Woman vanished in 1967 after moving, IL officials say. Now her body is identified
Human remains found by a worker in brush along the side of a road nearly six decades ago now have been identified as a missing woman, Illinois officials said.
“Martha Bassett’s identity, lost to history for more than half a century, has been restored, allowing her family and community to honor her memory and finally lay her to rest,” officials said.
The body of 33-year-old Bassett was found on Sept. 30, 1968, but her identity would not be known until recently, the Will County Coroner’s Office said in a July 24 news release.
The case, cold for 57 years, was solved using a combination of advanced DNA technology and help from family members after her case was reexamined starting in 2009, officials said.
Martha Bassett’s move to Illinois
Bassett was living in Wapato, Washington, and moved to the Chicago area in 1960 under the Indian Relocation Act of 1956, officials said.
The federal initiative was designed to persuade Native Americans living on reservations to move to metropolitan areas such as Chicago and Denver, according to Illinois officials and the National Archives.
Those relocating were promised assistance with housing, but many indigenous people moving to these areas struggled to adjust to their new life and were met with “low-end jobs” and discrimination, according to the National Archives.
Seven years after her move, Bassett’s family lost contact with her, according to Will County officials. They even traveled to Chicago to search for her, but eventually returned home without finding her.
How her remains were identified
Bassett’s body was buried at a cemetery in Wilmington, Illinois, after authorities were unable to identify her remains.
Bassett had been strangled and suffered blunt force trauma to the head, DNASolves.com said.
In 2009, about four decades after her body was discovered, Will County officials opened a cold case unit and started to reinvestigate her case. Her body was exhumed from the cemetery.
Some of her remains were sent to the University of North Texas and the Smithsonian Institute paleontology department, where it was determined the body belonged to a person of Native American descent, officials said.
Officials reached out to tribes in Illinois and surrounding states to ask about any outstanding missing persons cases from the 1960s. Flyers distributed within the tribes and posted on social media were created in an effort to link the remains with a missing persons case.
Eventually, a distant relative of Bassett was reached by investigators and assisted with creating a DNA profile of Bassett to officially match the missing woman’s identity to the remains.
The relative helped investigators contact Bassett’s niece, who helped Othram and local investigators officially identify Bassett.
Will County, Illinois, is about a 45-mile drive southwest from downtown Chicago.
This story was originally published July 28, 2025 at 2:21 PM with the headline "Woman vanished in 1967 after moving, IL officials say. Now her body is identified."
