POLICE are investigating whether the body of a woman found murdered in the United States in 1980 is that of a Ballarat teenager who disappeared 37 years ago.A Victoria Police spokesman confirmed yesterday police were investigating whether the body found in a Nevada desert was that of Sherrlynn Mitchell, who was last seen waiting for a bus in Ballarat on November 22, 1973. She was aged 16.Detective David Butler from the Belier Taskforce said police would soon be contacting Ms Mitchell's family about the possible link, but stressed the investigation, including the gathering and testing of DNA, could take some time.Belier Taskforce members have been in contact with the coroner's office in Clark County, Nevada, which has been investigating the case of Jane "Arroyo Grande" Doe since the body was found in 1980.It was this case that inspired the setting up of a website in 2003 posting information about unidentified bodies found in Clark County in the past 35 years.Clark County coroner investigator Rick Jones, who has been helping Belier Taskforce members with the investigation, said the website had been successful in identifying many of the county's unidentified bodies."We must keep the search alive. It is when we do nothing that we fail the families. Like the saying goes: 'All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing'," Mr Jones said in an email to The Courier.The possible link between the Ballarat and Nevada cases was discovered by a member of the online Websleuths Crime Sleuthing Community while researching the case of Jane "Arroyo Grande" Doe.Websleuths member Cindy Harbison discovered the possible link after reading an online article about Ms Mitchell's case in The Courier in April this year and information on the missing children's website NamUs (National Missing and Unidentified Persons System)."There is a resemblance based on the one picture that I have seen of Sherrlynn and this victim," Ms Harbison said."It is reasonable to believe that this young lady could have travelled to the US."Members of Websleuths, which is made up of volunteers who spend time trying to solve crimes involving missing persons, ongoing criminal cases and the identification of unidentified victims, used a photo snip tool to match each side of the photographs of Ms Mitchell and Jane "Arroyo Grande" Doe. Ms Harbison believes there is a strong resemblance.On October 5, 1980, the naked body of Jane "Arroyo Grande" Doe was found by a passing motorist lying face down in the desert area on State Route 146, near Arroyo Grande in Nevada. It is believed she was dead for only 24 hours before her body was discovered. An autopsy revealed she had died due to a blunt trauma to her head and multiple stab wounds to her back. She was murdered elsewhere and her body dumped at the site.According to a report from the Clark County coroner/medical examiner, the woman was aged between 14 and 20, weighed 46kg, was 157cm tall. She had reddish light brown hair, blue/green eyes and had a crudely made tattoo of the letter `S' on her right forearm.Her fingerprints were taken, but no match was found.Ms Mitchell disappeared on Ballarat Cup Day, November 22, 1973. The auburn-haired beauty had left her Eyre Street home to meet a friend from Clunes at a bus stop. She did not return to the Ballarat Woollen Mills where she worked and did not collect her wages or her holiday pay. She never returned home for her clothes or other personal belongings and only had $1 in her purse. When she left her family home on the day she disappeared, Sherrlynn was wearing a dark dress with a bodice of pink roses, shoes with cork wedges and earrings with one featuring an elephant and the other a gold seal. She was also carrying a sling bag.Ms Mitchell's mother Betty Hill yesterday welcomed the new lead in her daughter's disappearance, which has haunted her for 37 years."Sherrlynn had big ideas about what she wanted to do with her life. She wanted to be somebody," Mrs Hill said.Asked whether she believed her daughter may have travelled to the United States after her disappearance, Mrs Hill said it was a possibility."We have relatives in America and Canada. I haven't been in contact with them for years."In her desperate search for Ms Mitchell, her family has contacted welfare agencies throughout Victoria and interstate and written stories for metropolitan newspapers for any information.Mrs Hill, who turns 80 next month, now wants closure on the case.