CHICAGO, June 6 (UPI) -- A body lying in a morgue in Chicago for more than a year has been identified as a woman missing since January 2010, authorities said.
Carmelita Johnson had disappeared Jan. 5, 2010, and though her decomposed, waterlogged body lay in the Cook County morgue, no one knew it, WGN-TV, Chicago, reported Monday.
"I'm very upset and angry that it took this long to identify my mother's body," one of her four daughters, Leslie Jackson, said this morning.
Although Detective Randolph Riley, the initial investigator on the case, had told the family he would collect DNA samples to compare to a sample from the body in the morgue, he never did and the case languished.
A second investigator, Detective Pamela Childs, took over the case but was unable to gather DNA because of the extent of decomposition of Johnson's body. Last week, Childs got hold of Johnson's medical records and matched them with Case No. 146 at the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office.
Jackson hasn't been informed how her mother died, but has been told she wasn't shot or stabbed to death. Family members say they think they know who might have killed their mother, WGN-TV reported.
"My mother was in a very abusive relationship," Jackson said. "He would make threats that he was going to kill her."
Childs had promised the family she would find Jackson's mother.
"I want to thank her for keeping her promise and bringing us closure," Jackson said.
