Jane Doe's identity still unknown

Tuesday, November 1, 2005

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For three weeks, a woman has been recovering at St. Joseph's Hospital in Tampa after getting hit by a car.

She claims she doesn't know who she is and officials at St. Joseph's want to find out if she has family in the area.

When an ambulance pulled up to the hospital the morning of Oct. 6, doctors thought they had another case of a woman hit by a car. But Joe Durkin, spokesperson for the Tampa Police Department, said she suffered head lacerations and possibly a broken ankle, but no life-threatening injuries.

The woman claims she can't remember the accident or who she is.

"Apparently she's given a couple different names in somewhat of a confused state," Durkin said.

Part of the problem for the hospital is there's no way to know if she really is suffering from amnesia. There's no test. But if her story is true, there's no telling how long she could go without knowing the details of her life.

Dr. Julia Gill explained the condition.

"It can be temporary, it can be permanent, and it can be brought on by many different things, from an illness to a head injury," Gill said. "Sometimes it's not known what the precipitating factor is. But it can even be stress."

The woman initially told police at the scene her name was Renee Williams. But she has since given the hospital other names and traditional methods such as fingerprints have not helped identify her.

"I'm sure there's family out there somewhere that's concerned about her," Durkin said. "They can contact us or St. Joe's Hospital and help this woman get her feet back on the ground and get her life back on track."

The hospital can't release many more details about Jane Doe for privacy reasons. But they wanted to get her picture and description out in hopes somebody might know who she is.