DIR Return Create A Forum - Home
---------------------------------------------------------
The Lost and the Found
HTML https://theunidentified.createaforum.com
---------------------------------------------------------
*****************************************************
DIR Return to: Identified!
*****************************************************
#Post#: 2935--------------------------------------------------
CHAMPAIGN COUNTY JANE DOE: WF, 16-29 - remains found in ditch
southwest Thomasboro, IL - May 1, 1995 *Keri Lyn Wyant*
DIR By: Scorpio
Date: February 20, 2020, 12:18 am
---------------------------------------------------------
HTML http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/images/220UFIL9_LARGE.jpg
HTML https://www.namus.gov/UnidentifiedPersons/Case#/5325
Sheriff's Department was notified in the early afternoon of May
1, 1995 that bones had been discovered along a ditch in Section
#36 of Condit Township. The bones were primarily located in a
harvested corn field with some bones discovered near the
drainage ditch. Bones were confirmed to be human skeletal
remains by the Forensic Anthropologist. The skeletal remains
were scattered over a large area presumably by wild animals.
Clothing, hair, and jewelry were discovered in the same area.
#Post#: 2936--------------------------------------------------
Re: CHAMPAIGN COUNTY JANE DOE: WF, 16-29 - remains found in
ditch southwest Thomasboro, IL - May 1,
DIR By: Scorpio
Date: February 20, 2020, 12:18 am
---------------------------------------------------------
HTML http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/220ufil.html
HTML http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/images/220UFIL.jpg<br
/>
HTML http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/images/220UFIL1.jpg<br
/>
HTML http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/images/220UFIL2.jpg<br
/>
HTML http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/images/220UFIL3.jpghttp://www.doenetwork.org/cases/images/220UFIL4.jpg<br
/>
HTML http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/images/220UFIL5.jpg<br
/>
HTML http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/images/220UFIL6.jpg<br
/>
HTML http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/images/220UFIL7.jpg<br
/>
HTML http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/images/220UFIL8.jpg
Reconstructions by Catyana Falsetti and the Champaign County
Sheriff's Office; Rings and blouse.
Date of Discovery: May 1, 1995
Location of Discovery: Thomasboro, Champaign County, Illinois
Estimated Date of Death: 11 months prior
State of Remains: Partial skeletal
Cause of Death: Homicide
Physical Description
Estimated Age: 16-29 years old
Race: White
Sex: Female
Height: 5'1" to 5'9"
Weight: Unknown, but had medium to heavy build.
Hair Color: Straight, dark brown hair with a reddish tint.
Eye Color: Unknown
Distinguishing Marks/Features: She may have had one or more
children, probably through Cesarean birth. She may had early
athletic or dance training, such as gymnastics, ballet or figure
skating, based on the leg bone structure.
Identifiers
Dentals: Available.
Fingerprints: Not available.
DNA: Available.
Clothing & Personal Items
Clothing: The victim's clothing was found in the field by
police. A white, v-collared, short-sleeved blouse. It was a size
medium and had buttons on both the front and the back.
Additionally, there was a pocket on the left side, and bares a
Huntington Ridge label. A pair of sweatpants were also located.
Jewelry: Two rings were also located nearby. One was a plain,
gold band. A second was a yellow-metal ring with stones set in a
circular pattern with a dark green center.
Additional Personal Items: Unknown.
Circumstances of Discovery
The skeletal remains of this victim were found May 1, 1995, in a
ditch and cornfield along Champaign County Road 2400N near 1200E
southwest of Thomasboro.
An agricultural service worker came across a bone and some
clothing while preparing a field for planting. Police recovered
additional remains when they were called to the scene.
The body is estimated to have been placed in the field between
May 1994 and October 1994. The Champaign County Coroner has
ruled the female's death a homicide. They were unable to
determine the cause of death, although there is a possibility
that she died from multiple gunshot wounds.
Reexamination of the woman's bones suggested she was between 16
and 29; previous estimations ranged from 19 to 41.
Isotope analysis of the remains suggested she may have been born
near southeast Illinois; Nashville, Tennesee; Springfield,
Missouri; or Topeka, Kansas. It is thought she resided locally
in the five years preceding her death.
Genetic genealogy research is also being used in the case.
