The body of Elizabeth Short was found in the Leimert Park district of Los Angeles on January 15, 1947. Her remains had been left on a vacant lot on the west side of South Norton Avenue midway between Coliseum Street and West 39th Street (34°0′59.19″N 118°19′58.51″W). The body was discovered by local resident Betty Bersinger, who was walking with her three-year-old daughter. Her severely mutilated body had been severed at the waist and drained of blood and her face was slashed from the corners of her mouth toward her ears, called the Glasgow smile. The body had been washed and cleaned and she had been "posed" with her hands over her head and elbows bent at right angles.
The autopsy stated Short was 5 feet 5 inches (1.65 m) tall, weighed 115 pounds (52 kg), and had light blue eyes, brown hair, and badly decayed teeth. Although the skull was not fractured, Short had bruising on the front and right side of her scalp with a small amount of bleeding in the subarachnoid space on the right side, consistent with blows to the head. The cause of death was blood loss from the lacerations to the face combined with shock due to a concussion of the brain.
On January 24, 1947, the killer mailed a packet to a Los Angeles newspaper containing Short's birth certificate, business cards, photographs, names written on pieces of paper and an address book with the name Mark Hansen embossed on the cover. Hansen, the last person known to have seen Short alive (on January 9) became the prime suspect. On January 25, Short's handbag and one shoe were found in a rubbish bin a short distance from Norton Avenue. Due to the notoriety of the case, more than 50 men and women have confessed to the murder and police would be swamped with tips every time a newspaper mentions the case or a book or movie released. Sergeant St John, a detective who worked the case until his retirement stated: "It is amazing how many people offer up a relative as the killer."
Gerry Ramlow, a Los Angeles Daily News reporter later stated, "If the murder was never solved it was because of the reporters ... They were all over, trampling evidence, withholding information." It took several days for the police to take full control of the investigation, and reporters roamed freely throughout the departments offices, sat at desks, and answered the phones. Many tips from the public were not passed on to police as reporters rushed out to get "scoops".
William Randolph Hearst's papers, the Los Angeles Herald-Express and the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner sensationalized the case; the black tailored suit Short was last seen wearing became "a tight skirt and a sheer blouse" and Elizabeth Short became the "Black Dahlia," an "adventuress" who "prowled Hollywood Boulevard." As time passed, the media coverage became more outrageous with claims her lifestyle "made her victim material," when in fact those who knew her all reported that Short did not smoke, drink or swear.
Short was buried at the Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, California. After her other sisters had grown and married, Short's mother moved to Oakland to be near her daughter's grave. Phoebe Short finally returned to the East Coast in the 1970s and lived into her nineties.
