It took more than 50 years for Iowa investigators to identify the body of a pregnant 15-year-old Jane Doe. Believed to be the longest Jane Doe case in the state, the family of Cheryl Lynn Edwards is now searching for her killer.
Edwards’ body was first pulled from the Mississippi River on April 11, 1975, near Clinton, Iowa, according to ABC 7 News. She had been fatally shot in the head, and authorities soon ruled her death a homicide. Officials also determined the young girl was 10 weeks pregnant at the time of her death. But, with little to work with, detectives were unable to identify the victim or her killer.
At the same time, the Edwards family began their search for their missing loved one. Little did they know her body had been recovered about 170 miles from her home, according to ABC News. Fifty years later, advances in DNA technology and years of investigative work finally solved the mystery of her identity.
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The breakthrough came after the Clinton County Sheriff’s Office partnered with the DNA Doe Project, according to a press release. Investigators first developed a DNA profile from preserved evidence collected during the original investigation. That profile was uploaded to public genealogy databases, where Edwards’ distant relatives were identified, KWQC reported.
Authorities announced the identification last month.
“What we do is when there is DNA available, it goes to a lab first. They create what is called a profile that we then upload to the databases that are accessible to the public,” Monique Platt, the team’s lead investigative genetic genealogist, told KWQC. ”We can use ‘GEDmatch,’ we can use ‘Family Tree DNA,’ and we can use a nonprofit one called ‘DNA Justice.”
Genealogists then spent months piecing together family trees, tracing multiple generations of descendants and ancestors. They even compared census records, birth and death certificates, newspaper archives and other historical documents, according to the outlet. Researchers eventually narrowed Edwards’ DNA possibilities to one couple in Louisiana, whose oldest child relocated to Waukegan, Illinois– where Edwards lived before her death.
“We knew she existed, but that was it,” Platt continued. “There was nothing else after that on paper.”
According to birth records, that oldest child had a daughter, Edwards, who went missing in the mid-1970s. Before her disappearance, Edwards lived a regular life as a 15-year-old in Waukegan. She was the daughter of Bernice and Leonard Edwards, both of whom have since died, according to PEOPLE.
Detectives obtained DNA samples from Edwards’ surviving relatives and connected the dots.
Authorities said Edwards’ identification marks the end of one investigation but the beginning of another. Now, authorities are focused on reconstructing the final weeks of her life, determining how she ended up 170 miles from Waukegan and identifying the person responsible for her murder.
Anyone with information connected to Edwards’ disappearance can contact the Clinton County Sheriff’s Office at (563)212-9211 or Clinton County Crimestoppers by emailing mpicinfo@dps.state.ia.us.
