DNA Unlocks Case Of Dead Teen Found In NJ 30 Years Later

WARREN COUNTY, NJ — For three decades the name of a teen found too decomposed to be identified went unknown. But now the identity of "Tiger Lady," nicknamed that by Knowlton area responders due to the Bengal tiger tattoo on her left calf, has been found due to DNA science and a little investigative shoe leather.

Her name was Wendy Louise Baker. And she was 16 when she went missing from Chester County, Pennsylvania, according to Warren County Prosecutor James Pfeiffer.

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The painstaking task of identifying Baker began on Oct. 26, 1991 in a gravel parking area on Route 94 North in Knowlton, adjacent to Route 80 and the Truck Stops of America facility where her nude body was found.

The cause of her death ruled a homicide but “undetermined” after she was autopsied the following day, Pfeiffer said “no gunshot wounds or significant traumatic injuries” were found on Baker’s body.

Among the many agencies that continued to investigate the case was the North Texas Center for Human Identification which began developing a DNA profile on Baker of "Short Tandem Repeat and Mitochondrial DNA." In 2008, that group uploaded the profile to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons database and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

A sample from Baker’s remains was sent to Bode Technology in Lorton, Virginia in December 2017, Pfeiffer said, with the goal of hopefully “extracting DNA from her bones,” to potentially find any of her relatives.

DNA Match

Bode Technology matched Baker's grandparents, aunts uncles and cousins in July of 2021. One set of her grandparents was found to be Ernest Baker, who died in 1993 and grandmother Nina Brownwell, who died in 1986. They were traced to Pennsylvania’s Coatesville, located in Chester County. The couple had 17 children together, with 11 next narrowed down by genealogists to potentially be her parents, Pfeifer said.

After detectives from both New Jersey State Police’s Cold Case Unit and Warren County Prosecutor’s Office headed to Coatesville, they spoke with one of the couple’s children, Desi Baker, who provided the name of her niece Wendy Baker, who had been missing since October 1991.

Desi Baker said she was the child of her brother Bruce Baker, who died in 2017 and his first wife Mary Wagner, who had died in 1999.

Bruce Baker's widow provided Wendy Baker’s full name and birthdate, July 14, 1975. She told authorities she raised Baker from the ages of four and 15, with the family traveling between Bradenton, Florida and Chester County.

The team compared Bruce Baker’s DNA from Pennsylvania State Police records to Wendy Baker’s, confirming him as her father.

The Warren County Prosecutor’s Office continues to conduct a joint investigation with the New Jersey State Police Cold Case Unit, along with the New Jersey State Police Office of Forensic Sciences, BODE Technology and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, into Wendy Baker’s case.

Anyone with any information about Baker's case, should contact the Warren County Prosecutor's Office at 908-475-6275 or email coldcase@co.warren.nj.us.

Questions or comments about this story? Have a news tip? Contact me at: jennifer.miller@patch.com.