Jane Doe Found Dead 48 Years Ago Along Illinois Road Finally has a Name

Her name is JoAnn "Vicky" Smith.

Illinois officials finally identified an Ohio woman who was found murdered in a ditch alongside a highway nearly 48 years ago.

The Grundy County Coroner's Office announced in a press release on June 27 that the 20-year-old woman, who was previously referred to as Jane Doe, is JoAnn "Vicky" Smith.

Smith's body was found in a ditch alongside US Highway 6 near Seneca, Illinois in 1976. Officials determined she was shot in the head. Officials tried to figure out her identity, but they ran out of leads, the coroner's office said. Smith was then buried in an unmarked grave.

The coroner's office reopened the case in 2017, hoping to use DNA and forensic tools to identify the victim. Her body was exhumed in 2018. Officials sent the remains to the University of North Texas Center For Human Identification in Fort Worth, who developed DNA and entered it into a database, but it did not yield a positive result.

What is the DNA Doe Project?

Deputy Chief Brandon Johnson of the Grundy County Coroner's Office then reached out to the DNA Doe Project for assistance. The project is made up of teams of volunteer investigative genetic genealogists who use matches to the unknown person's DNA to build out a family tree.

After four and a half years, the DNA Doe Project determined the DNA belonged to Smith.

"At some point everyone worked on this case," Margaret Press, founder of the DNA Doe Project, said in a statement. "She has been at the top of my list of cases I wanted to see identified."

Officials said the case was complicated by the fact that Black individuals are underrepresented in public databases. Smith was also adopted, and many people in her birth family were unaware of her existence.

"The team really thought that she would be identified last summer once her grandparents had been identified," Eric Hendershott, team leader on the case, said in a statement. "However, it was only after contact was made with her biological family that adoption was suspected."

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) also assisted in the case in several ways, including facial reconstruction.

"A lot of people worked to keep this young woman's story alive for 47 years so that she could get her name back and give her family some answers about her disappearance," Pam Lauritzen, Executive Director of Media and Communications with the DNA Doe Project, said in a statement. "It is an honor for all of us to say her name - Vickie Smith - and to know she's on her way home."

Smith was interned with her parents on July 2 after a celebration of life was held for family and friends at Mt. Moriah Missionary Baptist Church in Cincinnati on June 29.

Anyone with information about Smith's death should contact Deputy Chief Brandon Johnson with the Grundy County Coroner's Office at 815-941-3359 or bjohnson@grundycountyil.gov.

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