35 years after being found in Troy field, murder victim has been identified
On July 20, 1990, members of the Madison County Highway Department crew discovered the partially decomposed body of a 30-year-old woman lying in a bean field off Lebanon Road, about a half mile south of Troy-O’Fallon Road.
Tuesday, nearly 35 years to the day later, the Madison County Sheriff said the victim has been positively identified.
Wynona “Wendy” Michel, born Aug. 23, 1959, had been stabbed at least 10 times and left off the rural road. Despite hundreds of hours of work and numerous leads exhausted, Sheriff Jeff Connor said, the investigation went cold.
But advancements in forensic science and help from the Illinois State Police Crime Lab and Othram, a Texas-based forensics company that specializes in solving cold cases, have given some measure of closure to Michel’s family, which includes one living child and a half-brother.
Frank Bearnard, 71, Michel’s half-brother, drove from Nashville, Tennessee, to be present at a press conference announcing the identity of his missing sister, though he’d been informed months prior.
“It was devastating to learn she had been brutally murdered like that,” Bearnard said, “especially since they don’t know who did it.
“Michel was a fun person. She adopted weird animals that nobody would want. She had a big heart.”
Bearnard said Michel traveled a lot, lending to periods where she wouldn’t be in contact with family. For 20 years, he still believed she’d someday come home. But hope dwindled, he said.
Connor said Michel left her two kids with family in Nashville around April 1990. She was last seen by her family in May 1990, when she visited Washington, D.C.
Connor said Michel then rode with a male truck driver, but her whereabouts were unknown between May and July, when the highway workers discovered her body. Michel had no connections to Madison County, he said.
Previous BND reporting indicated Michel may have been killed somewhere else and brought to her final location, as she was nude and had her clothing sprawled along a path leading to her body.
Connor encouraged anyone with information that could aid the investigation into Michel’s killer to contact the Madison County Sheriff’s Office.
Michel’s identity was determined through advancements in forensic evidence and genealogy. Detective Jake Svoboda explained the process during the press conference.
“I was able to send items we had as DNA evidence to Othram’s lab … and they made an extraction of what they’re able to use for forensic investigative genetic genealogy,” Svoboda said.
From there, the DNA is matched through databases like 23andme or FTDNA to try and find leads to familial connections, Svoboda said.
Then, Svoboda said investigations into those leads begin so they can try and build a case.
Connor said this case had been under reexamination multiple times since 1990. In 2007, Michel’s skull was sent to the FBI so a face could be reconstructed using clay.
Svoboda said there are three other cold cases under reexamination with these new scientific advancements in forensics.
According to the sheriff’s press release, investigators interviewed family to compile a timeline of Michel’s life.
“She was born in Los Angeles on August 23, 1959. Her parents moved her and her four siblings to Tennessee when she was a toddler. Around her 16th birthday, Wynona moved to the area of Vero Beach, Florida, where she stayed until she moved to the area of Anderson and Shasta, California in 1983 or 1984. She remained on the west coast for a few years before she and her children traveled by bus back to Nashville, Tennessee in April of 1990. She was last seen by family when she visited the Washington D.C. area around May of the same year.”
“We want to bring some closure to Wynona’s family, but we also request that anyone reach out to the Madison County Sheriff’s Office to assist with finding her killer,” Connor said. “We urge you to review ... photographs of Wynona and her family and contact our office with any information.”
The Madison County Sheriff’s Office can be reached at 618-692-4433.
This story was originally published July 1, 2025 at 2:53 PM.
