Jane Doe Identified After 46 Years

In 1970, a female's partially decomposed body was found along Interstate 81 Southbound in Rice Township.
An investigation occurred in 1970 througj 1971, but police were unable to identify the victim.

Fast forward to 2016 where four bodies related to cold cases were exhumed to conduct DNA testing to assist in identifying them. Jane Doe 1970 was one of those bodies.

in June of 1970, Barbara Johnson reported her sister Lucille Marie Frye went missing from the Citt of Wilkes-Barre.
Frye was a black female age 33, nicknamed "Peanie". She was was also a mother of two children and an aunt.

During the exumation in 2016, Mitchell A. Johnson attended the event as a spectator and eventually spoke to a Criminal Investigator with the Pennsylvania State Police.

Johnson told Police that it was his mother, Barbara Johnson's mission to find her sister, and that she had not gotten that closure before her death.

Mitchell A. Johnson of Kingston, his sister Yvonne Marie Schrieks-Johnson of Collinswood New Jersey, and Lucille Marie Frye's daughter Roxanne Denise Spencer of Hopkinsville Kentucky all provided DNA samples to compare to Jane Doe 1970.

Due to years of being exposed to water and the elements, thw sample of Jane Doe 1970's DNA was rated as poor quality and a match was not produced.

In November of 2017, Lucille Marie Frye's only living sibling, Kenneth James Lee of Wilkes-Barre, was located with his DNA being submitted to the University of North Texas's Center for Human Identification.
a Senior Forensic Analyst determined that Jane Doe 1970 could be positively identified as Lucille Marie Frye.

Plans are being made with her family to have Frye re-buried on Wednesday May 30th at the Maple Hill Cemetery in Hanover Township next to her family.

the death inveatigation is ongoing.
Investigators ask thay anyone with information about Lucillw Marie Frye or Jane Doe 1979 contact Pennsylvania State Police Hazleton Headquarters at 5704593890.

In conjunction with Lucille Marie Frye being re-burried, on Thursday May 31st 2018 the Luzerne County District Attorney's Office, PSP, and NamUs will be hosting a Missing Persons Day at Wilkes Unicersity with the hopes of identifying other Jane or John Does in the area.