Woman who washed ashore on Lake Michigan identified 25 years later
MANISTEE COUNTY, Mich. (CBS DETROIT) - On Oct. 27, 1997, a woman's body washed ashore on Lake Michigan, and officials announced that after 25 years, they have identified the woman.
The woman has been identified as Dorothy Lynn (Thyng) Ricker, who was 26 years old when she went missing.
In 1997, Michigan State Police responded to the 4000 block of Fox Farm Road in Manistee County after receiving reports of a deceased and unclothed woman who washed up on the Lake Michigan Shoreline.
Police say there was nothing to identify the woman by except for one earring.
MSP had sent out broadcast messages to surrounding states, but they never received any credible leads.
An autopsy revealed the woman's cause of death to be asphyxia due to drowning and that the manner of the death was accidental.
In September 2020, the case was reexamined, and the body was exhumed for DNA testing as part of the DNA Doe Project. Bone samples were sent to Astrea Forensics for forensic genetic genealogy.
In 2021, a possible familiar match was located and was linked to the Thyng family in Acton, Maine.
MSP obtained DNA reference samples from a possible brother with the help of the York County Sheriff's Office.
It was also discovered that there was a possible familial match to a possible daughter in Chicago, Illinois, and DNA reference samples were also obtained from her.
For an identification, further DNA testing was necessary, and officials shipped bone samples to Salt Lake City for advanced next generation sequencing.
In December 2022, the woman was identified as Ricker.
Ricker was last seen on Oct. 2, 1997, at 12:30 p.m. by officers with the St. Francis Police Department in Wisconsin.
Officers briefly talked to her as she was sitting on a park bench, and she told them she was from Chicago and enjoying the lakefront. She was not reported missing at this time.
The next day, police found an abandoned vehicle, and when they ran the registration plate, it came back as a missing/endangered person, entered by the Chicago Police Department.
DNA testing wasn't possible when Ricker died, but the DNA Doe Project is working to use forensic genetic genealogy to give families answers about their loved ones.