Who is Jane ‘Seneca’ Doe?

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

Assuming it was a deer, he stopped his tractor to show his granddaughter. As he neared the ditch, he discovered the body of a young woman. Forty-six years later, her identity remains a mystery. Now, five years after Grundy County Coroner John Callahan reopened the case, the case remains active, but her identity remains unknown.

“Jane Seneca Doe,” as she is referred to in the case file, is an unidentified black female, who was found lying naked with a green plastic bag, tapped shut with black electrical tape, and a black, red and white sweater wrapped over her head outside of the bag, according to police reports.

She was found with half a bottle of wine and a partial price tag was found inside the sweater.

At the time the Grundy County Sheriff’s Department and the Grundy County Coroner’s Office determined she was between the age of 15 and 27 and had been shot once in the head elsewhere, and placed in the ditch less than 24 hours before her death.

After attempting to identify the victim, she was buried in an unmarked grave at the Braceville – Gardner Cemetery on Thanksgiving Day 1976.

The case remained cold for more than 40 years, then in 2017 Coroner Callahan reopened the case with the assistance of Deputy Chief Corner Brandon Johnson, hoping to utilize modern-day forensic science to give the victim her identity back.

Johnson combed through old case files, entered the victim into multiple unidentified persons’ databases, and released several artist-rendered images to the public, in the hopes of receiving new information pertaining to the case.

After following every lead and reaching a dead end, on Dec. 18, 2018, the coroner’s office exhumed Doe’s remains to utilize advancements in DNA.

Forensic Odontologist, Denise C. Murmann, calculated her approximate age using “the molar development method” concluding her age to be “20.90 plus or minus 5.25 years.”

In January 2019, her femur was sent to the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification in Fort Worth, Texas, using a grant from the National Missing and Unidentified Person’s System and the Department of Justice.

The lab was able to develop a full female DNA profile. It was entered into the Combined DNA Index System where the national database continues to search for a potential matches nationwide.

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

The Doe project has been instrumental in moving the case forward, locating “several close” DNA matches in Jane “Seneca” Doe’s family tree.

Recently, the Doe project discovered what was “initially believed to be a half-sister” to the victim. However, a few weeks ago, the project learned that person is a first cousin to the victim from New York.

“We have had several close matches like this where it’s a first cousin, second cousin, somewhere in the tree. It just needs that right match, the right puzzle piece, so to speak. To find out who she is, within this family tree, and what her name is. What they say now is it’s possible that our Jane Doe was born in either Selma, AL. or Cincinnati, OH,” Johnson said.

Johnson said the Grundy County Coroner’s Office has excluded 28 missing persons from being a match, including follow-ups with out-of-state leads.

This case remains at the forefront of the Grundy County Coroner’s Office’s minds, at the anniversary of the discovery of Jane “Seneca” Doe, Coroner Callahan and Chief Deputy Corner Brandon Johnson, remember the victim by placing flowers and a portrait of how she may have appeared near the site of her discovery.

Johnson said it’s important to continue the tradition to “keep this case alive” and “show she is not forgotten”.

This case remains active. It continues to remain the subject of true crime podcasts, including “The Vanished” and “Crime Junkie.” It is listed on the FBI’s most wanted list, as well.

“The overall goal is to determine her identity and then give her proper closure to return her name back to her and hopefully rebury her with family or near family or in Braceville cemetery with a headstone with her name on it,” Johnson said.

A Facebook page devoted to helping identify the woman @grundycountycoldcase, posts updates on the case and other cold cases that have been solved.

The victim was between 15 and 27 years of age, with black hair, brown eyes, weighing about 150 pounds, and standing at 5-foot-7, and was found wearing a red, white and black cardigan-style knit sweater.

Anyone who recognizes her image or lost contact with a family member, friend, or loved one around Oct. 2, 1976, is urged to call Deputy Chief Coroner Brandon Johnson at 815-942-3792 or email bjohnson@grundycountyil.gov.