Jenny

On October 20th, 1967 a father and son set out on a hunting trip at 48th Avenue and Fillmore St in Hudsonville, Michigan (near Grand Valley State University-then Grand Valley State College). As they moved further into the wooded field, the young son split from his father to investigate a strange smell.

Dan Reister, the now grown son, spoke with local media about his memories of the day for the first time in 2020.

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"Yeah, that was a spot that we never hunted before. Yeah, the smell. Because I had to go check the smell out. Excuse me..."

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It was then young Dan Reister came across the body of a half-dressed young woman.

Given the nickname "Jenny" it was originally concluded that Jenny was a black woman around the age of 16 to 22, was about 5'7, and was around 90 to 100 pounds. Investigators at the time concluded that Jenny had died due to strangulation and blunt force trauma to the head. It is also believed that the body had been in the wooded location for about 3-7 days before being found.

According to the new NameUS page, Jenny was found wearing: Yellow/gold ankle-length denim pants, pink Bermuda shorts, men's light blue socks with dark blue and red diamond patterns on the side. Her hair was also cut in the short afro style. Along with clothing, Jenny's remains included:

- One on the right side of the face at the jawline (hyperpigmented scar)

- right side of the neck: 3 scars (all about 2 cm long)

- left chest, below the clavicle: long 10cm scar extending toward the arm

- Other scars affect the upper right chest, the mid-sternal area (mid-chest), lower right chest, at the right hip, right outer thigh, left thigh

- A extra tooth behind the right upper incisor was also

During the investigation, the police discovered that a white Rambler was seen in the woods on a trail near where the body was found at around 9:00 to 9:30 PM. But the car was never officially connected to the murder. While police followed over 400 tips at the time, they were unable to solve the case or give Jenny's back her name as no family could be found. As time went on and no new information was found, Jenny was then buried in an unmarked grave and the case soon went cold.

While Jenny's case went cold, in 2020 her case was one of a few regional cold cases that were taken back up by the Ottawa County Police and Michigan state police. After the case was reopened and Jenny's grave was exhumed, Jenny's remains were sent to Michigan State University's anthropology department for testing. But as of June 2022, Michigan State University has said that the DNA results were not as conclusive as they had first hoped. Despite not getting the results they originally hoped to get, researchers did expand Jenny's possible age range up to 35 because the bones were found to all be at different stages of development. Along with being sent to Michigan State University, the FBI was sent a sample for testing. But like MSU, they were unable to extract any DNA.

Not ready to give up, another sample was sent by police to the private lab of the DNA Doe Project. Through the usage of a different process not used by MSU or the FBI, the Doe Project was able to receive a sample of DNA from Jenny's remains. Through this sample, the Doe Project has been using genealogy data bases to help police find possible matches.

While final matches have not yet been found or made public, there is a high level of hope from local and state law enforcement that Jenny will soon have her name back. Along with the search for family members through DNA, the cases information has been sent out to cities such as Detroit, Grand Rapids, Muskegon, and Chicago.

Who is Jenny? Who do you think took her life and abandoned her in rural West Michigan in 1967?

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Sources

https://www.hollandsentinel.com/story/news/crime/2022/06/10/ottawa-county-cold-case-team-works-55-year-old-murder-case/7551996001/

https://www.fox17online.com/news/local-news/lakeshore/ottawa/ottawa-county-deputies-highlight-pair-of-cold-cases-jenny-and-matilda

https://whtc.com/2020/07/28/dna-sought-in-jenny-cold-case/

https://www.woodtv.com/news/ottawa-county/new-clues-dna-challenges-in-exhumation-cold-case/

https://www.wzzm13.com/article/news/local/finally-optimistic-two-ottawa-county-cold-cases-closer-to-justice-thanks-to-new-technology/69-2bca880b-500b-4198-8967-fc636ce42276

https://www.woodtv.com/news/ottawa-county/body-of-1967-homicide-victim-exhumed/

https://unidentified-awareness.fandom.com/wiki/Jenny

www.namus.gov/unidentifiedpersons/case#/17581