42 Years Since Burial Of Jane Doe Murder Victim

(The following press release was provided to Patch on Wednesday by the Grundy County Coroner's Office. That agency has worked over the past year to drum up heightened media exposure in the Joliet area surrounding the October 1976 murder victim. Her killer was never caught because she has never been identified.)

Thanksgiving day marks the forty-second burial of an unidentified female black. On October 2, 1976, a local farmer in unincorporated Seneca, IL, discovered the body in a ditch along U.S. Route 6, 1/4 mile east of the LaSalle County line.

The victim had been shot once in the back of the head and by all accounts seemed to have been merely dumped at this site. The female was estimated to be between the ages of 18 and 23, with Black Afro-type hair, approximately 5’7” and 150 lbs, accompanied by only a multi-colored black, white and red knit sweater.

For the last four decades, these minor details were all that authorities knew about this female in their one and only cold case, before burying her in an unmarked grave on the morning of November 25, 1976 at Braceville-Gardner Cemetery.

The only people in attendance of this Thanksgiving graveside service, was then-Coroner James Reeves and a representative from the cemetery.

A lot has changed over the years. The seasons have come and gone and the only thing that remains the same is the mystery of this female’s name. There have been a lot of advancements in forensic science since 1976, which at the time only had the tools of fingerprinting and dental records to compare identify.

The Grundy County Coroner’s Office has been working the case tirelessly over the last year and a half, utilizing the tools of modern day forensic science.

“Our Office is dedicated to giving this female the name she deserves. This is someone’s loved one. Whether it be a mother, daughter, sister, cousin or friend,” said Deputy Coroner Brandon Johnson. Johnson has spent a lot of time reviewing case files from that time, following up on old leads, as well seeking assistance from other organizations such as: The Illinois State Police Crime Lab, NamUs, The DOE Network and The National Center For Missing and Exploited Children, which has now led to new leads, including one of the most recent leads that came into the office in October, after a Chicagoland resident saw the story and artist-rendered image featured on ABC 7 News.

The woman believed the female pictured in the image is her daughter, who has been missing from the area since around that time. A DNA sample was collected from the tipster and submitted to the Illinois State Police Crime Lab for comparison and the results should be available within the next couple of weeks.

Not all of the leads the office received were promising, but still helpful to other cases nationwide. In another tip Deputy Johnson received information from someone in Mississippi.

“I received information from a family member of a female who has been missing since the 60s and believed their sister resembled our unidentified female,” Johnson said. “After speaking with the family at length, I learned that the family had never reported the sister missing back then. Now after our conversation, about fifty-years after their sister went missing, they reported it to authorities. Even if this female ends up not being related to our case, at least we have connected other families with the proper channels of being heard.

“Most days I spend a lot of time on the internet, looking through missing person databases nationwide. It almost feels like X-Files.” Johnson stated.

Images via Grundy County Chief Deputy Coroner Christina Hintze-Symoniak

Caption: Brandon Johnson, red jacket, with Coroner John W. Callahan decorate the unmarked grave Wednesday of Jane Doe, an unidentified murder victim who was slain 42 years ago.