Investigating Agency(s)
Agency Name: Champaign County Coroner's Office
Agency Contact Person: Duane Northrup
Agency Phone Number: 217-384-3888 or 217-384-1204
Agency Email: Unknown
Agency Case Number: 1995-05-005
Agency Name: Champaign County Sheriff's Office
Agency Contact Person: Dwayne Roelfs
Agency Phone Number: 217-384-1213
Agency Email: Unknown
Agency Case Number: S95-1510
NCIC Case Number: U830642962
NamUs Case Number: 5325
#Post#: 2937--------------------------------------------------
Re: CHAMPAIGN COUNTY JANE DOE: WF, 16-29 - remains found in
ditch southwest Thomasboro, IL - May 1,
DIR By: Scorpio
Date: February 20, 2020, 12:19 am
---------------------------------------------------------
HTML https://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/courts-police-fire/authorities-jane-doe-found-in-likely-grew-up-lived-in/article_3a1bd3c8-6601-52db-aa4a-83be62153a31.html
Authorities: Jane Doe found in 1995 likely grew up, lived in
Midwest
URBANA — It’s been 24 years since a man who was about to spray
some weeds in a farm ditch southwest of Thomasboro found a human
bone and clothing, which led to the discovery of almost an
entire female skeleton.
n all that time, local authorities have been unable to identify
her. But given advances in science, Champaign County Coroner
Duane Northrup now knows that Jane Doe is from the Midwest.
“We never knew that before,” Northrup said Wednesday. “We are
fairly hopeful we are going to get her identified in the
not-too-distant future.”
While that may not sound all that promising to the untrained
observer, it is huge to Northrup and Champaign County sheriff’s
investigator Dwayne Roelfs, who have worked together for years
to identify the remains found on May 1, 1995, in a farm field on
County Road 2400 N between 1200 E and 1300 E in the southeast
corner of Condit Township, about 2 miles southwest of
Thomasboro.
They presented updated information on the woman to reporters
Wednesday in hopes that it will spread and they can learn who
she is.
Knowing that is the first step in learning who killed her,
either by blunt-force trauma or multiple gunshots, information
they’ve known for years. They are not sure if she died in the
field or was put there after her violent death.
Dynamic investigation
Northrup has been coroner since 2004 and worked part-time as a
deputy coroner for three years prior to that. Jane Doe is the
only unidentified person among his office’s case files in all
that time.
Roelfs, who was a road deputy in 1995, inherited the case in
2004 from the late Lynn Boise, who worked on it almost a decade
before he retired.
Boise died earlier this year, still not knowing her name, but
being kept up to speed by Roelfs on new developments.
The latest development, one of many in the last two years,
involved the testing of isotopes taken from her remains, a
relatively recent procedure.
“Isotopes can be absorbed from the food you eat, the water you
drink, the air you breathe,” Northrup said.
He explained that depending on where the isotopes are found in
the body, it can suggest how long a person was in a certain
region of the country and when.
Based on what analysts came up with from isotopes taken from
Jane Doe’s tooth enamel, they believe she was “most likely” born
in Urbana; southeastern Illinois; Nashville, Tenn.; Springfield,
Mo.; or the area north of Topeka, Kan.
Cold case Jane Doe09
From isotopes developed from her rib, they believe the last
areas where she may have lived long-term are northern Arkansas;
Huntsville, Ala. (northern Alabama); Springfield, Mo.
(southwestern Missouri); or Topeka, Kan. (eastern Kansas).
“She definitely seems to be in the Midwest primarily,” Northrup
said. “We do not believe she had been living in Illinois in the
five years prior to her death.”
Group effort
Besides Northrup and Roelfs, the case has had major assistance
through the years from two forensic anthropologists and one
forensic odontologist. The analyses of both her skeleton and her
teeth have been updated in the last two years.
A drawing of what the woman’s face may have looked like was also
updated, appearing much more lifelike than earlier renditions.
Northrup said Jane Doe’s jawbone and teeth, which were
substantially intact, revealed she never had any major
restorative teeth work, but there was damage or substantial
staining to a lower left tooth. That damage could have been
present before her death or happened after.
Northrup is hoping that if she had the defect while living,
someone might have noticed. The odontologist estimated her age,
based on her teeth, at between 16 and 25.
Other experts who built on earlier facial reconstructions and
skeletal analyses now believe that she was white and primarily
of European or possibly Hispanic descent, between 18 and 29
years old, and between 5-foot-1 and 5-foot-9.
Cold case Jane Doe06
Robin Scholz
She also had overextended forearms on both sides, a condition
she may not have been aware of but that family members could
have, had she been medically diagnosed, Northrup said.
Linda Klepinger, a University of Illinois forensic
anthropologist involved when Jane Doe’s remains were first
found, opined that she may have been a gymnast, ballerina,
dancer, figure skater or some other athlete based on the
structure of her leg bones, and that she may have given birth.
The more recent analysis couldn’t confirm those opinions based
on today’s methodologies, Northrup said.
National database help
Roelfs said that at one time, he had a spreadsheet with as many
as 300 names of missing women on it that he believed could have
been Jane Doe.
