Missing Woman Fast To Go Public When Detective Contacted Her, She Regretted Sheriff’s Ordeal

The detective who found Jody Roberts told her that if she wanted, he would tell authorities and her family only that she was alive - and keep her whereabouts a secret.

“We’ve got to do something now,” King County Police Detective Tom Jensen quoted Roberts as saying when he first talked with her by phone July 15 at her home in Sitka, Alaska. “No point in waiting.”

Roberts was a reporter for The News Tribune of Tacoma when she disappeared in May 1985. Now 39, she says she is a victim of profound amnesia with no recollection of the first 27 years of her life. She renamed herself Jane Dee while living in Colorado. In 1989, she moved to Alaska, where she now lives with husband Dan Williams and their four young daughters.

The long-dormant missing person case - reopened this year and reclassified as a homicide - was originally handled by the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department.

It was transferred to King County to eliminate the perception of a possible conflict of interest involving newly confirmed Pierce County Sheriff Mark French. Pierce County investigators were looking into a fired deputy’s uncorroborated allegation that French had threatened Roberts before she disappeared.

In that first conversation with Roberts, Jensen said, she was “specifically concerned about Mark French and the ordeal he was going through.”

The trail that led to Roberts began with a tip from Madelyn Wright of Seattle, who had worked with her as a waitress in Skagway, Alaska, in 1989.

Wright said Thursday she saw Roberts’ photo while watching a news show on cable television.

“The minute I saw her, I knew,” Wright said. “I was so nervous. I didn’t know what the heck to do.”

The next morning - authorities say it was June 26 or 27 - she called the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department. Investigators there took no action. Almost two weeks later, King County Police followed up on her tip.

Wright said she called King County Police on July 7 not because she thought she was being ignored by Pierce County, but because she had learned the case had been transferred.

Jensen tracked Roberts down by talking to the hotel chain that employed her and Wright in Skagway. They gave him enough information so he could go to Alaskan authorities and ask to see Roberts’ driver’s license.

The photo on the license matched two pictures Wright had of her former co-worker and photos of Roberts before her disappearance.

Additionally, Jensen said, the distinctive way the letter “J” was signed in the name “Jane” on the license matched the way Roberts made the letter “J” when she signed her name Jody.

Unable to reach Roberts by phone, Jensen called a neighbor and asked her to have Roberts call him.

Roberts called within five minutes. She got on the Internet and read News Tribune stories about her case when Jensen broke the news.

After learning of her past, Roberts spoke with her family in Lake Oswego, Ore. She was reunited with her mother and father Tuesday in Sitka.