A mystery 41 years in the making

SANDUSKY — A unidentified body found in Lake Erie near Sandusky more than four decades ago could soon be identified. The body of a woman was found by police near Cedar Point Road, also known as the Cedar Point Chaussee, 41 years ago. She was clothed in a dress and did not have any form of identification. Law enforcement officials, using a new technique called genetic genealogy, hope to finally learn the woman's identity. Genetic genealogy uses a known DNA profile to construct a family tree from DNA databases like 23andMe. Genetic genealogy is being used to solve decades-old cold cases across the U.S. What happened? According to a Sandusky police report, just after 8 a.m. on Sunday, March 30, 1980, first responders were called to the lakefront in the 1200 block of Cedar Point Road for a body floating in the water. Sandusky firefighters retrieved the body, which was that of a white woman who was approximately 5-feet, 6-inches tall and weighed about 120 pounds. The body was badly decomposed and had no identifying features like hair, scars or jewelry. According to a 2021 news release from Sandusky police, the unidentified woman was clothed in a size 12 "disco style" party dress. The body was sent to the Cuyahoga County coroner's office for an autopsy. Sandusky police Lt. Scott Dahlgren said that, in 1980, detectives would have looked at any in-house missing persons reports as well as those from outside agencies. The detectives would have looked for initial similarities such as gender and physical build. Detectives would have also looked for scars and tattoos. More than 40 years later, the body — known as "Jane Doe" still does not have a known identity. Jane Doe, like John Doe, is a term used when the true name of a person is unknown or is being intentionally concealed. In this case, it's the former. Federal involvement U.S. Marshal Peter Elliott, from the Cleveland U.S. Marshals' office, reached out to Sandusky police in 2020 about the body. Elliott believed the Sandusky Jane Doe may be related to a missing person case the Marshals were working on at that time. Sandusky police Detective Gary Wichman began working on the Sandusky Jane Doe case with assistance from Elliott. Wichman has since retired, and the case was taken on by Detective Eric Costante. "For the families, this is a worst-case scenario," Costante said. "A loved one is missing, and the family has no answers." In October 2020, police drafted a letter to Erie County coroner Brian Baxter seeking authorization to exhume the Sandusky Jane Doe's body for the purpose of obtaining a DNA sample. Baxter authorized the exhumation. The remains were sent to the Lucas County coroner's office which successfully obtained a DNA profile for the woman. The woman's remains were then reinterred at Sandhill Cemetery in Castalia. The next step was to compare the profile to a possible match. One local missing persons case, also involving a woman, has already been ruled out. According to case information in the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, in 1978, 21-year-old Paula Lynch left home to see the country. Her family has not seen her since. In 2013, Lynch's family members provided DNA samples to Wichman. He then turned them over to the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation. The purpose of the samples was to attempt to find a match in government-administered DNA databases. At that time, police were not actively investigating the Sandusky Jane Doe case. The profiles were entered into the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, also known as NamUs. After the Lucas County coroner's office obtained the Sandusky Jane Doe's DNA, it was compared against the samples provided by Lynch's family members. It was determined the body was not Lynch, whose whereabouts are still unknown. The Sandusky Jane Doe's DNA was then compared against profiles in the Combined DNA Index System, which is a national DNA database administered by the FBI. The woman's profile did not match any profiles in CODIS. Subsequently, Jane Doe's DNA profile was entered into NamUs. New technique An emerging tool that law enforcement agencies are using more frequently is genetic genealogy. This process has been used to capture criminals and identify bodies. In 2018, Joseph James DeAngelo was arrested by Sacramento County sheriff's deputies on suspicion that he was the Golden State Killer, a serial killer and rapist who terrorized California between 1974 and 1986, according to a 2019 article, "The Killer Inside Us," by Joseph Zabel. Two years later, the 75-year-old DeAngelo pleaded guilty to 13 counts of first-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. According to Stephen Stirling, writing for NJ.com, police had the suspect's DNA from the 1980 rape and murder of Charlene Smith. Investigators uploaded this profile to GEDmatch, a website that compares DNA profiles to determine possible family members. A success story posted on the website of nonprofit organization DNA Doe Project states that a body was discovered in a culvert along Interstate 35 in Georgetown, Texas, in 1979. It was finally identified 40 years later thanks to genetic genealogy. The victim had been known colloquially as "Orange Socks" because that was the only clothing on the corpse when it was discovered. Through genetic genealogy, the DNA Doe Project was able to identify the victim as Debra Jackson. The project had identified a potential cousin of Orange Socks through its research. Jackson's sister provided a DNA sample that confirmed the body's identity. After a DNA sample from an unknown victim or suspect is obtained, researchers then use publicly available DNA databases, such as Family Tree DNA and GEDmatch, to identify users who may be related to the unidentified body. Relatives are inferred by constructing one or more family trees. Police can then narrow their search on a very small population. In the case of victims, police ask inferred family members for DNA samples to confirm identities. For suspects, police can surreptitiously obtain a sample from an item discarded by the suspect such as a cigarette butt or beverage can. In search of John and Jane Doe Dr. Colleen Fitzpatrick and Margaret Press founded the DNA Doe Project in 2017. The organization's mission is to identify deceased persons through the use of genetic genealogy. DNA Doe Project's first success came in 2018 with the identification of the Miami County Jane Doe case, as Arkansas native Marcia L. King. Her body was found dumped in a ditch in Troy, Ohio, near Dayton According to the group's website, they have given names to 42 previously unidentified bodies through the use of genetic genealogy. The process, though, is expensive, costing $4,000 to $8,000 or more according to Costante. He noted that Ohio's BCI would not pay for the work. Sandusky police, a taxpayer-subsidized operation, did not have the funds required to pursue this investigative route. A new light The U.S. Marshal's Service in Cleveland had previously worked with the Porchlight Project on genetic genealogy cases. The project is an Ohio-based charitable organization that provides funding to help solve cold cases through the use of genetic genealogy. According to its website, the Porchlight Project's first case led to an arrest in the murder of Barbara Blatnik. Blatnik, a 17-year old, was found nude and strangled five days before Christmas in 1987 near Blossom Music Center, a popular concert venue for musical acts, in Cuyahoga Falls. In May 2020, James Zastawnik was arrested in Cleveland for the slaying. The Akron Beacon Journal reported that Zastawnik died of cancer in August while waiting to stand trial. Project Porchlight worked with Bode Technology in these cases. According to its website, Bode offers many investigative services for law enforcement including sexual assault kit testing, DNA databasing, and rapid DNA testing. Samples from Sandusky Jane Doe's case were sent to Bode's laboratory in Lorton, Virginia on November 17. Costante did not estimate when the Jane Doe's results would be complete. According to Zabel's article, the research required to arrest the Golden State Killer took months as police sifted through 25 potential family trees. The correct family tree had over 1,000 members in it. Dahlgren expressed excitement to be working with the Porchlight Project and Bode Technology to bring this case to a close. "We hope to be able to bring closure to a woman's family who have lived far too long without knowing the whereabouts of their loved one," Dahlgren said. "Our agency hopes that we can now bring a sense of closure and comfort to them." Costante added, "we're not stopping just because (this case) is over forty years old."