The Woman with No Name

Summary

Dateline NBC Podcast Summary: "The Woman with No Name"

Introduction

In the December 10, 2024 episode of Dateline NBC titled "The Woman with No Name," NBC News delves into the gripping true-crime story of Dana Lynn Dodd, a young woman whose identity remained shrouded in mystery for over a decade. Hosted by Lester Holt with narration by Keith Morrison, the episode explores the relentless pursuit to unveil the identity of Lavender Doe, the journey of amateur investigators, and the groundbreaking role of the DNA Doe Project in solving this heart-wrenching case.

The Initial Crime and Jane Doe

The story begins on October 29, 2006, in Hilgore, Texas, where two men out target shooting on oil-leased property made a chilling discovery: a young woman, later known as Jane Doe, was found burned to death with wood piled around her body in an apparent attempt to conceal the crime. Lieutenant Eddie Hope of the Gregg County Sheriff's Department described the scene:

“[00:07] Lieutenant Eddie Hope: She had wood piled on top of her. She was still burning when the deputies got there.”

Despite her evident age—likely in her late teens or early twenties—and some identifiable features, including baby teeth and a distinct lavender-colored shirt, Jane Doe's identity remained elusive. The limited information available hindered initial investigative efforts, leaving authorities with only the moniker "Jane Doe" over her grave at a small cemetery in East Texas.

The Investigation Challenges

The lack of identifying details posed significant challenges. Traditional investigative methods, such as interviewing friends, family, and acquaintances, were rendered ineffective due to the absence of any known missing persons matching her description. Lieutenant Hope noted:

“[05:25] Lieutenant Eddie Hope: What could you do? Nothing. If we got tips, ran them down, because, I mean, we had no grounds to go on who this could be or where she came from.”

Although semen from a known local sex offender, Joseph Wayne Burnett, was found during the autopsy, he denied involvement and provided an alibi. This deadlock left Jane Doe unidentified and her case unsolved, leading to her permanent designation as Lavender Doe.

Emergence of Amateur Investigators

The stagnation of the case did not go unnoticed. Online communities on platforms like Reddit and Websleuths became hotspots for armchair detectives eager to crack the mystery. Lavender Doe’s unique characteristics, particularly her lavender shirt, earned her the nickname "Lavender Doe," uniting enthusiasts who became deeply invested in solving her identity. Lester Holt emphasized the personal impact of the case:

“[07:07] Missy Koski: It makes it personal because you think, what if this is your family? What if this could be your friend?”

Involvement of DNA Doe Project

Amidst growing interest, Kevin Lord, an amateur investigator from Killeen, Texas, connected with Lieutenant Hope to collaborate on the case. Recognizing the limitations of traditional methods, Hope welcomed the assistance. Their collaboration led to the involvement of the DNA Doe Project, a nonprofit founded by Colleen Fitzpatrick and Margaret Press. The project's innovative approach harnessed genetic genealogy to bridge the gap between unidentified remains and potential relatives.

“[10:13] Colleen Fitzpatrick: I reached out to DNA Doe Project to see if I might be able to come on as a volunteer.”

The DNA Doe Project quickly gained momentum, attracting volunteers like Lori Gaff and Missy Koski, who became integral to the investigative team. Their collective efforts exemplified the power of crowd-sourced investigations:

“[12:11] Lester Holt: What you can bring to this process is a crowd sourced investigation, like, you know, a bunch of bees forming a hive. And disparately they're not going to do much, but altogether they can really accomplish something truly significant, right?”

“[12:27] Margaret Press: Exactly.”

Breakthrough in Identification

In 2018, after persistent efforts, the DNA Doe Project achieved a significant breakthrough. By comparing Lavender Doe’s DNA with that of Robin, a distant cousin from East Texas, they identified a probable familial connection. Further genetic analysis revealed that Robin had a daughter, Amanda Dodd, whose DNA provided the final piece of the puzzle:

“[22:35] Lester Holt: It was a winter's day, late January, when they got the news it was a match.”

Amanda Dodd's DNA confirmed the identity of Lavender Doe as Dana Lynn Dodd, bringing closure to a case that had lingered unresolved for twelve years.

