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Albuquerque cold case featured on 'America's Most Wanted'

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"America's Most Wanted" features the Albuquerque case "Mystery in the Desert," at 8 p.m. Saturday on KASA-Channel 2.

Albuquerque native and show producer Jenna Naranjo's "Behind the Scenes" account of filming the show in her hometown can be found at amw.com under "Features."

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A woman found buried near Nine Mile Hill more than seven years ago has been known only as Jane Doe or "Boots," a reference to the black ones she wore that jutted from the sand and alerted two hikers to her shallow grave.

Perhaps with Saturday's airing of a segment on "America's Most Wanted," authorities will finally learn her real name.

A film crew from the popular Fox TV crime-fighting show traveled to Albuquerque in October to shoot scenes for the segment, titled "Mystery in the Desert."

Among those interviewed for the segment are Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White and sheriff's Detective Bill Peters of the Cold Case Unit.

It was Peters, who is investigating the case, who contacted "America's Most Wanted" about the missing woman, segment producer Jenna Naranjo said.

The show typically doesn't feature unidentified persons, but Naranjo said this case was irresistible.

"We feel really good about this case," Naranjo said. "There are so many clues here. I really hope someone out there recognizes something."

Hikers spotted the woman's boots March 4, 2000, south of I-40 and west of Albuquerque. An autopsy report indicated that she had been shot in the chest and had been buried for about 10 days, long enough to render her decomposed face unidentifiable.

Peters told the show that he believes she was shot with a black-powder rifle, favored by some hunters and history buffs.

She bore crude tattoos: the name "Sunny" in cursive on her right thigh and a small marijuana leaf with the number "13" on her left shoulder.

Peters and a tattoo artist interviewed for the show said 13 often stands for the letter "M," the 13th letter in the alphabet.

"M," they said, is often associated with the mafia, Mexican mafia and marijuana.

Peters also speculates that the woman may have been associated with a motorcycle gang.

The autopsy report indicates that the woman had undergone an appendectomy and a hysterectomy, and her gallbladder had been removed.

Her toenails, save for the ones on her big toes, were gone.

She was dressed in black jeans, white Western-cut shirt, suede vest and the black cowboy boots.

She was 45 to 55 years old, 5-foot-3 and 153 pounds, with blond hair and brown eyes.

She had 18 cents in a pocket and a trace of trazodone, an antidepressant, in her bloodstream.

A cane with the initials "RK" scratched on it and a set of CDs with the name "Sandy" written on two of them were found near the body.

But even with all those clues, Peters has not been able to uncover the woman's identity, who shot her or why she was shot.

No one has come forward to identify the woman, nor has anyone reported a woman matching her description as missing.

Saturday's show also features an accompanying "Behind the Scenes" segment on the show's Web site as Naranjo, a graduate of the University of New Mexico, takes viewers on a tour of Albuquerque and what it took to film the story of "Boots."