30 Years After She Disappeared, DNA Confirms Body As Chesco Teen

CHESTER COUNTY, PA — A decomposed body found at a New Jersey truck stop 30 years ago has finally been identified as a missing Chester County teenager.

Wendy Louise Baker of Coatesville is the "Tiger Lady" found at the stop on Oct. 26, 1991, investigators announced this week. The body, which was nicknamed due to the distinctive Bengal tiger tattoo on the left calf, was identified thanks to the use of DNA.

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The investigation began that day in a gravel parking area off of Route 94 North in Warren County, New Jersey. Baker's nude body was found by hunters adjacent to Route 80 and a Truck Stops of America facility.

No arrests have yet been made, and investigation remains ongoing.

The cause of her death ruled a homicide, but the cause of her death remained unclear after she was autopsied the following day, officials said.

Among the many agencies that continued to investigate the case was the North Texas Center for Human Identification, which began developing a DNA profile on Baker of "Short Tandem Repeat and Mitochondrial DNA." In 2008, that group uploaded the profile to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons database and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

A sample from Baker’s remains was sent to Bode Technology in Lorton, Virginia, in December 2017, Warren County Prosecutor Jim Pfeiffer said, with the goal of “extracting DNA from her bones” to potentially find any of her relatives.

DNA Match

Bode Technology matched Baker's DNA to her grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins in July 2021. One set of her grandparents was found to be Ernest Baker, who died in 1993, and grandmother Nina Brownwell, who died in 1986. They were traced to Coatesville.

Baker's grandparents had 17 children together, Pfeiffer said. Investigators then had to narrow down from there to determine her parents.

After detectives from both New Jersey State Police’s Cold Case Unit and Warren County Prosecutor’s Office headed to Coatesville, they spoke with one of the couple’s children, Desi Baker, who provided the name of her missing niece Wendy.

Desi Baker said she was the child of Bruce Baker, who died in 2017, and his first wife, Mary Wagner, who had died in 1999.

Bruce Baker's widow provided Wendy Baker’s full name and birthdate, July 14, 1975. She told authorities she raised Baker from the ages of 4 and 15, with the family traveling between Bradenton, Florida, and Chester County.

The team compared Bruce Baker’s DNA from Pennsylvania State Police records to Wendy Baker’s, confirming him as her father.

The Warren County Prosecutor’s Office is continuing to investigate the case. The New Jersey State Police Cold Case Unit, along with the New Jersey State Police Office of Forensic Sciences, BODE Technology and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, are also looking into the case.

Anyone with any information about Baker's case, should contact the Warren County Prosecutor's Office at 908-475-6275 or email coldcase@co.warren.nj.us.

With reporting from Patch correspondent Jennifer Miller.