Iowa Identifies 15-Year-Old Cheryl Lynn Edwards After 51 Years, Reopening 1975 River Homicide
Updated
Updated · KCCI Des Moines · Jun 22
Iowa Identifies 15-Year-Old Cheryl Lynn Edwards After 51 Years, Reopening 1975 River Homicide
3 articles · Updated · KCCI Des Moines · Jun 22
Summary
Clinton County authorities said Iowa’s longest-unidentified Jane Doe was Cheryl Lynn Edwards, a 15-year-old from Waukegan, Illinois, whose body was found near Clinton on April 11, 1975.
Forensic genetic genealogy — combining DNA analysis with family-history research — produced the breakthrough after decades in which investigators could not name the homicide victim.
An autopsy in 1975 ruled Edwards’ death a homicide, and the Clinton County Sheriff’s Office, Iowa DCI and Waukegan Police said the case remains active as they work to reconstruct how she died and who was responsible.
Edwards’ parents have died, but other relatives have been notified, and investigators are seeking new tips on her life or death more than five decades after the body was recovered from the Mississippi River.