Bambi Lynn Dick
Bambi Lynn Dick
17 YOA
Davenport, IA
Scott County
September 29, 1983 (disappeared)
Potter County, Texas
October 8, 1983 (Jane Doe found)
University of North Texas
March 26, 2009 (DNA match made)
Thursday, September 29, 1983 in Davenport was a moderate fall day with rain in the early morning. Clouds continued into the evening, but nothing could dampen the spirits of 17-year-old Bambi Lynn Dick as she left for a Quiet Riot and Axe concert at the Col Auditorium.
The 5’6”, 120-pound Davenport West High School senior was a beautiful and happy young woman, full of life. Her shoulder-length hair was light brown and she wore blue contacts over her hazel eyes.
That night, she had on her Britannia jeans, the ones she loved because they perfectly fit her slender figure. And, as always, on her fingers she had a gold diamond friendship ring, a wedding band wrapped with a Band-Aid to fit her finger, and a garnet January birthstone set in gold.
The last place Bambi Dick was seen: The Col Auditorium in Davenport
The concert ended, but Bambi didn’t come home.
Immediately knowing something was wrong, Bambi’s family filed a missing person report with Davenport Police that described her physical characteristics: a third nipple under her right breast, a burn scar on her arm, and double-pierced ears.
Her parents, Evelyn and Edward Dick, told police about a boyfriend, the rock concert, and Bambi’s being seen getting into a car. They said she never mentioned running away.
On January 6, 1984, when Bambi’s 18th birthday arrived, she was removed from the missing persons bulletins.
Her family never gave up hope of finding her. They hired a private investigator without results. As technology advanced, they searched internet databases of unknown victims, hoping for a match.
The hours and the days and then the years ticked away. Still no word of Bambi.
On October 8, 1983, a biker found a partially-clad female body in the culvert of a ditch along U.S. Highway 287 in Potter County 18 miles north of Amarillo, Texas. The woman, who had no identification, was strangled from behind 24 to 30 hours before. There were no drugs or alcohol in her system and she was not sexually assaulted.
She wore size 5 Britannia jeans, a white bra, pink panties with “Thursday” stitched in red, and white socks. She had three rings on her well-manicured hands, one with a garnet stone.
Amarillo authorities carefully cataloged the young woman’s characteristics. She was between 16 and 30, stood about 5-feet-7, weighed between 100 and 140 pounds, and had shoulder-length, light-brown hair. Her eyes appeared to be blue until contact lenses were removed to reveal them as hazel.
She had a scar on her left arm, a gap between her upper front teeth, double-pierced ears, and a third nipple below her right breast.
This sketch of the Texas victim was circulated around the country.
Sgt. Modenia Holmes of the Potter County Special Crimes Unit worked the case. He kept the woman’s clothes and jewelry and determined the prescription of her contacts and sent letters to optometrists. Hoping to match her description, he searched missing persons databases and circulated a sketch based on a photograph throughout the country.
And, never imagining that someday advanced technology would permit it to become a key factor, he kept material containing her DNA.
Without knowing who she was, police had little option but to bury the young woman. Funeral services were held and a video tape was made in case her family was located.
Schooler-Gordon Funeral Home, operated by Maurice Schooler, paid for the funeral and donated the burial plot. She was buried in donated clothes and someone paid for a stone over a grave in Memory Gardens Cemetery that bore the inscription “Jane Doe.”
In early 2009, Bambi’s brother Paul Dick posted his sister’s photograph and physical description on the North American Missing Persons Network.
On February 13, 2009, Teresa Sprague of Victorville, California — who runs a missing persons website for her state — saw Paul Dick’s post and Bambi’s photograph and contacted Amarillo authorities about a possible match to their Jane Doe.
Lt. Gary Trupe of the Potter-Randall Special Crimes Unit worked the case from there.
Lt. Trupe contacted Bambi’s family in Davenport and obtained her parents’ DNA. That material and the samples preserved from Jane Doe were submitted to the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification. On March 26, 2009, a mitochondrial match was made.
Jane Doe was Bambi Lynn Dick.
The stone for Bambi which replaced the one which had been on Jane Doe's grave (photo courtesy of the Amarillo Globe-News)
In September 2009, Bambi’s brothers and a nephew attended a service in Amarillo to dedicate a new stone, containing Bambi’s photograph, to replace Jane Doe’s. Pleased that the Amarillo community had adopted Bambi and had taken such good care of her, Bambi’s family decided to leave her body buried where it had rested for 26 years.
Jurisdictions in both Iowa and Texas are now working to find who murdered Bambi Dick in 1983 and left her body in a ditch.
If you have any information about the unsolved murder of Bambi Dick, please contact the Davenport Police at 319-286-5375, Lt. Gary Trupe, Coordinator of the Amarillo/Potter/Randall Special Crimes Unit at 806-378-4268, the Scott County Sheriff’s Office at 563-326-8625, or Iowa Cold Cases through the Contact form.
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