Maria, or the Pyre Case

In this episode, we shine light on the story of an unidentified woman found in Gilpin County, Colorado in 1952. She is sometimes referred to as Maria, but, more often than not, she is known as the Pyre Case because her body was set on fire.

Discovery

On September 30, 1952, 31-year-old Charles Damoth stopped at Cottonwood Gulch just outside of Black Hawk, Colorado to shoot magpies. While there, he discovered the remains of an unidentified woman. Her body was badly burnt and lay beneath a log. 

Because her body was so badly burned, very little of her remains were found. Also at the scene were a collection of items believed to belong to her such as a small electric razor and a rhinestone necklace and earrings. Though the sheriff’s office is unable to determine what was her specific cause of death, she had been hit in the head causing fractures and had been burned using an accelerant, likely gasoline.

Suspect
Unsurprisingly, Damoth became a primary suspect in her murder. Before reporting his discovery to police, he admitted to going to the scene several times to view the remains. He also admitted that he had cut down the log she was found under on a previous visit to the location several months before.

This led to several rounds of questioning including the administration of a polygraph test. The results were inconclusive. Not long after, Damoth and his family moved back to Michigan, where he was originally from.

Several months after the discovery of the woman’s body, a woman came forward to say that she had seen Damoth’s truck in the Cottonwood Gulch area around the time the woman was likely murdered. This spurred the new DA to go to Michigan himself to question Damoth. There, Damoth underwent another polygraph. The results were, once again, inconclusive. He was transported to Colorado where he was given another polygraph with the same results. After, he was given “truth serum” and questioned for six hours. Once this was done, the DA was satisfied that Damoth could leave the state.

More Evidence
Not long after the woman’s body was found, a woman named Mrs. Frank Heitman searched the area in Cottonwood Gulch. She was able to find what appeared to be the murder weapon: a large stick covered in blood. She also found a single unburned earring and a burned piece of leather.

Mrs. Heitman was a bit of an amateur sleuth, having played a pivotal role in the collection of evidence after the murder of Theresa Foster, a college student who had been murdered near Boulder. Mrs. Heitman, her daughter, and son-in-law had found a bloody parka that had been wedged in a culvert in that case.

Early Identification Attempts
A man named Jack Turner who ran a store called the Trading Post said that a couple had come into his store and argued about purchases. They left a wallet behind. He says that he recognized the jewelry that was found with the woman’s body as the ones he sold to the couple. 

This wallet had a charge book or possibly slip receipt that was linked to a supply store in Bethany, Missouri. No woman was missing from that area of Bethany so it is believed that this individual may have been passing through.

Meanwhile, the Denver Police made a clay bust indicating what she might look like. This is where she’s given the name Maria as a “Doe” name, but more often she is referred to as the Pyre Case.

In these early years, investigators did follow a number of leads, including those given by an ex-con named Lloyd Mason who swore he worked with the woman the summer before at a restaurant in Granby, Colorado. Despite being a promising lead, investigators soon learned that the women he was talking about could be accounted for.

Rumors
There are rumors that this unidentified woman’s remains were sent to a landfill sometime in the 1980s. While this is shocking, this isn’t the first time we’ve covered a case where something like this happened. Check out Episode 9: Pierce County Jane Does.

We do know that as late as 2023, Gilpin County Coroner Zane Laubahn was looking for information about where her remains might be located. Her remains had, according to reports, floated around the courthouse for a while. Whether or not she was buried or if something else happened to her is still in question.

Without her remains, a definitive identification of this Jane Doe will likely never happen.

Lillian Eileen Huff DeMaris
One current conversation about this Jane Doe is that she is Lillian Eileen Huff DeMaris and message board posts from family members indicate that this Jane Doe is Lillian. No announcements, even as a presumptive identification, have been made by authorities in the case of this Jane Doe or in the case of Lillian, though Lillian’s case has been marked as “solved” or removed from databases.

Lillian was a mother of three daughters and was raising them in Mason City, Iowa. She worked as a food vendor for a traveling carnival. In August 1952, she was planning on taking her daughter out for her birthday, but Lillian never arrived. Her car was found in the carnival parking lot. Message board posts indicate an identification based on the Jane Doe’s necklace.

While we can’t verify this information is true, we thought it necessary to share and hope investigators will make a clear statement in the future.

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People and Cases Mentioned in this Episode:
Maria/Pyre Case (unsolved unidentified person and unsolved murder)
Theresa Foster (unsolved murder)
Lillian Eileen Huff DeMaris (likely solved missing person case)

If you have any information in the Maria/Pyre Case, please contact:

Gilpin County Sheriff’s Office
(303) 582-5500

If you have any information about the location of this unidentified woman’s remains, please contact:
Gilpin County Coroner's Office, Zane Laubahn
(303) 515-4333