In 2009, all the information he and Northrup have about the
remains was put into the National Missing and Unidentified
Persons System database. Using its ability to automatically
cross-check DNA to known missing people, Roelfs has been able to
whittle his list down.
#Post#: 2938--------------------------------------------------
Re: CHAMPAIGN COUNTY JANE DOE: WF, 16-29 - remains found in
ditch southwest Thomasboro, IL - May 1,
DIR By: Scorpio
Date: February 20, 2020, 12:19 am
---------------------------------------------------------
HTML https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/news-gazette.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/ea/dea8bfec-10b5-5749-acd4-c97a516361c6/5dba96e4b4ce3.image.jpg
Based on what analysts came up with from isotopes taken from
Jane Doe’s tooth enamel, they believe she was “most likely” born
in Urbana; southeastern Illinois; Nashville, Tenn.; Springfield,
Mo.; or the area north of Topeka, Kan.
#Post#: 2939--------------------------------------------------
Re: CHAMPAIGN COUNTY JANE DOE: WF, 16-29 - remains found in
ditch southwest Thomasboro, IL - May 1,
DIR By: Scorpio
Date: February 20, 2020, 12:19 am
---------------------------------------------------------
HTML https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/news-gazette.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/7/c2/7c2be1df-2ee7-56fb-bed7-f8a77493e1ce/5dba96e4beb54.image.jpg
Location of where the remains were found.
#Post#: 2940--------------------------------------------------
Re: CHAMPAIGN COUNTY JANE DOE: WF, 16-29 - remains found in
ditch southwest Thomasboro, IL - May 1,
DIR By: Scorpio
Date: February 20, 2020, 12:19 am
---------------------------------------------------------
HTML https://www.kctv5.com/news/investigations/this--year-old-mystery-is-something-law-enforcement-hope/article_b68b6e28-0167-11ea-8bd8-97ec99bfaa07.html
This 25-year-old mystery is something law enforcement hope you
can crack
KANSAS CITY, MO (KCTV) -- A cold case mystery in Champaign
County, Illinois, might have a local connection.
Investigators recently tested bones and discovered information
that now points them to the Midwest.
“She’s somebody’s daughter, somebody’s sister… maybe somebody
knows her to think someone forgotten like that left for dead so
to speak it tugs at you it tugs at you,” said investigator
Dwayne Roelfs with the Champaign County Illinois Sheriff's
Office.
On May 1, 1995, a woman bones were found in a field.
Investigators believe the woman was murdered.
For decades, it’s been a local mystery but now investigators are
reaching out to other states due to isotope testing on the
woman’s bones.
“It shows a migratory pattern and migratory behavior on her
part. She didn’t stay put in one place,” said Roelfs.
Roelfs explained scientists can analyze isotopes in teeth to
predict where a person was born, rib bones predict where a
person lived in the past 5 years. Femurs contain information
that can be 10-20 years old.
Based on that isotope testing, investigators were given a map.
“When I got the map it looked like a weather map like a radar
front or rain storm,” said Roelfs.
Scientist have even been able to draw circles on the map of the
most likely birth spots and where the woman recently lived.
If the woman was alive today, she would be anywhere from 44 -53
years old.
If you have any information or recognize the woman, please
contact:
Investigator Dwayne Roelfs
204 E. Main St. Urbana, IL 61801
217-384-1213 ext. 1621
droelfs@co.champaign.il.us
#Post#: 2941--------------------------------------------------
Re: CHAMPAIGN COUNTY JANE DOE: WF, 16-29 - remains found in
ditch southwest Thomasboro, IL - May 1,
DIR By: Scorpio
Date: February 20, 2020, 12:20 am
---------------------------------------------------------
[img]
HTML https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/kctv5.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/1d/d1d68db2-0102-11ea-be18-5fdbd8ade84a/5dc37b7d08d22.image.jpg?resize=1200%2C675[/img]
#Post#: 2942--------------------------------------------------
Re: CHAMPAIGN COUNTY JANE DOE: WF, 16-29 - remains found in
ditch southwest Thomasboro, IL - May 1,
DIR By: Scorpio
Date: February 20, 2020, 12:20 am
---------------------------------------------------------
[img]
HTML https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/kctv5.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/4b/d4b35d30-0102-11ea-80f3-9fa309137239/5dc37b81cbf23.image.jpg?resize=1200%2C675[/img]
#Post#: 9393--------------------------------------------------
Re: CHAMPAIGN COUNTY JANE DOE: WF, 16-29 - remains found in
ditch southwest Thomasboro, IL - May 1, 1995
DIR By: Scorpio
Date: October 21, 2020, 6:51 am
---------------------------------------------------------
HTML https://www.wandtv.com/news/jane-doe-identified-in-1995-central-il-cold-case-help-needed-from-public/article_306acd90-1307-11eb-afa4-73f08ef8a405.html?fbclid=IwAR3MXFdgZQDZl-1nffAB3gnUbjVoZIigxQTrjKKQhsYok1LnBTT5vZPlna0
Jane Doe identified in 1995 Central IL cold case; help needed
from public
Oct 20, 2020
CHAMPAIGN COUNTY, Ill. (WAND) - Champaign County Sheriff Dustin
Heuerman announced Tuesday investigators have identified the
remains of a woman found in rural Champaign County in 1995.
