Author Topic: BERRIEN COUNTY JANE DOE: WF, 65-75, found along Krueger Road in garbage bags - 23 August 1992  (Read 627 times)

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http://www.harborcountry-news.com/f...cle_fb07b6ba-b71b-50cf-a9df-125187ff85a8.html

20 years later, she’s still a mystery

Police seeking identity of woman whose handless, toothless body was found in New Buffalo Township
By Julie Swidwa
For the News
Sep 5, 2012

Facial reconstruction of a Jane Doe was completed by a Michigan State Police forensic artist using the victim's skull in 1992

NILES — The identity of a woman’s body found in 1992 remains unknown after 20 years, and the Michigan State Police Niles Post is again asking the public for help in identifying her.

Trooper Jeffery Oudman said the woman died of natural causes. But someone had cut off her hands, removed her teeth, tied her up in garbage bags and dumped her body. Detectives theorize that someone close to the woman wanted to hide her death to continue collecting money or benefits, Oudman said. He said fingerprints and teeth, in this case dentures, are tools police use to identify a person.

“Without those, it makes an ID of a body almost impossible,” he said.

The body was found on Aug. 23, 1992, by a person walking along Krueger Road east of Red Arrow Highway in New Buffalo Township. A medical examiner determined the victim had been dead for four to seven days before being dumped along the road, about 24 hours before being found. The body was wrapped in a sheet, towel and garbage bags and then bound with twine.

Oudman said that when a body is found, the case is treated as a homicide until proven otherwise.

“As additional information surfaced, it was determined that it was not a homicide and that she died due to an illness,” he said.

Oudman said an autopsy done in 1992 indicated that the woman had been in poor health, and said she probably had a caretaker.

The victim was a white female with white hair and brown eyes who was between 65 and 75 years old at her death. She was about 5 feet 2, weighed 103 pounds and wore dentures. Anyone with infor mation is asked to contact the MSP Niles Post at (269) 683-4411.