Identified! IL - New Lenox, I-80, WhtFem 23-40, 592UFIL, in ditch, Apr'81 - Brenda Sue Black

[victoriarobinson642]

More photos of Brenda Sue Olinger/Black from Butler HS in Vandalia, OH.

 

[iamshadow21]

Sleep well, Brenda.

 

[Hochman]

Here's the 2021 reconstruction that was added to her Namus but never posted to this thread.

Here's the sculptor's page

Portfolio - Forensic Sculptor Beth Buchholtz

Photos of facial reconstructions completed by Beth Buchholtz with links to unidentified person case information

forensicsculptor.com

 

[snooptroop88]

GREAT to see they IDd this Doe,

Seeing Brenda originally from Vandalia Ohio and moved to California after high school. She hadn't been in touch with her family since 1980 or 1981.

Whoever placed her where she was, that person to some extent knows the Chicago metropolitan area. New Lenox was like the wilds back in this timeframe, even though it's not "all that" removed from Chicago itself. A lot of people in Chicago back then had no idea New Lenox even existed. It would still have been relatively expensive to live out there because it was still somewhat removed, though, no substantial means of public transportation at the time. You'd probably be seeing a lot of people in trades in the area as construction was moving into overdrive with the suburban area expanding. It would probably be black as pitch out there at night and pretty rural. Cause of death is unclear. This was near I-80, someone mentioned Tammy Zywicki murder in1992 on this thread, think that poster's right to do so, she also was on I-80. I-80 extremely dark at points, can be desolate. No clothing, no personal effects left with the remains in Brenda's case. Found a year and four mos after she was reported, Brenda had been deceased for about a year when discovered in 1981. There's another recently IDd Doe in LaSalle County IL, 1991, found in cornfield near Norway IL, this is also pretty much just off I-80, they thought she had died of a cocaine overdose, but the question remains as to how she ended up wrapped in a shower curtain in a cornfield. Whether this case in LaSalle was a homicide or accident remains unknown. That Doe had dental work, breast implants, and a couple of tattoos. She was IDd as Paula Lundgren, she lived in the Chicago area, and was 29. Another Jane Doe recently IDd, Seneca IL Jane Doe found Oct 1976, JoAnn "Vickie" Smith 20yo was found dead from a single gunshot to the head and left in a ditch along Highway 6 in unincorporated Grundy County IL near Seneca. She worked at a hotel in Ohio. Seneca is another area easily accessed via I-80. If that's all the work of the same killer (a huge "if" and it's not necessarily even likely) he's versatile, has a base of some kind in the Chicago area, maybe was raised there, and he travels. He'd be about 70yo now, but pure speculation. Do think there was likely such a killer active, but whether he's responsible for all of these cases mentioned in the post-- probably doubtful. But three of these four women were just traveling through, they didn't live in the Chicago area. The woman who did, Paula Lundgren-- LaSalle is still quasi-rural to this day, it's quite on the outer fringes geographically and a lot of people wouldn't consider it "the Chicago area." So she was arguably traveling through as well. Three of the victims are fairly petite blondes/blondish, the exception would be JoAnn, the earliest of the cases mentioned, who was African American. In light of these cases, am looking at @Mysteries1974 post with great interest.

RIP, and hope they figure out what happened to Brenda.