Cold case: Engraved ring helps identify buried teen

In February 2003, workers preparing the basement of a Manhattan building for demolition made a gruesome discovery: the skeleton of a teenage girl rolled up in carpet and buried in a concrete tomb.

The victim was hog-tied with an electrical cord. A gold signet ring engraved with the initials “PMcG”was found within her remains, along with a bra, a 1969 dime and a green plastic toy soldier, Det. Ryan Glas of the New York City Police Department told CNN.

For more than two decades, the unknown victim was nicknamed “Midtown Jane Doe” because she was found in the Hell’s Kitchen neighbourhood of New York City. But this week, investigators finally revealed her identity: Patricia Kathleen McGlone, a 16-year-old who lived in Brooklyn.

Investigators believe Patricia was killed in late 1969 or early 1970 and buried in the basement of the building. With advanced forensics, they determined her parents’ identity and where they lived in Brooklyn, and scoured through local public documents. Police found a treasure trove of information, including her baptism card and school records, giving investigators a glimpse into the final years of her life.

Numerous forensic tests linked her DNA to several people, including the mother of a woman killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in New York City, Glas said.

Construction workers found this monogrammed ring buried with the victim’s remains in February 2003. (NYPD via CNN Newsource)

She was buried under a nightclub that was popular in the 1960s

Construction workers in 2003 were hammering a concrete slab in the rear of the building when a skull rolled out, Glas said. They then unearthed the other skeletal remains nearby.

Decades earlier, around the time Patricia was believed to have been killed, the building housed a nightclub called The Scene, Glas said. The rock-and-roll venue, run by a young entrepreneur named Steve Paul, was a celebrity hotspot in the 1960s and hosted jam sessions by The Doors and Jimi Hendrix.

The New York City Medical Examiner’s Office determined in 2003 that the skeleton belonged to a teenage girl who stood 5-foot-2. But the case went cold because she was not reported missing, Glas said.

Investigators started reviewing the case again in 2017. Since the remains had been buried for so long and the bones were degraded, it took a while to create a suitable DNA profile. But with advancements in modern forensic technology, things started looking up last year, Glas said.

“It wasn’t for lack of trying, but there was a delay in trying to establish a profile,” Glas said. “In March of 2023, we had a sample suitable enough to upload to the public databases like ancestry and genealogy websites. And from that profile, we were able to match to a distant relative on her father’s side.”

With that relative’s name, and the initials on the ring, investigators knew they were on the right path, Glas said. Investigators then started trying to figure out what generation she was in, and her position in the family tree.

Along with genetic experts, they began tracking down her mother’s side of the family, and were able to narrow it down using DNA that had been submitted to help find a
relative who was killed in the Sept. 11 attacks, Glas said.

Construction workers found the remains wrapped in a carpet during a demolition project in February 2003. (NYPD via CNN Newsource)

Details emerged about her life as a young mother

With that information, they established she was an only child and was born on April 20, 1953, to Bernard McGlone and Patricia Gilligan.

Her parents are deceased, but investigators found documentation showing benefits she was receiving from her father, who died in 1963. Her parents’ documents revealed that she grew up in Brooklyn and that she had attended a Catholic school.

“We assumed at the time that she had to have been baptized, she had to receive communion and then ultimately, hopefully received confirmation. I was able to obtain all three documents,” Glas said.

Investigators also gained access to her middle school records and got more details about her life at the time. Her records showed she attended middle school in
late 1968 and early 1969, but missed a majority of her classes.

“With the information on her age and her being Catholic, her being married at such a young age, which wasn’t out of the ordinary back then, we suspected that toy soldier had something to do with her possibly being pregnant at that time,” Glas said.

At the time of her death, she was considered a runaway and may have given her child up for adoption, Glas said.

But the search for the child has been complicated by the fact that back then, when a child was adopted or surrendered, the birth certificate issued had the name of the adoptive parents and not the birth parents, Glas said.

Her husband was connected to the building where she was found, Glas said, but declined to provide additional information, citing an ongoing investigation. Police have identified her husband and are trying to get more details on his life at the time, Glas said.

Glas now hopes Patricia’s relatives will come forward and provide information that may help investigators determine what happened to her, or how she died.

“Anything they remember from the time frame back then, anybody who lived in the building, anyone who can give us some more background on her or this person she married was to … any sort of information that we can follow up on,” Glas said.

“I am a father of three daughters, so I can only imagine what type of childhood she had back then to where she ended up being murdered.”

With Patricia’s identity finally known, Glas said, police have a clear-cut next step: Finding out who killed her.

Investigators and genetic experts worked for years to determine the teen’s identity, NYPD Detective Ryan Glas said. (NYPD via CNN Newsource)