Dana Lynn Dodd's Personal History

Dana’s life story emerged as a poignant narrative of abandonment and resilience. Her early childhood was marked by instability, moving between caregivers and experiencing repeated rejections. Amanda Dodd, Dana’s half-sister, narrated:

“[24:54] Amanda Dodd: At first, Very, very happy. She said she liked the normal life. Feeling normal, not having to worry, you know, being loved is what she said.”

Despite Amanda’s efforts to provide a stable home, Dana’s struggle for acceptance and her determination to forge her own path ultimately led her to move away. In the summer of 2006, Dana embarked on a series of travels for employment, leading her to Indiana and Cincinnati, before her untimely death at the hands of Burnett in a Walmart parking lot.

Closure of the Case

The confession from Joseph Wayne Burnett in December 2020 marked the official closure of the case. Burnett admitted to the murders of Felicia Pearson and Dana Lynn Dodd, providing critical but incomplete information about Dana's fate. Lieutenant Hope reflected on the resolution:

“[30:03] Lieutenant Eddie Hope: Has been the last chapter of a very painful book.”

Though Burnett pleaded not guilty to ensure a thorough judicial process, the collaboration between law enforcement and the DNA Doe Project volunteers ensured that Dana's identity was recognized and her story honored.

Community's Role

The community of Longview, Texas, played a crucial role in preserving Dana’s memory. Flowers, particularly lavender ones, continued to grace her gravesite, symbolizing the collective effort to remember and honor her life. Amanda Dodd expressed:

“[31:02] Amanda Dodd: Some of the people still go by her gravesite and still put flowers and things like that there. And that's what we wanted because she's part of Longview and she'll never be sent away again.”

Dana's remains remained in Longview, ensuring that her name was forever etched in stone, preventing her from being forgotten or dismissed.

Conclusion

"The Woman with No Name" is a testament to the unwavering dedication of both professional investigators and passionate volunteers who refused to let Dana Lynn Dodd's story fade into obscurity. Through innovative methods and relentless pursuit, the collaboration between Lieutenant Hope and the DNA Doe Project not only solved a longstanding cold case but also highlighted the profound impact of community and technology in delivering justice. Dana's journey from Lavender Doe to Dana Lynn Dodd serves as a poignant reminder of the importance of every individual's story and the enduring power of collective effort in uncovering truth and providing closure.

Notable Quotes:

• Missy Koski: “[07:07] It makes it personal because you think, what if this is your family? What if this could be your friend?”

• Amanda Dodd: “[23:40] It was like somebody just punched me in the stomach. I was angry that she was by herself.”

• Lieutenant Eddie Hope: “[29:52] It doesn't matter what walk of life you come from, Everybody's a person.”

• Margaret Press: “[15:52] Genealogists came out of the woodwork and I could see us as a very unique organization where law enforcement agencies could come to us with their bones and no money and we could bring in volunteer genealogists who were begging to help us.”

Final Thoughts

This episode of Dateline NBC not only chronicles the tragic tale of Dana Lynn Dodd but also underscores the transformative role of modern investigative techniques and the profound difference that community-driven efforts can make in solving crimes. For those who seek to understand the intricate dance between loss, determination, and justice, "The Woman with No Name" offers a compelling and emotional journey that resonates long after the final note.

Transcript

[Keith Morrison]

A true crime story never really ends. Even when a case is closed. The journey for those left behind is just beginning.

[Lester Holt]

Since our DATELINE story aired, Tracy has harnessed her outrage into a mission. I had no other option. I had to do something, catch up.

[Keith Morrison]

With families, friends and investigators on our bonus series after the Verdict. Ordinary people facing extraordinary circumstances with strength and courage.

[Lester Holt]

It does just change your life.

[Missy Koski]

But speaking up for the these issues helps me keep going.

[Keith Morrison]

To listen to after the Verdict, subscribe to Dateline premium on Apple podcasts, Spotify.

