On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, Grundy County Coroner John Callahan, Chief Deputy Coroner Christina Hintze-Symoniak and Deputy Coroner Brandon Johnson visited an unmarked grave at Braceville-Gardner Cemetery.

They laid a wreath at the site. It was not the first time the office had paid attention to the grave.

On Thanksgiving Day 1976, an unidentified woman was buried at the unmarked grave. She had been found Oct. 2 of that year in a Grundy County ditch along Route 6, near Seneca and the La Salle County border.

She had been shot in the back of the head and left there. She was estimated to be between 18 and 23 years old.

In 1976, when the woman was buried, the only attendants were then-Coroner James Reeves and a representative from the cemetery.

“It’s been something that’s always bothered me,” Callahan said. “The fact that we have in my jurisdiction someone never identified. ... I would do back flips to be able to solve it.”

For the past 18 months, the Grundy County Coroner’s Office has stepped up efforts to track down anyone whom might be able to identify the woman and possibly provide closure to a family.

Johnson said the office has received tips from around the country, which is helpful.

“It’s likely she was not from Morris,” Johnson said.

Johnson also said they’ve had some tips from people and families who had a family member go missing, and they just never reported them missing. He said one such tip from Mississippi allowed the coroner’s officer to get that family in touch with the right authorities.

The woman found near Seneca is described as being African-American with black hair, about 5 feet, 7 inches tall and 150 pounds. She also had a multicolored black, white and red knit sweater in her possession.

Johnson said the only news coverage at the time, to the coroner’s office’s knowledge, was one story detailing finding the body and another describing her burial Thanksgiving morning almost two months later. There are no photos of the scene.

The office follows up each lead.

There was one promising lead. A woman from the Englewood neighborhood on Chicago’s south side said she thought she recognized the sweater as belonging to her daughter. Callahan and Johnson went up to visit and interview her this fall.

“We sat in her living room, and she had photos of her daughter on the wall,” Callahan said.

The coroner’s office sent a DNA test to the Illinois State Police forensics laboratory. At first, they had hoped they could accelerate the process because of the woman’s advanced age, but there are cases that take priority, Callahan said.

On Wednesday, the coroner’s office learned the DNA was not a match.

The office still is searching, using social media to get the word out. Callahan said it only takes the right person to see a post or the artist rendering for everything to come together.

“This time of year, with the holidays bringing families together, it would be a blessing to make a connection here,” Callahan said.