NEW BUFFALO, Mich. — State troopers request the public’s assistance in identifying a body that washed ashore on Lake Michigan thirty-five years ago.
Michigan State Police (MSP) says the body turned up on a breakwater in New Buffalo on April 8, 1988.
We’re told the body was exhumed in November 2021 for DNA sampling and dental analysis.
Citing information gleaned from recent forensic technologies, MSP says the body belonged to a Black woman; she was thought to have been a white woman until 2021.
Authorities tell us she was 40 to 60 years old when she died and was about 5’5” tall, weighing 175 pounds, and had brown hair and brown eyes. MSP adds she might have worn a wig or braided extensions that had been wrenched from her scalp.
Troopers go on to say she wore denim jeans (men’s 38) with a striped cloth belt and red-white-and-blue shorts with panty hose.
While the body did not have a shirt on, MSP says the victim wore a heavy-duty sand-colored bra.
We’re told she also wore a pair of black top-ankle boots with zippers.
The victim had a hysterectomy with an identifying scar that stretched from her hip to her naval, investigators explain. She had no other scars or tattoos.
MSP tells us the victim was in good dental health and did not drink or smoke in excess. Her teeth also suggest she was of upper-socioeconomic status as indicated by a porcelain bridge in place of her front tooth, a procedure that was in its experimental stage during the 1980s. Authorities believe she had that work done five years before she died.
The public is asked to share the above information with anyone who might know who she was.
MSP credits the Western Michigan University WMed Anthropology Department, MSP’s Bomb Squad, and Human Remains Analyst Hannah Friedlander for their assistance.
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