Will County cold case solved decades after woman's remains found
JOLIET, Ill. (CBS) – After decades of searching, investigators have identified a woman whose remains were found in Will County in 1997.
CBS 2's Charlie De Mar was in Will County where a specialized task force was able to make the major discovery.
A man who last saw his sister in 1984 finally got the answers he was looking for. It's a case that started with very little to go on for investigators but with the advances in DNA testing, the department and a family have the closure they've been waiting on for decades.
"It was a culmination of everything that has been started since 1997 to present day," said Will County Coroner Laurie Summers when reviewing case files.
The Will County cold case began in 1992 when a fire destroyed the Rust Craft building in Joliet. Debris from the demolition was moved to a landfill in nearby Rockdale.
In 1997, a University of Illinois archaeologist working on the site came across human remains.
"We knew from forensic anthropologists it was a female between 17 and 27," said Joseph Piper, a cold case investigator with the Will County Coroner's Office.
De Mar: "Fair to say you didn't have a whole lot you were working with?"
Piper: "We had bones."
The specialized unit was formed in 2008. Summers has been coroner in Will County since 2020.
"If it was my family, I'd want to know," Summers said.
The bones were sent to Orthram, a private lab in Texas for advanced DNA testing in 2021. CBS 2 interviewed an Othram executive about another case in December.
"We actually identify either perpetrators or victims from a crime, and give you a direct investigative lead that can lead you to closing a case that would otherwise be unsolvable," said Kristen Mittelman, chief development officer at Othram.
The lab came back with a match of possible relatives. It was the crack in the case these veteran investigators had been working for.
"Eventually, it lead us to an interview in California with a brother who told us he hasn't seen his sister since 1984 and he'd been looking for her," Piper said.
The woman who was known only through decades of case files finally had a name: Marie R. O'Brien, from Aurora. Finally, dignity and warmth in a case that some feared would forever go cold.
De Mar: "What is the moment like for you?"
Piper: "Relief.
"If we aren't going to do it, who is going to do it?"
Little is known about O'Brien's disappearance. Her brother said both of them were in DCFS custody and he last saw her when she aged out at 18. He told investigators he submitted his DNA to a public database in the hopes of finding his sister. He also said he plans to bury the remains next to their mother's grave.
