Woman Found Dead In Detroit in 2006 Finally ID'd Through Advanced DNA Testing, Believed to be Victim of Mich. Serial Killer

A woman who was found dead in an abandoned Michigan house has been identified nearly 20 years after her death — and she was likely the victim of a serial killer, officials announced on Jan. 6.

Darylnn Washington was identified as the Jane Doe discovered on the east side of Detroit in June 2006, through a partnership between the Detroit Police Department and Othram Inc., a Texas-based forensic genetic genealogy firm specializing in advanced DNA testing, the company shared in a press release.

Per the release, authorities said the woman was believed to be between 20-30 years old and was 5 feet tall, but no other distinguishing features could be identified. Officials said she had died only days prior to the discovery of her remains, and her manner of death was ruled as a homicide. 

The woman remained a Jane Doe for nearly 20 years, despite authorities’ attempts to verify her identity by entering her information into the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) and publicly sharing a forensic composite of what she may have looked like, according to the release.

In April 2022, the Detroit Police Department teamed up with Othram to conduct advanced DNA testing, leading to the woman’s identification as Washington, per the release. Officials said she was born on June 15, 1959 and that her family has been notified.

Washington was most likely the victim of Shelly Brooks, a Detroit-area serial killer who allegedly confessed to the murder, Othram said.

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Brooks was charged in 2006 with killing seven women he had paid for sex, the Associated Press reports.

The following year, Brooks, now 55, was sentenced to life in state prison after being convicted of two murders, according to court records; he’s serving his time at Kinross Correctional Facility in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

A county prosecutor told the AP the other murders were not tried in court due to Brooks’ life sentence.