Tempe Girl is the name given to an

unidentified decedent Unidentified decedent or unidentified person (also abbreviated as UID or UP) is a term in American English used to describe a corpse of a person whose identity cannot be established by police and medical examiners. In many cases, it is several ...

whose body was discovered on April 27, 2002 in

Tempe, Arizona , settlement_type = City , named_for = Vale of Tempe , image_skyline = Tempeskyline3.jpg , imagesize = 260px , image_caption = Tempe skyline as se ...

. She had died of

cocaine intoxication Cocaine intoxication refers to the subjective, desired and adverse effects of cocaine on the mind and behavior of users. Both self-induced and involuntary cocaine intoxication have medical and legal implications (even in absence of relevant advers ...

—ruled to be neither an

accident An accident is an unintended, normally unwanted event that was not directly caused by humans. The term ''accident'' implies that nobody should be blamed, but the event may have been caused by unrecognized or unaddressed risks. Most researcher ...

nor a

homicide Homicide occurs when a person kills another person. A homicide requires only a volitional act or omission that causes the death of another, and thus a homicide may result from accidental, reckless, or negligent acts even if there is no inten ...

—one day before the discovery of her body. This decedent is believed to have been of either

Hispanic The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to Vic ...

or Native American ethnicity and was allegedly picked up while hitchhiking, claiming she had been effectively disowned by her own mother for her frequent

recreational drug use Recreational drug use indicates the use of one or more psychoactive drugs to induce an altered state of consciousness either for pleasure or for some other casual purpose or pastime by modifying the perceptions and emotions of the user. When a ...

. This unidentified decedent became known as Tempe Girl due to the city in which her body was discovered. Her official case number is 02-1368. As of 2022, Tempe Girl is undergoing genealogical research conducted by the

DNA Doe Project DNA Doe Project (also DNA Doe Project, Inc. or DDP) is an American nonprofit volunteer organization formed to identify unidentified deceased persons (commonly known as John Doe or Jane Doe) using forensic genealogy. Volunteers identify victims ...

in ongoing efforts to discover her identity.

Discovery

On April 27, 2002, the fully clothed body of a teenage female was discovered in the vicinity of 1850 East University Drive, close to the

Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, ASU is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the ...

, in Tempe, Arizona. She had been deceased for less than 24 hours before the discovery of her body. Close to the body of the decedent, investigators located a compact disc, from which they were able to retrieve several clear

fingerprint A fingerprint is an impression left by the friction ridges of a human finger. The recovery of partial fingerprints from a crime scene is an important method of forensic science. Moisture and grease on a finger result in fingerprints on surfac ...

s which, via an examination of police records, were identified as belonging to a woman living in

Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ; nv, Hoozdo; es, Fénix or , yuf-x-wal, Banyà:nyuwá) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1 ...

Autopsy

Tempe Girl was aged between 15 and 19 years old at the time of her death, and was five feet one inch in height. She weighed between 120 and 125 pounds, and was most likely of Hispanic ancestry, although her actual heritage may have been Native American. The decedent had brown eyes and black hair which was 12 inches in length, extending past her shoulders by several inches. She wore a red halter top, blue jeans with a distinctive hollow silver

medal A medal or medallion is a small portable artistic object, a thin disc, normally of metal, carrying a design, usually on both sides. They typically have a commemorative purpose of some kind, and many are presented as awards. They may be int ...

lion pattern, a side zipper, and eyelets upon the waistband, blue underwear, one wedge black high heel shoe (size 6.5), and a purple elastic hair tie upon her wrist. In addition, the decedent had an ''L''-shaped scar measuring approximately one inch in length on the back of her left hand; this scar was vertical, and extended beneath her pinky and ring fingers toward her wrist. She also had a scar on her left shoulder. The decedent also wore faded purple nail polish on her fingernails. Her dental charts, DNA, and fingerprints yielded no results matching her to any known missing person. Initially, investigators suspected the

cause of death In law, medicine, and statistics, cause of death is an official determination of conditions resulting in a human's death, which may be recorded on a death certificate. A cause of death is determined by a medical examiner. The cause of death is ...

of the decedent to be foul play, although this theory was quickly disproven through both the subsequent formal questioning of witnesses, and discovering via the official

coroner A coroner is a government or judicial official who is empowered to conduct or order an inquest into Manner of death, the manner or cause of death, and to investigate or confirm the identity of an unknown person who has been found dead within th ...

's report that the official cause of death had been acute

. The ultimate nature of this case was never determined, as the

autopsy An autopsy (post-mortem examination, obduction, necropsy, or autopsia cadaverum) is a surgical procedure that consists of a thorough examination of a corpse by dissection to determine the cause, mode, and manner of death or to evaluate any di ...

conducted upon the decedent did not reveal if she had been murdered or had died by a form of misadventure.

Investigation

The clothing Tempe Girl had worn did not assist investigators in determining her identity, as all manufacturing brands were either common or could not be determined. Upon discovering that the fingerprints upon the compact disc located close to the decedent's body belonged to a woman living in Phoenix, investigators interviewed this individual. The woman claimed to have no knowledge about the decedent, although her boyfriend confirmed to investigators that he had observed this girl hitchhiking alone near 32nd Street and Greenway Road in Phoenix on April 26, and that he had offered her a ride to her intended destination of Tempe. According to this

eyewitness Eyewitness or eye witness may refer to: Witness * Witness, someone who has knowledge acquired through first-hand experience ** Eyewitness memory ** Eyewitness testimony Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Eyewitness'' (1956 film), a Britis ...

