On Nov. 6, 1994, rabbit hunters discovered human skeletal remains in a cornfield near a wooded area just north of I-96 in Wright Township, Ottawa County, near Coopersville, Michigan. Investigators believed the victim was most likely dumped at the site between May and September 1994.
On Jan. 20, 2022, the Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office (OCSO) and the DNA Doe Project (DDP) announced the identification of the skeletal as Shelly Rae Christian. DDP used investigative genetic genealogy to solve the 27-year-old cold case that was known as Matilda Ottawa Co Jane Doe 1994.
Christian was born on Feb. 13, 1964 and had been living in Minneapolis. She was reported missing by her family in October 1993. Her body was found almost 600 miles away in Michigan. The connection was not made to Christian at that time. Initially, investigators believed the deceased was of Hispanic heritage and had died at the hands of a possible serial killer along with 10 other women. Her cause of death was undetermined.
The DNA profile of the remains indicated North Atlantic and French-Canadian ancestry—not Hispanic as was originally thought. Starting with second and third cousin matches, the dedicated investigative genetic genealogists with the DNA Doe Project worked their way through Christian’s family tree until they came across a missing person’s report from Minneapolis from October 1993 that seemed like a good match to the Jane Doe. Detectives from the Ottawa County Sheriff’s Department contacted relatives of Shelly Rae Christian and were able to obtain DNA confirmation of the relationship.
“This case proved trickier to solve than it initially appeared, with our highest workable match sharing only 128cM with Shelly. However, our team was able to identify a couple born in Iowa in the 1840s as ancestors of the then unknown woman, which provided the first breakthrough in the case. In an attempt to confirm that this was the right person, we found a German baptismal record from the mid 1800s that tied a hitherto mystery DNA match to a separate ancestral line of hers, which confirmed that Matilda Doe was in fact Shelly," said team leader Matthew Waterfield.
Republished courtesy of DDP. Photos credit: OCSO.