DNA Doe Project identifies pregnant Jane Doe murdered in 1975

Body found in Iowa river identified as missing 15-year-old girl

Clinton County, IA – More than fifty years after she was murdered and her body left in the Mississippi River, the DNA Doe Project and their agency partners have identified Jane Clinton Doe as 15-year-old Cheryl Lynn Edwards. Edwards, a native of San Diego, was living in Waukegan, Illinois when she disappeared in 1975.

On April 11, 1975, fishermen in Clinton County, Iowa found the remains of an African American girl in the Mississippi River. She was estimated to be between 12 and 23 years old, and it was determined that she had died sometime in early 1975. Her death was ruled a homicide, as she had been killed by a gunshot wound to the head. Furthermore, an autopsy found that she was approximately 10 weeks pregnant at the time she was murdered.

With support from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, the Iowa Department of Public Safety later brought this case to the DNA Doe Project, whose expert investigative genetic genealogists work pro bono to identify Jane and John Does. The case was then selected to be launched at the DNA Doe Project’s annual in-person gathering in Texas.

In October 2025, a team of sixteen genealogists from three countries came together over a weekend to work on this case. They began their research on a Friday evening, and within a matter of hours they had made a breakthrough.

“We identified a couple from Louisiana and figured out that they had to be the grandparents of this girl,” said team co-leader Monique Platt. “Then we realised that they’d eventually settled in the Kenosha area of Wisconsin – just a few hours east of where our Jane Doe was found.”

The following morning, the team continued their research, focusing on the children of this couple. They soon discovered that the eldest child had served in the US Navy and lived all over the US during his time in the military. This made him trickier to trace, but they did find evidence that he was living with his wife and sons in Waukegan by the 1970s. Later that day, a member of the team made a crucial discovery – he also had a daughter.

“We found a birth record for a daughter of his, who was born in 1959 in a Navy hospital in San Diego,” said team member Trish Bird. “Her name was Cheryl Edwards, and it seemed like she had just vanished from the records in the 1970s.”

With the evidence lining up, Cheryl was presented to the Iowa Department of Public Safety as a possible candidate the very next day. A DPS investigator then visited a family member of Cheryl, who confirmed that she had disappeared decades ago. Further DNA testing later confirmed that Cheryl was, in fact, the girl formerly known only as Jane Clinton Doe.

The DNA Doe Project is grateful to the groups and individuals who helped solve this case: the Iowa Department of Public Safety, who entrusted us with this case; the Clinton County Sheriff’s Office and the Waukegan Police Department, for their role in confirming this identification; the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, who funded the lab work and the database upload fee; Astrea Forensics for the lab work; GEDmatch Pro for providing their database; our generous donors who joined our mission and contributed to this case; and the DNA Doe Project’s dedicated teams of volunteer investigative genetic genealogists who work tirelessly to bring all our Jane and John Does home.

https://dnadoeproject.org/case/jane-clinton-doe-1975

About the DNA Doe Project

The DNA Doe Project is a volunteer-driven 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with the mission to identify John and Jane Does and return them to their families and communities. Investigative genetic genealogy research is provided pro bono to our partners in law enforcement, but the organization relies on donations to fund lab costs and operational support of our volunteers. To date, DDP has helped resolve more than 160 cases of unidentified human remains. For more about our work and to join our mission, visit our website: https://dnadoeproject.org.

For follow up, please contact Kristin Knox at mediadirector@dnadoeproject.org.