June 2001
Beneath a simple granite stone in the McLennan County indigent cemetery lies the body of a woman who died in 1993 after a train struck her in Elm Mott.
With few personal belongings and no identification on her at the time of the accident, the woman left investigators few clues to her identity. She was buried in Restland Cemetery in Waco as "Jane Doe," the name traditionally given to women whose bodies cannot be identified.
Eight years later, spurred by a teen-age boy's questions about his missing mother, and with the help of a volunteer organization of cybersleuths, authorities have identified the woman as Angela Marie Parks of Bowling Green, Ky.
The final chapter of Parks' life began on the afternoon of July 28, 1993, along a set of railroad tracks in Elm Mott just off Farm-to-Market Road 308.
Cpl. Basillo Martinez, the Texas Department of Public Safety trooper who worked the accident scene, said Parks was walking southward along the tracks as the locomotive quickly approached her from behind. Martinez said he was told by the train's engineer that just before the train struck her she tried in vain to jump from the tracks and was dragged for several yards.
With a severe head injury, Parks lay in a coma for seven days before she died Aug. 4, 1993, at the age of 23.
DPS investigators went to work to find her identity. Martinez said investigators checked Parks' description against missing persons reports nationwide with no luck. Parks' tattoos were checked against those listed in records of inmates in the Texas prison system but without a match.
"Over the years we would get hits that the tattoos matched those from someone reported missing," Martinez said. "But when we investigated, it would turn out not to be our Jane Doe. It was frustrating."
Wanda Koon, McLennan County welfare director, said excluding some unidentified victims of the Mount Carmel fire, Parks is the only Jane Doe to have been buried by the county in the last 25 years.
A break in the case finally came May 24, 2001, when the DPS research specialist handling the case, Trisha Linebarger, received a call from the Bowling Green Police Department. Detective David Bragg told her he had a missing person with tattoos matching the Waco Jane Doe. Bragg said the connection was made after Parks' aunt, Joyce Thomason, filed a missing persons report in February.
"Her family last saw her in 1992," he said. "Apparently the kind of lifestyle she led, she would disappear for long periods of time. But after she was gone for longer than normal, her son began wondering what happened to her, so they filed a report."
About the same time, an international volunteer organization that works to solve missing persons cases became involved with the case. Representatives of the Doe Network compiled a list of unidentified bodies with unique tattoos, including the Waco Jane Doe. When the list was submitted to the FBI's National Crime Information Center the tattoos of the train victim were found to be identical to those listed in Parks' missing person report.
Last week the identification was confirmed when fingerprints taken after the accident matched those on record in Kentucky for Parks.
"The oddest thing about it was the timing," Linebarger said. "If the (federal database) search had been conducted six months ago she might not have been identified. I am so excited this has come to a resolution. I just love it when it all works out. Of course this is not a happy conclusion. It's so sad for the family, but at least now they know what happened to her."
Thomason said the news of her niece's fate has been hard to bear.
"I have been dreaming of her every night since I heard the news," she said. "It's so sad. She was such a loving, caring, sweet person.... just full of life. Then she got on drugs and it messed her mind up. There at the end she was a drifter, a loner, you know. I figured when she disappeared for so long this time she had been put in a mental hospital."
Thomason said that after her niece disappeared she was given custody of Parks' two children. She said she has told them about what happened to their mother.
"You know her little girl was just a few months old when (Parks) went away," she said. "She's been having nightmares since I told her. I am hoping with this (her 14-year-old son) will understand the truth. He really needs the help. He thinks his mom left him because she didn't love him. I hope he will see now that was not the truth."
Thomason said she plans to bring her niece's body home to Kentucky.
"It's just not right for her to be there, so far away, without a proper headstone," she said. "I want her brought back here with a real funeral. I want to bury her next to her momma....where she belongs."
Beneath a simple granite stone in the McLennan County indigent cemetery lies the body of a woman who died in 1993 after a train struck her in Elm Mott.
With few personal belongings and no identification on her at the time of the accident, the woman left investigators few clues to her identity. She was buried in Restland Cemetery in Waco as "Jane Doe," the name traditionally given to women whose bodies cannot be identified.
Eight years later, spurred by a teen-age boy's questions about his missing mother, and with the help of a volunteer organization of cybersleuths, authorities have identified the woman as Angela Marie Parks of Bowling Green, Ky.
The final chapter of Parks' life began on the afternoon of July 28, 1993, along a set of railroad tracks in Elm Mott just off Farm-to-Market Road 308.
Cpl. Basillo Martinez, the Texas Department of Public Safety trooper who worked the accident scene, said Parks was walking southward along the tracks as the locomotive quickly approached her from behind. Martinez said he was told by the train's engineer that just before the train struck her she tried in vain to jump from the tracks and was dragged for several yards.
With a severe head injury, Parks lay in a coma for seven days before she died Aug. 4, 1993, at the age of 23.
DPS investigators went to work to find her identity. Martinez said investigators checked Parks' description against missing persons reports nationwide with no luck. Parks' tattoos were checked against those listed in records of inmates in the Texas prison system but without a match.
