Human remains found along Lake Michigan near New Buffalo in April 1988 have been identified as Dorothy Glanton, a 71-year-old Chicago woman who went missing on Dec. 9, 1987. Michigan State Police reopened the case in 2023 and worked with the DNA Doe Project, which used forensic genetic genealogy to match the remains to Glanton's family. Early forensic work had misclassified the victim's race and age; DNA corrected those errors and brought long-awaited closure to her family.
Cold Case Closed: 'New Buffalo Jane Doe' Identified as Dorothy Glanton, Missing Since 1987
Human remains found along Lake Michigan near New Buffalo in April 1988 have been identified as Dorothy Glanton, a 71-year-old Chicago woman who went missing on Dec. 9, 1987. Michigan State Police reopened the case in 2023 and worked with the DNA Doe Project, which used forensic genetic genealogy to match the remains to Glanton's family. Early forensic work had misclassified the victim's race and age; DNA corrected those errors and brought long-awaited closure to her family.
05:44 AM, 11/15/2025Society
Cold Case Closed: New Buffalo Jane Doe Identified
Human remains recovered along the Lake Michigan shoreline near New Buffalo in April 1988 have been positively identified as Dorothy Glanton, a 71-year-old Chicago resident who disappeared after leaving her home on Dec. 9, 1987, authorities announced.
How the identification was made
Michigan State Police reopened the case in 2023 and partnered with the nonprofit DNA Doe Project, which specializes in forensic genetic genealogy. Volunteers extracted DNA from the remains, built a profile, and uploaded it to genetic genealogy databases. A team of volunteer investigative genetic genealogists assembled family trees from matches and ultimately located Glanton's relatives, confirming her identity.
Correction of earlier findings
Initial forensic assessments in 1988 mistakenly described the victim as a white woman in her 40s or 50s. Genetic results showed the decedent was African American and about 71 years old at the time of death. The DNA Doe Project noted that such misclassifications were more common before modern DNA techniques and widespread forensic anthropology.
"Thanks to the commitment of Michigan State Police detectives and our partnership with the DNA Doe Project, the woman known for decades as 'New Buffalo Jane Doe' has finally been identified, bringing closure to a case that spanned 37 years," Michigan State Police said in a Facebook post.
Detective Sgt. John Moore of the MSP Niles Post, the lead detective on the case, said the identification "brings closure to a family that has wondered for nearly four decades what happened to their loved one." Michigan State Police credited advances in forensic technology and expressed gratitude to the DNA Doe Project and other partners.
Background and a heartbreaking clue
According to the DNA Doe Project, Dorothy Glanton was born and raised in Alabama and moved with her family to Chicago in the 1920s. During research, volunteers discovered an August 1988 newspaper ad placed by a relative of Glanton's elderly mother that read, "your mother is ill, lonely & afraid," a discovery described by investigators as a "heartbreaking clue," because Dorothy's remains had already been found months earlier.
The identification resolves a decades-long mystery and provides long-awaited answers for Glanton's family and the law enforcement teams who continued to seek her identity.
Key dates: Dorothy Glanton last seen Dec. 9, 1987; remains recovered April 8, 1988; identification announced Nov. 12, 2024 after a 2023 reinvestigation and genetic genealogy work.