A person whose body was found in an Illinois cornfield in 1991 has been identified as a Chicago-area woman, more than a decade after authorities began reinvestigating the cold case.
The survey Postmortem DNA samples Paula Ann Lundgren’s identity was revealed last week, and authorities are now hoping to uncover more details about her life and the circumstances of her death.
Over the decades, the case has been investigated by three sheriffs and four coroners, according to the LaSalle County Coroner’s Office.
“All of them have worked tirelessly on this case for over 30 years, as have many of our staff. Hundreds of leads have been reviewed and fliers and correspondence have been sent across the United States and Canada in an attempt to identify the unidentified ‘Jane Doe,'” the office said.
LaSalle County Coroner’s Office
Her body was exhumed in 2013, and DNA was collected, a method not used in the early 1990s. Then, in 2019, a professor at Illinois Valley Community College Genetic genealogy research Make a list of the woman’s possible living relatives.
The LaSalle County Coroner’s Office said it had been poring over the list for years, trying to find a match, before bringing the FBI into the fold in February. In July, there was a breakthrough in the case.
“Due to our limited resources, the FBI agreed to further assist in the case, which ultimately led to the identification of a surviving relative,” Coroner Rich Prock said Monday. “That individual’s DNA was confirmed to be a match for Paula.”
Authorities say Lundgren, who lived primarily in the Chicago area, was 29 when a farmer discovered his body in a cornfield in northern Illinois’ LaSalle County in September 1991.
According to the county coroner, she had extensive dental work, breast implants and two tattoos: one of a cross with a red flower and another of a star with colorful flowers growing from a stem.
The coroner’s office determined at the time that the woman died of cocaine overdose, and her unidentified body was eventually buried in an Ottawa cemetery with a headstone reading, “Someone’s daughter, someone’s friend.”
The LaSalle County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement that Lundgren’s identity “hopes to provide additional clues as to how she ended up in the cornfield.”