A “Jane Doe” whose body was found floating in the Mississippi River in Lincoln County, Missouri, in 1978 has been identified using more modern DNA identification.
The body belonged to Helen Renee Groomes, 15, who was last seen in 1977 in Ottumwa, Iowa, the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office said in a release Monday.
The initial autopsy on her body, done in March 1978, identified Groomes as White and between 30 to 40 years old, and determined that she had drowned, the Sheriff’s Office said.
Despite her cat’s eye ring and a tattoo on her left arm, authorities were unable to identify the body at the time, and she was buried in Troy City Cemetery with a headstone marking her as the “Lincoln County Jane Doe.”
In October 2023, the case was revisited, and new analysis of the bones and teeth by Southeast Missouri State University anthropologists determined that their “Jane Doe” was in fact a teenager, LCSO said.
Authorities contracted forensic laboratory Othram to construct a genealogical profile from the remains, and a relative, Groomes’ brother, was found. His DNA produced a match, and the body was confirmed to belong to Groomes.
“She is no longer Jane Doe, she’s my sister Helen Groomes. It brings up a lot of pain and a lot of joy because she was placed somewhere and people were thinking about her, because I thought about her every day. … I’m taking away some closure,” Kevin Groomes told KSDK-TV.
Investigation continues into possible foul play in Groomes’ death. The family claimed to KSDK-TV that her stepfather confessed on his deathbed to killing her. His name was not provided.
“Anybody that knew Helen back in 1977, 1978 or the family is encouraged to call us, even if you think it’s nothing. It’d still be nice to put little pieces of the puzzle together,” Det. Aaron McConnell with the Wapello County Sheriff’s Office in Iowa told KBIZ-FM.