Body of ‘Julie Doe’ finally identified as transgender woman Pamela Leigh Walton after 37 years

Mar 11
Written by Chantelle Billson

Pamela Leigh Walton’s body, which was found in 1988, has been identified. (DNA Doe Project)

The body of a woman, previously known as Julie Doe, and found in Florida in 1988, has been identified as that of trans woman Pamela Leigh Walton.

According to the Lake County sheriff’s office, Walton’s body was found on 25 September 1988, in a wooded area of Clermont, near Orlando.

She had been dead for between two and four weeks, and, until 2015, was thought to be a cisgender woman. However, authorities later found that she was a transgender woman, with breast implants, who may have been undergoing hormone therapy.

A Facebook post by police revealed that the case was evaluated by the DNA Doe Project, “a non-profit organisation that utilises investigative genetic genealogy to identify unidentified remains”.

Years of work led genealogists to identify relatives of Walton, who was born in Kentucky and adopted at the age of five.

The cause of death remains undetermined, and the police are continuing to investigate. The DNA Doe Project said Walton was discovered with “healed fractures of her cheekbone and nose, along with a rib”.

‘The community wasn’t willing to respect her’

Pam Lauritzen, the executive director of media and communications at the DNA Doe Project, said: “Pamela’s story includes many common themes that trans people face. From derogatory notations left in high school yearbooks about her to a headstone pre-carved with her former male name, it’s heart-breaking to know that the community was not willing to accept her and the identity she chose.”

Last year, a “sobering” report from the Trans Murder Monitoring project, published to coincide with Trans Day of Remembrance, revealed that more than 350 transgender and gender-diverse people were killed between 1 October 2023 and 30 September 2024, up from 321 the previous year.