunter found her remains,” she said. “I just want to give this child a name.”

What was found was a small skull of a young female child most likely African-American or biracial.

“She was a child,” Brown said. “The person who did this deserves to go to jail.”

Brown has been involved with the case for about 2 years. In this time, two other missing persons were ruled out as Doe. Brown said until about a year ago, they didn’t know Doe was a female.

At the time, it was thought Doe was another child who has been missing since 1967. When testing was done, Doe’s race, sex and age (between four and eight) were discovered. “It’s more likely she’s five, but we can’t rule out anything younger or older,” Brown said.

She added because of the condition of the bones, Doe had been dead for a year or longer.

At the time Doe was found, Bob Carey was the sheriff in Northampton County. “The remains were collected and sent to the University of North Carolina,” Brown said.

The case wasn’t fully investigated due to Carey passing away in 1984. There are not many notes on the case, Brown said, because Carey may have had the files at home.

Currently, Northampton County Sheriff Wardie Vincent has agreed to take a second look at the case. Everything that is available about the case was sent to him, Brown said. “Everything they had,” she said.

Her skull was sent to Barbara Martin Bailey of the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office Forensic Science Laboratory in Michigan. Bailey drew the sketches.

Currently, officials are in the process of doing a facial recreation. “They are redoing the face to see what she possibly looked like when she was alive.”

Assisting Brown in getting the facial recreation done has been Todd Matthews, regional systems administrator for the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs).

NamUs combines two databases of missing persons and unidentified dead cases into one where law enforcement and the public can access it.

Matthews noted the facial recreation should be done by the end of this month. “We hope to have the unveiling of it by the end of February,” he said.

Matthews said he is hopeful it will help humanize Christmas Jane Doe.

“Until you have a face, it is so hard to wrap your mind around bones and remains,” he said. “It touches the heart when you see a face.”

Matthews is also involved with the Doe Network, a volunteer group which tries to solve cold missing person cases. Helping to identify the missing is a passion for him. In 1968, his father-in-law found a body in Kentucky. Her decomposed remains were dubbed “Tent Girl” because she was wrapped in a tent.

Years later, Matthews was determined to identify the woman and did in 1998. He said this case and many others he has worked take a lot of effort from volunteers, paid persons and other persons assigned to the case.

“If I had to put a cost estimate on it, it would be unreal,” Matthews said.

Matthews and Brown hope people will take a look at the pictures and sketches to see if they might know who she is. “We don’t know if she is from Northampton County or another state,” she said. “Take a look at her to see if it brings back memories.”

Matthews wants people to take a look at Christmas Jane Doe. “If you have any information, come forward so we can send her back where she came from,” he said.

Brown has set up an e-mail address at christmasjanedoe@gmail.com.

Persons with information can also call the Northampton County Sheriff’s Office at 252-534-2611, or Clyde Gibbs at the North Carolina Medical Examiner’s Office at 919-445-4443.