For nearly 46 years a young woman found in a wooded area off Riverside Drive, north of Arkwright Road in Macon, Georgia, was listed only as Macon Jane Doe. Partial skeletal remains recovered in 1977 were unidentified until investigators revisited the case after new information emerged.

Samuel Little, who confessed to many murders before his 2020 death, told investigators in 2018 he had killed an unidentified woman in Macon in 1977. His statements matched details of the Macon Jane Doe case, and investigators later used forensic genetic genealogy in 2022 to build a DNA profile from the remains. That work led to relatives and to the victim’s family, who were notified that the woman was Yvonne Pless, about 20 years old at the time of her death.

Samuel Little died in prison at age 80; he had been convicted of eight murders and linked to many more. The identification finally returned a name to a long-unsolved death. If anyone knew Yvonne Pless or has information about her life before 1977, please share what is known.