Investigators, forensic technology help identify woman in 1968 cold case murder in Will County, Illinois
The Will County Coroner's Office released a major development in a half-century-old cold case.
On Thursday, the office released the name of the woman who was murdered in the county in 1968.
During that time, the headline read, 'Woman found dead.' Detectives in 1968 didn't know much more than that.
"It states in the report they did go back to look for any evidence, and they didn't find anything," cold case investigator Bill Sheehan said. "We could tell you that there was blunt force trauma, so she died that way."
In September 1968, highway workers found a woman's body in the woods along I-55 in Will County.
"We're like, 'this one's going to be hard if not unsolvable," Sheehan said.
Initial DNA testing of the remains in 2009 revealed the woman was Native American.
"I emailed all the tribes in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa," Sheehan said.
But the break in the case didn't come until help from experts in DNA.
"Their technology, it just blows my mind," Sheehan said.
Othram, a Houston-based company, specializes in forensic genetic genealogy.
"We build technology, a lot of it is DNA-based technology, that can help investigators immediately identify people associated with crime scenes," CEO David Mittelman said.
It wasn't the first time that they've helped Will County.
Identifying victims of cold cases, just like the one from 1968.
"A lead developed from Othram to a lady in Washington," Sheehan said.
Othram confirmed a family match and helped identify 33-year-old Martha Bassett.
Sheehan said he was at an outing when he learned a match was made.
"Well, you're going to laugh, I was at a golf outing," he said. "I jumped for joy. The guys I was with were like 'What's going on over there?' You know."
Martha is no longer missing, but plenty of questions still need to be answered.
"It's just the beginning of the story. Now, there's an investigation to determine what happened to her," Sheehan said.
