DNA testing advances decades-old Wisconsin cold case investigation

Investigators in Winnebago County, Wisconsin, have made a breakthrough in a decades-old cold case using genealogy-based DNA testing, the Daily Mail reported. Two teenage boys snorkeling in Winneconne found the skull of an unidentified woman, known as Wolf River Joanne Doe, in eight feet of water on 26 July 1985. [1]

The Winnebago County Sheriff's Office determined through DNA analysis that Mary Jane Connor is statistically probable to be the grandmother of the victim. Authorities continue to work to confirm the identity of the woman and find her killer. [1]

A cold case is an unsolved crime that is no longer part of an active criminal investigation, but one where new information can still emerge. [2]

As FTMQ News reported earlier, DNA evidence has previously helped resolve long-standing cold cases. In a separate case in Washington state, DNA evidence linked Miguel Urbano-Vazquez to the 2002 murder of Sharon Van Gilder, leading to his extradition from Mexico and subsequent conviction. [4]