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Several weeks later, a farmer discovered a woman’s body dumped in his field south of Troy. She was nude, stabbed several times and almost decapitated.

And for decades, the disappearance of Michel and the identity of the body were both mysteries.

On Tuesday, Madison County authorities announced they had identified the body as Michel’s, using a lab in Texas that specializes in genetic genealogy, a forensic science that uses preserved DNA evidence to identify unknown victims or suspects — and has resulted in a stream of identifications in recent years.

Michel’s was the last case in Madison County that had an unidentified victim, police said.

“It’s an exciting day,� Madison County Sheriff Jeff Connor said Tuesday at a press conference. “We can give closure to family members.�

Michel, who went by Wendy, was born in California and grew up in Nashville. She moved to Florida as a teen and in the early eighties ended back up in California, police said Tuesday.

In April 1990, then 30 years old, she made her way back to Nashville and dropped off her young son and daughter with one of her brothers.

The next month, she visited with the kids in Washington, the last time family saw her.

Michel’s body was discovered by a farmer on July 20, 1990, near the intersection of Lebanon Road and Troy-O’Fallon Road, south of Troy.

Lewis Haines said his grandfather, David Mallett, owned the farm then and found Michel’s body about five rows into his soybean field.

“It was one of those things he never really talked about,� Haines said Tuesday. “He didn’t shy away from it, but he didn’t bring it up.�

At the time Michel was found, police said they also found near her body a pair of underwear and a pink T-shirt with “Florida� printed on it. In the weeks that followed, police “made inquiries as far away as Spain� to determine the manufacturer, which they were unable to do, according to a 1990 Belleville News-Democrat article.

She was still wearing white sandals and had a small heart-shaped turquoise ring on one of her fingers.

Police on Tuesday said her body had been in the field for about a week when she was discovered, and the level of decomposition hindered their efforts to identify her.

During the initial investigation, police told the public it could not be determined if she had been sexually assaulted but the coroner confirmed she had given birth at least once, which led investigators to believe she had a family who may have been looking for her.

Authorities did not think the woman was local to the area and believed she had not been killed where her body was found.

Re-examining the case

She was buried by Madison County on Aug. 15, 1990, as a Jane Doe.

The next month, in September 1990, authorities released a photo of a clay reconstruction of her face. It had been created by an FBI reconstruction artist using her skull.

Two days after the photo was circulated, police said they had a lead. A man had contacted them after seeing the photo.

Nothing came of the lead, though.

The case was examined periodically throughout the years, said Connor, the Madison County Sheriff. Detectives once again revisited it beginning in the latter half of 2023.

They worked with the Illinois State Police Crime Lab and the Texas lab, Othram, that specializes in cold cases, to use decades-old DNA evidence to identify Michel.

After identifying her, Connor said detectives were able to trace the last months of her life, but only up to that visit with her children in Washington.

Family members told police she was with a male truck driver during that visit.

Unfortunately, police said, they do not have any information on what the man looked like or where he was from.

Michel’s older half-brother, Frank Barnard of Nashville, said he was devastated when police told him they had identified Michel’s body, a few months ago. The family didn’t know she’d been murdered, he said. They figured she has just left and cut off communication. And they missed her.

“She was a fun person,� he told reporters Tuesday. “She adopted weird animals, the ones nobody wanted, to take care of them. She had a good heart.�

Barnard said he still talks to Michel’s son every day. Her daughter died several years ago, he said.

“My sister traveled a lot, and sometimes you didn’t know where she was at for months at a time over the years,� he said. “I know from knowing my sister that she didn’t deserve this.�

Police asked the public on Tuesday to contact the Madison County Sheriff’s Office or CrimeStoppers with any information that might help identify Michel’s killer.

Regional cold cases

Michel’s cold case is one of many here and across the country now being cracked through DNA collected but not tested at the time because the technology wasn’t widely available.

DNA science was first introduced as evidence in a 1986 case in England involving the rape and murder of two young girls, according to the National Institute of Justice. A suspect had confessed to one of the killings, but not the other. DNA evidence allowed investigators to link both crimes to another man, who was eventually charged.

Since then, DNA science has been increasingly common in criminal cases.

In the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ region, cold case detectives have found success in running suspect DNA and finding matches in a database of DNA profiles obtained by law enforcement.

A year ago, ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ County investigators used DNA collected in 1992 to charge a man with the rape of a woman.

In May 2022, forensic genealogy was used to identify a Montgomery County teen 32 years after his skeletal remains were found.

Then, in September 2022, forensic experts in Texas identified remains found in 2017 in a backyard of a vacant north ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ home.

That same year, Detective Jodi Weber cracked a cold case in O’Fallon, Missouri, after investigating several homicides for 14 years and waiting for DNA testing technology to improve. Prosecutors were then able to charge 73-year-old Gary Muehlberg in the 1990 murders of Robyn Mihan, Brenda Pruitt, Donna Reitmeyer and Sandy Little. He has since pleaded guilty and is serving several life terms.

In 2019, St. Charles County investigators charged Earl Webster Cox with the abduction, rape and murder of 9-year-old Angie Housman. He was sentenced to life without parole for the crimes.