After more than 40 years, investigators in Flint, Michigan have finally named the man responsible for the kidnapping and murder of 16-year-old Sheri Jo Elliott.
Michigan State Police shared the news on April 13, 2026, closing a case that had haunted the Flint community since the fall of 1983, as per USA TODAY.
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| Sheri Jo Elliot |
Elliott was a student at Carman High School at the time of her murder. She was known as a shy and smart teenager who liked to babysit in her spare time. She had recently moved from Charlotte to live with her mother in Flint, and she was still adjusting to her new life at the time.
On November 16, 1983, she left school and was last seen waiting for a bus, but sadly, she never made it home. Her family reported her missing that same day, and a widespread search began.
Four days later, on November 20, her body was found along a rural road in Blumfield Township, about 40 miles north of Flint.
According to police, she had been shot multiple times and sexually assaulted.
Detectives collected evidence at the scene and investigated every lead they had, but the forensic technology of the time could only take them so far. No suspect was identified, and the case eventually went cold.
That changed in 2023, when cold case investigators decided to take another look, but this time, they had help they never had before.
The Michigan State Police Forensic Science Division partnered with Othram Labs, a Texas-based company that specializes in solving old cases through advanced DNA testing.
Students from Western Michigan University’s Cold Case Program also joined the effort, spending hours reorganizing and digitizing decades of case files so the new team could work with a complete, searchable record.
Othram scientists used a method called Forensic-Grade Genome Sequencing to build a detailed DNA profile from the evidence saved in 1983.
That profile allowed their genetic genealogy team to search for possible relatives of the suspect, and those new leads kept pointing to one man, Roni Collins, as seen in the documentary below from Othram Labs.
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| Roni Collins performing |
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| Roni Collins |
At the time of the murder, Collins was a 33-year-old traveling musician living in Grand Blanc, just a short distance from where Elliott disappeared.
He was 75 years old when investigators finally confronted him. However, before detectives could ask him for a voluntary DNA sample, Collins took his own life in January 2026.
But the investigation did not stop there. During his autopsy, investigators collected DNA and sent it for comparison.
According to police reports, the autopsy sample “was later analyzed and conclusively matched evidence recovered from Elliott in 1983, identifying him as the individual responsible for the crime.”
Because Collins is dead, he will never face a trial, but Michigan State Police said the identification matters deeply, as per Click on Detroit.
In a statement, the department said, “Detectives believe the identification provides long-awaited answers to Elliott’s family and the community.”
The agency also pointed to the bigger picture. “This case underscores the significant impact of advancing forensic technologies — particularly forensic genetic genealogy — in resolving decades-old unsolved crimes,” the department said.
For the family of Sheri Jo Elliott, the news brought a measure of closure that had been missing for 43 years. For the community, it marked the end of a mystery that began with a teenager simply trying to get home from school.
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