Julie Doe (Pamela Leigh Walton)

Case background and investigation

On September 25, 1988, a person searching for cypress wood discovered human remains about 30 feet off County Road 474 in the Green Swamp near Clermont, Florida, close to the Lake–Polk county line. The decedent, believed to have been dead for two to four weeks, wore a bluish-green tank top and an acid-washed denim skirt with partially removed pantyhose; investigators considered the possibility of a sexual assault. No identification, shoes, or jewelry were found. An examination associated with the C.A. Pound Human Identification Laboratory in Gainesville described a person 5'9" to 5'11" tall and roughly 150 to 180 pounds, with long strawberry-blonde hair, manicured fingernails, 250cc silicone breast implants, evidence of rhinoplasty, and healed fractures to the toes, a cheekbone, a rib, and possibly the nose. Because of decomposition, the cause of death could not be determined, but investigators treated the case as a suspected homicide.

For decades the decedent was assumed to be a cisgender woman; pelvic changes were initially attributed to childbirth. In 2015, DNA testing revealed XY chromosomes, showing that the victim was a transgender woman whose pelvic changes were consistent with hormone replacement therapy. Investigators commissioned a new forensic sketch and the case became widely known by the nickname "Julie Doe." In 2018, isotopic testing performed through the University of South Florida suggested she had lived in southern Florida before her death.

In 2019, the Lake County Sheriff's Office, with the support of District 5 and 24 Medical Examiner Dr. Barbara Wolf, partnered with the DNA Doe Project to apply investigative genetic genealogy. The Trans Doe Task Force's founders also worked on the case for years before shifting to their organization's broader mission. Degraded DNA posed a major obstacle: multiple extraction attempts failed before a fourth laboratory succeeded in January 2020, with the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification handling extraction and HudsonAlpha Discovery completing whole-genome sequencing. In 2024, the DNA Doe Project announced ancestral ties to central Kentucky, including Madison, Fayette, Garrard, and Mercer counties. Because the victim had been adopted as a young child, nearly 50 volunteers spent about five years untangling the family tree.

On March 10, 2025, the Lake County Sheriff's Office announced that DNA comparisons with relatives had identified Julie Doe as Pamela Leigh Walton, born May 13, 1963, in Kentucky. According to investigators, she was adopted as a young child and given the name Lee Allen Walton, later changing her name to Pamela Leigh Walton as she transitioned. Family estrangement in the mid-1980s meant no missing person report was ever filed. Her last confirmed record was an arrest on July 6, 1988, in Lexington, Kentucky, on a solicitation charge that was dropped; how she traveled to Florida in the weeks before her death is unknown.

Walton's suspected murder remains unsolved, and the manner of her death is officially undetermined. Detective Zachary Williams of the Lake County Sheriff's Office has said the investigation into the circumstances of her death is ongoing, and investigators hope the identification will prompt witnesses who knew Walton in Kentucky or Florida in 1988 to come forward. The case is frequently cited by the Trans Doe Task Force in advocating for identification protocols that respect the lived identities of transgender decedents.