Chelmsford Police Use Social Media To Help Solve Arizona Cold Case

Contribted photo: This image pictures Brenda Gerow, whose identty was unknown until very recently.

A longstanding mystery surrounding the identity of a woman whose body was found in Arizona more than 30 years ago has been solved thanks in part to the Chelmsford Police Department and social media.

According to Chelmsford Police Chief James Spinney, the department was contacted in December 2014 and asked by the Pima County (Ariz.) Sheriff’s Department to circulate a photo of a Jane Doe whose body was found in Arizona in 1981.

The photo of the woman, later determined to be Brenda Gerow, was found on John Kalhauser, a convicted killer who at one time lived in Tyngsboro. Kalhauser was arrested in 1995 for a murder charge out of Lowell. Gerow lived in Nashua, N.H., before she moved to Arizona with Kalhauser.

Because Kalhauser had ties to the area, Pima County Sheriff’s Department contacted Chelmsford Police in hopes that someone could identify the woman, at the time unknown to them, in the photo.

One of Gerow’s family members saw her photo after Chelmsford police posted it on Twitter and Facebook. That person contacted the Pima County Sheriff’s Department.

The Pima County Sheriff’s Office announced the Jane Doe was in fact Gerow on Sept. 28. The department also announced that Kalhauser is a person of interest in her death.