After 47 years, Jane 'Seneca' Doe identifies herself as JoAnn 'Vicky' Smith – Shaw Local

After more than 47 years, a woman abandoned in a Seneca field will no longer be known as Jane “Seneca” Doe, but by her name – JoAnn “Vicky” Smith.

The Grundy County Coroner's Office held a news conference Thursday revealing the woman's identity.

Coroner John Callahan said when he took office in 1998 he felt the need and responsibility to identify her.

“After all, she’s someone’s daughter, someone’s sister,” he said.

Smith was adopted and graduated from high school in the Cincinnati, Ohio area.

His family will hold a celebration of his life this weekend in Cincinnati and there are plans to move his grave to South Carolina where his parents are buried.

His case had gone unanswered for more than 40 years; then in 2017, Callahan reopened the case with the help of Deputy Chief Corner Brandon Johnson, hoping to use modern forensic science to restore the victim's identity.

Johnson went through old case files, entered the victim's name into several databases of unidentified people, and released several artist-made images to the public in hopes of gaining new information about the case.

After following all leads and reaching a dead end, on December 18, 2018, the coroner's office exhumed Doe's remains to use advances in DNA.

Forensic odontologist Denise C. Murmann calculated his approximate age using “the molar development method,” concluding that his age was “20.90 plus or minus 5.25 years.” Callahan confirmed Thursday that Smith was 20.

In January 2019, his femur was sent to the University of North Texas Human Identification Center in Fort Worth, Texas, through a grant from the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System and the Department of Justice.

The lab was able to develop a complete female DNA profile.

Johnson said the profile was entered into the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), but the efforts yielded negative results.

Johnson partnered with the DNA Doe Project, an all-volunteer organization that uses genealogical DNA to identify unidentified individuals, in June 2019.

Johnson said distant matches had been located and proved the case would not be easy due to a difficult family tree.

Johnson previously told the Morris Herald-News that they found close matches in his family tree from Selma, Alabama, or Cincinnati, Ohio, as well as a first cousin from New York.

On May 14, 2024, adoption records confirmed that Jane “Seneca” Doe was JoAnn “Vicky” Smith. She was 20 years old at the time of her death in 1976.

She was born as baby girl Bynum at Cincinnati General Hospital on Feb. 7, 1956, Johnson said. She was later renamed Diane Carol Bynum and placed for adoption.

She was adopted in October 1956 by George and Lalie Smith and renamed JoAnn Smith, Johnson said.

“Coming into a loving family that had many adopted children, Vicky was the eldest daughter in the family,” he said.

Smith attended Southern Ohio College and had been employed at the Cincinnati-area Marriott hotel chain as a housekeeper.

On the evening of June 14, 1976, she left the family residence and was never seen again, Johnson said.

“Sadly, it remains a mystery that Vicky’s loving family spent nearly five decades missing her and wondering where she was,” he said.

Smith was discovered Oct. 2, 1976, when Henry Henderson told police he was “carrying beans in a crib with his granddaughter, Robin Henderson” in a field west of U.S. Route 6 in Seneca's Erienna Township, about 1.4 miles east of the La Salle County line, when he noticed something lying in a north ditch.

Thinking it was a deer, he stopped his tractor to show it to his granddaughter. As he approached the ditch, he discovered the body of a young woman. It would be 47 years before authorities discovered her identity.

According to police reports, she was found lying with a green plastic bag, sealed with black electrical tape, and a black, red and white sweater wrapped around her head outside the bag.

Half a bottle of wine and a partial price tag were found inside the sweater.

Smith was buried in an unmarked grave in the Braceville-Gardner Cemetery on Thanksgiving Day 1976.

Smith's mother, Lalie, never gave up hope, Johnson said, and always hoped to be reunited with her daughter until the day she died in 2010.

Smith's siblings, Phyllis Harris and Ronnie Smith, said losing Vicky had been difficult over the years, but they still referred to her in the present.

“There's always this idea that she might not be with us anymore, but to hear the news, we just refused to accept that,” Ronnie Smith said.

Smith said the news of Vicky's discovery was “bittersweet”.

“Bitter because of the horrible fate Vicky has suffered,” he said. “But it's sweet because we can put some closure and bring her home.”

“I can’t think of anything more devastating than being buried in an unmarked grave,” Smith said. “I know it happens, but when it happens to you, it’s a little different.”

Smith thanked Callahan and Johnson for their unwavering dedication to bringing their beloved sister back to them.

“She can now rest under her real name,” he said. “JoAnn “Vicky” Smith. »

If you would like to donate to Smith's journey home, visit https://gofund.me/7d2c98e9.