A woman whose body rolled ashore at the edge of Lake Michigan nearly four decades ago has finally been identified. On December 9, 1987, 71-year-old Dorothy Glanton of Chicago left home—and vanished. Four months later, on April 8, 1988, her remains were discovered near New Buffalo, Michigan, after drifting in the lake. At the time, investigators were unable to determine her identity.
In 2023, the Michigan State Police reopened the long-stalled investigation and enlisted the help of the DNA Doe Project, a nonprofit group specializing in investigative genetic genealogy. DNA extracted from the remains was uploaded to genealogical databases, and a family tree was built. That led to the conclusion that the body belonged to Dorothy Glanton.
Back in 1988, forensic approximations had led investigators to believe the remains belonged to a white woman in her 40s or 50s. Decades later, genetic genealogy revealed that the person was actually a Black woman in her early 70s at the time of death—Dorothy herself.
Going deeper, Dorothy left her Chicago home in early December 1987, and by April 8 the following year her body had washed up at the shoreline of Lake Michigan near New Buffalo. At the time, investigators combed through missing‐person lists and looked for matches, but the case remained cold.
During the renewed investigation, detectives also uncovered a poignant newspaper advertisement published in August 1988 by Dorothy’s elderly mother. The ad read: “Your mother is ill, lonely and afraid. She needs you desperately.” Dorothy’s body had been identified only months earlier, though her identity remained unknown back then.
Now that Dorothy has been identified, investigators say the case brings much-needed closure to her family. D/Sgt. John Moore of the MSP Niles Post called the identification “closure to a family that has wondered for nearly four decades what happened to their loved one.”
While the identification is confirmed, questions remain: what happened to Dorothy between her departure from Chicago and her body’s discovery in Michigan? How did her remains traverse the lake? Investigators say they plan to continue examining the circumstances of her death, but for now the mystery of “who” has, at last, been answered.
