A Graduate Student Drove to a Delaware Forest to Study Native Plants. She Never Made It Out Alive

On Sept. 20, 1986, Maryland resident Jane Marie Prichard got in her Chevrolet Blazer and drove to a forest in Delaware to do some research for the master’s degree she was pursuing in botany.

Prichard, 28, a graduate student at the University of Maryland's College Park campus, lived in Clarksburg, Md., but had stayed at a friend’s house in Lewes, Del., waking up early to drive about an hour away to Blackbird State Forest in Smyrna.

At 7 a.m., she found just the right spot to start studying the native plants that were the focus of her thesis.

She had only been there for three hours when gunshots rang out, fatally striking her.

Two campers who were walking in the forest later that day came upon her body, according to a Cold Case Review from the New Castle Police Department.

She had been shot in the back and neck with a shotgun and died of blood loss, First State Update reported, citing police.

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Many hunters were in the area on the day she was killed but investigators ruled out an accidental shooting as the cause of death, police said, per the The News Journal.

According to the Cold Case Review, Pichard was last seen alive by a hunter shortly after 10 a.m., who provided detectives with specific descriptions of her clothing, vehicle and scientific equipment she had with her.

Since 1986, police have been trying to find her potential killer — described as "a Caucasian male, with a beard, approx. 5’09" to 5' 10," medium build, wearing a brown jacket, and blue jeans," per the Cold Case Review.

Anyone with information regarding this case is asked to contact the New Castle County Division of Police Criminal Investigations Unit at 302-395-8110 or email coldcase@newcastlede.gov. 

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