Genealogy tests link Wisconsin murder victim to Northern Irish family line

Investigators in Wisconsin have made progress identifying “Wolf River Joanne Doe”, whose skull was found in the Wolf River in 1985. Genealogy-based DNA testing suggests Mary Jane Connor may have been her grandmother, giving authorities a new family line to investigate in their effort to identify the woman and establish who killed her.

A DNA sample from a 91-year-old man from Connor’s Northern Irish hometown matched the victim strongly; investigators identified him as Connor’s nephew. The genetic profile indicated the victim was 99 per cent Irish or Northern English, and further research linked her to Connor’s brother Bernard and his wife Alice O’Hagan. Connor emigrated from Londonderry to New York in 1907, but her name was absent from obituaries of close relatives; the victim’s identity remains unconfirmed.