[Jenna Bush Hager]

[e-mail] hi, everyone, it's Jenna Bush Hager from TODAY with Hoda and Jenna reminding you to check out my podcast Open Book with Jenna. In this week's episode, I sit down with comedian, podcaster and actor Matt Rogers. He tells me all about his journey from prom king to pop culture podcaster and his role in the new Netflix series no Good Deed. You can listen to the full convers now by searching Open Book with Jenna wherever you get your podcasts Tonight on dateline.

[Lieutenant Eddie Hope]

She had wood piled on top of her. She was still burning when the deputies got there.

[Colleen Fitzpatrick]

She couldn't really be identified.

[Lieutenant Eddie Hope]

We had no grounds to go on who this could be or where she came from.

[Missy Koski]

You think, what if this is your family? What if this could be your friend? This has become an obsession.

[Margaret Press]

I said, I think I know how we can do it.

[Colleen Fitzpatrick]

All of these people share some amount of DNA with our unknown person.

[Missy Koski]

We thought, this is the family. This is it.

[Amanda Dodd]

Surreal. It felt like somebody just punched me in the stomach.

[Missy Koski]

They know the truth.

[Amanda Dodd]

I want everybody to know who she was as a person. She had a good heart.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

For more than 12 years, a murder victim didn't have a name until strangers gave it back to her. I'm Lester Holt and this is dateline. Here's Keith Morrison with the woman with no name.

[Lester Holt]

Here is where they put her. Her permanent home.

[Colleen Fitzpatrick]

Nobody really knew anything about her.

[Lester Holt]

This little cemetery in East Texas, one simple marker on her grave. And the name that wasn't a name, Jane Doe.

[Missy Koski]

It makes it personal because you think, what if this is your family? What if this could be your friend?

[Lester Holt]

She? Who was she? This impossible enigma. The question that kept them glued to their computers, participating. And something like this, too, can be almost consuming. It can really drain us, the obsession.

[Missy Koski]

I was hooked. I was absolutely hooked.

[Lester Holt]

This is where it began. October 29, 2006, Hilgore, Texas. Two men out target shooting on oil leased property not far from town. They smelled it first. Then they saw it. Something Burning Looked like a mannequin. The men approached. What was that? And then they recoiled. That was a young woman, dead and burning.

[Lieutenant Eddie Hope]

You know, we have homicides just like the rest of the world, but, you know, it's going as far as trying to burn the body, it really struck fear in people around here.

[Lester Holt]

Lieutenant Eddie Hope was still a sergeant back then. Gregg County Sheriff's Department.

[Lieutenant Eddie Hope]

She had wood piled beneath her and wood piled on top of her. And there was, I believe, a gas can lid there.

[Lester Holt]

Wow.

[Lieutenant Eddie Hope]

So it looked like somebody was trying to cover their tracks.

[Lester Holt]

She was meant to be part of one big bonfire and just disappear forever.

[Lieutenant Eddie Hope]

Right.

[Lester Holt]

The officers who responded noted every detail they could that she was young, late teens, early 20s. And she was little, maybe 5, 4, 100 pounds. She was wearing jeans, a pale shirt the color of lavender, $44 in her pocket. And this was unusual. Baby teeth. She still had a few.

[Lieutenant Eddie Hope]

She never lost them. And they said that's usually. That's highly unusual.

[Lester Holt]

Well, that gave you something to work with anyway. Little bit other than that. The young woman was impossible to identify. She had been murdered. Of that there was no doubt. Her last moments had been very bad. But in most homicide investigations, detectives burrow deep into the life of the victim. Talk to every friend, interview the family, find out about scorned lovers or past mistakes. That's often how murders get solved. But in this case, none of it was possible.

[Lieutenant Eddie Hope]

Didn't have a clue.

[Lester Holt]

What could you do?

[Lieutenant Eddie Hope]

Nothing. If we got tips, ran them down, because, I mean, we had no grounds to go on who this could be or where she came from.

[Lester Holt]

They ran her DNA profile. It didn't match any known person. Known to them, anyway. But the autopsy revealed semen in her body, and it did match someone, a known local sex offender. So they pulled him in, and he admitted he had sex that day with a woman whose name he didn't know. But he said he didn't kill her. And he said he had an alibi, too.

