It’s been 25 years, but the remains of a woman whose body washed up on the shores of Lake Michigan in Manistee County have finally been identified. Michigan State Police Special Lieutenant Derrick Carroll says the MSP Missing Persons Coordination Unit and the Cadillac Post reexamined the case in 2020.
“Our troopers were called to Manistee County in reference to an unclothed female who appeared washed up on the Lake Michigan shoreline,” Carroll said. “There was nothing to identify her at the time, just a lone earring. We put out broadcasts around the area to try to see if there was anybody that was missing. An autopsy determined it was asphyxia due to drowning.”
Carroll says the body was exhumed and a possible familial match was found from the woman’s brother and a daughter. She was identified as 26-year-old Dorothy Lynn Ricker, who was last seen on a Lake Michigan Beach in Wisconsin in 1997. She was from Chicago.
