Conference Helped Police Solve Pigeon Lake Puzzle
John Tunison
The Grand Rapids Press
__________________
West Olive, Michigan (US):
In their 18-month effort to identify a badly decomposed body found in Pigeon Lake, detectives were skeptical it could have floated here from Wisconsin. But dental records from a missing Racine, Wis., woman now confirm it did.
Ottawa County sheriff's detectives credit teamwork between three police agencies and help from a U.S. Department of Justice seminar with cracking the lingering mystery. The woman, whose body turned up March 25, 2004, in Pigeon Lake, has been identified as Barbara Ann Biehn, 61. Police do not suspect foul play.
According to a Racine Journal Times report in January, Biehn had been diagnosed with breast cancer and court records showed she had a history of suicide attempts. Biehn went missing Dec. 22, 2003, in Racine and her unlocked car was discovered on the Christopher Columbus Causeway that extends into the Racine harbor.
Her keys, purse and some money were inside the car. Ottawa County sheriff's detectives had checked dozens of leads to try to identify the body since March 2004. But new leads surfaced this fall after cold-case investigator Michigan State Police Sgt. Dave Eddy decided to bring the Ottawa County case to a missing persons training conference sponsored by the Department of Justice in Florida.
Eddy, with help from Ottawa County detectives David Blakely and Venus Dyke, used a national registry to come up with nearly 300 missing persons from Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin to consider. At the Florida conference, Eddy brought up the missing woman from Racine and other investigators deemed it a plausible explanation. "When I looked at the map, I saw Racine was almost directly west across the lake from Pigeon Lake," Eddy said.
Oct 26, 2005
John Tunison
The Grand Rapids Press
__________________
West Olive, Michigan (US):
In their 18-month effort to identify a badly decomposed body found in Pigeon Lake, detectives were skeptical it could have floated here from Wisconsin. But dental records from a missing Racine, Wis., woman now confirm it did.
Ottawa County sheriff's detectives credit teamwork between three police agencies and help from a U.S. Department of Justice seminar with cracking the lingering mystery. The woman, whose body turned up March 25, 2004, in Pigeon Lake, has been identified as Barbara Ann Biehn, 61. Police do not suspect foul play.
According to a Racine Journal Times report in January, Biehn had been diagnosed with breast cancer and court records showed she had a history of suicide attempts. Biehn went missing Dec. 22, 2003, in Racine and her unlocked car was discovered on the Christopher Columbus Causeway that extends into the Racine harbor.
Her keys, purse and some money were inside the car. Ottawa County sheriff's detectives had checked dozens of leads to try to identify the body since March 2004. But new leads surfaced this fall after cold-case investigator Michigan State Police Sgt. Dave Eddy decided to bring the Ottawa County case to a missing persons training conference sponsored by the Department of Justice in Florida.
Eddy, with help from Ottawa County detectives David Blakely and Venus Dyke, used a national registry to come up with nearly 300 missing persons from Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin to consider. At the Florida conference, Eddy brought up the missing woman from Racine and other investigators deemed it a plausible explanation. "When I looked at the map, I saw Racine was almost directly west across the lake from Pigeon Lake," Eddy said.
Oct 26, 2005
