Member-only story
The Mystery of Betty the Bag Lady
There could be an Irish link to the 29-year-old cold case in Michigan.
There have been a number of breakthroughs in murder cases thanks to the advent of genetic genealogy, and now police in Michigan hope to see another.
However, they may have to travel further than most detectives to see the mystery finally solved — because the victim seems to have links to Ireland. If they can work out who she was, they might at last learn who killed her.
A distressing discovery
On August 23rd 1992, a motorist was travelling along the Red Arrow Highway in New Buffalo, Michigan when they spotted something strange at the side of the road. They stopped and discovered the nude body of a woman wrapped in sheets some 15 ft away from the thoroughfare.
When she was examined by forensics experts, the woman was found to be white and aged between 65 and 75. She had been wrapped in a sheet and two garbage bags, with her feet covered by a towel.
It was estimated that she had been dead for up to a week and, due to the style of the towel found with the body, may have previously lived at a care facility. Since the rural road is close to the borders with both Illinois and Indiana, the home could have been in one of these two…