[Lieutenant Eddie Hope]

We would get people off the Internet that would say, hey, I think this might be so and so. And we would follow up on that and eventually rule it out. What we were thinking at the time was, maybe she's not from around here because nobody's missing her here.

[Lester Holt]

And so Greg Cowdy paid for a burial plot and for a little marker on the ground above her body, small.

[Lieutenant Eddie Hope]

Headstone that just reads Jane Doe. There's no other information we knew on her.

[Lester Holt]

And winter came, but they didn't give up. A Texas Ranger who sometimes worked with them Said maybe he could help.

[Lieutenant Eddie Hope]

And he was able to fly in a. An artist to try to reconstruct what our victim looked like in real life.

[Lester Holt]

And here it was. But it produced no leads. The county even made a clay model using an X ray of the victim's skull, including those baby teeth. Sent it around to local media. Still nothing. They didn't forget her as they went about their work. But the young woman remained nameless, no matter how many trails they followed.

[Lieutenant Eddie Hope]

And they just went on for years. I mean, it's basically all we had.

[Lester Holt]

And then something unusual happened. The little details like her baby teeth caught the eyes of amateur Internet investigators on sites like Reddit and websleuths. And before too long, they began referring to the mystery woman with a kind of shorthand. It was the distinctive color of her shirt that did it. One of those armchair detectives took to calling her Lavender. Lavender Doe.

[Colleen Fitzpatrick]

This was a case that was followed online very closely by many people, people like this guy.

[Lester Holt]

And what happened after that? Well, remember what we said about obsession. Tomorrow and tomorrow. And a decade went by. Eleven years after the murder of the young woman they called Lavender Doe. And more than 200 miles from the spot where her body was found, in the town of Killeen, Texas, a man was feverishly at work.

[Colleen Fitzpatrick]

I kind of spent a lot of my spare time looking into missing persons cases, really, just kind of trying to flesh out the stories of some of these lesser known cases.

[Lester Holt]

His name is Kevin Lord. He wasn't an investigator or a law enforcement officer, just someone plagued by unanswered questions with a passionate interest in true crime.

[Colleen Fitzpatrick]

I was looking for Jane Doe's in the area in Texas that might be a match to one of these missing girls.

[Lester Holt]

And that's how he came across hundreds of pages of online forums about a mystery woman nicknamed Lavender Doe. Could she be one of the missing women he was trying to locate? And so Kevin called the Gregg County Sheriff's Department and found himself on the phone with the lead detective on Lavender Doe's case, Lieutenant Eddie Hope.

[Lieutenant Eddie Hope]

I was impressed that people cared because we live in a world where everything's fast paced and a lot of people are worried about themselves and not others.

[Lester Holt]

Some other investigator might have blown off a guy like Kevin. Just another civilian with an Internet connection and a theory. But Kevin seemed to know what he was doing and his Internet skills way beyond what Lieutenant Hope could do. And before long, though they didn't actually meet in person. They began acting almost like partners.

[Lieutenant Eddie Hope]

We just flew together, you know, whatever he needed that he couldn't get that I could get law enforcement wise, he would send it to me.

[Lester Holt]

They kind of meshed together, these bits of information.

[Lieutenant Eddie Hope]

Yes.

[Lester Holt]

And two things happened. One, Kevin realized Lavender Doe was not one of the missing women he'd been looking for. And two, he got hooked on the case of of the girl in the lavender shirt. But he kept hitting dead ends. He needed some specialized help. Very specialized.

[Colleen Fitzpatrick]

I reached out to DNA Doe Project to see if I might be able to come on as a volunteer.

[Lester Holt]

The DNA DOE Project, a nonprofit founded by a former rocket scientist named Colleen Fitzpatrick and a novelist and genealogy enthusiast, Margaret Press.

[Margaret Press]

I barely knew what John and Jane does meant, but I had been retired for about a year. I'd come out back to the west coast to be near my daughter and grandchildren and to relax.

[Lester Holt]

It was winter 2017 when Margaret, not the retiring type, was struck with an idea. She'd already been deeply immersed in genealogy, helping adoptees find their birth parents.

[Margaret Press]

So if I can figure out Jane Doe's parents, we'll know who Jane Doe was.

