Stillwater Girl ID’d As Victim Of 1980 Murder In Texas

STILLWATER, MN — A 14-year-old girl from Stillwater was identified Tuesday as the victim of a murder 41 years ago in Texas.

Sherri Ann Jarvis’ body was found Nov. 1, 1980, on the side of a road in Huntsville, Texas, the Walker County Sheriff’s Office announced Tuesday. Police said she was sexually assaulted and strangled after arriving in the area the day before.

The victim in the 41-year-old murder case was known as the “Walker County Jane Doe” until Sherri was identified Tuesday, KAGS reports.

Minnesota officials removed Sherri from her Stillwater home due to habitual truancy before she ran away and never returned, the report states.

KAGS reports that little is known about how Sherri made it to Texas, while records from Minnesota are no longer accessible.

Walker County Sheriff Clint McRae said Tuesday that his office never gave up on identifying the “Walker County Jane Doe” despite many setbacks.

“I never liked to refer to this case as a cold case,” he said. “It has always been a top priority of our department. We loved her as well.”

In July 2020 — almost four decades after Sherri’s body was found — Walker County detectives started working with Othram, a forensics sequencing lab, to perform “investigative genealogy.”

By March 2021, Othram had created a family tree that identified six potential family members of the victim using her DNA, McRae said.

Detectives found information on five family members and learned that the sixth was a 14-year-old girl who ran away from home in 1980, McRae said. Sherri’s identity was later confirmed by the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences using DNA from her family.

A Walker County deputy on Tuesday read a statement from Sherri’s family, in which they thanked investigators and said they “take a measure of comfort in knowing that she has been identified and where she is located.”

“We lost Sherri more than 41 years ago, and we've lived in bewilderment every day since, until now, as she has finally been found,” the family said in the statement.

Sherri “loved children, animals and horseback riding,” her family said, adding that they hired a private investigator to find her after she was removed from their home at the “tender” age of 13, but their search was unsuccessful.

"Our parents passed away never knowing what happened to her or having any form of closure, but we are grateful that they never had to endure the pain of knowing her death was so brutal,” her family said.

Sherri’s family said they “will continue to support those seeking her killer(s) because she did not deserve the death she received.”

“Justice served to those who would commit such a heinous act would be fitting tribute to Sherri,” her family said in the statement.

Walker County District Attorney Will Durham said he remembers learning about the murder in 1980 when he was a child and pledged to continue seeking Sherri’s killer.

“If they are alive, they’ll be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” he said.