DNA experts identify an unknown woman found shot to death in an Illinois ditch in 1976

The DNA Doe Project announced in a press release Thursday that its investigators had identified the woman as JoAnn “Vickie” Smith of Ohio.

Smith was found in a ditch near Seneca, Illinois, in 1976. She had been shot in the head. However, police were unable to identify her and closed the case after two months.

She was buried in an unmarked grave, but the Grundy County Coroner’s Office reopened her case in 2017 and exhumed her remains in 2018 in the hopes that modern forensics could help identify her.

The coroner’s office contacted the DNA Doe Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to identifying unknown people.

The group’s genealogists spent four and a half years building her family tree. The work was complicated because Smith was adopted, and although investigators were able to match her DNA profile to biological relatives, most of them didn’t know she existed.

Investigators eventually built a branch in Smith’s family tree that led to three sisters, one of whom was her biological mother. Final confirmation of her identity came through adoption records on file in Cincinnati probate court, DNA Doe Project officials said.

The press release did not specify which part of Ohio Smith was from.