'No Sign Of Murder' In Death Of Joliet's Pamela Vincent: Jungles

JOLIET, IL — Officials at the Will County Sheriff's Office say there is no forensic evidence to suggest that the Joliet woman who had been missing for seven years died from a homicide. The woman's bones were found in February in a wooded area along Patterson Road.

Chief Deputy Sheriff Dan Jungles informed Joliet Patch there was an extensive analysis conducted on the skeleton of Pamela Ann Vincent. Forensic anthropologists, however, found no signs of gunshot wounds or blunt force trauma to suggest that the 38-year-old Joliet woman died from a homicide.

At this point, sheriff's officials are classifying Vincent's death as undetermined.

"She lived kind of a transient lifestyle," Jungles said. "It was pretty evident that there was animal activity because some of the bones were scattered. But there is no indication she was murdered or dismembered."

In February, someone came across the set of skeletal remains in the densely wooded area along Joliet Township's Patterson Road. There are no houses in the immediate area where the body was found. Jungles said the death scene indicated that Vincent may have died in 2015 — she was reported missing to the Joliet Police Department that August.

Jungles said it's possible that Vincent was living in that area on Patterson Road and that her body has remained there the entire time. Sheriff's investigators found couches, empty beer bottles and soda cans a short distance away from where her skeleton was located, suggesting this may have been used as a party area at one time.

"It was old debris and old garbage," Jungles said. "There's no reason to believe she died of homicidal means. There's no obvious signs of trauma."

Still, investigators are not closing the investigation. Jungles asked that if anybody has information about Vincent, particularly her last known whereabouts and "if she was seeing anybody romantically," to call Sheriff's Investigator Kim Toplewski at 815-727-8574.