OSHKOSH (NBC 26) — Forty years ago, two teenage boys made a chilling discovery in the Wolf River near Winneconne — a human skull that would become one of Wisconsin's most enduring cold cases.
Today, investigators say they're closer than ever to solving the mystery of who she was, thanks to breakthrough advances in DNA technology and genealogy research.
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Lieutenant Chris Braman of the Winnebago County Sheriff's Office has been working this cold case for 15 years. For decades, all investigators had to work with was the skull itself.
"Any other information just didn't exist," Braman said.
But new DNA technology is breathing life into the investigation.
"With the introduction of a genealogy profile, then we had this list of people who are related to her, but they're pretty distant, so we reach out to those people," Braman said.
New genealogy reports found the victim to be 99% Irish or Northern English, connecting Braman with distant family members of the victim. Until her real name is discovered, they have named her "Joanne."
Anthropologist Jordan Karsten, a University of Wisconsin Oshkosh professor who specializes in working with law enforcement to find and identify human remains, analyzed the skull. He determined Joanne was a Caucasian woman between 30 and 50 years old who likely died between 1965 and 1985.
"The work to solve these kinds of crimes, they never stop," Karsten said.
Both investigators say the next step is getting more DNA from living relatives to narrow the search. They believe they're closer than ever to giving Joanne her name back.
"It's good to restore the identity to these people and give them their dignity back," Karsten said. "You don't know where it's going to lead; it could lead to charges, it might not, but it does lead to restoration of the dignity to this person who has died."
Braman is retiring in two years and hopes to have the case solved before then. If you have Irish or Northern English ancestry and think you might be connected to this case, investigators want to hear from you.
