A 37-year-old murder cold case is drawing visitors to a rural Warren County town for a tour to honor the victim – but the tour is drawing a backlash from some community members.
The victim, a woman dubbed by investigators as “Princess Doe” was found on the outskirts of the Cedar Ridge Cemetery in Blairstown in 1982. A tour organized by the Blairstown Museum will honor the woman, according to organizers.
“Who she is, exactly what happened to her and why it happened to her, and who did it has been unknown for the past 37 years,” says Jeanette Iurato, who works at the museum. "If something like that would happen today, it would be equally as shocking."
The tour is scheduled to take place on July 15. It will feature a memorial trolley tour which will take 14 people to various locations where Princess Doe was seen before she died.
"From there we have a celebratory toast at Brook Hollow Winery in Knowlton and from there we will depart to arrive here [at her memorial],” says Iurato.
But an online petition is calling the tour distasteful and says that it is just a way for the museum to profit.
"If Princess Doe had been a claimed child no one would be doing this, but due to no one claiming her they think it's OK behavior. It’s deviant behavior, distasteful, gross, wrong on so many levels,” says Kristine Ceres, who organized the petition.
But Iurato says that the tour is a way to honor the victim and to honor the case which has been an integral part of the town for nearly 40 years.
More information about the case can be found at the Warren County Prosecutors Office’s
cold case website.