[Lester Holt]

Margaret's plan, obtain remains from Jane and John does, retest their DNA and upload the results to a public database where maybe that DNA would lead them to some relative of their victim. Margaret and Colleen soon set up a nonprofit to take donations for DNA testing. After just six months, they solved their first case. A few weeks later, another case made headlines around the world, showing the power of genealogy.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Police arresting a man they believe is the so called Golden State Killer. And the suspect, a former police officer discovered using DNA.

[Lester Holt]

And suddenly Colleen and Margaret had company.

[Margaret Press]

Genealogists came out of the woodwork and I could see us as a very unique organization where law enforcement agencies could come to us with their bones and no money and we could bring in volunteer genealogists who were begging to help us.

[Lester Holt]

What you can bring to this process is a crowd sourced investigation, like, you know, a bunch of bees forming a hive. And disparately they're not going to do much, but altogether they can really accomplish something truly significant, right?

[Margaret Press]

Exactly.

[Lester Holt]

Kevin Lord was one of those bees. He joined DNA DOE as a volunteer. And then others followed, like Lori Gaff, a former Blackhawk helicopter pilot who stumbled on a Facebook posting about DNA Doe. I was completely enthralled and I, me.

[Missy Koski]

Being me, had to know absolutely everything.

[Lester Holt]

There was about it. She was soon addicted. Much like Missy Koski. One hour turns into ten pretty quick, I would think, right?

[Missy Koski]

Ten might be a slow day. This has become an obsession.

[Lester Holt]

A self described search angel who had used genetic genealogy to find her biological father. So she began helping other adoptees find their birth parents. And one day while I was helping.

[Missy Koski]

An adoptee, that adoptee got a phone call from the DNA Doe Project and she was told that she was distantly related to a Jane Doe. I just got intrigued and I said, can I talk to them?

[Lester Holt]

Before long, Missy was hooked too. And the three, Kevin, Lori and Missy formed a team, a kind of mini hive looking for the truth about a mystery woman called Lavender Doe. I'm Keith Morrison. This story is about the end of the world, a frostbitten pet cemetery, and zombies. This is a story about a woman linked forever to the awful things that happened to her children. Well, it has to be heard to be believed. Think you know every day story. Think again. Listen to Mommy Doomsday and a dozen other riveting series when you follow the Dateline Originals podcast. They called it the happiest place on the high desert, home to a tight knit group of 30 somethings who like to party.

[John Dodd]

It starts as a Playboy Channel fantasy.

[Lester Holt]

Where passion leads to murder and a killer seeks God's help with the COVID up. I'm Josh Mankiewicz and this is Deadly Mirage, an all new podcast from Dateline.

[Keith Morrison]

To listen to the latest episodes each week, completely free. You can find and follow Deadly Mirage on Pandora.

[Lester Holt]

It was a kind of obsession now, the determination to give her back her name, to identify the anonymous young woman murdered and set on fire and then buried here in Longview, Texas. God knows law enforcement had tried every trick in the investigative book. Except for a new book, if you could call it that, the DNA Doe Project. A bunch of amateurs. Written, really, but committed. Oh, yes.

[Colleen Fitzpatrick]

It's not that law enforcement has not tried most of the cases that come to us. We're kind of the last resort.

[Lester Holt]

Back in Gregg county, after more than a decade chasing leads and lavender dough, Lieutenant Hope understood that investigations had changed genealogy.

[Lieutenant Eddie Hope]

It's the way of the future. And to us homicide detectives, it's way above our heads, to be honest with you.

[Lester Holt]

So you welcomed their help?

[Lieutenant Eddie Hope]

I did.

[Lester Holt]

In the summer of 2018, the DNA DOE project hoped to generate attention for Lavender Doe. So they made a new sketch and posted it online. They added a PayPal button to raise money for that retest of Lavender Doe's DNA. And pretty soon the online community answered the call.

[Colleen Fitzpatrick]

And within four days, the public had come through and completely funded the testing that we had to do.

[Lester Holt]

But before they could even get the test sent out, something very unexpected happened.

[Colleen Fitzpatrick]

I get a call from Lt. Hope at the Sheriff's office saying that he has big news.