"Over the years we would get hits that the tattoos matched those from someone reported missing," Martinez said. "But when we investigated, it would turn out not to be our Jane Doe. It was frustrating."
Wanda Koon, McLennan County welfare director, said excluding some unidentified victims of the Mount Carmel fire, Parks is the only Jane Doe to have been buried by the county in the last 25 years.
A break in the case finally came May 24, 2001, when the DPS research specialist handling the case, Trisha Linebarger, received a call from the Bowling Green Police Department. Detective David Bragg told her he had a missing person with tattoos matching the Waco Jane Doe. Bragg said the connection was made after Parks' aunt, Joyce Thomason, filed a missing persons report in February.
"Her family last saw her in 1992," he said. "Apparently the kind of lifestyle she led, she would disappear for long periods of time. But after she was gone for longer than normal, her son began wondering what happened to her, so they filed a report."
About the same time, an international volunteer organization that works to solve missing persons cases became involved with the case. Representatives of the Doe Network compiled a list of unidentified bodies with unique tattoos, including the Waco Jane Doe. When the list was submitted to the FBI's National Crime Information Center the tattoos of the train victim were found to be identical to those listed in Parks' missing person report.
Last week the identification was confirmed when fingerprints taken after the accident matched those on record in Kentucky for Parks.
"The oddest thing about it was the timing," Linebarger said. "If the (federal database) search had been conducted six months ago she might not have been identified. I am so excited this has come to a resolution. I just love it when it all works out. Of course this is not a happy conclusion. It's so sad for the family, but at least now they know what happened to her."
Thomason said the news of her niece's fate has been hard to bear.
"I have been dreaming of her every night since I heard the news," she said. "It's so sad. She was such a loving, caring, sweet person.... just full of life. Then she got on drugs and it messed her mind up. There at the end she was a drifter, a loner, you know. I figured when she disappeared for so long this time she had been put in a mental hospital."
Thomason said that after her niece disappeared she was given custody of Parks' two children. She said she has told them about what happened to their mother.
"You know her little girl was just a few months old when (Parks) went away," she said. "She's been having nightmares since I told her. I am hoping with this (her 14-year-old son) will understand the truth. He really needs the help. He thinks his mom left him because she didn't love him. I hope he will see now that was not the truth."
Thomason said she plans to bring her niece's body home to Kentucky.
"It's just not right for her to be there, so far away, without a proper headstone," she said. "I want her brought back here with a real funeral. I want to bury her next to her momma....where she belongs."
June 2001
Beneath a simple granite stone in the McLennan County indigent cemetery lies the body of a woman who died in 1993 after a train struck her in Elm Mott.
With few personal belongings and no identification on her at the time of the accident, the woman left investigators few clues to her identity. She was buried in Restland Cemetery in Waco as "Jane Doe," the name traditionally given to women whose bodies cannot be identified.
Eight years later, spurred by a teen-age boy's questions about his missing mother, and with the help of a volunteer organization of cybersleuths, authorities have identified the woman as Angela Marie Parks of Bowling Green, Ky.
The final chapter of Parks' life began on the afternoon of July 28, 1993, along a set of railroad tracks in Elm Mott just off Farm-to-Market Road 308.
Cpl. Basillo Martinez, the Texas Department of Public Safety trooper who worked the accident scene, said Parks was walking southward along the tracks as the locomotive quickly approached her from behind. Martinez said he was told by the train's engineer that just before the train struck her she tried in vain to jump from the tracks and was dragged for several yards.
With a severe head injury, Parks lay in a coma for seven days before she died Aug. 4, 1993, at the age of 23.
DPS investigators went to work to find her identity. Martinez said investigators checked Parks' description against missing persons reports nationwide with no luck. Parks' tattoos were checked against those listed in records of inmates in the Texas prison system but without a match.
"Over the years we would get hits that the tattoos matched those from someone reported missing," Martinez said. "But when we investigated, it would turn out not to be our Jane Doe. It was frustrating."
Wanda Koon, McLennan County welfare director, said excluding some unidentified victims of the Mount Carmel fire, Parks is the only Jane Doe to have been buried by the county in the last 25 years.
A break in the case finally came May 24, 2001, when the DPS research specialist handling the case, Trisha Linebarger, received a call from the Bowling Green Police Department. Detective David Bragg told her he had a missing person with tattoos matching the Waco Jane Doe. Bragg said the connection was made after Parks' aunt, Joyce Thomason, filed a missing persons report in February.
"Her family last saw her in 1992," he said. "Apparently the kind of lifestyle she led, she would disappear for long periods of time. But after she was gone for longer than normal, her son began wondering what happened to her, so they filed a report."
About the same time, an international volunteer organization that works to solve missing persons cases became involved with the case. Representatives of the Doe Network compiled a list of unidentified bodies with unique tattoos, including the Waco Jane Doe. When the list was submitted to the FBI's National Crime Information Center the tattoos of the train victim were found to be identical to those listed in Parks' missing person report.
