More than 45 years later, victim in Grundy County cold case identified

(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — The Grundy County Coroner is finally revealing the identity of the victim in a 1976 cold case homicide.

On Oct. 2, 1976, a local farmer discovered the body of an African American woman or girl alongside rural U.S. Route 6 in unincorporated Seneca, Illinois.

The Grundy County Coroner's office says she died from a gunshot wound in the head. The victim was buried in an unmarked grave at the Braceville-Gardner Cemetery on Thanksgiving Day of 1976.

The case remained cold for years and was reopened in late 2017, when investigators started using modern-day Forensic Science and DNA techniques to identify the victim.

The Coroner's Office will release the victim's identity Thursday at a press conference in Morris, Illinois.

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