(New Buffalo, MI) - Police have resumed efforts to identify the body of a woman that washed ashore more than 30 years ago in New Buffalo.

 

Michigan State Police and New Buffalo Police are asking for any assistance in identifying the woman believed to be 40-to-60 years of age. Police said she was 5’5” and 175 lbs. with brown hair and brown eyes. She was believed to be wearing a wig or extensions pulled up from the scalp.

 

The body was recovered at the New Buffalo break wall in April of 1988. It was exhumed in 2021 to collect a DNA sample and during another examination the woman originally believed to be white was later determined to be African-American. 

 

An autopsy revealed she had undergone a hysterectomy. The woman was also believed to have been well off financially judging by her dental work. 

 

Police said the body was naked from the waist up when found. Her lower extremities were covered by men’s size-38 denim blue jeans with a wide double-ring striped-cloth belt.

 

She was also wearing red-white-and-blue shorts with full-length pantyhose and black zippered, top-ankle boots.

 

Anyone with any information about the woman should call the Michigan State Police Niles Post at 269-683-4411 or the New Buffalo Police Department at 269-469-1500.