DNA Doe Project Solves 23-Year Mystery of St. Croix County Jane Doe
By: Shane Lambert
Original time of writing: August 15th, 2025
In a recent release, the DNA Doe Project announced the solving of a 23-year-old Wisconsin cold case. They identified a skull found in Houlton, Wisconsin, in 2002 as belonging to Alyce Catharina Peterson, a 92-year-old woman from Stillwater, Minnesota, who died of natural causes in 2001.
The breakthrough, announced by the St. Croix County Sheriff’s Office and the DNA Doe Project, sheds light on a perplexing case that began when Boy Scouts discovered a skull in a plastic bag at a camp near Houlton on October 21st, 2002.
Source: DNA Doe Project, St. Croix County Sheriff’s Office
Initially, forensic analysis suggested the skull belonged to a woman of Asian, Asian Pacific, or Native American descent, aged 35-60. It was thought that she had been deceased for about a year. The woman was missing all her teeth and had short, mousy-brown hair. Dubbed the "St. Croix County Jane Doe," her identity remained elusive until the Sheriff’s Office partnered with the DNA Doe Project in 2021.
The estimates of her age and ethnicity were far off. One therefore has to wonder if this case would have been solved without the insights of genetic genealogy.
Using investigative genetic genealogy, the DNA Doe Project generated a profile and uploaded it to GEDmatch and FTDNA databases. Surprisingly, the results indicated the woman was Caucasian with recent Swedish ancestry, challenging earlier assumptions.
Family tree research was key in this case. A key DNA match in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, led researchers to focus on a family tree linked to Swedish immigrants in the U.S. After tracing descendants to Stillwater, just miles from the discovery site, the team identified Alyce Peterson, born in 1909, as a potential match.
Peterson, who lived in South Dakota before moving to Stillwater, died in a St. Paul hospital in 2001. Her age at death—92—far exceeded the initial estimate, but the timeline aligned. A niece’s DNA test, sharing approximately 25% DNA with the unidentified woman, confirmed Peterson’s identity.
“This is the first time I’ve seen a Doe identified as someone with a death certificate and who was supposedly cremated,” said case manager Eric Hendershott.
Authorities are now investigating what happened to Peterson’s body after her death.
The DNA Doe Project praised the collaborative effort, crediting the St. Croix County Sheriff’s Office, Astrea Forensics, HudsonAlpha Discovery, and volunteer genealogists.
“This unexpected result turned out to be a huge lead,” said co-team leader Robin Espensen, highlighting the pivotal role of the Stockholm DNA match.
Important Takeaway From this Case
I think those that follow missing people cases should take away something important from this case. Mainly, the decadent was never really a missing person. She died of natural causes at a very old age, she reportedly was to be cremated, but somehow her skull ended up in a park.
In short, if you think about it anyone who was cross-referencing the Jane Doe report to missing persons reports would never have found a potential match. Alyce Peterson was known to be dead and thought to be cremated so her family would not have distributed any missing persons reports.
A skull found with teeth removed would suggest something clandestine to those familiar with these kinds of cases. Teeth are identifiers, just as fingerprints are. Even though DNA is the most reliable identifier, the other methods of identification remain valuable. Someone whose skull is found in a park with missing teeth would look like someone whose body was discarded in a way to prevent identification.
It will be interesting to see what news comes from this.
Another important takeaway is just how far-off age and race estimates can be. This was a woman in her 90s but the estimate of her age was put as low as 35. I don't know that I have ever seen a resolved case where the age estimate was 57 years off before. Furthermore, the individual was Swedish and that's not in the Native American, Hawaiian, or Asian groups.
When the estimates are telling you to look for a 35-year old Hawaiian instead of a 92-year old Swede, you can see how difficult it can be to help in these cases using research alone (as opposed to DNA).
Posted by Missing Persons Commentary
Source: DNA Doe Project, St. Croix County Sheriff’s Office
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