Skeletal remains found 37 years ago in Tennessee identified as missing Indiana girl

Authorities have positively identified skeletal remains found practically 4 a long time ago in Tennessee as belonging to a missing Indiana teenager. Now, they’re making an attempt to determine how the girl ended up a whole bunch of miles from dwelling.

On April 3, 1985, authorities found the remains of a White feminine, doubtless aged between 10 and 15, in Campbell County, the Tennessee Bureau of (*37*) stated in a news release. When authorities couldn’t establish her, they started to affectionately check with her as “Baby Girl.” 

Earlier this week, the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification (UNTCHI) was in a position to positively establish the remains as belonging to Tracy Sue Walker, who went missing from Lafayette, Indiana, in 1978.

“Now, TBI Special Agents hope the public can help provide information that may help determine the circumstances leading to Tracy Sue Walker’s death and how she ended up in Campbell County,” investigators stated.

Authorities used forensic genetic family tree testing, which in latest years has helped remedy a number of chilly circumstances,
to establish the remains.

In 2007, greater than 20 years after the remains have been found, authorities submitted a pattern to the UNTCHI and a DNA profile was developed and entered into the Combined DNA Index System and the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, investigators stated. 

The case was revisited in 2013, and once more earlier this yr, when the remains have been despatched to Othram, a personal laboratory for forensic genetic family tree testing. In June, the lab positioned a doable relative of the kid who was residing in Indiana, the Tennessee Bureau of (*37*) stated.

Investigators contacted the members of the family, who confirmed they’d a member of the family go missing in 1978. The relations, who have been presumably the ladies’ siblings, gave DNA samples, which led the UNTCHI to make the optimistic identification this week.

Authorities ask anybody with information about Walker’s demise, or anybody who might know who she was with previous to her demise, to contact 1-800-TBI-FIND.