New Hampshire woman Brenda Gerow identified as Arizona cold case victim

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In 1981, off-roaders found the body of a woman near the Pima County Fairgrounds and the victim's identity remained a mystery for years
A break in the case came in 2012, when detectives found a picture of an unknown woman in the possessions of a convicted killer John Kalhauser
They exhumed Jane Doe's body and used facial reconstruction technoology to match the remains to the woman in the photo
She was then identified by people who knew her in her hometown of Nashua, New Hampshire
Pima County authorities say Kalhauser is a person of interst in the murder, and they continue to build their case

By Dailymail.com Reporter and Associated Press

Published: 06:26 EST, 30 September 2015 | Updated: 14:43 EST, 30 September 2015

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A weathered picture and state-of-the-art forensics technology may have solved the 34-year-old cold case of a woman who was brutally murdered in Arizona in 1981.

Authorities in Tucson say Brenda Gerow, of Nashua, New Hampshire, was the woman whose body was found dumped near the Pima County Fairgrounds more than three decades ago.

Pima County Detective Mark O'Dell says Gerow was sexually assaulted and suffered a 'very violent death.'

He helped exhume her body in 2012 so investigators could use her skull to reconstruct her face and that's when detectives noticed an uncanny resemblance to the picture of a mystery woman found in the collections of a convicted killer.

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The Jane Doe in a 34-year-old cold case murder has been identified as Brenda Gerow, a woman from Nashua, New Hampshire. On the left, a sketch of the victim from facial reconstruction of her remains. On the right, a picture of Gerow

John Kalhauser, a 61-year-old man currently serving time for killing his wife Diane Van Reeth, is considered a person of interest in Gerow's 1981 murder

Pima County Sheriff's detectives found this picture - now identified as Gerow - in Kalhauser's belongings when he was being investigated for Van Reeth's murder

John Kalhauser, a man who is currently serving time for the murder of his estranged wife Diane Van Reeth, is now being called a person of interest in Gerow's murder.

Authorities say Gerow left Nashua with Kalhauser, when she was about 20 years old, and the two ended up in Arizona.

When he was convicted of killing his wife 15 years after Gerow's disappearance, Kalhauser refused to identify the blonde woman holding a posy of flowers in a picture that police confiscated during their investigation.

They were able to match the remains of the Jane Doe found near an Arizona fairgrounds in 1981 thanks to facial reconstruction technology, a process that was done in 2012

Above, Pima County Sheriff's Deputies exhuming the body of the Jane Doe in 2012

Kalhauser's (left) wife Diane Van Reeth (right) went missing in 1995, and four years later he was sent to prison after pleading no contest to second degree murder. He has been considered her murderer even though Van Reeth's remains have never been found

In 2012, with an inkling that the woman might be the Jane Doe who was found near the fairgrounds by off-roaders, O'Dell of the Pima County Sheriff's Department exhumed the body and conducted a racial reconstruction which confirmed that the remains were likely that of the woman in the picture.

Detectives then started circulating the image to police departments in New England and someone there was able to identify the woman as Gerow.

Police say they continue to build a case against Kalhauser, now 61, and that Gerow's remains have been released to her family.

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