Last week the identification was confirmed when fingerprints taken after the accident matched those on record in Kentucky for Parks.
"The oddest thing about it was the timing," Linebarger said. "If the (federal database) search had been conducted six months ago she might not have been identified. I am so excited this has come to a resolution. I just love it when it all works out. Of course this is not a happy conclusion. It's so sad for the family, but at least now they know what happened to her."
Thomason said the news of her niece's fate has been hard to bear.
"I have been dreaming of her every night since I heard the news," she said. "It's so sad. She was such a loving, caring, sweet person.... just full of life. Then she got on drugs and it messed her mind up. There at the end she was a drifter, a loner, you know. I figured when she disappeared for so long this time she had been put in a mental hospital."
Thomason said that after her niece disappeared she was given custody of Parks' two children. She said she has told them about what happened to their mother.
"You know her little girl was just a few months old when (Parks) went away," she said. "She's been having nightmares since I told her. I am hoping with this (her 14-year-old son) will understand the truth. He really needs the help. He thinks his mom left him because she didn't love him. I hope he will see now that was not the truth."
Thomason said she plans to bring her niece's body home to Kentucky.
"It's just not right for her to be there, so far away, without a proper headstone," she said. "I want her brought back here with a real funeral. I want to bury her next to her momma....where she belongs."
Beneath a simple granite stone in the McLennan County indigent cemetery lies the body of a woman who died in 1993 after a train struck her in Elm Mott.
With few personal belongings and no identification on her at the time of the accident, the woman left investigators few clues to her identity. She was buried in Restland Cemetery in Waco as "Jane Doe," the name traditionally given to women whose bodies cannot be identified.
Eight years later, spurred by a teen-age boy's questions about his missing mother, and with the help of a volunteer organization of cybersleuths, authorities have identified the woman as Angela Marie Parks of Bowling Green, Ky.
The final chapter of Parks' life began on the afternoon of July 28, 1993, along a set of railroad tracks in Elm Mott just off Farm-to-Market Road 308.
Cpl. Basillo Martinez, the Texas Department of Public Safety trooper who worked the accident scene, said Parks was walking southward along the tracks as the locomotive quickly approached her from behind. Martinez said he was told by the train's engineer that just before the train struck her she tried in vain to jump from the tracks and was dragged for several yards.
With a severe head injury, Parks lay in a coma for seven days before she died Aug. 4, 1993, at the age of 23.
DPS investigators went to work to find her identity. Martinez said investigators checked Parks' description against missing persons reports nationwide with no luck. Parks' tattoos were checked against those listed in records of inmates in the Texas prison system but without a match.
"Over the years we would get hits that the tattoos matched those from someone reported missing," Martinez said. "But when we investigated, it would turn out not to be our Jane Doe. It was frustrating."
Wanda Koon, McLennan County welfare director, said excluding some unidentified victims of the Mount Carmel fire, Parks is the only Jane Doe to have been buried by the county in the last 25 years.
A break in the case finally came May 24, 2001, when the DPS research specialist handling the case, Trisha Linebarger, received a call from the Bowling Green Police Department. Detective David Bragg told her he had a missing person with tattoos matching the Waco Jane Doe. Bragg said the connection was made after Parks' aunt, Joyce Thomason, filed a missing persons report in February.
"Her family last saw her in 1992," he said. "Apparently the kind of lifestyle she led, she would disappear for long periods of time. But after she was gone for longer than normal, her son began wondering what happened to her, so they filed a report."
About the same time, an international volunteer organization that works to solve missing persons cases became involved with the case. Representatives of the Doe Network compiled a list of unidentified bodies with unique tattoos, including the Waco Jane Doe. When the list was submitted to the FBI's National Crime Information Center the tattoos of the train victim were found to be identical to those listed in Parks' missing person report.
Last week the identification was confirmed when fingerprints taken after the accident matched those on record in Kentucky for Parks.
"The oddest thing about it was the timing," Linebarger said. "If the (federal database) search had been conducted six months ago she might not have been identified. I am so excited this has come to a resolution. I just love it when it all works out. Of course this is not a happy conclusion. It's so sad for the family, but at least now they know what happened to her."
Thomason said the news of her niece's fate has been hard to bear.
"I have been dreaming of her every night since I heard the news," she said. "It's so sad. She was such a loving, caring, sweet person.... just full of life. Then she got on drugs and it messed her mind up. There at the end she was a drifter, a loner, you know. I figured when she disappeared for so long this time she had been put in a mental hospital."
Thomason said that after her niece disappeared she was given custody of Parks' two children. She said she has told them about what happened to their mother.
"You know her little girl was just a few months old when (Parks) went away," she said. "She's been having nightmares since I told her. I am hoping with this (her 14-year-old son) will understand the truth. He really needs the help. He thinks his mom left him because she didn't love him. I hope he will see now that was not the truth."
Thomason said she plans to bring her niece's body home to Kentucky.
"It's just not right for her to be there, so far away, without a proper headstone," she said. "I want her brought back here with a real funeral. I want to bury her next to her momma....where she belongs."
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