Jackson County Cold Case Victim ID’d

Sheriff releases new details today on 1990 case

JACKSON CO. (WKBT) — The female victim in a Jackson County cold case from 1990 now has a name. Jackson County Sheriff Duane Waldera announced Monday the murdered woman name is Julia Baez.

Baez was a 36 year old Milwaukee woman.  She was killed in Black River Falls and her decapitated body went unidentified for many years.

Authorities never found Baez’s skull, and without any leads the case went cold. Until last summer when the sheriff’s office sent the remains to the University of North Texas to be analyzed.

“They were able to extract that profile from the remains, the DNA and other information was entered into the national missing and unidentified persons system known as NAMUS,” Waldera said.

Through NAMUS it was discovered that Milwaukee Police had an open missing persons case from 1990. DNA from the children of that missing person was compared to Jane Doe’s DNA and it was a match. Bringing some closure for Baez’s children.

“They’re I know very thankful I know to get her back and to have some answers as where to she was this entire time.” said Kelly Bakken, a detective with Jackson County Sheriff’s offices.

And now with a name authorities said they hope they will find justice for Julia Baez.

“I’m very confident we are going to get some resolution in this case,” Waldera said.

Investigators said they need help from the public to solve this case.
If you have any information on Julia Baez call the Jackson County Sheriff’s office at  715-284-5357.