MARION – On June 4, 2019, Marion County (Ohio) Sheriff Tim Bailey announced that a Jane Doe victim found deceased on March 10, 2007 on Victory Rd. in Marion has now been identified as Dana Nicole Lowrey, who was 23 years old when she went missing in May 2006. Lowrey was originally from Minden, Louisiana and travelled the United States selling magazines. She was last known alive in northern Ohio in May 2006. Lowrey was recently identified as the victim via DNA testing. DNA standards were submitted to the DNA Doe Project by the Marion County Sheriff’s Office in March 2019. By May 2019, this organization utilized genetic genealogy to develop a potential identity for the Jane Doe. DNA was collected from family members, and Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) lab confirmed the match.
In 2016, serial killer Shawn Grate admitted to law enforcement that he was responsible for the death of the Jane Doe located in Marion County in 2007. He gave the information that her first name was either Dana or Diana and that she had sold his mother magazines. When she failed to deliver them, he got upset. He then picked her up telling her he wanted to buy some magazines, took her to his home, and murdered her. Grate has confessed to killing 5 women and has been sentenced to death.
