A woman known only to police as Jane Doe No. 89-3, found dead almost 23 years ago in Pacifica and never identified, was exhumed yesterday from her anonymous grave in Colma so her remains could be sent for DNA testing at a lab in Richmond. She's been referred to by investigators as 'Betty Boop' because of a t-shirt she was wearing when she died. All that is known is that she was a 25- to 30-year-old African American female, and she had been dead for a while when her remains were discovered, under a floral bedspread, among some trees behind 901 Oceana Blvd. in Pacifica on March 22, 1989.

As the Tribune reports:

The woman's genetics will go into a state Department of Justice database that holds information on thousands of missing and unidentified people. The presence of her data will only help close the case if someone both reported her missing and provided a comparison DNA sample from a family member. Without the latter, there can be no match.

So far, a program called The Missing Persons DNA Program has managed to identify over 350 John and Jane Does, including seven in San Mateo County. The exhumation of 'Betty Boop' was put in motion in part because of a 2000 California law requiring all coroners to collect DNA from unidentified bodies. Identifying 'Betty' has become a personal mission of sorts for deputy San Mateo coroner Tully Vogt. She herself was waist-deep in the grave yesterday collecting bone material.