Jane ‘Seneca’ Doe to be identified after more than 45 years

After more than 45 years, Jane “Seneca” Doe has been identified, Grundy County Coroner John Callahan’s office said Monday.

Doe was the victim of a 1976 cold case homicide.

On the afternoon of Oct. 2, 1976, a local farmer discovered the body of an unidentified African American female, alongside rural U.S. 6, near Seneca, according to a news release.

After exhausting all efforts of attempting to identify the female, according to the release. Doe was subsequently buried in an unmarked grave at the Braceville-Gardner Cemetery on Thanksgiving Day 1976.

The case remained cold and was reopened by the Coroner’s Office in late-2017, hoping to use modern-day forensic science techniques and technology to give the victim her name back.

The unidentified female was subsequently exhumed on Dec. 18, 2018, and efforts to obtain DNA began.

The victim’s identity will be released at a news conference held by the Coroner’s Office, at 1 p.m. Thursday, June 27, in the boardroom of the Grundy County Administration Center, 1320 Union St. in Morris.