The Lost and the Found

https://identifyus.org/en/cases/2622

NamUs UP # 2622

ME/C Case Number: G-300-75
Clinton County, Iowa
12 to 23 year old Black/African American Female

Case Report - NamUs UP # 2622
Case Information
Status Unidentified
Case number G-300-75
Date found April 11, 1975 00:00
Date created September 04, 2008 13:08
Date last modified February 08, 2017 10:59
Investigating agency
date QA reviewed May 02, 2011 09:10

Local Contact (ME/C or Other)
There is currently no local contact for this case.
Case Manager
Name John Kraemer, PA
Phone 515.725.1400

Demographics
Estimated age Adult - Pre 30
Minimum age 12 years
Maximum age 23 years
Race Black/African American
Ethnicity
Sex Female
Weight (pounds) 100, Estimated
Height (inches) 62, Estimated
Body Parts Inventory (Check all that apply)
All parts recovered
Body conditions
Not recognizable - Decomposing/putrefaction

Probable year of death 1975 to 1975

Circumstances
Location Found
GPS coordinates
Address 1 River
Address 2
City
State Iowa
Zip code
County Clinton
Circumstances
The body of an African American female between the age of 12 and 23 was found in a river in Clinton County, Iowa on April 11, 1975. No clothing or jewelry were found on the body. The decedent is estimated to be between 5 feet, 2 inches and 5 feet, 4 inches in height, weight between 100 to 120 pounds, having a medium build and black hair. The decedent was noted on autopsy examination to be approximately 10 weeks pregnant. Death is estimated to have occurred sometime in early 1975.

Physical
Hair color Black
Head hair
Black Hair

Other medical
information
Autopsy findings show decedent was approximately 10 weeks pregnant.

No clothing or accessories

Dental
Status: Dental information / charting is currently not available

DNA
Status: Complete - Insufficient DNA for profiling

Images
There are currently no images available for this case.

https://iowacoldcases.org/case-summaries/unidentified-pregnant-black-female-1975/

Unidentified: Pregnant Black Female
Homicide
Approx. 12 – 23 YOA
Race: Black/African American
Sex: Female
Weight: 100 to 120, Estimated
Height: 5’2″ – 5’4″, Estimated
Found in Mississippi River
Clinton County, IA
NamUs UP # 2622
Body Discovered April 11, 1975
Probable Year of Death: 1975

Case Summary compiled by Jody Ewing

       

On Friday, April 11, 1975, a commercial fisherman from Sabula discovered a woman’s **** body in the Mississippi River near a mud bar north of Clinton, Iowa, about a half mile south of the Clinton County and Jackson County line. Officials believed the young woman — an African American — to be in her early 20s though stated she may have been as young as 12.

She had been killed by a gunshot wound to the head, just behind her right ear. The badly decomposed body made it difficult to determine exact time of death, though officials estimated it as sometime in early 1975.

An autopsy indicated the victim was approximately 10 weeks pregnant at the time of death.

Forty-year-old Raymond Woodhurst and his 16-year-old son, Lloyd, found the woman’s body after a neighbor told them earlier that week that he’d seen an animal or body in the river.

Woodhurst and his son went out in their boat the following Friday, and once they discovered the woman’s body went immediately back to shore to telephone police.

The woman was described as being between 5’2″ and 5’4″, weighing 100 to 120 pounds and being of average build with black hair.

Police followed up on several leads, checking reports of missing women from East Dubuque, Ill, all the way to North Carolina, but all led to dead ends.

Fingerprints and dental charts were made, but those, too, proved unsuccessful in determining the woman’s identity or identifying any suspects that may have been involved in her murder.

The woman had no tattoos on her body, and DNA was not yet advanced to the point where strands of hair could have been taken and submitted for testing. Facts about the woman’s case were entered into the National Crime Information Computer System with hopes of obtaining a possible match with a missing-person report, but that, too, has thus far failed to provide any answers.

More than 26 years after the body’s discovery, Clinton County Sheriff Rick Lincoln told the Quad-City Times that her death still haunts investigators, but that they just never had enough clues to help pinpoint who she was or why she was killed.

“Some of the older deputies who were around then said maybe somebody out of Chicago or Milwaukee had a pregnant girlfriend and got rid of her. We might never know,” Lincoln said in the August 6, 2001 Times article.

The decedent was buried in an unmarked grave in a Clinton cemetery. She remains Iowa’s oldest unidentified body.

Information Needed
If you have any information about this unidentified woman please contact the Clinton County Sheriff’s Office at 563-242-9211.

Sources:
Iowa Unidentified Persons/Bodies, Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation
Clinton County Sheriff’s Office
NamUs — National Missing and Unidentified Persons System
“1975 death remains unsolved,” by Kay Luna, Quad-City Times, Aug. 6, 2001
“Can’t Identify Body in River,” Des Moines Register, April 17, 1975

Lighthouse on the Mississippi River in Clinton County, IA



Authorities say they've pulled a man's body from the Mississippi River in Clinton County.



Clinton, IA: Mississippi View