, the girl had been hitchhiking from Phoenix to Tempe with an expressed intention of purchasing tickets for an upcoming music concert.

April 26, 2002

According to the woman's boyfriend, the girl had voluntarily entered his vehicle in the vicinity of 32nd Street and Greenway Road on April 26. The young woman had conversed solely in

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

as she rode in his vehicle, and had furthermore informed this individual that she had recently been effectively disowned by her own family due to her habitual recreational drug use. He had driven her to Tempe, where the decedent had initially stated she intended to purchase tickets for a music concert, although en route, she had changed her mind and asked the man if he was able to obtain drugs, to which he replied in the affirmative. After the driver had picked up a second individual—whom he had known as a drug dealer—the young woman had spent her money on cocaine from this individual instead of purchasing tickets. Shortly after the decedent ingested the cocaine, she reportedly developed a negative reaction to the drug, causing her to experience acute

convulsion A convulsion is a medical condition where the body muscles contract and relax rapidly and repeatedly, resulting in uncontrolled shaking. Because epileptic seizures typically include convulsions, the term ''convulsion'' is sometimes used as a s ...

s. The driver claimed that he and his other passenger drove to a parking lot behind a nearby shopping mall located in the area of 1850 East University Drive, close to the

, where he then removed the girl—deceased or otherwise—from the back seat of his car before instructing the passenger who had sold her the drug to dial 911 at a nearby gas station. He then simply drove away from the scene, making no attempt to contact police or paramedics himself. At 5:40 a.m. the following day, Tempe Girl's body was found lying

in situ ''In situ'' (; often not italicized in English) is a Latin phrase that translates literally to "on site" or "in position." It can mean "locally", "on site", "on the premises", or "in place" to describe where an event takes place and is used in ...

behind a shopping mall. The driver of the vehicle in which Tempe Girl had allegedly ingested the cocaine was never prosecuted, as the

medical examiner The medical examiner is an appointed official in some American jurisdictions who is trained in pathology that investigates deaths that occur under unusual or suspicious circumstances, to perform post-mortem examinations, and in some jurisdictio ...

was uncertain either if the decedent had been under 18 at the time of her death; whether she was still alive at the time she left his vehicle; or if she had been either pushed or dragged from the vehicle to the location of her discovery.

Ongoing investigation

Tempe investigators did subsequently search through numerous schools in Arizona for leads pertaining to any female known to be missing whose physical features matched her description. All these lines of inquiry, however, failed to uncover the identity of Tempe Girl. In addition, the

Tempe Police Department The Tempe Police Department serves the city of Tempe, Arizona. The Town of Tempe was incorporated in November 1894 and as the population increased, George Compton was elected the town's first marshal on January 14, 1895. By 1901, law enforceme ...

have maintained contact with Mexican investigators, suspecting the decedent may possibly have been an immigrant. The

National Center for Missing & Exploited Children The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) is a private, nonprofit organization established in 1984 by the United States Congress. In September 2013, the United States House of Representatives, United States Senate, and the Pres ...

and other institutions have created

forensic facial reconstruction Forensic facial reconstruction (or forensic facial approximation) is the process of recreating the face of an individual (whose identity is often not known) from their skeletal remains through an amalgamation of artistry, anthropology, osteol ...

s of Tempe Girl to illustrate estimations of how she may have appeared in life. Three

missing people A missing person is a person who has disappeared and whose status as alive or dead cannot be confirmed as their location and condition are unknown. A person may go missing through a voluntary disappearance, or else due to an accident, crime, de ...

have thus far been ruled out as being the decedent. In addition, the woman's fingerprints,

dental records The Ballistics were a ska band from Ipswich, England. Formed in 2002, they have built up a healthy following across the UK and have garnered airplay in the U.S., Germany, Argentina and Brazil. The band's first album, '' Go Ballistic'', was releas ...

, DNA and other identifying information have been entered into national identity databases, including the

Combined DNA Index System The Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) is the United States national DNA database created and maintained by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. CODIS consists of three levels of information; Local DNA Index Systems (LDIS) where DNA profiles orig ...

and the

National Crime Information Center The National Crime Information Center (NCIC) is the United States' central database for tracking crime-related information. The NCIC has been an information sharing tool since 1967. It is maintained by the Criminal Justice Information Services Di ...

, although to date, all efforts to identify Tempe Girl have proven unsuccessful. In 2022, the

announced their intention to determine the identity of Tempe Girl via genealogical research.

Notes

References

Cited works and further reading

* * * * *

External links

* 2010 online news articl
appealing for information pertaining to Tempe Girl's identity
*

br>''case file''
pertaining to Tempe Girl * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tempe Girl 1980s births 2002 deaths 2002 in Arizona Cocaine-related deaths in Arizona Hispanic and Latino American people Native American people People from Phoenix, Arizona People from Tempe, Arizona Unidentified American children Unidentified decedents in Arizona Unsolved deaths Violence against women in the United States