56-year-old Will County cold case to undergo DNA analysis

The skeletal remains of a 1968 homicide victim in Wilmington Township have been exhumed and sent to a company based in Texas for DNA analysis and a possible genealogy match.

On Friday, the woman’s remains were exhumed from Oakwood Protestant Cemetery in Wilmington and sent to Othram, a forensic genetic genealogy company based in Woodlands, Texas, according to a news release from Will County Coroner’s Office.

The coroner’s office has used Othram to identify bodies in other cold cases.

The woman’s body was found by a highway department worker on Sept. 30, 1968, on Interstate 55 near Blodgett Road, which is in Wilmington Township, according to the coroner’s office.

The woman’s body was covered by brush from a nearby tree.

“An autopsy performed indicated that the female had been strangled and sustained blunt force trauma to the head,” according to the coroner’s office.

The cold case unit with the coroner’s office and the Will County Sheriff’s Office were involved in the exhumation of the woman’s remains Friday.

The woman’s case will remain within the jurisdiction of the coroner’s office until her body has been identified, said Will County Sheriff’s Deputy Dan Jungles. Afterward, it will fall under the jurisdiction of the sheriff’s office, he said.

The woman’s body had no identification, clothing or jewelry, according to the coroner’s office. She was 5-foot-5 in height and weighed 135 pounds, according to the coroner’s office. Fingerprints obtained by police failed to lead to her identity.

In 2009, the woman’s remains were exhumed to obtain a DNA sample and sent to University of North Texas and later to the Smithsonian Institute of Paleontology, according to the coroner’s office.

The woman was suspected of having Native American ancestry and a 2017 study indicated she had Asian ancestry as well, according to the coroner’s office.