[Lester Holt]

Lt. Hope was investigating the recent murder of 28 year old Felicia Pearson in Longview. The prime suspect was a man named Joseph Wayne Burnett. It turned out he was the sex offender whose semen had been found 12 years earlier in the body of Lavender Doe. Lt. Hope said they didn't have enough evidence in that case to arrest Burnett.

[Lieutenant Eddie Hope]

Back then, they did not confess.

[Lester Holt]

You'd need a confession in that case. Yes, but when he spoke to detectives this time, he said something surprising.

[Lieutenant Eddie Hope]

He started talking about a girl that he killed and burned several years ago.

[Lester Holt]

A burned girl. Right away, the detectives called Eddie Hope. You're on your way home.

[Lieutenant Eddie Hope]

At that point, I was already home.

[Lester Holt]

Must have been good to hear.

[Lieutenant Eddie Hope]

Didn't take me long to get back.

[Lester Holt]

And that's why I wanted to get this off my chest.

[Lieutenant Eddie Hope]

I just let him talk. He Talked about this 12 year old murder as if it happened yesterday. He left no detail out.

[Lester Holt]

Now, when I reached down there and.

[Colleen Fitzpatrick]

I grabbed a rope and I put.

[Lester Holt]

It around her neck and I tightened it up, she never saw it coming. A rope around her neck. It only took seconds. But Burnett's admission only got them so far.

[Lieutenant Eddie Hope]

We had the confession and we still don't know who this person is. And that just eats you up.

[Lester Holt]

Burnett said he didn't know who she was either. And despite his confession, he pleaded not guilty. It seemed justice for a victim still labeled Lavender Doe in court documents would take some time. Time the volunteers couldn't waste.

[Colleen Fitzpatrick]

That made it a lot more real and put more weight behind what we were doing.

[Lester Holt]

The team of volunteers finally sent Lavender Doe's DNA out for testing. When the results came back in October 2018, they went to work looking for potential relatives. And just nine days later, they found one. A woman in East Texas, right near the spot where Lavender Doe was found. This had to be immensely exciting.

[Missy Koski]

Oh, we thought, this is her, this is the mom, this is the family. This is it.

[Lester Holt]

And so, of course, Lieutenant Hope, with a brand new optimism, drove out to see her. And he came up empty. The woman had no missing relatives and no idea who Lavender Doe might be. Must have been disappointing. It was like you thought maybe you're onto something and you weren't.

[Lieutenant Eddie Hope]

You kind of get your hopes up, then you let down. But yet that's been happening for, you know, 12 years.

[Missy Koski]

I was so. No, no, no. She's lying. She's lying. This is it. Because when you're researching family from another part of the country and all of a sudden you find this relative in the right spot, in the right place at the right time. It has to be.

[Lester Holt]

Then it dawned on them. The woman wasn't lying, and there was still a chance she could help.

[Colleen Fitzpatrick]

She told us that she did not know who Lavender Doe was, but she had taken a test herself with ancestry DNA, and she would be happy to share her results with us.

[Lester Holt]

Well, what happened when she did that?

[Colleen Fitzpatrick]

When we compared her DNA to Lavender Doe's DNA, we could see that it looked like Lavender Doe's parent was probably a first cousin of hers.

[Lester Holt]

And then it was Kevin who found it. The Texas woman had a distant cousin who lived out of state, a woman she didn't know, had never met, whose name was Robin. It appeared she had a daughter. But when they tried to find that.

[Colleen Fitzpatrick]

Daughter, she had addresses up until right around 2006, and then kind of just fell off the map and couldn't find her anywhere.

[Lester Holt]

2006. What a coincidence. It was the year Lavender Doe was murdered. Over the years, Lieutenant Eddie Hope thought a lot about those last moments of Lavender Doe's life.

[Lieutenant Eddie Hope]

Kind of haunts at you if you're coming out here and you can't put a closure to it, you know, you can't end the story. Yet.

