Show: 48 Hours Mystery, Vol. 3
Episode Title: Girl Next Door
Duration: 40:27
Release Date:
Date added to iTunes: Mar 14, 2008
Network: CBS
Episode description: Like any good homicide detective, Sgt. Scott Dudek can sometimes get a little obsessed with his cases. But as correspondent Harold Dow reports, the 2003 murder of an unidentified young girl troubled him more than any other. Dudek says the girl had been dead for about ten days. And the way she died - with a rag in her throat - suggests someone may have wanted to silence her. But sadly, no one seemed to be looking for this victim. Because her body was so badly decomposed, a local artist did the best she could to give her a face. They also gave her a name: "Jane Doe." Police had to rely on her autopsy for other clues. Dudek released a sketch, hopeful it was good enough for someone to recognize this girl once it was splashed all over the local media and posted on Web sites dedicated to finding missing children. "With this sketch being released we probably had 150 possible clues or sightings of people that thought they knew who our Castro Valley Jane Doe was," he says. Detectives also kept an eye on Jane's grave to see who might visit her. One day there was an intriguing clue: they found a note and necklace on the headstone. "And the letter actually says 'God loves you, it's okay baby girl, Jim is paying for what he did to you,'" Dudek explains. So once again the detective is manning the phones. "Sooner or later somebody's gonna make a connection and they'll pick up the phone and they'll call us and they'll do the right thing," he says. That combination of police work and publicity finally paid off. In January 2006, 48 Hours Mystery reported on the case of Jane Doe. The calls started pouring in, and one of them would turn this case around. Someone who watched the program thought Jane looked like a young girl who was seen around Castro Valley with a man. "His name is Miguel Castaneda. And he worked in the restaurant where the body was dumped," Dudek explains. Dudek received a frantic message while in Mexico chasing a lead. It was a woman who had seen the flyer and feared that Jane was her missing daughter. The minute Dudek laid eyes on her, he had a feeling his search was over. "You have that moment where you go, 'Oh my God,' 'cause she has some of the identical features," he explains. The woman showed detectives pictures of her daughter. "The sculpture that Gloria did and that picture, how much more close can you get? The cheek bones are perfect, her lips are perfect in that picture, she has gold hooped earrings," Dudek remarks. And the woman said her daughter, like Jane, had perfect teeth. The woman's daughter left for California in March 2003, on her 16th birthday. She went to stay with Miguel Castaneda, who was a family friend. Within weeks her mother lost contact with her, about the same time the body was discovered behind the restaurant. When Yesenia left Mexico, she came to stay in a bungalow in Hayward, California. She was only here about three weeks with Castaneda. "It's my belief that Yesenia felt that Castaneda was like an older brother; Castaneda wanted more of a relationship than that type. I think Yesenia turned down his advances and she was killed because of that. The $65,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Yesenia's killer is still being offered.
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