Missing Persons News - DNA Doe Project Identifies St. Croix County Jane Doe as Alyce Peterson

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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NamUs #UP87267 - Jane Doe's Skull Found in Washington DC in December 2001

By: Shane Lambert

NamUs description: "Construction workers renovating an apartment found a skull in a crawl space of a ground floor apartment located at 1926 I street, NE apt 1."

Sex: Female

Race: Caucasian/White

Age: Thought to be an adult

Height and weight: no estimates, skull only

Date body found: The body has not been found or, if found, I don't think it has been associated with the skull that was found on December 17th, 2001 (Monday)

Where was the skull found: Washington, DC.

With so few details available in this case, this is one that amateur investigators might feel as though they should back away from. How can you hope to name a Jane Doe based only on a skull and sparse demographics?

However, I think this is a case that Websleuths or amateurs might be able to contribute to. Remember, you aren't really trying to solve a case here. As an amateur, you are trying to find a lead that police or professional investigators might take seriously with the hopes that the lead does help solve the case. On that matter, this is what I think amateurs should do: focus on the street address.

A skull can be in a crawlspace for decades. Did someone who lived there end up going missing? Did someone who lived there have a rap sheet for violent crimes?

The address appeared to be a place with up to four apartments. I found the street address in Ancestry files subdivided into Apt. 1, Apt. 2, Apt. 3, and Apt. 4. It's possible that more apartments may have evaded my searching but it appeared to have at least four apartments. The earliest use of the street address I found in Ancestry was for 1983. The earliest use of the apartment's address where the skull was found, Apt. 1, was also for 1983. 

Honestly, I expected to find earlier uses of the address. Also, newspaper reports of the skull's discovery evaded my searching. 

I did look at the street address using Google Maps. The building that is there in 2021 was there in at least 2007 according to the street views from that site. The building is one of those brick buildings that stands the test of time.

I think the building was constructed in 1946. A modern online advertisement I found said that the apartments were built that year. I'm thinking that missing women from that year onward are all in play, unfortunately. A missing person with some kind of connection to the address or a connection to a former resident would be interesting, I think.

As far as NamUs goes, The missing person in NamUs that might be worth looking at is Patsy Arlene Gaisor. However, the connection to the skull is very tenuous. She matches the skull in terms of NamUs's listed race and sex. Furthermore, she went missing in 1980, over two decades before the skull was found.

Her body was thought to have been dumped into the nearby Anacostia River at Anacostia Park. This park is not that long of a drive away from the address, however, it's a tenuous lead, meaning there is no significant connection. Two men were convicted of her murder in 1982. I'm not sure if there is any follow-up news on the conviction. Someone dumping a body in a river might remove the skull if they understand that dentals can be used for identification. However, that's not what was stated in the reporting for Gaisor so I'm not thinking the skull is hers. Perhaps other missing women in the area will be added to the database in time.

08 May 1982, Sat Press and Sun-Bulletin (Binghamton, New York) Newspapers.com

I don't mind people building off my notes, which I have decided not to publish online for this case. However, feel free to contact me if you are looking at this case.