MANISTEE COUNTY, Mich. -- After more than 25 years, forensics experts have been able to identify a woman whose body washed up on the Lake Michigan shoreline.
The Michigan State Police say troopers responded to a report of a dead and unclothed female on the shore near the 4000 block of Fox Farm Road in 1997. They say she only had nothing to help identify her other than an earring.
In September 2020, MSP detectives reopened the case and exhumed the body for advanced DNA testing. They sent bone samples to Astrea Forensics under the "DNA Doe Project" for Forensic Genetic Genealogy. The project uses Investigative Genetic Genealogy to generate leads to help identify the deceased. The genetics testing led to a family match and the family names were then sent to MSP for vetting.
The unidentified human remains were linked to the Thyng family in Acton, Maine. But MSP says the bone samples were so degraded that they were not suitable for more testing. They were sent to Intermountain Forensics in Salt Lake City, Utah, for positive identification. That firm uses Next Generation Sequencing (NGS).
In December 2022, the DNA Diagnostics Center (DDC) and Intermountain Forensics were able to confirm the identity of the unidentified female as Dorothy Lynn (Thyng) Ricker.
State Police say Ricker had last been seen by officers of the St. Francis Police Department in Wisconsin. She was sitting on a Lake Michigan beach park bench and told them she was enjoying the lakefront and the sun.
Police say an abandoned vehicle was found nearby the next day. When police officers ran the registration plate it came back to a Chicago Police report of a “missing/endangered person."
Ricker was 26 years old and a resident of Chicago at the time she disappeared.
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