National Missing and Unidentified Persons System<\/a> (NamUs).<\/p>\nLast month, Las Vegas police alerted CPS detectives that a match had been found.<\/p>\n
Connection to gaming union leader<\/p>\n
Just worked as a stenographer and lived in Calgary\u2019s southwest neighbourhood of Richmond, according to local newspaper articles from the time of her disappearance.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On March 6, 1968, the Calgary Herald reported several of Just\u2019s belongings were found outside of Las Vegas. Three hikers spotted a purse handle sticking out of the ground. It contained a plane ticket, a passport and some human hair. Other personal effects were found close by, including clothing and a bloodstained cloth.<\/p>\n
Las Vegas homicide detectives also uncovered the skeleton of a woman more than 100 kilometres outside of the city, but after comparing it to medical files of Just, concluded it was not her.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t have any new leads to go on but still have a lot of legwork to do,\u201d Las Vegas police Lt. Glenn Simmons told the Herald at the time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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This March 6, 1968, article from the Calgary Herald reports Las Vegas police found human remains 100 kilometres outside of the city, but the Clark County coroner’s office determined they did not belong to Just. (Newspapers.com)<\/p>\n
Police at the time also discovered Just was an acquaintance of Thomas Hanley, head of the American Federation of Casino and Gaming Employees and a suspected mobster.<\/p>\n
It was alleged Just had gone to Hanley for money, and that he had his associates drive her to the desert and murder her, but those allegations were never proven. <\/p>\n
Hanley died in 1979 while in federal custody for another murder.<\/p>\n
The case remained cold until 1970, when a group of kids playing in the desert found human remains in a shallow grave less than two kilometres from where Just\u2019s belongings were originally unearthed.<\/p>\n
Limitations in technology, however, meant the remains could not be identified.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn’t know who she was,\u201d said Las Vegas homicide detective Jarrod Grimmett. \u201cShe was listed as Jane #2 Doe.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Jarrod Grimmett, a homicide detective with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, said Anna Just’s remains were labelled as ‘Jane #2 Doe’ for decades, until they matched with DNA the CPS uploaded to an online database. (National Missing and Unidentified Persons System)<\/p>\n
It was not until 2010, Grimmett said, that they were able to submit the unidentified remains for DNA testing, where they sat unclaimed in an online database until the CPS uploaded the DNA of Just\u2019s sister.<\/p>\n
Grimmett said the most recent investigation shows there was \u201cdefinitely a connection\u201d between Just and Hanley, although no evidence suggests they had an ongoing personal relationship.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a dispute, we believe, that happened between the two of them, and we do have reliable information through the investigation that suggests that Mr. Hanley and his associates were responsible for Anna’s death,\u201d Grimmett said in an interview with CBC News.<\/p>\n
Put to rest<\/p>\n
Gregson said although the investigation took decades to complete, he is proud they were finally able to provide Just\u2019s sister with some closure.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen members from the team go to speak to her sister, one of the first things she says to them is: \u2018Are you here because of Sylvia?\u2019\u201d Gregson said. \u201cRight inside the front door is a picture of her sister, so that kind of thing \u2014 that’s what drives our investigators.\u201d<\/p>\n
Grimmett echoed that sentiment, adding that Las Vegas police were able to send her a photo of Just\u2019s resting place.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat’s all she ever asked for is \u2018Where is my sister lying? Where is she resting right now?\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cNow we’re able to remove that Jane #2 Doe from her headstone and actually give her a name.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 5 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":280544,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-280543","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280543\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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<\/p>\n