FOND DU LAC, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Sheriff’s officials have positively identified the body of a female, 13 years after she was found in a shallow grave in Fond du Lac County.
The body of 18-year-old Amy Marie Yeary of Rockford, Illinois was discovered on Nov. 23, 2008. Her identity at the time was unknown.
Three years later, Yeary was buried in a public ceremony as “Jane Doe.”
In 2018, her body was exhumed, and laboratory testing provided clues about her background and that she likely resided in the regions of southwest Wisconsin, southern Minnesota and northern Iowa for less than year before her death.
In the months following her exhumation, detectives received results from the forensic testing and used those results to compare to other known DNA profiles. Genealogy research provided investigators new leads that led to identifying individuals that may be related to Jane Doe. DNA samples were then collected from those potential family members until investigators had a match.
Yeary was positively identified through her mother and sister’s DNA, as well as dental x-rays.
When speaking with her mother, detectives learned Yeary’s mother said in the late summer of 2008, Yeary called her mother from Beloit, saying she needed a ride home to northern Illinois. Yeary’s mother said she was unable to give her daughter a ride and Yeary was never heard from again.
Although no missing person’s report was ever filed, Fond du Lac County Sheriff Ryan Waldschmidt says Yeary’s family did everything they could to try to get in touch with her.
Detectives learned Yeary was also a victim of human sex trafficking. She was often transient and spent time in Milwaukee, Chicago and Beloit in the weeks preceding her death.
Waldschmidt says while they now know who Yeary is, they still don’t know how she died.
He says additional forensic testing is ongoing, hoping to reveal some clues about what happened to Yeary in the moments leading up to her death.
Investigators are asking anyone who knew Yeary to contact them with any information on her last days or how she ended up in Fond du Lac County.
