The identity of a woman who was brutally murdered 56 years ago has finally been revealed thanks to the help of revolutionary DNA science.
Back in 1968, the body of a woman was discovered by a road worker at the side of Interstate 55 in Will County, Illinois.
Will County Sheriff's Police Department immediately started a murder investigation, but to no avail.
Now, the mystery of the murdered woman’s identity has finally been solved.
After almost 57 years, the woman’s identity has been revealed
In September 1968, a highway worker made the grisly discovery near Blodgett Road in Will County, part of the Chicago metropolitan area.
The woman was found naked, and police identified that she was around 5”5 in height and weighed 135lbs.
No identification, jewellery, or other evidence was found on the body or in the surrounding areas.
An autopsy found that the woman had been strangled and sustained a blunt force trauma to the head, causing her death.
Her fingerprints offered no clues as to her identity, and while no DNA testing was available at the time, her blood was tested and identified as type 0.
The case was left cold after that, and the woman was buried in a local cemetery.
Years later, new technology shed light on the woman’s true identity, as DNA Solves reports.
In 2020, Coroner Laurie H. Summers started experimenting with emerging new technology in the field, and created a forensic sketch of the woman’s face.
Then, they collaborated with noted cold-case experts and DNA scientists Othram Labs - who also helped to bring serial killer Bryan Kohberger to justice - to attempt to solve this decades old murder.
Technology similar to this has also recently helped to allegedly uncover the 'true identity' of Jack the Ripper, showing how wide the scope of this futuristic DNA science could be.
For this Illinois cold case, a sample was extracted and a profile created, and the scientists and forensic genetic geneologists set to work.
That new information led the investigators to Native American tribes in Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa, where flyers where distributed alongside the Bureau of Indian Affairs in order to engage the communities.
After some time, a woman claiming to be related to the woman came forward, a sample was taken and confirmed, before it could be confirmed that the murdered woman was 33-year-old Martha Bassett.
Who was Martha Bassett?
Martha Bassett was born in Washington and a member of the Native American community in Wapato, Yakima County.
She had moved to the Chicago area in 1960, but by 1967 had lost contact with her family, who travelled to the area to search for her before returning home without closure.
Now, Martha has been identified - even if it has taken over half a century.
Whether her murderer will ever be identified and brought to justice - if still alive - is another question, but at least her remaining family now have the closure they sought all those years ago.
This is the 11th case in the State of Illinois that Othram’s technology has helped to identify, including five Will County cold cases since 2022.
The company - and others like it - intend to use this technology as widely as possible to help identify victims, prosecute perpetrators, acquit the wrongfully convicted, and bring an end to cases that in the past would have gone unsolved forever.