For more than 40 years, her case sat without answers, now investigators say they finally know who was responsible.
On the morning of Wednesday, November 16, 1983, 16-year-old Sheri Jo Elliott left her home on Seneca Street in Flint, Michigan around 6:30 a.m. to go to school. She was last seen near West Dartmouth and Clio Road, walking toward her bus stop, but she never made it home. Community members and local authorities spent days searching the area before she was found four days later along a rural road in Blumfield Township in Saginaw County, and from that point on, the case remained unresolved for decades.
This week, Michigan State Police said the case has finally been resolved after more than 40 years. Investigators worked with the MSP Forensic Science Division and Othram Labs, using advanced DNA sequencing to develop a profile from evidence collected back in 1983, and over time that profile led them to a man named Roni Collins, 75, of Grand Blanc.
Before investigators could request a voluntary DNA sample, Collins died in January 2026, but DNA collected during his autopsy was later analyzed and matched the original evidence, identifying him as the person responsible.
If course there won’t be any charges filed, but investigators say the identification finally brings a level of clarity that had been missing for decades for both her family and the community.
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