“She was not trash,” her older brother, Lenny Sniegowski through tears at a Wednesday press conference. “We’re not quitters. We did not have a funeral. I travel all over the world now and I always thought maybe I would run into my sister.”
The body of the girl was found face down in a shallow ditch by a farmer plowing his farm. He only had a halter shirt and green anklet socks. She had been dead for several hours, according to authorities at the time.
“He found my little sister on the side of the highway discarded like a piece of trash,” said Sniegowski. “She’s no longer that. My family is grateful for everyone that looked, worried, searched, cared and cried for my little sister over these years as if she was your own little sister.”
The family has no idea how Maggie, as she was known, ended up in central Indiana, more than 200 miles from her home in northern Ohio. She was still in high school and nothing had been taken from her room when she went missing, her brother said.
The case had stumped Boone County authorities for years. The body had badly decomposed in the water where it was found. Investigators believed she had been strangled, but autopsies could not determine a cause of death. She was buried in a pauper’s grave and twice exhumed by authorities determined to find some clue as to who she had been.
“It’s always haunted me,”After the second exhumation, Boone County Sheriff Mike Nielsen spoke to the Indianapolis Star. “The disrespect of whoever did this to throw her, like a piece of trash and, second, that we’ve never been able to identify her.”
“Now, we will be focusing on her murder and trying hard to discover who dumped her body on an I-65 ramp.” Nielsen said at Wednesday’s news conference.
Last year, her skeletal remains were transferred to Othram, a firm specializing in DNA analysis of trace quantities of degraded or contaminated forensic evidence. From there, investigators spent weeks combing online genetic databases, trying to match the DNA results to possible relatives.
Eventually, Boone County authorities were able to match their results to those of Sniegowski’s sister, who had posted her genetic data to an ancestry site, trying to construct a family tree.
“If you think there’s a possibility that someone is still alive or maybe died a long time ago and you just don’t know about it, then do this,” Nielsen said. “Go submit your DNA, put it into that database and help solve these crimes.”
Maggie’s brother issued a warning to his sister’s killer.
“Now, it is time to hunt down the lowlife or the people responsible for this. Anyone who knows me will know that we aren’t forgetting. These guys will come after you.” he said. “She wasn’t trash. She was a loving, upbeat woman who did not deserve her fate. bbm
After her body was dumped next to Indiana Interstate, a teenage girl is finally identified after 30 years. "She Was Not Trash" - Silver Screen Beat
Eta:
Boone County cold case update