Through genealogy, a team was able to construct a family tree
and located Jane Doe's parents. This led to identifying the
woman as Keri Lyn Wyant. Wyant was born on Oct. 18, 1972, and
she would have been 23 years old when she was killed.
Her last known whereabouts were documented as working for a
carnival.
On May 1, 1995 in rural Thomasboro, an agriculture service
worker found bones and some clothing while helping a farmer
prepare for planting. Police were called and more bones were
found in the area. An autopsy determined the bones and body
could have been placed in the field 11 months prior to being
found. At the time, the coroner ruled the death a homicide.
Sheriff Heuerman said his office, the coroner's office and
genealogists worked to identify Wyant. In February 2020, a DNA
profile was established, and through that it linked to the
family tree and parents of Wyant.
Investigators started to retrack her life prior to her homicide.
Champaign County Coroner Duane Northrup said a lot of the
companies she worked with are no longer, so they request anyone
who knew or worked with Wyant to call police.
"We hope anyone who worked with her during those times would
know the associates or people she hung around," said Northrup.
Wyant attended Galva High School in Galva in 1989 and 1990, but
never graduated. She moved out of her parents' house and lived
with other family members before moving to Peoria for a short
time.
Investigators said she then spent some time in Little Rock,
Ark., before appearing back in Illinois.
In February 1994, investigators said Wyant was seven months
pregnant and had nowhere to stay, so she moved in with a friend
in Kewanne. Wyant went on to have a boy.
In the summer of 1994, she left her son with a friend and joined
joined Swyear amusements out of New Athens at a carnival they
were operating at the Henry County Fair. The amusement company
held venues at the Sangamon County Fair, Granite City
Celebration and Fisher Fair before focusing on venues in
Arkansas. Investigators said this was her last known
whereabouts.
The Fisher Fair usually is in July, and the sheriff's office is
looking into if she would have been at the fair in 1994.
Heuerman said she had no record or ties of spending time in
Champaign County area. He said the amusement company could not
positively confirm her employment because it did not have
records of employment from that far back.
Northrup detailed her employment before she went missing.
Investigators ask anyone who worked with her to contact police.
1990 - spent time working for Gustavos Tacos in Galva, Ill.
1990 - she also worked for a Market Street Cafe on Market
Street in Galva, Ill.
1990 - worked at a Hardees in Galesburg.
1990-1991 - worked at a Taco House on Center Avenue in
Galva.
1991 - worked for a couple in Abingdon, Ill.
1991 - worked for Parco Limited a franchisee company for
Wendy's restaurants.
1992 - worked for a company owned by Springwood Associates
in New York, but worked locally in Illinois
1993 - worked for Bilco Enterprises, which oversees Dunkin
Donuts, including the one located on Knvoville Avenue in Peoria.
1993 - worked for either BJ's or BJ restaurant on Richwoods
Boulevard in Peoria.
1993 - worked for I-10 gas station and restaurant in Fina,
Texas for a short time.
1994 - worked for Swyear amusements out of New Athens, Ill.
The sheriff's office said it has since learned the son died when
he was 7 years old when a vehicle hit him while riding his
bicycle. Her parents told investigators they had no prior
contact with Wyant after she moved out of their home in 1990.
The genetic and genealogy was used at no cost to the sheriff's
office or coroner's office. A crime TV show reached out to help
in this case and covered the cost. The TV show is called the
Unknown Doe Project.
This is a developing story. More details to follow.
#Post#: 9394--------------------------------------------------
Re: CHAMPAIGN COUNTY JANE DOE: WF, 16-29 - remains found in
ditch southwest Thomasboro, IL - May 1, 1995
DIR By: Scorpio
Date: October 21, 2020, 6:53 am
---------------------------------------------------------
[img]
HTML https://www.wcia.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/44/2020/10/Champaign-County-Jane-Doe-10202020-2.jpg?resize=480,241[/img]
Keri Lyn Wyant
*****************************************************
Page 1 of 1