Remains Of Woman Found In New Lenox Identified After 41 Years: Coroner

NEW LENOX, IL — After more than 40 years, the remains of a woman that were found in New Lenox have been identified. The remains are those of Brenda Sue Black, who was originally from Vandalia, Ohio, and had moved to California after high school. She was last seen by her family Jan. 1, 1980, according to the Will County Coroner's Office.

The coroner's office announced the discovery Wednesday on its Facebook page.

The Will County Coroner's Cold Case Division was able to identify Black's remains with the assistance of the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, or NamUs, along with Othram Inc., a private forensic DNA laboratory in The Woodlands, Texas.

Black's remains were discovered April 19, 1981, in the area of Interstate 80 and U.S. Route 3o in New Lenox, according to the coroner's office. She would have been about 25 or 26 years old at the time of her death.

The coroner's office first obtained a DNA sample of Black's remains in 2009. In 2015, a relative of Black reported her missing in Miami County, Ohio, according to the coroner's office. Black's information was then put into the NamUs system. Then, in 2021, the coroner's office reached out to Othram to help solve the cold case.

Othram was able to use its Forensic-Grade Genome Sequencing — the same technology it uses to help law enforcement agencies across the country solve cold cases — to narrow down the search to two close relatives of Black, according to Othram Chief Development Officer Kristen Mittelman.

"We purpose-built our lab to identify victims and perpetrators from evidence found at a crime scene," Mittelman said. "And by purpose building for that, we are actually able to unlock answers from evidence that otherwise would have been maybe too degraded, too old, in trace amounts, or too difficult to access the sequencing information from."

Using Othram's lead, Will County Coroner’s Cold Case investigators found a relative of Black in Georgia who agreed to provide a DNA sample. Othram was able to confirm Black's identity Thursday through a match from the Georgia DNA sample, which turned out to be from Black's daughter, according to the coroner's office.

There are many questions yet to be answered in Black's case, but finally discovering who she is could be a big first step in helping investigators answer those questions, Mittelman said.

"If you don't know who someone is, it's very difficult to piece together what happened to them, or who might be the perpetrator in their crime," Mittelman said. "Once you know someone's identity, you can figure out what they were doing, who they were with the last few weeks of their life, and the investigation grows pretty quickly."