MADISON COUNTY, Ill. – Authorities in Madison County, Illinois, identified a homicide victim in a decades-old cold case investigation.
On July 20, 1990, a farmer discovered the decomposing body of a woman in a field near the intersection of Lebanon and Troy O’Fallon roads, less than five miles south of Troy, Illinois. Thousands of hours of investigative manpower went into the case, but to no avail.
After nearly 35 years, Madison County Sheriff Jeff Connor was able to identify the woman as Wynona “Wendy” Nadine Michael. She was 30 at the time of her death.
Michael left behind two children, one of whom is still alive, the sheriff said. Michael’s brother attended Tuesday’s news conference.
Sheriff Connor expressed gratitude to the detectives who worked on the case over the decades and thanked the Illinois State Police Crime Lab as well as Othram labs in Texas for their efforts in processing forensic and DNA evidence. While he was pleased to give the surviving family members some sense of closure, the sheriff wished they have could have done so sooner.
In 1990, detectives had determined Michael’s body had been left near that intersection anywhere between three days and a week, Connor said.
In putting together a timeline of Michael’s life, investigators do not believe she had any connection to the St. Louis region, according to the sheriff. She was born in Los Angeles, California, in August 1959. When she was a toddler, Michael moved to Tennessee with her parents and four siblings. Around her sixteenth birthday, she moved to Vero Beach, Florida, and later relocated to Shasta County, California in 1983 or 1984.
In April 1990, Michael and her two children traveled by bus to Nashville, Tennessee, where she left the kids with family members.
The following month, Michael met with her family and children at a mall in the Washington, D.C. area. It would be the last time her family would see her alive. Michael was with a man who was only identified as a truck driver. Sheriff Connor said the family member who interacted with that individual could only provide a vague description.
The sheriff said Michael was riding with truck drivers
at the time of her disappearance and death.
With Michael now identified, Sheriff Connor and detectives want to deliver the full measure of closure to her family by finding her killer.
Anyone with information or tips regarding the investigation can contact the Madison County Sheriff’s Office at 618-692-4433, the office’s anonymous tip line at 618-296-3000, or CrimeStoppers at 866-371-TIPS.
