Bone Lake Jane Doe Identified After 33 Years: The Story of Denise Elaine Hartley

Bone Lake Jane Doe Identified After 33 Years

In 1992, a young woman left her child with family. A year later, in 1993, body parts were discovered at two different lakes 40 miles apart, starting a 33-year-long quest for answers.

On June 11, 1993, a severed head was found bobbing in the water at Bone Lake in Scandia by a man walking his dog. Then, a day later, a human foot was discovered 40 miles away near Pig’s Eye Lake in St. Paul.

Bone Lake Jane Doe’s Sketch(Washington County Sheriff’s Office)

Authorities at the time believed the body parts belonged to a single victim: a white woman in her 20s or 30s with brown eyes and short dark brown or black hair, spiked on top with a small pigtail in the back. Each ear was triple-pierced, and she had red toenail polish on two toes.

Why Investigators Believed the Remains Belonged to One Victim

The belief that the body parts belonged to the same person stemmed from the fact that they were found within 24 hours of each other, and the cuts through the bone appeared remarkably similar.

“They had an expert in cuts and serrations look at both of them, and they appeared very, very similar,” said Detective Clayton Evens of the Washington County Sheriff’s Office.

Because the remains recovered were incomplete, the cause of death could not be determined. The case was officially classified as an “unidentified homicide.”

The Investigation Goes Cold

Police pursued every possible lead.

At one point, investigators received an anonymous phone call from someone claiming that additional body parts could be found beneath the Mendota Bridge. Authorities searched the area extensively, but nothing was discovered. The caller was never identified.

“You know, it could have been the suspect. Absolutely. Could have just been some random person,” said Evens.

As the years passed and the case slowly faded from public memory, the investigation went cold.

DNA Doe Project Gives Bone Lake Jane Doe Her Name Back

In 2024, the Washington County Sheriff’s Office and the Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s Office partnered with the DNA Doe Project.

Using DNA extracted from the victim, who by then was known only as “Bone Lake Jane Doe,” researchers generated a DNA profile and used genetic genealogy to trace her family tree.

Denise Elaine Hartley(Washington County Sheriff’s Office)

In June 2026, 33 years after her remains were discovered, Denise Elaine Hartley finally got her name back.

Who Was Denise Elaine Hartley?

Hartley was the youngest of 15 siblings and had a nine-year-old daughter of her own.

Denise Elaine Hartley with her daughter(Washington County Sheriff’s Office)

In early 1992, after leaving her daughter with family, Hartley moved from Columbus to St. Paul to live with her older sisters.

She enrolled at Lakewood Community College, now Century College, in White Bear Lake during the spring 1993 semester, where she studied chemical dependency. According to investigators, she may have wanted to become an addiction counselor.

After some time, Hartley got her own place and moved out of her sisters’ home.

According to investigators, Hartley was arrested in late 1992 at the corner of Payne Avenue and Whitall Street in St. Paul on a prostitution charge. It was reportedly her second arrest for prostitution, as she had previously been arrested on a similar charge in Columbus.

She disappeared in 1993.

For more than three decades, nobody knew what had happened to her until the DNA Doe Project linked the remains found in two Twin Cities lakes to her identity.

A Family That Waited Decades for Answers

Hartley’s parents died before ever learning what happened to their daughter.

Denise with her mother(Washington County Sheriff’s Office)

The daughter she left with family in 1992 is now 41 years old.

The discovery of Hartley’s identity has answered some of the questions surrounding this case, but the most important question remains:

Who killed her?

Investigators believe that examining Hartley’s life before she disappeared may help provide that answer.

“So now that’s our job – to really open this case up, to talk to anybody that we can and actually figure out who she was with,” said Evens.

Possible Connection to Another Unsolved Murder

Although Hartley’s case has never been officially linked to another victim, investigators are exploring a possible connection to the 1992 homicide of Eden Young.

Eden Young

Authorities believe the cases may share similarities in circumstances, timeframe, and location.

Young, originally from Cleveland, had moved to St. Paul just four months before her death. She also worked as a prostitute.

She was last seen around 3 a.m. on September 28, 1992, getting into a blue van at Milton and Sherburne avenues in St. Paul. Investigators believe the van was driven by one of her customers.

Forty hours later, her nude body was discovered in a grassy area near Glen Edge Road in Dellwood.

She had been beaten about the face and head, strangled, and stabbed.

Investigators also recovered a woman’s purse, miscellaneous papers, and women’s clothing – some stained with blood – which had been discovered by a newspaper carrier on Lansing Avenue, just south of Minnesota 96, approximately three miles east of where Young’s body was found.

The Search for a Killer Continues

For 33 years, Denise Elaine Hartley was known only as Bone Lake Jane Doe.

Now she has her name back.

What remains unknown is who killed her and whether her murder is connected to any other unsolved crimes from that era.

For investigators, the identification of Denise Hartley is not the end of the story.

It is the beginning of the next chapter.