Jane Doe and a Serial Killer?

by Cathy Scott

They tagged the body “Jane Doe” after the discovery in a rustic grave on the desert floor near Florence, Arizona. The dead female, estimated between 15 and 18 years old, became Doe case number 2278dfaz.

The body was discovered on May 10, 1997, by hunters in the remote desert area. In an odd twist, Arizona authorities years later admitted that they'd misplaced the corpse of Jane Doe, but not before a facial reconstruction could be created, using the skull, to help identify the body. It was then placed in a county cemetery, but the exact location of the plot was not noted on the paperwork.

Three months after the discovery of Jane Doe’s remains, the wife of Craig Leslie Jacobsen, who was eventually convicted in the Las Vegas murder of 20-year-old salsa dancer Ginger Rios, led police to Ginger’s grave in the same vicinity off the Florence Calvin Highway, a 30-mile dirt road between Florence and the Riverside-Kearny area not far from Tucson. The wife knew exactly where the body was, because she had been in the van with her husband, along with their baby, when he drove Ginger’s body to Arizona to bury her.

Jane Doe

Jacobsen eventually told police that the Jane Doe remains, buried not far from Ginger’s body, were those of a missing woman named Mary Stoddard. Thus, the body was formally ID’d and police believed the case had been solved. On the body’s right baby finger was a yellow metal ring with two clear stones and a light purple stone. On the left hand was a ring fashioned with two twisted gold wires with the letter "M.” Police believed it stood for “Mary.”

But seven days before Jane Doe was discovered, 15-year-old Christina Marie Martinez disappeared, on May 3, 1997, on her way to a local laundromat.

Thirteen years later, in the summer of 2010, according to the Doe Network, police finally learned the true identity of Jane Doe. The ring’s “M,” they also learned, actually stood for “Martinez.” The family, for all those years, had not realized and had not been told that the remains of a young Jane Doe were found just days after Christina's disappearance. It was the same day Christina would have turned 16.

Ginger Rios (left)

For Ginger Rios, her interaction with Craig Jacobsen, also known as John Flowers, started out innocently enough when, on the afternoon of April 4, 1997, she drove with her husband to Jacobsen’s Spy Craft shop near the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, to buy a how-to book on cleaning up their credit so they could buy a house. Ginger left Mark Hollinger, her husband of five months, in their car, telling him, “I’ll be right back.” Jacobsen had a second Spy Craft shop in Phoenix just blocks from where Christina Martinez was last seen.

With three deaths in his wake–Jane Doe, Mary Stoddard and Ginger Rios–all evidence points to Craig Jacobsen being a serial killer. Yet, he has not been charged in Christina Martinez’s murder nor in connection with Mary Stoddard’s disappearance.

Now, however, evidence is reportedly being gathered in an effort to charge Jacobsen with Christina’s murder.

I interviewed Jacobsen after Ginger’s disappearance and before his arrest. He told me he was angry with Ginger for causing him trouble and that he didn’t appreciate it. He, too, wanted to find her, he said. His words, in light of Ginger's death, were chilling.

Jacobsen was arrested in Los Angeles in August 1997. A day after being interviewed by Las Vegas police about Ginger’s murder, Jacobsen was found comatose in his cell, hanging from a bed sheet, inside the Los Angeles County Jail. He survived.

Shortly after Jacobsen’s arrest, his wife suddenly offered, in an apparent move to help save herself from being named an accomplice, led police to the desert where her husband had buried Ginger’s body.

In light of the evidence against Jacobsen, the Clark County District Attorney’s Office, in downtown Las Vegas, at the time publicly vowed to seek the death penalty against him. Yet, months later, in a surprise move, Jacobsen was offered a plea bargain in Ginger’s case in exchange for a lesser penalty of 25 years–this, despite two confessions for two separate murders and damning evidence against Jacobsen. Then, a couple years later, his guilty plea was withdrawn and a judge allowed him to instead plead guilty by reason of insanity. Today, Jacobsen sits in a Northern Nevada prison hospital with an uncertain release date.

In the meantime, Ginger Rios’s family remembers the good times and the dreams their daughter had for her future. “She wanted to get her own musical group and have her own show here in Vegas,” her mother, Denise Rios, said. “She was taking professional voice lessons.”

“She said to me once,” her mother added, 'One day, Mom, I'm going to be Miss Las Vegas.’”

Seeing Jacobsen take a plea deal, only to have it tossed out, was hardly justice for Ginger’s parents. They understandably have said they want Jacobsen put away for life.

Time will tell whether Arizona law enforcement will do right by Christina Martinez, which would be justice for Ginger as well, and pursue charges against Jacobsen for the murder of Jane Doe, a k a Christina Martinez.