Ancestry Sites Employed To Crack 43-Year-Old Cold Case
Her story may very well rank as Illinois’ coldest case.
No one knows who she is but authorities in Grundy County are hoping new breakthrough technology could reveal her identity.
Officially, she is known as Jane Seneca Doe. When her body was found on a roadside in rural Grundy County in October of 1976, she carried no identification but was believed to have been between 18 to 23 years old.
And she had been shot once in the head.
“She had a multi-colored knit red and white black sweater wrapped around her head, as well as a plastic bag,” said Brandon Johnson, the deputy chief coroner of Grundy County. “And it appears she was dumped at the site.”
The only object found in the young woman’s pocket was a bottle of wine but the ensuing investigation yielded nothing.
On Thanksgiving Day of 1976, she was buried in an unmarked grave and she remained there for over 40 years.
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The larger issue may be time. Jane Seneca Doe died in 1976. Had she survived, she would now be in her sixties. Potential relatives are getting older themselves.
“We’re fighting against the clock at this point,” Johnson said. “If her parents were still alive, they’d have to be in their eighties, maybe nineties. But I’m hoping we’ll still be able to connect with another relative.”
Johnson says he remains hopeful that his victim’s relatives may provide the key to unlocking questions which have eluded authorities for 43 years.
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Johnson has made solving his Jane Doe case something of a mission. It’s a remarkable quest for a public official who was born 15 years after she died.
“It’s just bothersome that somebody could be dumped like that and buried in an unmarked grave for so many years, not to be missed or have any closure or justice,” he says. “I don’t think anybody deserves to be treated that way.”
Using DNA Kits To Crack 43-Year-Old Murder Mystery