MORRIS, Ill. — After more than 47 years, the remains of a young Black woman found near Seneca, Illinois have been positively identified through the use of DNA and forensics.
Authorities on Thursday said the remains are of JoAnn “Vickie” Smith, an adopted woman from Ohio.
Previously known as Jane Seneca Doe, her body was exhumed from an unmarked grave in December 2018, more than 42 years after her body was found in a ditch alongside US Highway 6 with a gunshot wound to the head.
The renewed quest to confirm Smith’s identity was launched in late 2017 by officials in the Grundy County Coroner’s Office. DNA testing on her remains were initially unsuccessful in coming up with a name, but a team of expert genetic genealogists with the DNA Doe Project were able to construct a family tree to narrow the search.
The identification took more than four years.
“At some point everyone worked on this case,” said Margaret Press, who founded the DNA Doe Project in 2017. “She has been at the top of my list of cases I wanted to see identified.”
A statement from the DNA Doe Project explained that African-American Jane and John Does are often much more difficult to identify than people of Northern European descent because African-Americans are underrepresented in the public databases.
And as an adopted woman, most people in her birth family didn’t know she existed, the organization said. Her name was finally found after the DNA Doe Project team located a branch of her family tree with three sisters, one of whom was her birth mother. Once investigators had a name, they were able to locate her original birth certificate from the Cincinnati Health Department Vital Records and adoption records from Hamilton County (Ohio) Probate Court.
“It is an honor for all of us to say her name – Vickie Smith – and to know she’s on her way home,” DNA Doe Project spokeswoman Pam Lauritzen said.