Michigan State Police Niles are looking for help identifying a body that washed up along the shore of Lake Michigan in New Buffalo 35 years ago. Troopers at the Niles post say the body of a woman washed up on the New Buffalo breakwater on April 8, 1988. The body was not identified at the time, but it was exhumed in November of 2021 so police could collect A DNA sample. Newer forensic methods were recently used to study the DNA, and police have determined the woman was Black, between 40 and 60 years old, about five foot five, and around 175 pounds. It was previously thought the woman was white. She is also thought to have been wearing a wig or braided extensions, which had been pulled from her scalp. Additionally, the initial autopsy found the woman had undergone a hysterectomy, and had a scar stretching from her pelvis to her naval. She had no tattoos, and it’s believed she may have come from an upper socio economic group based on her advanced dental work. Michigan State Police ask anyone who may have ideas about the woman’s identity to contact them.
