Talk about your ultimate makeovers.

When Joyce Nagy got hold of "Annie," she already understood the job would entail more than a little makeup, hair and some new clothes. Forget the facelift — Annie didn’t even have a face.

It was Nagy’s job to give her one.

"I got a skull and a medical examiner’s report to work with," recalled Nagy, a forensic artist employed by the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office. "It’s a small skull, and I decided to name her ‘Annie’ because she seemed so delicate.

"I was excited. I don’t want to call it an opportunity, but things like this are few and far between."

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With some creative assistance from Nagy, detectives in Josephine County hope to close the book on a 33-year-old mystery that began in 1971 with the discovery of Annie’s remains alongside Highway 199 near the Oregon-California border.

"I figure this has to be a good thing," Josephine County sheriff’s Sgt. Ken Selig said of Nagy’s involvement in the case. "Hopefully, it will produce some good results."

The remains of Annie — whose true identity is unknown — were kept in a Grants Pass evidence warehouse until earlier this year, when Selig began sifting through a list of unsolved "cold cases." He learned of Nagy through a mutual acquaintance and decided to let her use her artistic skills to build a face for the unidentified woman, who police believe was 19 or 20 when she died.

Investigators do not know what led to the young woman’s death, but suspect it occurred at least a few months before her remains were found in August 1971. Selig said her intestines were partially mummified when a man and his son found her while hiking in a wooded area near the highway.

Detectives in 1971 worked with other police agencies along the West Coast but the case grew cold when no viable leads were established. The only items found in the woman’s pockets were 38 cents and a map of Northern California recreational sites.

"It’s just a big, huge mystery," Selig said. "But this sort of case doesn’t just go away. We keep homicide cases, basically, forever."

So when Nagy offered to reconstruct the woman’s face as "a professional courtesy" to Josephine County investigators, Selig jumped at the chance.

"Free is a good price," he said.

The skull was carefully packed into a bowling ball box and mailed to Nagy in August. When it arrived at her office, Nagy’s first order of business was to give the skull a name.

"The reason I named it is because it made it more human," she said. "It is human — I didn’t want to just call it ‘the skull I got from Josephine County.’ "

She studied the medical examiner’s report to get a mental picture of what the woman might have looked like, then went right to work. Nagy took the skull to her own dentist, who reset the jawbone and gave it two plastic front teeth.

She covered the skull with more than 10 pounds of flesh-colored clay and went shopping for hair, eyes and some clothing that matched what Annie was wearing when her remains were discovered. Nagy picked up an auburn-colored Halloween wig at Kmart, a white turtleneck at Goodwill and a plaid blazer at Sears.

Annie’s hazel eyes were found on eBay, even though the true color of the woman’s eyes is unknown.

"I used hazel because they’re neutral," Nagy said. "The glass eyes look so much more human than mannequin or doll eyes."

In total, Nagy estimates spending about 80 hours perfecting Annie’s look. When Selig saw the results in late October, he was more than satisfied.

"I thought it was just fantastic," he said. "She did an incredible job."

Both Selig and Nagy are hoping the reconstructed face will trigger the memory of someone, somewhere.

Nagy said she might get emotional if her work helps bring closure to a family tortured by the disappearance of a loved one.

"To me, Annie’s become like an adopted sister," she said. "Helping solve this case is the ultimate goal. It would just be incredible to get somebody home after they’ve been gone 33 years. I’d probably cry."

Who is she?

Police believe the unidentified young woman was 19 or 20 years old. She stood about 5 feet 5 inches tall and weighed around 125 pounds. The woman had shoulder-length auburn hair with blond highlights and crooked teeth. She was found wearing a checkered pink-and-beige blazer, a tan turtleneck, blue jeans and brown shoes.

Anyone with information about the woman’s identity is asked to call the Josephine County sheriff’s Major Crime Unit at 474-5153 or the sheriff’s confidential tip line at 474- 5160.

Reach reporter Jack Moran at 776-4459, or e-mail jmoran@mailtribune.com