http://www.chicagotribune.com/subur...onian-will-county-st-0209-20160208-story.htmlWill County turns to Smithsonian to help identify victimsGene Sullivan, deputy chief with the Will County Coroner's Office, recently sought the help of the Smithsonian Institution and sketch artists in identifying three unidentified persons whose remains were found years ago. Sullivan shows what a man whose remains were found in 2008 might have looked like just before he died, and in his younger years. (Alicia Fabbre / Daily Southtown)
Alicia FabbreDaily Southtown
The photo hanging on Deputy Chief Gene Sullivan's bulletin board at the Will County Coroner's Office is only a part of the puzzle behind the remains that were found in a Will County Forest Preserve in 2008.
The man, believed to be in his 50s or 60s when he died, was found hanging from a tree. Investigators estimate he was there for three months before his remains were found. In the eight years since his body was discovered, however, no one has come forward to identify him.
"He (could be) somebody's dad," Sullivan said. "And they may be out there wondering (what happened)."
The man is one of 11 John or Jane Does whose remains were found in Will County according to NamUs, a national data base for missing and unidentified persons. Investigators are working to identify them.
"People have a right to be properly buried and to be returned to their families," Will County Coroner Patrick O'Neil said.
Sullivan recently sought help from the Smithsonian Institution and sketch artists with the hope of clearing up the mystery behind three of the county's unidentified persons cases. The other two cases both involve females who are believed to be homicide victims. In one case, the woman, believed to be in her 20s or 30s, was found in a wooded area off Interstate 55 near Blodgett Road in 1968. Investigators believe she was strangled. In the other case, the woman, believed to be in her early 20s to mid 30s, was found in 1981 off Interstate 80 near Route 30 in New Lenox.
Testing done on human remains at the Smithsonian helped provide a better picture of where the unidentified people were from, and a sketch artist was able to show what the people may have looked like when they were younger.
It's that same combination that helped a regional system administrator for NamUs identify a John Doe from Knoxville Tenn., in 2013. The man, who was 30 when he was last seen alive, was found dead in 1982. He had been shot to death a year earlier.
Amy Dobbs, who was a cold case investigator for Knox County, enlisted help from the Smithsonian to conduct isotope testing on the man's remains in 2013. A sketch artist also helped show what the man looked like in his younger years through an age-regression sketch.
Armed with test results from the Smithsonian showing the man had lived most of his life in Knox County and the age-regression drawing, Dobbs turned to media for help. Shortly after, another man saw the sketch and recognized the John Doe as his brother. Additional testing proved the suspicion true and Dobbs was able to positively identify the man known only as John Doe for more than 30 years.
"They were stunned," Dobbs recalled of the man's family, noting the age-regression sketch played a key role in identification.
"I can remember (the man's brother) putting his head down in his hand and saying 'Thank you, I always thought he had (voluntarily) left us,'" Dobbs said, noting the family did not know their loved one's disappearance involved a homicide.
Dobbs, who know manages a regional area for NamUs that includes Illinois, was the first to turn to the Smithsonian for isotope testing on human remains to aid in cold case investigations. Sullivan is believed to be the third to do so.
Isotope testing of human remains can help show a person's diet, where they spent most of their lives and where the lived most recently. Archaeologists have used this testing on recovered artifacts or remains to provide information about that particular civilization.
For cold case investigations, isotope testing can provide details critical in helping identify people. Teeth, for example, can help provide an area where the person lived as a child, Dobbs said. A person's hair and fingernails provide information on where the person lived at the time of their death.
"Technology continues to get better as far as the science behind DNA," Patrick O'Neil said.
In the case of the John Doe found in Will County, testing done by the Smithsonian narrowed the possible locations he lived to Canada, Alaska, the Northeastern United States, Minnesota or North Dakota. When the man was first found, investigators believed he may have been from Poland. In the case of the two women, the Jane Doe found in 1968 may have grown up in Canada, Newfoundland, Alaska or the Northeastern United States. Testing also showed that in her last year alive, she may have traveled through the Midwest and Southwest. The woman found in 1981 likely grew up in the Upper Midwest, Southwest and Northeastern United States and spent a large portion of her life in the Northeastern United States, Southeast Canada and possibly Nova Scotia and the Upper Midwest.
Will County authorities have turned to the Smithsonian Institution and sketch artists in hopes they will help identify the remains of people found years ago. This is a sketch of what they believe a woman found dead along Interstate 80 in New Lenox in 1981 might have looked like. - Original Credit: Daily Southtown
(namus.gov / HANDOUT)
Sullivan hopes the information — which was added to the NamUs data base — will aid in finally identifying the John and Jane Does from Will County. He noted the NamUs data base also is used to help secure information about missing persons and that information from unidentified persons often is cross-referenced with missing persons reports to see if there is a match.
"The more information we get and the more information the police departments get in (the data base), the better the chance that this program will make a match," Sullivan said.
Information about the unidentified persons cases can be found at
www.namus.gov.The three Will County cases mentioned are filed under unidentified persons case numbers 5211 (unidentified female found in 1968), 3153 (unidentified female found in 1981) and 5263 (unidentified male found in 2008).
Alicia Fabbre is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.