Authorities identify woman involved in 47-year-old cold case

MORRIS, Ill. — After more than 47 years, the remains of a young Black woman found near Seneca, Ill., have been positively identified through the use of DNA and forensics.

Authorities said Thursday the remains were those of JoAnn “Vickie” Smith, an adopted woman from Ohio.

At a news conference, Smith's brother, Ronnie Smith, said family members have wondered for years what happened to the 20-year-old woman who left her Cincinnati home and never returned.

“This was not a usual thing in our household. No one went out at night, not to my mother’s house,” he said.

Meanwhile, in 1976, investigators failed to identify remains found near a cornfield along U.S. Highway 6 with a gunshot wound to the head. The case remained cold for decades until late 2017, when officials with the Grundy County Coroner's Office reopened the investigation. Smith's body was exhumed from an unmarked grave about a year later.

DNA testing initially failed to find a name, but a team of expert genetic genealogists from the DNA Doe Project were able to construct a family tree to narrow the search.

The identification took more than four years.

“At one point, everyone was working on this case,” said Margaret Press, who founded the DNA Doe Project in 2017. “It was at the top of my list of cases that I wanted to see identified.”

A statement from the DNA Doe Project explains that African American Janes and John Does are often much more difficult to identify than people of Northern European descent because African Americans are underrepresented in public databases.

As an adopted woman, most of her biological family members did not know she existed, the organization said. Her name was eventually found after the DNA Doe Project team located a branch of her family tree with three sisters, one of whom was her biological mother. Once investigators had a name, they were able to locate her original birth certificate in vital records from the Cincinnati Department of Health and adoption records from the Hamilton County (Ohio) Probate Court.

“It’s an honor for all of us to say her name – Vickie Smith – and know she’s coming home,” DNA Doe Project spokesperson Pam Lauritzen said.

With part of the mystery solved, attention now turns to finding who killed her.

“Special gratitude and thanks to Deputy Chief Coroner Brandon Johnson and Coroner John Callahan for never – and I repeat – never abandoning our beloved Vickie, and for their unwavering dedication to bringing her back to us,” said Ronnie Smith.

The family planned a celebration of life service Friday in Cincinnati. A GoFundMe account has been set up to help the family transport and bury Smith's remains.