Grundy County Jane Doe

The Vanished Podcast

Wondery

True Crime, Society & Culture, Cold Case, Investigative, Find The Missing, Vanished, Missing Persons, Documentary, News, Disappeared, Exhibit C

4.5 • 15K Ratings

🗓️ 11 February 2019

⏱️ 85 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On October 2, 1976, a farmer and his young granddaughter were riding a tractor through the fields of Seneca, Illinois. The farmer saw what he thought to be a deer laying in a ditch and wanted to show his granddaughter. As he approached, he found a young woman, nude, her head covered in a plastic bag and a sweater. The farmer drove back home and notified authorities. Soon after, the Grundy County Sheriff’s officers arrived and found a young black woman dead of a gunshot wound to the head. Authorities tried to identify the woman but no one came forward. They were unable to match her to any missing persons reports. Six weeks later, on Thanksgiving Day, she was buried in an unmarked grave in a local cemetery. 43 years later, she remains unidentified. On this episode of The Vanished, we are taking a look at the other side of missing persons cases; the unidentified.

Jane Doe's case was re-opened last year. Deputy Coroner Brandon Johnson and Chief Coroner John Callahan join us to speak about their mission to give Jane Doe her name back. This episode also includes an interview with Cook County Detective Sergeant Jason Moran who is assisting with Jane Doe's case and also working to identify the remaining unidentified victims of serial killer John Wayne Gacy. Finally, we spoke to Dr. Colleen Fitzpatrick from the DNA Doe Project about what they are doing to help solve cold cases just like Jane Doe's.

If you have any information about Jane Doe’s identity or her murder, please contact Grundy County Deputy Coroner Brandon Johnson at 815-941-3359 or email him at [email protected].

You can follow Jane Doe’s story on Facebook at facebook.com/grundycountycoldcase.

This episode was sponsored by:

Lending Club- Go to LendingClub.com/Vanished to check your rate in minutes and borrow up to $40,000.

Headspace- Start your journey to a healthier, happier life by subscribing to Headspace. Sign-up now at Headspace.com/Vanished for a free month trial.

Article- Article is offering my listeners $50 off their first purchase of $100 or more! To claim, visit Article.com/MIA and the discount will be automatically applied at checkout.

You can find episodes of The Vanished, completely ad-free, only on Stitcher Premium. For a free month,

go to stitcherpremium.com/wondery and use promo code “WONDERY”.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hey, prime members, you can listen to the vanished ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the app today.
0:18.0	At this point, they've been living this way without answers for so many years.
0:23.0	It's almost probably to the point to almost accept answers, just something that they've lost hope with in time.
0:33.0	Things were different then.
0:35.0	Law enforcement wasn't as diligent with it as they are now.
0:40.0	Families weren't really coming forward either.
0:44.0	At the time, the reports aren't what they are now.
0:48.0	I learned from other tips that I spoke to with families that have approached me as being interested in this Jane Doe,
0:56.0	potentially being their missing children.
1:00.0	The answers that I'm getting from them, they didn't report them missing to the police.
1:06.0	They did in other cases and the police didn't follow up with it. They didn't go too far with the case.
1:14.0	But then again, it was back in 1976 time frame where there wasn't much to go off of.
1:22.0	As I get these new leads, the media attention really reached out and got the phones ringing and speaking to the families.
1:32.0	You feel sympathy for all of them going through the same situation.
1:37.0	The bloodline has been missing for years and they're just hoping that this is their daughter.
1:43.0	I feel several conversations were going to tell them, I want to help all of you.
1:48.0	You're able to come up with something.
1:51.0	You're going to find a match somewhere with DNA.
1:54.0	If it's not what this wanted to open in within the system, it's going to work out.
1:58.0	Outpouring support from them too, a lot of kind words, families are saying how much they appreciate the work we're doing.
2:06.0	And thanks for not giving up. I mean, it shows a lot.
2:12.0	On October 2nd, 1976, a farmer and his young granddaughter riding a tractor through the fields of Senna-Ga, Illinois.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Wondery, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Wondery and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.