[Lester Holt]

To help write that ending, he had put his faith in the dedicated volunteers who had spent countless hours trying to give her back her name. By the fall of 2018, they seemed close. DNA and genealogy had led them to a woman named Robin. They learned Robin had died, but her family tree offered them valuable clues, including a woman who seemed to have vanished after 2006. Could they have finally found Lavender Doe from the family tree? They located that woman's cousin, and Lieutenant Hope called him, and he said, I.

[Lieutenant Eddie Hope]

Haven'T seen her in years. He said, last we had heard, she ran away from home just like she just disappeared.

[Lester Holt]

Disappeared just like Lavender Doe. And he told Lieutenant Hope that his missing cousin had a half sister named Amanda. So Lieutenant Hope called her, too.

[Lieutenant Eddie Hope]

Well, I talked to her several times, and she agreed to send Kevin their.

[Lester Holt]

DNA kit, which meant sending Amanda's DNA sample to the lab and once again, waiting. How long did that take?

[Colleen Fitzpatrick]

It took about a month and a half, I believe.

[Lester Holt]

That must have been pins and needles.

[Colleen Fitzpatrick]

Oh, yeah.

[Lester Holt]

It was a winter's day, late January, when they got the news it was a match. Kevin called Lieutenant Hope.

[Lieutenant Eddie Hope]

I was pretty excited. The whole department was excited.

[Missy Koski]

I wasn't prepared for the emotion that I had right then. I couldn't control myself. I remember sitting on the couch just crying because I was so happy.

[Lester Holt]

So who was she? Who was the young woman who for so long had been a sketch known only as Lavender Doe? Here she was. Dana Lynn Dodd. It was Dana's half sister, Amanda, who'd agreed to provide her DNA sample to.

[Amanda Dodd]

Lt. H. As soon as I hung up the phone with him, I Googled it. I googled Lavender Doe. And as soon as it came up, I knew. And I called him back and I told him, that's Dana. It's Dana.

[Lester Holt]

What was it like to see that?

[Amanda Dodd]

Surreal. It felt like somebody just punched me in the stomach. I was angry that she was by herself. You know, her. Her worst fear came true. She was forgotten.

[Lester Holt]

Which was the heartbreaking truth Amanda revealed about Dana Dodd. Hers was a life of instability, uncertainty, and from the very beginning, rejection. Her mom moved out when she was little. One mother figure after another came and went from her life.

[Amanda Dodd]

She was passed around between my dad and his, you know, current wife or current girlfriend at the time. And that's how we lost track between her and us for about 10 years.

[Lester Holt]

By the time Dana was in her early teens, Amanda was 23 years old and married and raising a son of her own. And when she heard Dana was living not far away, somewhere in Florida, she asked her to move in. After all she'd been through, it was almost like a fairy tale. A real home. Was she happy about it?

[Amanda Dodd]

At first, Very, very happy. She said she liked the normal life. Feeling normal, not having to worry, you know, being loved is what she said.

[Lester Holt]

It was good for a while. So what happened to Dana Todd? How did she become that mystery victim so far away?

[Keith Morrison]

There's always more to the story. To go behind the scenes of tonight's episode, listen to our talking Dateline series with Josh and Keith, available Wednesday.

[Lester Holt]

For 12 years, they knew her only as Lavender Doe, the mystery murder victim with the purple shirt. Now they knew her real name. Dana Lynn Dodd. What a story. A name revealed of an abandoned baby. A rejected toddler whose whole life had been a cautionary tale. Her long lost half sister Amanda stepped in to help, and did help. But then, at age 16, Dana got a serious boyfriend.

[Amanda Dodd]

That's when the problem started.

[Lester Holt]

It's a story as old as time.

[Amanda Dodd]

Oh, yeah.

[Lester Holt]

So then Amanda sent Dana to live with her brother John.

[John Dodd]

I tried to make it where she was always wanted, but that boy again.

[Lester Holt]

Did you give her ultimatum?

[John Dodd]

I did. I did, you know, because, you know, I told her, do you want to stay with this guy, or do you want a better life? And she's like, you know, What? I love him.

[Lester Holt]

Well, that didn't work out either. Dana, determined to finally take control of her own life, decided to get a job. It was with a magazine company, she said, that would allow her to travel, selling subscriptions and other products. John told Dana that sounded like a bad idea. In a contest between you and those folks in the magazine, you didn't stand a chance.

