The Maine Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has officially identified a woman found dead at East End Beach in Portland in 2015 as Byung Ran Kim, a 66-year-old South Korean national whose last known address was in New York.
The breakthrough identification was announced more than a decade after Jane Doe’s body was discovered. Authorities confirmed the identity in May 2026 through international cooperation and advanced forensic techniques.
Over the years, investigators pursued multiple avenues to identify the woman. A facial sketch was created by Detective Sergeant Dan Reed of the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office. Her fingerprints and DNA were submitted to the FBI, and her DNA profile was entered into the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS). None of these efforts yielded a match.
Progress came when the DNA Doe Project took on the case and performed forensic genetic genealogy. Their analysis indicated that Jane Doe was likely of South Korean descent, though initial leads did not produce a name.
Detective Andjelko Napijalo of the Portland Police Department played a pivotal role in closing the case. He persistently reached out to South Korean authorities, who ultimately matched Jane Doe’s fingerprints against their national records. The prints were confirmed to belong to Byung Ran Kim. Family members in South Korea have been notified of her identification.
The case remains under review by the Portland Police Department and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
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