After 47 years, woman’s remains found in ditch near Illinois highway get a name

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

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

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

“That wasn’t something that was normal in our household. No one stayed out at night, not in my mother’s home,” he said.

At the same time, investigators in 1976 were stumped in identifying the remains found near a cornfield alongside US Highway 6 with a gunshot wound to the head. The case went cold for decades until late in 2017 when officials in the Grundy County Coroner’s Office reopened the investigation. Smith’s body was exhumed from an unmarked grave about a year later.

DNA testing was initially unsuccessful in coming up with a name, but a team of expert genetic genealogists with the DNA Doe Project were able to construct a family tree to narrow the search.

The identification took more than four years.

“At some point everyone worked on this case,” said Margaret Press, who founded the DNA Doe Project in 2017. “She has been at the top of my list of cases I wanted to see identified.”

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

And as an adopted woman, most people in her birth family didn’t know she existed, the organization said. Her name was finally found after the DNA Doe Project team located a branch of her family tree with three sisters, one of whom was her birth mother. Once investigators had a name, they were able to locate her original birth certificate from the Cincinnati Health Department Vital Records and adoption records from Hamilton County (Ohio) Probate Court.

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

With one 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 giving up on our beloved Vickie, and their unwavering dedication to bring her back to us,” Ronnie Smith said.

The family has planned a Friday celebration of life service in Cincinnati. A GoFundMe account has been established to help the family with transport and burial of Smith’s remains.

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