[John Dodd]

No, no.

[Amanda Dodd]

She was just looking for acceptance.

[Lester Holt]

Dana was 18 and full of optimism.

[John Dodd]

She would call me every month saying, hey, I'm in Indiana. Hey, I'm in Cincinnati. For like six months, five or six months. She would call me every month.

[Lester Holt]

It was summertime, 2006. When she called him the last time.

[John Dodd]

I told her to come home. And she said, no, I want to do this on my own. So that was the last time I heard from her.

[Lester Holt]

And then Dana all but disappeared. What a helpless feeling that must have been.

[Amanda Dodd]

It was. It was hard. Where do you start when you know they're traveling all over the country?

[Lester Holt]

Dana met her fate in this Walmart parking lot, trying to sell magazines to Joseph Wayne Burnett. That's where he told police he picked her up, took her to this bridge, and killed her. Why? He said it was because she stole money from him. Impossible to know if that was true, because Joseph had burned her remains.

[Amanda Dodd]

She wasn't trash. She wasn't in piece of trash like he took upon himself to discard of. And I want everybody, you know, to know who Dana was and who she was as a person, even with her difficult life and her upbringing. And she still had a good heart.

[Lester Holt]

So after 12 years, the investigators, professional and amateur, finally knew her name, knew what happened to her, but it felt unfinished somehow. And so they all made a kind of pilgrimage to see the place with their own eyes. And that was the very first time the trio would actually meet in person here. Lieutenant Hope took them to the Walmart and to the cemetery where she'd been all this time.

[Missy Koski]

I think the thing that surprised me the most is that there were already flowers there. The community over the years, paid attention and didn't forget her.

[Lester Holt]

They left her their own flowers. Lavender, of course. DNA. DOE Project volunteers are still working hard to solve cases. And some are like Dana Lynn Dodd, the little girl abandoned early and often. And though Amanda and John tried to help, she was in the end abused and discarded, but not forgotten. And to those armchair detectives and their partner, Lieutenant Eddie Hope, she was as important as you or me.

[Lieutenant Eddie Hope]

It doesn't matter what walk of life you come from, Everybody's a person.

[Lester Holt]

In December of 2020, Joseph Wayne Burnett pleaded guilty to the murders of Felicia Pearson and Dana Lynn Dodd. For the relatives of Burnett's victims, this.

[Lieutenant Eddie Hope]

Has been the last chapter of a very painful book.

[Lester Holt]

And indeed it was. Though by then, Amanda and John had found a little solace here in Longview, the community that didn't forget.

[Amanda Dodd]

We felt like that was her adopted family.

[Lester Holt]

Which is why they decided not to take her remains back home, home to Florida with them. She will stay here in Longview with her name carved in stone. It's a funny thing, isn't it? But it's that it would be important to have a stone up above the place you're lying down with your name on it, and yet it is.

[Amanda Dodd]

It is. It's exactly. You never think about it, but it is something. It's important to have that because you're never forgotten. You know that your name is there. It's written in stone.

[Lester Holt]

Lavender Doe. No longer eternally Dana Lynn Dodd.

[Amanda Dodd]

Some of the people still go by her gravesite and still put flowers and things like that there. And that's what we wanted because she's.

[Lester Holt]

Part of Longview and she'll never be sent away again.

[Amanda Dodd]

No, she's home.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

That's all. For this edition of Dateline, be sure to take a listen to Josh Mankiewicz's latest original podcast, Deadly Mirage. Episodes one and two are available now, wherever you get your podcasts. We'll see you again next Friday at 9, 8 Central. And of course, I'll see you each weeknight. For NBC Nightly News, I'm Lester Holy. For all of us at NBC News, good night.

[Keith Morrison]

Friday night on Dateline.

[Margaret Press]

Did you sexually assault anyone? Did you defraud anyone?

[Lieutenant Eddie Hope]

Whoa, whoa, whoa.

[Keith Morrison]

The international con man who faked his own death finally comes face to face with justice.

[Lester Holt]

It should have ended with me.

[Keith Morrison]

Dateline Friday at 9, 8 Central, only on NBC.