Thanks to a group of college students, authorities in Missouri have finally identified a body that was found floating in the Mississippi River 46 years ago.
A headstone in the Troy Cemetery, about 55 miles northwest of St. Louis, reads "Lincoln County Jane Doe" found in the Mississippi River 1978. Now, the girl has been identified as 15-year-old Helen Renee Groomes of Ottumwa, Iowa.
A hunter checking his duck blind in Elsberry, Missouri found the body along the Mississippi in March of 1978. An autopsy done at the time showed no signs of foul play, and a coroner determined the victim was likely between 30 and 40 years-old. The cause of death was identified as a drowning.
Fast forward to November of 2023, where Lincoln County Coroner Dan Heavin exhumed the body to do a DNA test in hopes of finding a match. Southeast Missouri State University Anthropology Professor Jennifer Bengtson and her students ran the strands of DNA through ancestry databases and got a hit. Kevin Groomes, Helen's brother, was a 100% match.
As to what happened to Helen, police in Iowa have opened an investigation.
"They are suspecting the step-father who apparently made a deathbed confession in the 1980s," says Heavin. "There was a history of abuse."
The family was in town this week to see her headstone and to take the ashes of their loved one back home to Iowa.
"She is no longer Jane Doe. This is Helen my sister," Heavin recalled Helen's brother Kevin saying at the grave site. "We were actually able to give them some closure," Heavin said.