Donna Lynn Jenson's Disappearance - Missing Person Vanished in 1990

Case Details: Donna Lynn Jenson

Missing Person: Donna Lynn Jenson
Category	Details
NamUs Case Number	MP43420
Date of Last Contact	April 22, 1990 (Sunday), according to NamUs; but journalism from 1990 often said the last-seen date was April 26th, 1990 (Thursday)
Location	Collinsville, Illinois 62234 (Madison County)
Missing Age	30 Years according to NamUs (DOB range: April 23, 1959 - April 22, 1960); Probable birthdate: 16 June, 1969
Current Age	66 Years
Name	Donna Lynn Jenson (Alias: Donna Snedecor-Jenson) Note: Donna Lynn Snedecor-Jenson is the keyword phrase that turned up a lot of results at Newspapers.com.
Biological Sex	Female
Race / Ethnicity	White / Caucasian
Height	5'4" - 5'6" (64 - 66 inches)
Weight	140 - 160 lbs
Hair Color	Brown (Short, straight, close-cropped)
Eye Color	Brown
Distinctive Physical Features	- Pierced ears - Red birthmark on back by right shoulder - Tattoo of a butterfly on lower left hip
Circumstances of Disappearance	Donna's family left for Missouri, and she was home when they left. A coworker from Granite City called to report she did not show up for work. Family returned to find her gone, and it appeared she left in a hurry.
Vehicle Information	Vehicle located in East St. Louis with a basket of clothing and a hospital gown in the backseat. Journalism said she might have been driving a 1981 four-door, Gray Buick Skylark with Illinois plates TP8638. Vehicle found near Samuel Gompers Housing Project.
NamUs Case Created	May 10, 2018
Source	NamUs.gov

By: Shane Lambert
Original time of writing: October 4th, 2025

Commentary and Speculation

Media Coverage and Discrepancies

Donna Lynn Jenson's case contained some media coverage at about the time of her disappearance. One thing that I wanted to point out is that she often appeared in media with her hyphenated name, Donna Lynn Snedecor-Jenson. Furthermore, NamUs appeared to have the last contact date wrong. She was consistently referred to as missing since April 26th, 1990, as opposed to April 22nd, 1990. Amateurs working on this case will need to be aware of both dates.

May 9th, 1990. Belleville News Democrat.

Notable Aspects of the Case

What really stood out with this case is a newspaper article that said Donna was going to purchase cocaine at the time of her disappearance. Of course, the kind of people who sell cocaine are the same kind of people that might disappear you.

June 5th, 1990. Belleville News Democrat.

What also stood out with this case is that the police used a psychic. That right there means it's unlikely to be solved for decades -- and here we are in 2025 with Donna still missing.

Donna's car was found near the Samuel Gompers Housing Project, according to a newspaper article. I decided to focus on what I think that means in conjunction with her clandestine plans to purchase cocaine that day.

Samuel Gompers Housing Project in 1990

What does it mean that her car was found at the Samuel Gompers Housing Project? This is a low-income subsidized housing area in East St. Louis that, even by 1990, dated back decades. It appears to still be around today (October 2025), under the name Samuel Gompers Homes (450 N 6th St, East St Louis, IL 62201, United States).

I think that her car was found there, in an area well-known for drugs and crimes, means either her transaction for cocaine was expected to take place there or the transaction took place elsewhere but lead to the stealing of her car by someone affiliated with that neighborhood.

Crime rates around the Samuel Gompers Housing Project in East St. Louis, Illinois, were exceptionally high in the late 1980s and early 1990s, particularly for violent crimes like homicide, robbery, and assault. This area was part of a severely distressed urban neighborhood which was plagued by economic decline, deindustrialization, drug epidemics and systemic issues in public housing that exacerbated violence and poverty.

One study of the region, from 2007 is "Patterns of Homicide in East St. Louis" by Adam M. Watkins (University of North Carolina Wilmington) and Scott H. Decker (Arizona State University). They stated that East St. Louis experienced a high violent crime rate and reported a substantial number of annual homicides, particularly during the late 1980s and early 1990s, which reflected on the impact of socioeconomic decline and the crack cocaine epidemic on urban violence.

If Donna Lynn wasn't so-called "Street Smart," then she was in over her head for sure going into that part of town for clandestine drug purchases. The missing person is treated as deceased in a family tree at Ancestry. That doesn't mean her case is closed or even that she is dead but it does speak to a lack of optimism about her surviving her disappearance event.

This person is on Findagrave (212563887) but it appears to be a cenotaph.