Date of Discovery: October 2, 1976
Location of Discovery: Seneca, Grundy County, IL, along Route 66
Age: 15-27
Listed Heritage: Black
Jane - Vickie - JoAnn
by Simon Petty
Fifty years on, we’re still not sure
how to say your name. Found
by a farmer on Route 66, shot
in the head near Seneca, left
in a ditch in your kaftan wrap. Adopted,
African-American, buried
on Thanksgiving Day, 1976
in an unmarked grave, it took
a legion of genealogists
to tease you out of that darkness
to trace your tiny spiral coding
across state lines and abandonments,
to dig down into the dank Illinois soil,
clank the coffin lid and shake loose
the buried treasure of your name,
to finally begin
the gentle recreation of your face.
JoAnn ‘Vickie’ Smith Named
For 47 years, the woman honored on this page was known as Jane Seneca Doe. In 2018, Grundy County Deputy Chief Coroner Brandon Johnson partnered with the DNA Doe Project, which worked tirelessly to identify her through genealogical research. On June 27, 2024, she was positively identified as JoAnn “Vickie” Smith.
Vickie had grown up up a home full of love, the eldest of many adopted children. She’d gone out one evening in June 1976 but didn’t return that night. In a press conference following her identification, her brother, Ronnie Smith, said the family immediately knew something was wrong.
Vickie’s family spent almost five decades missing her and wondering where she was. Her mother held out hope until her dying day that they would find out what happened to her, would learn where her loving daughter was.
“Now,” said her brother, “She can be laid to rest with her rightful name: JoAnn ‘Vickie’ Smith.”