LEAGUE CITY — More than 27 years have passed since anyone saw Donna Prudhomme alive.

Dubbed “Janet Doe” by the Galveston County Medical Examiner’s Office, it took almost three decades, some determined detectives and the help of technology to identify Prudhomme, a Port Arthur native who lived in this area and in Beaumont at one time.

There are a lot of missing pieces in her story and it all goes back to what the League City Police Department call the Calder Road Victims.

 

History of the Calder Road homicide victims— Source: League City PD

• On April 6, 1984, the remains of Heidi Fye, 25, were discovered after a family’s dog brought partial skeletal remains to its home in the 1300 block of Ervin Street in League City. A search was conducted of the wooded area between Ervin Street and Calder Road and the rest of the remains were located and identified.
• Feb. 2, 1986, two male juveniles were riding bikes in a field off Calder Road when they found the remains of two female victims in close proximity to each other. Detectives worked with the Galveston County Medical Examiner’s Office in an attempt to identify victims. They were unable to identify the first victim and she was given the name “Jane Doe” by the Medical Examiner’s Office. A short time after, the second victim was identified by dental records as Laura Miller.
• On Sept. 8, 1991, the body of a female victim was discovered by two people riding horses in a field near Calder Road. Again, detectives worked with the Galveston County Medical Examiner’s Office in an attempt to identify the victim. After a thorough investigation, detectives were unable to identify the victim, and the Medical Examiner’s Office gave her the name “Janet Doe.”

Police with the department have worked through the years to identify Jane and Janet Doe and solve their cases. And over the years there have been several attempts to produce an accurate representation of what they looked like at the time of their death, according to LCPD.

Then came a breakthrough of sorts. Cold Case detectives learned of Parabon Nano Labs that uses the victims’ DNA to create a representation of what they looked like and the DNA extraction process was started.

“The skulls of the victims were taken to Dr. Wescott at Texas State University, and 3D composites were printed to assist with the “Snapshot” from “Parabon Nano Labs.” Jane Doe’s Snapshot Phenotyping results were completed in May 2016, and Janet Doe’s Snapshot Phenotyping results were completed in May 2017,” according to a press release from LCPD.

More work as needed and in April 2018 detectives started on the genetic genealogy of Jane and Janet Doe with GEDmatc .

“After months of constructing family trees, FBI Agent Richard Rennison offered his assistance through the use of Family Tree DNA (FTDNA) to compare the DNA profiles of our victims against the FTDNA database,” according to LCPD. “Through this process, detectives were able to identify and locate living family members from both victims. DNA samples were collected from the son and sister of Janet Doe, and agents from the FBI coordinated the collection from the family members of Jane Doe who were out of state.”

 

Janet Doe has been identified as Donna Prudhomme.

• She was born on April 23, 1957, in Port Arthur
• She lived in the Beaumont/Port Arthur, Texas area from 1982 to 1985
• Around 1986, she moved to Austin
• Around 1988, she moved to the Seabrook, Texas area where she lived in several different apartment complexes
• In 1991, she lived in Nassau Bay, Texas
• Police have no information about her employment
• It is believed that she was a frequent patron of several of the local bars around Nasa Road 1 in Seabrook,
• She was last seen in July 1991
• She is estimated to have been 34 years of age at the time of her death.

 

LCPD Det. Recie Tisdale there is an area from Galveston to Houston along I-45 nicknamed the Killing Fields but police prefer to call these four the Calder Road killings. It is unknown if one person killed all four women or not.

Police still have Prudhomme’s remains and plan to hand them over to her family.

“Most every detective here over the years has worked on these cases,” Tisdale said, adding that last year the Cold Case division was formed with Tisdale, Det. Gina Gonzales and Lt. Mike Buffington.

No official missing person’s report was filed in Prudhomme’s case, Tisdale said. Her sister had either inquired or intended to make a report but none was ever made.

Though she and Jane Doe/Audrey Lee Cook have been identified police still need to find their killer or killers.

• She was born on Nov. 25, 1955, in Memphis, Tennessee
• She lived in the Houston/Channelview area between the years of 1976 to 1985
• She worked as a mechanic for a golf cart company in Houston in 1979
• She worked for Harrison Equipment Co. in Houston in 1980
• She worked for Balloon Affair in Houston in 1981
• At some point, she worked as a mechanic for National Rent-A-Car in Houston
• The last contact with family members was in December 1985
• Associates advised that she sold and used cocaine
• She is estimated to have been 30 years of age at the time of her death.

Police are hoping someone remembers these women, saying they are hoping to piece their lives together, which is ultimately why they had a recent news conference.

Persons with information about either Donna Prudhomme or Audrey Lee Cook are asked to call 281-338-4189 or the League City Police Department Cold Case tip line at 281-338-8220.